Bulk & Freezer Cooking Ideas {Veggies}

Having prepared meals on hand for the arrival of a new baby (or other life changes) and be a great tool to reduce stress and help keep your budget in line.

Prepping veggies in bulk can make it easy to add nutrition to your day in a hurry. Here are some ideas for bulk prepping for the fridge and freezer.

Veggie Tray

If you go through a lot of fresh veggies, using your serving dish with the dip already prepared can be a great help. Kids can open it up and help themselves with ease. If you are worried about not eating the veggies fast enough, putting them in a quality storage container (like Glad or Ziploc) will preserve them for a longer period.

Peppers & Onions

Purchase peppers in bulk when on sale and prep them for the freezer. If you happen to catch the right sale, you can prep them in packs for fajitas or chili.

Fajita packs get added grilled, sliced and frozen chicken from Bulk Chicken Prep, 1/2 package of fajita seasoning and 1/2 cup of water to make fajita stuffing. Rice may be added too. For chili packets, add green pepper and jalapenos to the mix and cut everything into diced pieces. Then, when ready dump it into your chili recipe and cook!

Potatoes can be tricky. Blanching is a must if you are going to freeze them. The best tip I’ve come up with is to make Fried Potatoes packs.

Start by soaking and slicing the potatoes. Set a pan of water to boiling on the stove. Then let the water get to a rolling boil, add the potatoes and then bring it back to a rolling boil. Fill your sink with cold water and then the cooked the potatoes go back into the strainer in the sink to cool.

While the potatoes are boiling, set margarine and seasoning to melting and mixing in a sauce pan and chop your onion. When ready, mix all of it together and then package in meal portions in zipper bags for the freezer. When ready to make you dinner, toss into the pan and fry until ready.

Sarah Jehnzen is the author of Sarah’s Deals, a West Michigan based blog that’s “Helping You Live Better, For Less”. She posts regular sale match-ups, coupons, reviews, giveaways and freebies as well as a variety of cooking tips, household hints, craft/decorating ideas, and other helpful information. You can connect with Sarah via Facebook or at @sarahs_deals on twitter.