Frozen diced onions for cooking

[Clipper]

I have recently started buying onions that are on the clearance bin as being on their way out. If the outside is a bit wilted looking or bruised, the inside is usually fine. I peel the damage or soft layers off and dice the firm and still fresh inside layers and freeze them. I bought 4 large sweet onions the other day on clearance for 50 cents and ended up with two heaping cups of diced onion to use in for omelets and to saute for other recipes or with meats.

In the winter we make a lot of home made soups, chili, and Kathy makes spaghetti with sauce quite often. It is nice to be able to grab a bag of already diced onion out of the freezer, bang it on the counter to loosen the pieces, and put however much onion you need into whatever you are preparing without having to stop and get out a cutting board to dice up an onion.

A week or so ago I bought a large bunch of scallions for 20 cents that were on that rack. They were wilted. They were to be chopped for fried rice so the wilting was not a factor.

While I usually look for the freshest of produce, the bargain bin is fine for a lot of cooked dishes where crispness is not a factor. I guess I am getting a bit frugal in my old age. I have bought bunches of celery that were getting limp to use in soup, and bananas that were getting over ripe for Kathy to make banana bread.


Food city also has a place in the corner of one of the meat cases where they put bargain priced meats and poultry that is past it's "best by" date. I have seen steaks there that looked fairly acceptable, but I have also seen some packages of steak and ground meat that were getting brown, and I have seen chicken there also. I can't imagine buying chicken that is out of date. In my opinion, the best by date on chicken is the either cook, freeze, or throw away date. Meat, poultry, and seafood are items that I am fussy about freshness and best buy date.

[Deleted]

That is what I wanted to ask you Clipper. How do you freeze bell peppers? Also how do you fry them once frozen? Do you just put them and frozen cut onions in hot oil--ouch!

[Clipper]

Frozen onions and peppers can be put in the pan with oil before the oil comes to temperature and putting a lid on the pan, cocked to one side, leaving room for the steam to come out while the water yielded evaporates. When they begin to fry and the water is gone take the lid off and saute as you would with fresh.

As for freezing peppers, Kathy simply cuts them in strips or dices them, depending on what she intends to use them for, vacuum seals them. She dices some that she uses for sauce, potatoes O'Brien, omelets or meat loaf, and cuts most of them into strips to be used for sandwiches or stir frying in a wok with thinly cut flank steak for pepper steak or fajitas. If you have cut them into strips, rather than dicing, and want to fry them you can also thaw them and blot them dry with paper towels or a clean dish towel. The onions are diced and frozen in vacuum sealer bags also. Usually as long as they haven't been partially thawed and refrozen, you can lay the bag on the counter and pound it with your fist to loosen the onion pieces in order to sprinkle them into a recipe or into a frying pan. Once the vacuum sealed bag is opened, she simply saves the remaining onion in a Ziploc freezer bag. We have had vacuum sealed packages that were frozen for several months and still were fine. The vacuum sealer sucks the air out so that they don't freezer burn. Our peppers will last us all winter and into spring. I suppose you could blanch them before freezing but we have never had any problem with just cutting them up and freezing them. I don't know how long they would last just put in Ziploc bags instead of vacuum sealing.

[Clipper]

Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. I haven't been on the forum since early this afternoon. I had to go to the eye doctor earlier in the day for an irritating persistent itching in the corner of my right eye. Not just the normal everyday allergy itch or itch from my dry eye. I found out that a complication of dry eye is that scales can form on the underside of the eyelid, causing itching and irritation as a result of it scratching your cornea.

I have had to use lubricating eye drops ever since I had my cataracts removed, but had never experienced any problem as long as I used drops. He gave me a poultice like thing that is two little pouches filled with something, attached to each other and that has a strap that goes around your head to hold them in place on your eyes. You heat it in the microwave for 20 seconds and then place it on your eyes for 10 min. twice a day. It stimulates oil glands in your eye that lubricate the lids and prevent the scaling business. The damned thing cost me $25 and he recommended that I change drops and purchase a new drop from "Refresh." I had always used Systane or Visine brand lubricating drops for dry eye.


It seems to be working. The itching is gone for now and as long as I don't spend too much time staring at the screen they don't seem so dry. He said that when we use a computer we tend not to blink while staring at the monitor. Making a concerted effort to blink often while looking at he screen helps.

[Deleted]

Good luck with itching eyes and thanks for the advice on frozen onions and peppers.

[Clipper]

The itching eyes have been much better since I got the heated eye compress and changed eye drops to something more effective. I had been using the Visine but today I bought the Refresh drops. Big difference. The Refresh costs 18 bucks for a very small bottle. They work much better so hopefully the relief is long term and worth the money.

He suggested that he could prescribe Restasis. That ophthalmic solution costs upwards of $500 a month. I don't have prescription insurance so that is pretty much out of the question until such time as the VA puts it on their formulary. They are unlikely to do that until there is a generic version and it could be a few more years before their patents expire.

PS: Still hoping for more peppers. The plants are still loaded with peppers and the frost hasn't bitten them yet. We were supposed to get a light frost last night, but it never got that low. It was only supposed to go to the low forties today and it got up to the low sixties. The peppers got a reprieve, haha.

[chris]

It helps to freeze and not waste. On of he things I tried recently (thanks to a friend) is Parsley and some mint she gave me. Before I use to buy parsley pull off the amount I need for my recipe and wound up throwing out the rest cause I had not gotten to it. Now I always have some fresh parsley at hand. The stalks I froze seperate so that I can use those in soups.

[Clipper]

We don't use fresh herbs on a regular basis so we always end up with left overs when I by a sprig of this or that. They keep quite well in the crisper drawer for a spell if you place them in a folded moist paper towel and then in a Ziploc bag. We have frozen basil, cilantro, and rosemary before. We were talking recently about what we might plant in the garden next year. Kathy said she would like to plant some herbs. I suggested a small herb garden outside the back door in a small bed next to the porch.

I think after reading your post that I will buy some fresh herbs specifically for freezing. Just the day before yesterday I was making a home made soup and wished we had some flat leafed parsley to chop up and put in it instead of the store bought dried parsley flakes.

I have a food dehydrator that I originally bought years ago to make venison jerky. I have in the past dried fruit in it and we discussed the possibility of drying some of the surplus herbs that we grow and don't use fresh from the garden or freeze. The dried herbs could then be saved in jars for use later.

[kit]

I have an old dehydrator that somebody gave me about a year ago but I've never used it to dehydrate anything. Using just the base that warms up it's perfect for making yogurt, which I love. I make 1/2 gallon at a time but it doesn't last very long. With a little honey drizzled on top it's like ice cream to me, and much healthier. With just a little extra work it makes a wonderful Tzatziki Sauce for Mediterranean food.

[Clipper]

I used to make banana chips quite often, and I have dried apricots for snacks also. I usually do it in the garage because the fan makes noise and I would not want to listen to it all night. I haven't made jerky in several years. Too high in sodium.

[Deleted]

I tried Jerky early in the year. Found a Turkey Jerky sold at Walmart. Big mistake. It started up my Gout big time. I will never do that again.

[Deleted]

[Clipper]

OUCH!!! I am fortunate. I have never had gout. It looks very painful. I will do all in my power to avoid it.

[clarencebunsen]

Mine has been under control for some time. My major flair was the classic big toe joint. Incredibly painful. I have lumps in all my finger joints but no pain in the last 3 years.

[Deleted]

CB I have a lump on the joint of my thumb on left hand. I asked my Doctor about it last time just to confirm pictures I saw of it on the web. He confirmed it and charged me more for the appointment. Different level of problem solving. Last time I do that.