How to Freeze Fresh Garden Tomatoes

Winter tomatoes can be a huge letdown. They are more often than not lacking in flavor and can cost over twice as much as canned. However, you don't have to sacrifice the delicious taste of fresh tomatoes in the middle of the colder months, you just have to plan ahead.

Freezing fresh garden tomatoes is easy and only takes minutes. Depending on your preference, the tomatoes can be frozen whole and then peeled, or they can be blanched and kept whole or diced. Either method is simple and make it possible to enjoy the taste of fresh tomatoes throughout the winter.

The following are the two methods to freeze tomatoes:

Freezing Tomatoes Whole With Skins

• Wash and pat tomatoes dry
• Lay tomatoes flat on a metal jelly pan or baking sheet
• Place the baking sheet in the freezer and allow tomatoes to freeze (you want the tomatoes to not be completely frozen, just frozen to the point that the skin can be peeled-normally 1-2 hours)
• Once the tomatoes are frozen, remove sheet and tomatoes from freezer, skin the tomatoes, and place tomatoes in a freezer proof container. Tomatoes will be good 6-12 months

Freezing Tomatoes Without Skins

• Wash and pat tomatoes dry
• Bring a pot of water to a boil
• Place tomatoes in boiling water and blanch 45-60 seconds
• Place tomatoes in an ice water bath to cool
• Peel skins off tomatoes
• You can either keep the tomatoes whole and follow the last 4 steps in the first method above or dice the tomatoes (and seed if you prefer) and place in a freezer safe container

Since frozen tomatoes have a tendency to become mushy I recommend using frozen tomatoes in soups, stews, and chili. They also work for homemade pasta sauce or any dish in which the tomatoes will be cooked down to the point that the texture won't matter.

That's it, very simple and a great way to enjoy garden tomatoes throughout the fall and winter.
 
Tomorrow's post will be a recipe for iced tea using fresh garden mint, stay tuned. 

Roasted Beets and Garlic Sautéed Beet Greens

I hate adults this time of  the year. It's the beginning of the "when I grew up" stories. You know what I mean, the stories that start with a phrase about school never closing when they grew up and they walked 12 miles in the snow. Good for you, do you want a cookie for your efforts? I too grew up in a school district that never closed. Until I was in grade school and we had a severe storm on the middle of the day. The school district decided to wait it out, it was just a little bit of snow. Finally at 1 pm in the afternoon they let released the school district. Bad idea. I was one of the kids that actually made it on a bus (a lot of my friends ended up staying at various schools with little food and blankets to go around). The bus took until 9pm to get to my house. Well mostly to my house. I was let out three blocks away, across a very busy intersection. I walked across that busy street, while watching accident after accident happen in front of me, but I did make it home. 8 hours after we left school. My poor father had to leave our car on the side of the road and walk part of the way home. He got home at almost midnight. I never talk about my experience as a reason that my kids are soft and need to suck it up and go to school. I do talk about my experience as a reason that sometimes it's better to be in school until June instead of being stuck alone crossing a busy street in a snowstorm. People that like to tell about how kids are soft, keep it to yourself. Honestly, I for one don't care, let the schools close.

Now that my rant is done (trust me it really is one of my big pet peeves), on to the recipe! I love roasting vegetables. We eat a ton of roasted veggies in my house, especially in the fall and winter. The following is an easy way to prepare beets (I promise beets are really delicious when prepared correctly).

Roasted Beets

Ingredients

• 1 pound beets, scrubbed

Cooking Directions

1. Wrap beets in foil packets (2-3 beets per packet).
2. Place on a baking sheet and cook at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes.
3. After beets have cooled rub off skins (they should come off easily, if they don't use a small knife).

The beet greens can also be used and they are a great source of vitamins (and delicious). Just heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet, add one or two sliced garlic cloves. Let cook over medium heat until garlic browns. Remove garlic and add greens. Cook until the greens are wilted, approximately 3-4 minutes. That's it, so easy! 

Tips: 

• Roasted beets are great by themselves or with a small amount of salt and sour cream. 
• They also make great salad additions. I love adding roasted beets and sunflower seeds to salads, yum! 
• Finally, you can add them to smoothies. It sounds a little strange, but they are a great source of vitamins and don't add a root taste to smoothies, the taste is barely noticeable amongst the other smoothie ingredients. They are great with strawberries, I make beet/strawberry smoothies about once a week to help with my potassium levels. 

Winter Vegetable Dal

Winter Vegetable Dal

I want my kids to fail. That's right I don't want my kids to succeed at everything they try. Why? Failure is one of the most important lessons we should be imparting to our kids. Let me provide a little background to my reasoning. My son came home from school last week and informed me that everyone got a ribbon for participating in a school event. Great, so everyone wins for doing nothing. I know that sounds a little harsh, but good old fashioned competitiveness is not a bad thing. I failed a lot growing-up. I tried basketball, softball, gymnastics and I was horrible at all of them. Then I discovered swimming and I was great at it. The pleasure I got from succeeding was that much better since I knew what it was like to be horrible at something. In college I had a professor inform me that I didn't understand anything about the concept of 'national identity' and that I should avoid a degree in English. I ended up getting my BA in English Literature and wrote my master's thesis on national identity and geography. However, if I hadn't done horribly in that class I might have had a very different life. We remember the times we fail, we need those failures to become the adults we are. It seems that we are now teaching our children that failure should be avoided in order to save our children the pain. Yes failure hurts, but the success that eventually comes is that much sweeter for having the fought our way back. So yes I want my children to fail, I will comfort them from the pain and cheer them on when they find a way to succeed. It's a part of growing-up.

My family rarely eats out, less than once a month. However, we all love various ethnic foods so I try to re-create as many dishes at home as I can. Last week I tried a new Winter Vegetable Dal recipe from the January/February 2014 issue of Eating Well magazine.

Winter Vegetable Dal

 

This recipe has 18 ingredients. It takes 1 hour of total time, 35 minutes of which is active and makes 6 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First, I used a bay leaf instead of curry leaves. Curry leaves are very hard to find in my area and I didn't want to have to go searching for them. I thought that I had cumin seeds in my cupboard, but wasn't able to find them when I made the recipe so I substituted ground cumin instead. I cut my potatoes small, but I still found that my dal took longer than the recipe suggest for the vegetables to fully cook, approximately 10 additional minutes.

Winter Vegetable Dal

My husband and I enjoyed this recipe. It was mild enough that my kids loved it while still being flavorful enough for adults. If you like your dishes spicier you can add a small amount of crushed red pepper. The leftovers of this dish re-heated well and it tasted great over brown rice.

For the recipe go to Winter Vegetable Dal.

Wild Salmon, Asparagus, and Shiitakes in Parchment Recipe

Wild Salmon, Asparagus, and Shiitakes

Apparently my son thinks I'm awesome because I make him bacon. That's right bacon. It all traces back to last week and the homemade Mother's Day gift that my son made at school. He came home so excited from school on Friday and immediately gave me the gift that he had made. It featured a picture of me frying bacon and a story about what makes me so great. The story emphasized that I do crafts and fry bacon. Of all the things that I do, bacon has the biggest impact on my kids. I don't know if I should be flattered or worried. According to my son all the other kids put things like their mother was pretty, funny etc. He was very proud that I make great bacon. Maybe I should stop trying to dress up and look nice for my husband as well. Bacon seems to have magical qualities for the males in my family. Since having bacon everyday is not healthy I make other foods that the males in my family love. Two of their favorites are salmon and mushrooms. Tonight I tried a new recipe for Wild Salmon, Asparagus and Shiitakes in Parchment from Martha Stewart Living magazine.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of total time, 25 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. I only made a few changes to the original recipe. First since the shiitakes at the store I shop at only come in 5 ounce containers, I bought two and used 10 ounces total in the recipe. Secondly, I realized that I had forgotten to toss the vegetables with olive oil, so instead I drizzled the top of the salmon and vegetables. This method ended up working very well since it kept the salmon moist while cooking. I found that my cooking time was much longer than the 9 minutes suggested by the recipe. This was probably due to the fact that my fillets were much larger and had skin.

Since everything is baked in parchment this is a very easy dish to prep and cook. The clean-up just involves throwing away the used parchment, which is great for a weeknight meal. Both of my sons love salmon and this dish was popular. The sliced lemon wedges are an important component, it helps to bring out the flavor of the vegetables and enhance the flavor of the salmon.

For the recipe go to Wild Salmon, Asparagus, and Shiitakes in Parchment.

Corn Chowder with Zucchini and Orzo

I love summer for so many reasons. One of my favorite summer things is fresh vegetables. Garden vegetables are absolutely delicious and I love cooking and baking with every single one of the them. In our area zucchini and summer squash seem to grow easier than anything else and I am always swimming in both of them for a good part of the summer months. I have learned to make great tasting brownies, cakes, bread and muffins that my kids love and they have never guessed that they contain garden vegetables. However, as much as I love baked goods I am trying to reduce the amount that my family consumes. So this time when I had a number of zucchini I decided to look for new savory and healthy options. I found a recipe from Everyday Food magazine for Corn Chowder with Zucchini and Orzo, which looked simple, low in fat and delicious.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, 20 minutes of which is active and makes 4 servings. All the ingredients were easy to find at my local grocery store and I made no substitutions. I did find that I had to let my chowder cook for slightly longer than the 8 minutes suggested by the recipe. At 8 minutes it hadn't thickened well so I allowed it to cook an additional 5 minutes. Be very careful when using the blender with the hot soup. I always place a towel over the top opening in addition to the plastic lid insert. I have had soup splatter more than once and the towel prevents anything from leaking out the top. Another option would be to use an immersion blender. It would work just as well and you wouldn't have to worry about pouring hot liquids. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

With 8 grams of fat and 9 grams of protein per serving this recipe is a great, light summer dinner option. I loved how sweet the chowder was and the zucchini and orzo on top was not only pretty on the plate, but created a nice texture difference. My husband wasn't as big of a fan of this recipe. He thought that the chowder would be great as a breakfast porridge, but not as a dinner option. My two kids loved it though, so he was the odd one out. Overall, this recipe was a great way to use garden veggies and I would use it again next summer.

Everyday Food currently does not have this recipe online. However, it can be found in the July/August issue or here is a link to a modified version.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

This has been a very busy week for my kitchen. I have canned, baked, cooked and prepped just about every fruit and veggie that can be grown in our region. It has been a good year for gardens and my counter was literally overflowing with squash at the end of last week. It was a tad bit overwhelming, but I dove in and canned 15 pounds of squash and pickles and baked chocolate zucchini muffins. However, even after all this work I was still left with a number of zucchini. Never one to let food go to waste, I decided to make a loaf of zucchini bread, a family favorite. After searching through recipes online I came across a recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Allrecipes.com which looked delicious and easy to make.

This recipe has 13 ingredients. It takes an hour and 15 minutes to prep and cook and makes 20 servings. I made a number of modifications to this recipe. I am not a fan of using a cup of oil in baking, so I substituted the oil with unsweetened apple sauce. Growing up my mother was diabetic so I became used to substituting unsweetened applesauce in recipes from an early age. It is a great substitute for sugar and oil and keeps baked goods very moist. I left out the walnuts, I am not a walnut fan and my boys won't eat any baked goods with walnuts or pecans. Finally, instead of using two loaf pans I baked the bread in a bundt pan. I love using a bundt pan in sweet bread recipes, it makes a great shape and is easy to slice into servings. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I was very pleased with how pretty this bread came out. I topped the servings with frozen berries and sprinkled the top with powdered sugar. Substituting the oil made for a moist bread that wasn't overly heavy. I used bittersweet chocolate for the chocolate chips, which was nice since it didn't make the bread overly sweet. This recipe is a great way to use zucchini and will be a recipe that I will use again next year when I am swimming in garden vegetables.

For the recipe Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

Here is a pic of the squash and pickles I was busy making. My boys love pickles and ate all 20 jars I canned last summer!

Chocolate Zucchini Muffins

My husband likes to tease me that I eat a lot of carbs. He's right, I would be a horrible person on a low-carb diet, I just can't live without bread, muffins, pretty much baked goods in general. I know that I have my dad to blame for this love of all things bread related. Growing up when my mom was out doing her tupperware parties my dad would take me to the donut shop down the street and we would literally eat a dozen donuts between the two of us. I was also so thin that the doctors put me on ensure to gain weight, which did nothing except make me hate the taste of vanilla drinks for the rest of my life. Needless to say I have been lucky most of my life that eating a large amount of carbs has never had the effect that my husband claims they have had on his waistline. However, now that I am in my thirties I have been trying to find ways to modify my favorite carb snacks into healthier versions. This week I had an abundance of garden veggies and thought that the Chocolate Zucchini Muffin recipe on Allrecipes.com would be a good starting point for a healthier muffin.

This recipe has 14 ingredients. It takes 35 minutes of prep and cook time and makes 2 dozen muffins. I made a number of ingredient modifications to this recipe. First I never have cardamon in my house, it's not a spice that I use frequently. Given that I didn't have the spice and I had no desire to run to the store in 100 degree heat I left it out completely. Second, the thought of using 1 whole cup of oil made me cringe. Instead I substituted 1 cup of unsweetened applesauce. The original recipe only uses cocoa powder. I also added 1/2 package of mixed bittersweet and milk chocolate all natural chocolate chips. Finally I ended up with 18 muffins total since I like my muffins on the larger size. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

My two boys ate the majority of this batch of muffins and had no idea that they were eating zucchini or that I substituted the fat with applesauce. I was very happy with how moist the muffins were with the applesauce and the taste was delicious. It was definitely a great way to use an overabundance of garden vegetables and is a recipe that I would use again in the future.

For the recipe go to Chocolate Zucchini Muffins.

All You Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties

In the last six months I have been making an effort to increase the amount of chicken and fish in my family's diet. This might seem like an easy task for most families and it would be except for one major fact, the males in my family love bacon. Not just bacon, but pretty much any type of pork. If my husband was left to feed himself 90 percent of the time he would be eating some form of red meat. This is the exact opposite of me. I grew up in Seattle and we rarely ate red meat in my house. My mother was a great cook and cooked a variety of vegetarian dishes. So much so that I was a vegetarian starting when I was 15 until I was 23. In my mid twenties I slowly added meat back into my diet, but was still mostly chicken and fish. Then in graduate school I met my husband. We were opposites in regards to food. His idea of a great lunch involved pizza or fried fish. Those were and are two of the foods that the grease literally makes me sick to my stomach. Somehow we managed to stay together and now after being married for almost 10 years I have slowly began to change his eating habits. We rarely eat out and when we do it's a treat, not a regular occurrence. Most important of all my husband has transitioned to red meat approximately once a week, which is huge progress I promise. Since chicken breasts have never been one of my husband's favorite foods, I am always looking for new recipes and I was interested when the March issue of All You magazine had a recipe for Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties.

This recipe has 9 ingredients. It takes 10 minutes of prep and 10 minutes of cook time and makes 6 servings. All the ingredients in this recipe are basic and I had no problems finding any of them at my local grocery store. I chose to use frozen broccoli instead of fresh. The price is much cheaper and it's easier to stick frozen broccoli in the microwave than deal with cutting and prepping fresh broccoli while my two boys scream for dinner. I chose to use a full pound of pasta, instead of the 12 ounces suggested by the recipe. Finally, I bought skinless-boneless chicken breast, instead of the skin-on bone-in used in the recipe. Honestly, I made this the day after Easter when my in-laws were in town and after a long day I wanted to save as much time as possible. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

At a cost of only 91 cents per serving this recipe is very inexpensive. Plus it takes less than twenty minutes to prepare and has 38 grams of protein. My in-laws loved this recipe and asked for seconds. My kids picked out the chicken and ignored the rest of the dish. If you are looking for a flavor-punch this recipe isn't for you. However, if you are looking for a simple pasta dish that can literally be made in minutes this recipe is perfect. Kids that aren't receptive to spiciness or too many flavor combinations would eat this dish happily (or in-laws that have the same tastes). Overall, an easy pasta recipe that's full of protein and takes minutes to prepare.

For the recipe go to Parmesan Chicken with Bow Ties.