Produce Explosion

Pam's Garden Bounty

Look at this amazing selection of produce my mother shared with me! The question is: how do I use this all before it goes bad with a family of three? I don't. I use some of it and preserve the rest until later.

Hanging out in the cold water bath

Finished product.

I decided to blanch and freeze the green beans because I already had some in the fridge. I broke the rules and used scissors to cut off the ends of my green beans. I know that may be "bad" but I found it much faster, and Ethan was waiting on me to play Legos (Mom life). After trimming them up, I boiled them for three minutes and then put them in a water bath for three. After draining them, I put them in a random jar I had waiting around. Then I labeled it and stuck it in the freezer. It was quick and easy. I'll make sure to use them within a month or two.

Dinner in One Bowl

I also made a veggie spaghetti dish. I didn't use traditional pasta sauce with this one, which made me a bit nervous because kids are picky. The key to using veggies in this situation was to spice it right. I sauteed up onion, eggplant, bell pepper, corn, and tomatoes in olive oil. My spices were cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, fresh basil and oregano from the garden, sage, and then I threw in a little sriracha sauce for some heat. It's definitely easy to over spice things, but because I had so many veggies and tomatoes don't have the same flavor as tomato sauce, I had to kick it up a notch. I boiled the spaghetti and added it to the other. Ethan ate his veggies without much complaint.

I'm going to make the okra tomorrow.