I had a little bit of fun on Friday after finding some really great deals at my local produce store. They have a discount bin that every so often has some real gems! I was doing my weekly shopping there and decided to check out the bin. They had bags of peppers there for $1.50 and some bags of apples for $1.99.
The produce was in really decent condition (sometimes it's most definitely not worth paying even the discounted price....) with only a few bruises/blemishes and no mold or anything. I decided to pick up a bag of each and here's what I did:
With my peppers I sliced them up with onion and roasted them in the oven. We have homemade pizzas every once in a while and it's awesome being able to pull a little baggie from the freezer and throw some roasted peppers and onions on top of whatever else I have for the pizzas. They're also great to add into pasta or fajitas.
I then separate them into smaller bags/containers and freeze them for later use.
**Tip: I found the cost of buying little freezer bags for things like this kind of ridiculous. But, I also don't want them getting really freezer burnt either....so I now buy cheap, store brand sandwich bags to portion them and then throw all the smaller bags into one big freezer bag. It keeps them protected, keeps them all in one place (not lost in the bottom corner of the freezer!), and I can reuse the large freezer bag since it never actually touches food.
I also made apple sauce.
If you remember from one of my previous posts I mentioned how you can substitute apple sauce for the butter or margarine in a baking recipe (I took that idea and substituted peaches into my brownies recipe HERE). I figured it would be useful for me to have some apple sauce on hand for both eating and for baking and this is the cheapest and healthiest way to do it!
Making apple sauce is so, SO simple. Peel and core your apples (this is the most tedious part unless you have one of those fancy apple peeler/corer thingies). Dice them up and throw them in a pot with just under an inch of water in the bottom.
I set my stove to medium heat and let them cook for 15 or 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You know they're done when they are super soft and don't hold their shape anymore.
I prefer my apple sauce to be a tad chunky so I just use a potato masher and hand-mash the apples. You could also use a hand blender or regular blender (be careful not to erupt hot apple everywhere!) if you wanted to your sauce to be nice and smooth.
I should also mention that there are tons of variations on what to add to apple sauce. I prefer my apple sauce a little more on the tart side so I almost never add any sort of sugar to it. Some people want theirs sweetened so you can add white or brown sugar and you can also get crafty and add things like cinnamon for more of a dessert sauce. If you Google apple sauce recipes you'll find all sorts of stuff, including adding lemon juice to stop any browning of the apples as well as help out if you plan to properly can your sauce into shelf stable jars. I forgo all of these things in the name of simplicity, unless the apples are so tart that they need a little sugar.
I use a basic way of storing my sauce. I just clean a few jars and add my hot apple sauce to them. I let the jars sit on the counter and cool until the lids pop and seal themselves. Any leftovers that don't fit in the jars get put in a bowl and eaten almost immediately. I'll usually keep one jar in the fridge as it keeps safely for quite a while (though, I'm not sure for how long....as it never lasts more than a week or two for us!). The rest I just throw in the freezer for later use. I know you can take extra precautions and steps to make your sauce shelf stable for a year or more, but I just don't bother; it's not worth it for the amount that I make.
I always forget how few apples you need to make a decent amount of apple sauce. The above picture is what I yielded from only seven apples; it's plenty for our little family.
The produce was in really decent condition (sometimes it's most definitely not worth paying even the discounted price....) with only a few bruises/blemishes and no mold or anything. I decided to pick up a bag of each and here's what I did:
With my peppers I sliced them up with onion and roasted them in the oven. We have homemade pizzas every once in a while and it's awesome being able to pull a little baggie from the freezer and throw some roasted peppers and onions on top of whatever else I have for the pizzas. They're also great to add into pasta or fajitas.
I toss them with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast them at 425F until they soften and start to get that delicious caramelization to them. Check on them periodically; mine are usually in for around 30 minutes or so. If I remember, I put parchment paper under them which helps with some of the sticky clean-up.
**Tip: I found the cost of buying little freezer bags for things like this kind of ridiculous. But, I also don't want them getting really freezer burnt either....so I now buy cheap, store brand sandwich bags to portion them and then throw all the smaller bags into one big freezer bag. It keeps them protected, keeps them all in one place (not lost in the bottom corner of the freezer!), and I can reuse the large freezer bag since it never actually touches food.
I also made apple sauce.
If you remember from one of my previous posts I mentioned how you can substitute apple sauce for the butter or margarine in a baking recipe (I took that idea and substituted peaches into my brownies recipe HERE). I figured it would be useful for me to have some apple sauce on hand for both eating and for baking and this is the cheapest and healthiest way to do it!
Making apple sauce is so, SO simple. Peel and core your apples (this is the most tedious part unless you have one of those fancy apple peeler/corer thingies). Dice them up and throw them in a pot with just under an inch of water in the bottom.
I set my stove to medium heat and let them cook for 15 or 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You know they're done when they are super soft and don't hold their shape anymore.
I prefer my apple sauce to be a tad chunky so I just use a potato masher and hand-mash the apples. You could also use a hand blender or regular blender (be careful not to erupt hot apple everywhere!) if you wanted to your sauce to be nice and smooth.
I should also mention that there are tons of variations on what to add to apple sauce. I prefer my apple sauce a little more on the tart side so I almost never add any sort of sugar to it. Some people want theirs sweetened so you can add white or brown sugar and you can also get crafty and add things like cinnamon for more of a dessert sauce. If you Google apple sauce recipes you'll find all sorts of stuff, including adding lemon juice to stop any browning of the apples as well as help out if you plan to properly can your sauce into shelf stable jars. I forgo all of these things in the name of simplicity, unless the apples are so tart that they need a little sugar.
I use a basic way of storing my sauce. I just clean a few jars and add my hot apple sauce to them. I let the jars sit on the counter and cool until the lids pop and seal themselves. Any leftovers that don't fit in the jars get put in a bowl and eaten almost immediately. I'll usually keep one jar in the fridge as it keeps safely for quite a while (though, I'm not sure for how long....as it never lasts more than a week or two for us!). The rest I just throw in the freezer for later use. I know you can take extra precautions and steps to make your sauce shelf stable for a year or more, but I just don't bother; it's not worth it for the amount that I make.
I always forget how few apples you need to make a decent amount of apple sauce. The above picture is what I yielded from only seven apples; it's plenty for our little family.
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