Freezing your veggies:
Choose your fav veggies. Bring a pot of water to an active boil and dump in your fresh green beans, bell peppers(best to buy them when they are on sale for freezing purposes), broccoli, asparagus...etc. Make sure they are chopped, diced or minced how you like them. Let them boil for approx three minutes. You don't want them to fully cook. Then, quickly, dump them into a colander/strainer and run them under cold water. This is called blanching. A fool proof method and way easier than canning! Make sure to mark the date on your freezer bag, along with the name of which veggie. Voila.
Potatoes and Rice -- Now, I mentioned potatoes and rice. First, I have often frozen a batch of mashed potatoes but there is another way to freeze your taters. Dice them and wait for your water to boil. Dump them in for 3-5 minutes. Once they're done let them set in icy water for 5-10 minutes. Package and freeze. So easy and it saves you from having to throw out your potatoes because they have eyes growing in their heads...
Rice -- Well, the only experience I have with freezing rice is with a certain Russian dish I make, Ploff/Plov. I make a huge batch of this dish and then freeze the rest. How many times...too many to count and the turn out has been great upon the re-heat. You can freeze rice casseroles, too. Wait, I just remembered that I've frozen just pain white rice. Either way, it's fully cooked when it goes into the freezer.
No, you're not looking at a shelf in CVS or Walgreen's. But this is my laundry closet. Eight, yes, eight bottles of detergent. There is one hiding in the back...And half of those I got for free. They run close to $8 for the smaller bottles and $12 for the larger. I don't pay more than $5.99 for the smaller bottle. CVS is my friend. I get amazing coupons for being a member of their rewards system on top of clipping coupons from the Sunday paper. I wouldn't recommending stepping two feet inside that store without a coupon...they are just too expensive otherwise. But, you couldn't find better deals when you're armed and ready.
All together now...the underside of my kitchen sink is lined with dish soaps! Dishwasher and dishwashing. I also have an arsenal of Clorox spray bottles, Clorox wipes, and all other sorts of cleaning paraphernalia. And, once again, half of it was free.
The beauty of couponing is your coupons usually coincide with your local grocers sales. And, if some of the coupons you clip don't match with the sales the store is having that week, don't worry because the next week they will match. It's a game and you have to be smarter than the system. Make them pay you.
I do. I get free money every time I push my cart down the aisles.
