The BEST Stewed Tomatoes Ever recipe! This easy to make recipe simmers tomatoes for 30 minutes to make homemade stewed tomatoes that can be served as a dinner side dish or can be canned. This how to make recipe shows you how easy they are to make! Find out why everyone considers them THE BEST! We always use this as a canning recipe for our Summer garden tomatoes!
Homemade Stewed Tomatoes Recipe
Stewed tomatoes, sigh.
Our tomatoes are turning red quicker than I’m able to pick. So between oven roasted cherry tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, tomato pesto, slow cooker tomatoes, tomato soup… there’s lots of tomato dishes going on in our kitchen! Oh and I did mention Fresh Tomato Salsa too – because you know August always means fresh salsa!
I will have many more upcoming tomato recipes…get ready tomato lovers! But for now… stewed tomatoes!
These stewed tomatoes are the best, I’m not fibbing either. If you are having a tomato harvest soon or would like to make your own instead of the canned version, please please please please please make these!
ROASTED CREAMY Cherry Tomato Sauce is sweet, creamy and SO EASY to make! This is the best recipe for growing garden tomatoes! You can serve immediately on pasta, can it or freeze it! Find out why thousands of people love this sauce!
My life has officially been taken over by tomatoes. Is there anything else to talk about except tomatoes right now? Tomato this, tomato that, do the tomato dance.
Do you know how many cherry tomatoes are in this big bowl below? 16 cups! And there’s a few plants that need to be picked… so double that or more. And that’s just cherry tomatoes!
What do with Cherry Tomatoes?
Make Roasted Creamy Cherry Tomato Sauce of course!
I love cherry tomatoes (and cherry tomato recipes) and they work great for snacking and halved in pasta, but what about tomato sauce? Cherry tomatoes aren’t usually the first choice to use for homemade tomato sauce but I’m out to change that.
Cherry tomatoes can result in a creamy tasty sauce which will knock your red socks off (red because it’s tomato season – what, you don’t match your socks to your harvest?).
The key to this recipe is first we oven roast the tomatoes – oh yeah, baby. Then after that we throw them in a food processor with some fresh basil and season them. Then it’s made! It’s that easy.
This homemade sauce doesn’t require you to simmer over the stove for 2 hours. I really love this creamy sauce over pasta, with lasagna, stuffed shells. It’s also pretty fantastic to add to pizza as a creamy sauce.
So when you pick your cherry tomatoes, change it up a bit and make some sauce. Bonus: You can freeze this sauce, throw in the freezer and defrost it months later for a spaghetti dinner in February.
Cherry Tomato Sauce Recipe
Gather your tomatoes, make sure to take the stems off.
Put them in a pan, single layer. I was making a few batches so I had multiple pans.
Drizzle your olive oil over the tomatoes. Take a picture and completely miss the olive oil coming out of the bottle.
Sprinkle your onion powder over the tomatoes. Take a picture and completely miss the onion powder being sprinkled.
How to roast cherry tomatoes
Bake for 35 minutes until your tomatoes are all wrinkly.
Let them cool then put them in the food processor with your other ingredients. Fresh basil – doesn’t it smell great?
Give it a few pulses, it doesn’t take much.
And you are left with some creamy, amazing smelling cherry tomato sauce!
This makes 3 cups of sauce. Feel free to use immediately after, put in the fridge for tomorrow, or freeze (in a freezer bag) for a few months later.
Whenever I freeze sauce, puree, diced/stewed tomatoes, I always put in a freezer bag and lay flat while pressing it out, so it’s as thin as possible. Then once it’s frozen, I stand it up. This saves space and lets you have a better organized freezer.
To defrost it I throw the bag into a pot of hot tap water. It defrosts pretty quickly. Then into a saucepan it goes to heat up.
I hope you enjoy this Roasted Creamy Cherry Tomato Sauce – it’s one of my favorite Summer recipes!
ROASTED CREAMY Cherry Tomato Sauce is sweet, creamy and SO EASY to make! This is the best recipe for growing garden tomatoes! You can serve immediately on pasta, can it or freeze it! Find out why thousands of people love this sauce!
Course
Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine
American
Prep Time5minutes
Cook Time35minutes
Total Time40minutes
Servings3cups
Ingredients
4cupsof tomatoes cherry tomatoesstems off
1/4teaspoononion powder
2tablespoonsolive oil
1/3cupfresh basil
1/2teaspoongarlic powder
salt + pepper to taste
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Spread tomatoes single layer in a pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with your onion powder.
Bake for 35 minutes, your tomatoes should be wrinkly.
Let cool for a few minutes, then put tomatoes in food processor.
Add fresh basil, garlic powder and salt + pepper to taste in food processor.
Blend to smooth and creamy.
Use it right away, or throw it in the fridge to use tomorrow, or freeze it for next month.
HOMEMADE Blueberry Jam recipe made from 1 pint of blueberries! This easy to make no pectin, no sugar recipe is perfect for eating and canning. This healthy jam is delicious served over toast, pancakes, french toast and ice cream!
Blueberry Jam Recipe
We’re jammin’, I wanna jam it wid you. We’re jammin’, jammin’, And I hope you like blueberry jammin’, too.
I was craving fresh blueberry jam but I didn’t want to make a big batch of it, in fact I wanted to make jam with just 1 pint of blueberries. Maybe you’ll pick fresh blueberries from your garden or maybe you’ll pick up a pint of blueberries from the farmers market, either way you can enjoy this easy and quick recipe.
1 Pint Blueberry Jam
This jam recipe is incredibly easy to make! You’ll want to add 1 pint blueberries, honey, cinnamon and lemon juice to a saucepan. Bring it to a boil for about 30 minutes, or until it’s jam consistency, giving it a stir every few minutes to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pot.
This jam recipe can easily be tweaked to other berries – like blackberries or raspberries too! A few people reached out to me to ask me if they could use frozen blueberries in the recipe instead of fresh… well you can!
I prefer fresh berries for this recipe but frozen berries will still taste good. Just make sure to defrost the blueberries before you add to the pan, and keep a eye on the jam as the berries might cooker quicker than fresh ones.
How many cups is 1 pint of blueberries?
1 pint of blueberries equals about 2 cups fresh blueberries.
Don’t you love how flavorful blueberries are? I love that they’re so tiny but filled with flavor! They’re great to add to mini blueberry muffins, overnight oats, blueberry buckle or just enjoy on a piece of toast (like this jam!). In case you needed more reason to like blueberries, they also are high in antioxidants, boost brain health, support digestion and promote heart health!
I love spreading this blueberry jam on toast, scones (here’s my easy scones recipe), muffins, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pancakes, french toast or more. It’s also delicious served over ice cream! However you serve it – I hope you enjoy it!
Looking for more jam recipes?
If you like this Blueberry Jam recipe, try these other family favorite jams:
HOMEMADE Blueberry Jam recipe made from 1 pint of blueberries! This easy to make no pectin, no sugar recipe is perfect for eating and canning. This healthy jam is delicious served over toast, pancakes, french toast and ice cream!
Course
Breakfast, Dessert
Cuisine
American
Keyword
blueberry jam recipe
Cook Time30minutes
Total Time30minutes
Servings8
Ingredients
1pintblueberries
1/4cuphoney
1/2teaspooncinnamon
1tablespoonlemon juice
Instructions
Put all ingredients into a saucepan and stir.
Bring to boil, then simmer for 30-35 minutes until jam consistency.
This is the beginning of many tomato posts to come in the next few weeks. Right now we’re handling Tomato Season 2013 so I’m constantly looking for new tomato ideas to both use our harvest, but also preserve so we can enjoy it until next summer!
A great way to use up lots of tomatoes you have is to make homemade tomato paste. Tomato paste is a great ingredient to have on hand to thicken up sauce and soups. Not to mention it’s a great base to make some yummy marinara sauce. I love this specific recipe because we are going to freeze them in ice cube trays which means you can use a little bit at a time. No more using one of those tomato paste cans that you only need 2 tablespoons for. By using ice cube tray size you use what you need, nothing goes to waste.
The best type of tomatoes for paste is roma or plum tomatoes (think elongated in shape) because they have the least amount of seeds. In this recipe, we don’t take the skin off or deseed the tomatoes, we just cut them in half. Tomato paste is super easy to make, it just takes a little patience until it’s done. It’s made by cooking the tomatoes on the stove for hours to the point of where you boil away all the liquid, causing a very concentrate form of tomatoes, which turns into “paste”. By the time the hours are over, you are going to have beautiful tomato paste.. and a house that smells wonderful! You will be hungry after smelling this on the stove.. 🙂 These cubes last a very long time, months. I could easily throw a cube in some tomato sauce in January that I make this week. I love these tomato paste cubes because when it’s snowing out and I reach for one, I get to remember the good garden days had months prior.. and that just makes me smile!
HEALTHY Ground Turkey Kale Meatball Sub! These meatballs are fried on the stove and then covered with tomato sauce and American cheese on a sub roll! This homemade recipe is easy, healthy and your family will love it! Even my Midwest husband thinks this is the BEST meatball sandwich!
Who doesn’t like a good meatball sub? It’s quick, it’s hearty, it’s sloppy, you get to eat it with your fingers. It’s meat, cheese and tomato sauce – how can you go wrong? But with this one we’re going to mix it up a little bit and add some kale to get your greens in! Don’t be alarmed by the combination of kale and meat together in this sub – once everything is mixed together, it just works. My husband is a Midwest boy who loves his hearty dinners and this sub is A+ in his book!
This meatball sub is based on my kale meatballs recipe which I first made last summer and fell in love with. These turkey meatballs are great over spaghetti, yummy grilled as a finger food on a stick, but they are delicious on a sub roll! This kale turkey sandwich is one of our dinner favorites!
A meatball sub isn’t finished until it’s slathered in tomato sauce and then American cheese is melted on top – then it’s ready to eat!
Enjoy one of my all time favorite sandwiches, Turkey Kale Meatball Sub!
HEALTHY Ground Turkey Kale Meatball Sub! These meatballs are fried on the stove and then covered with tomato sauce and American cheese on a sub roll! This homemade recipe is easy, healthy and your family will love it! Even my Midwest husband thinks this is the BEST meatball sandwich!
Ingredients
3tablespoonsolive oil
2cupsuncooked chopped fresh kale
Pinchof dried rosemaryparsley, oregano, thyme
3clovesgarlic
1poundground turkey
1egg
Sub Rolls
American cheese slices
Tomato Sauce
Instructions
Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan over medium high heat. Add kale and spices. Cook until your kale is wilted.
Put kale mixture and garlic into a food processor to mince. Add your turkey and egg and pulse until it’s all combined.
Form this mixture into 2 inch balls.
Use your same pan (its already greased) and heat to medium high.
Add your meatballs and cook until browned on all sides (make sure to flip them), about 10-15 minutes.
For the sub
Cut your sub rolls down the middle.
Add meatballs on sub roll to fit.
Add 2 slices of American cheese slices on top of the meatballs. Melt cheese in microwave or toaster oven if needed.
When I first found a great cauliflower pizza casserole recipe it called for pureed cauliflower, but pureeing cauliflower that we grew seemed like a absolute sin to me. I can’t give so much energy and love to our garden cauliflower and then just blend it up, that would be the saddest thing ever. If we were ever to sell produce commercially I would put on every single package a (cute) warning sign that says “YOU MAY NOT PUREE ME, IT WILL MAKE PAMELA VERY SAD, PLEASE LOVE CAULIFLOWER WHOLE. THANK YOU VERY MUCH”. So in my recipe, we cut it into small bite size pieces. I prefer it this way as well as the cheese will get in all the nooks and crannies of the cauliflower. And who doesn’t’ like cheese? Especially with cauliflower. This is a absolute win situation. Here’s your cauliflower. Mine happens to talk.
Here’s your cream, butter and garlic mixture. Pizza always needs a little garlic.
And here’s your pepperoni. I quartered each slice. Do this with scissors, a knife or just tear it apart with your hands.
This is step 1 of the casserole, your cauliflower/butter mixture/pepperoni are all mixed up.
Step 2: Add your pizza sauce.
Step 3: Add your cheese! Be brave, cover this sucker.
Step 4: Pepperoni time. Feel free to eat a few slices too, I won’t tell anyone.
Then into the oven it goes…
And out of the oven it comes! Mamma-Mia!
The cheese is melted, a little bubbly, a little brown. I have pure joy right now.
Then take a few whole basil leave and put it on top. I love pizza with fresh basil.
Cauliflower Pepperoni Pizza Casserole, it’s like having your own garden pizzeria! Major winner here – enjoy!
-It has to be yummy.
-It has to be easy.
-It can’t use the oven.
Every single day when I eat lunch I sit in front of my computer, usually catching up on email or going through my blog reader to see what all my great recipe/garden friends are up to. You know lunch is exceptional when you plan to do this, but the only thing you can do is turn your monitor on before you devour your entire lunch without touching the keyboard or mouse once. This lunch time experience was just me and the stuffed pepper and it was a good one.
These stuffed peppers are:
-Yummy. Very.
-Quick and easy. The thing that takes the most time is making the quinoa.
-It doesn’t use the oven. It uses the stove top and the microwave.
-Fresh! Garden pepper and spinach, yum!
Here’s all your beautiful ingredients. Such a pretty lunch we’ll be having!
Hello Mr. Pepper! You are huge, beautiful and delicious. I love you dearly.
Here’s your quinoa with chopped up spinach and garlic. The way I make my quinoa is 1/4 cup dry quinoa with 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil, then simmer and cover for 15 minutes.
After I melt the cheese, I put the pepper top back on. More pepper to eat makes me a happy girl!
If you have any quinoa that can’t fit in your pepper, I just put it on the side. Also, I always put extra tomato sauce on top. I love tomato sauce. When it’s time to start picking tomatoes from the garden this will all be fresh. I can’t wait!
CHINESE Chicken and Broccoli. Homemade, healthy and easy recipe that tastes just like your favorite Chinese takeout restaurant! Your entire family is going to love how delicious this is, and you’re going to love how simple it is to make!
When I get Chinese takeout I usually order:
Chicken & Broccoli
Broccoli & Garlic Sauce
Shrimp & Broccoli
Lo Mein with Added Broccoli
Do you see the broccoli love?
Authentic Chinese Chicken and Broccoli Recipe
I have been trying to perfect a takeout restaurant version of chicken and broccoli for many years. I was close but the broccoli was never perfectly crunchy, the sauce was too thick, the sauce was too thin, the taste was off. But finally, finally! I shake my fist at you chinese chicken and broccoli recipe because I did it!
It was a great moment sitting down at dinner to eat this and hear the cheers from both my and Matthew’s mouths. It’s really good. I don’t think I can ever order takeout again if I know it’s this easy (and much more healthier) to make at home.
If you love Chinese Takeout Chicken and Broccoli, you will love this recipe!
How to Make Chicken and Broccoli
Oh garden greens, I love you. I picked some fresh broccoli, green peppers and sugar snap peas. You can omit the sugar snap peas if you want to, but I would highly recommend keeping them in. It gives it a great additional crunch!
Tip: And don’t forget if you’re using fresh broccoli, you can make vegetable broth from broccoli leaves and stalks!
You want your chicken to be cut up into bite size pieces, and then you let them marinate for a bit until you are ready to move on to the next step with them.
This is the magic sauce that holds everything together. It’s the sauce I have fought with to get just right. It was a glorious moment!
The sauce turned out so well due to these 3 great ingredients. I’ve really come to love sesame oil in cooking the past few years. PS. Make sure you use low sodium or lite soy sauce, we want to cut back on the salt in this recipe.
And when it’s all done you will have one beautiful skillet full of chicken and broccoli. Dive right in, this CHINESE TAKEOUT Chicken and Broccoli is delicious!
CHINESE Chicken and Broccoli. Homemade, healthy and easy recipe that tastes just like your favorite Chinese restaurant! Your entire family is going to love how delicious this is, and you're going to love how simple it is to make!
Course
Main Course
Cuisine
Chinese
Servings4
Ingredients
Vegetables
1head of broccolicut up into florets
1small green pepper - cut up into small slices
3/4cupsugar snap peas - chopped into thirds
For the chicken marinade
1poundboneless skinless chicken breasts - cut up into bite size pieces
1/2teaspoonbaking soda
1teaspoonsugar
2teaspoonscornstarch
1tablespoonlow sodium soy sauce
1tablespoonwater
2tablespoonsvegetable oil
For the sauce
1/4cup+ 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
2tablespoonsbrown sugar
4clovesgarlic - minced
2tablespoonsflour
1tablespoonrice cooking wine
1teaspoonsesame oil
1tablespoonvegetable oil
Additionally
1tablespoonvegetable oil to fry in
1/2cupwater
Instructions
Mix your marinade ingredients in a bowl - add your bite size chicken pieces and stir. Set aside.
Mix your sauce ingredients in a bowl - set aside.
Steam broccoli for 3 minutes, drain - set aside.
Heat up 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken, it's marinade and 1/2 of the sauce mixture. Keep cooking until chicken is fully cooked.
Add steamed broccoli, sugar snap peas, green pepper and remaining sauce with 1/2 cup water.
Cook for about 3-4 minutes until sauce thickens up.
We’ve harvested alot of broccoli this season. Every single plant produced a beautiful big head of broccoli. You guys know I love broccoli already, but do you know I love macaroni and cheese too? Macaroni and cheese is a comfort food and it holds dear memories of my father making me dinner every single day he was home from work during high school. He knew I loved that mac and cheese so he made it once a week, I was a very happy girl. Thanks Dad!
So what happens when you mix comfort food with happy harvest? You get one of my favorite broccoli dishes: Baked Broccoli Macaroni and Cheese. I love macaroni and cheese of all sorts. I’m fine with the box, I’m super fine with homemade. I’m fine with it made with cheese that comes in a foil package (Where my Velveeta fans at?), I’m super fine with a baked version. This recipe is a in between, yes it’s baked, but the inside of the dish is still soft and cheesy and gooey. It’s just perfect, the best of both worlds.
So if you like mac and cheese and you like broccoli, this dish is for you!
Boil water and cook macaroni as instructed on box. When there is 3 minutes left, add your broccoli to the boiling pot. Drain and set aside.
In a saucepan melt your butter over medium heat. Slowly add flour, dry mustard and pepper until it's smooth.
Add your milk slowly and keep stirring until it's smooth.
Add in your cheese and continue to stir until it's smooth.
Take off burner.
Add your macaroni to cheese mixture saucepan and stir until all noodles are coated.
Transfer your mixture to a baking dish. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
Cover and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly.
Enjoy!
We have a big bag right now full of broccoli. Every time I open it I just smile and breathe in the scent of broccoli.
For this recipe, you need 4 cups of florets. I leave mine pretty big.
For this, we’re going to cook our macaroni, then when there’s 3 minutes left we’re going to throw our broccoli in too. This means only one pot to clean. High 5.
Drain and set aside for a few minutes.
Hello cheese. I love you so much. I like to use 2 different versions of cheese for this recipe so I use good ol Velveeta and Monterey Jack.
Shred it however you want. I was lazy so I put it in my food processor.
Now we want to start to make the cheese sauce so get your butter melted.
Then add in your flour, dry mustard and pepper. You’ll want to mix quickly until it’s smooth.
Then add your water and keep stirring.
Then your beautiful cheese. This take a few minutes for it to melt, but keep stirring.
Great job, some yummy cheese sauce there.
Take your macaroni and broccoli and add to the cheese sauce.
Perfect!
Transfer to a baking dish.
You can see here it’s still pretty soupy, but this cheese is going to melt beautifully and hold it all together.
Add your bread crumbs and into the oven it goes…
And out pops out this beautiful dinner after 20 minutes!
The bread crumbs are just slightly golden brown, just how I like them.
And see how the cheese all melted together and it’s no longer too wet, instead it’s gooey and cheesy and oh my!
Serve some up. You can add some bread on the side if you’d like too. Who doesn’t like bread on the side?
You’ll start to love lettuce once you make this Braised Lettuce recipe! Braising consists of lightly frying, and then simmering like a stew for full flavor!
I love this braised lettuce. Love, Love, Love.
As we have been harvesting our lettuce plants, I have been requesting this almost every single night. Most people use lettuce in salads or as a topping, but in this recipe you can use it as a entire side dish. When I first learned about braised lettuce I didn’t think twice about making it because just lettuce as a side, really? Then I tried it and my opinion changed immediately. Just like my lettuce soup recipe, this one is a life changer too!
It’s such a easy recipe consisting of just a few ingredients, but it packs such a hit in taste. Braising consists of lightly frying, and then simmering like a stew. Just as you would expect in the greens family, lettuce wilts much, so as it simmers, it gets tender. As it simmers, the lettuce will pick up the garlic and broth. Your lettuce will be full of flavor. It’s so great.
Please, please see this past recipe as “just lettuce” and give it a try.
Take your washed lettuce head and cut it up into quarters.
Head olive oil and minced garlic in pan over medium heat. Add your quarters of lettuce, cut side down.
Saute until the side is lightly brown. This takes about 10 minutes.
Turn over, add your chicken broth and bring to a slight boil.
Turn down to low, cover and heat for 15 minutes.
Add salt + pepper to taste.
Serve as desired.
Recipe Notes
Bibb or Romaine lettuce works well. You can substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth.
First, let’s take a minute and admire this gorgeous lettuce we grew. Sigh.
This recipe calls for one head, so cut it into quarters so you have 4 pieces.
Lettuce, you are so pretty. For this recipe I used buttercrunch because that’s what we grow. You can use Bibb variety, or Romaine – it’s up to you.
Take your lettuce and put it in a pan with olive oil and garlic. Make sure you put it cut side down in the pan.
Once it’s slightly golden brown, you’re going to flip it over to the other side.
Then add your chicken broth. Alternatively, you can use vegetable broth if you’d like. Bring to a boil, then put your heat on low and cover for 15 minutes.
When the 15 minutes is up, you will notice how much your lettuce has wilted. Then you will smell that aroma and smile. Then you will taste the lettuce and faint.
Who knew, lettuce could be this good? I’m a lettuce believer now.
You can use this in many ways, feel free to even think outside the box, like putting it on pasta or rice… or a sandwich!
As the garden season takes off, I will be doing a series of posts on how to preserve everything you grow so you can enjoy them now and many months later. We won’t let any of our hard work that went into planting and caring for these plants go to waste here!
I often say “I garden because I cook”. My love for being in the kitchen goes hand in hand with getting my nails dirty pushing down seeds.
Here are other reasons why I love bringing these worlds of gardening and cooking together:
-You learn where everything comes from. Did you know Brussels Sprouts grow the way they do? I didn’t either! By gardening you see the process from seed to harvest, it often surprises you!
-You respect everything you grow. Those pumpkins that I grew? They came from me pollinating them for a week straight at 5:30AM in the morning. Those tomatoes that are beautiful red and perfect? They stayed alive because you ran out into the pouring rain to make sure their windblocker fabric was up and everything was secure. Those sugar snap peas? Do you know how long they take to pick? Oh my!
-You try new vegetables. I hated lettuce before we had our garden, now I’m like a rabbit where Matthew has to shoo me away. I never tried radishes before, now I eat them whole.
-This results into trying new dishes in the kitchen. Pesto? Never made before, except now I have about 10 different recipes for it with every different plant. I scour websites and cookbooks looking for new ways to use tomatoes, broccoli, carrots. Dinner, Lunch, Desserts – I try it all! The most important part is starting with a base you love. So grow what you like!
-Preserve! Preserve! Preserve! This is the big one for me. There are a few weeks in July and August that I am spending many hours every single day preserving our tomatoes to last us (forever). So you just grew those kale plants – but did you have any idea how much kale grows on a plant? Or those edamame plants that I grew last year – did I know that I would get 20 pounds of edamame, all at once? What are you going to do? Well you just spent so much time and energy and love on these plants to grow great vegetables so now we’re not going to let it go to waste! Oh no we aren’t! We are going to preserve it! Did you know I had to buy my first can of diced tomatoes earlier this month because I had enough saved from last summer’s harvest? Do you know how awesome of a feeling that is to have fresh vegetables you grew in your freezer all winter long? Oh it’s snowing out and 3 degrees, let me just grab a extra fresh pack of frozen green beans that I grew a few months back. *High 5’s*
I spend quite a bit of time preserving everything we grow, and figuring out new ways to try. One year I went as crazy as literally not wasting any of the broccoli plants, by finding ways to use the leaves and chop up the stems. I blanch, I freeze whole, I puree, I turn into sauces, I chop, I husk, I dry. I do whatever it takes to preserve everything. This post will be dedicated to strawberries, kale and basil. Sometimes in future posts, I will give you another idea for the same vegetable. There are many ways to preserve each plant, so I want to share some options for whatever is best for you in your kitchen. 🙂
Strawberries Who doesn’t love strawberries? And is there anything better than a sweet strawberry picked right off the vine and plopped straight into your mouth? Oh yum! But what happens when you are are harvesting pounds of strawberries? Or what happens when you go the grocery store and find out that they are selling pints of strawberries for 89 cents. Buy a bunch, we can keep your strawberry love stocked up for months!
We are going to freeze strawberries. Strawberries keep in a freezer for a long time, I’m talking a year. Amazing, right?
What can we do with frozen strawberries? Well I’m glad you asked.
–Smoothies! My favorite. Throw frozen strawberries in your blender and continue as usual in creating your favorite smoothie.
-Throw them into pies.
-Strawberry jelly!
-Strawberry sauce! Blend them up and pour over ice cream, cakes and waffles.
-Strawberry butter. Yup, you heard me right!
-Make strawberry bread.
-Strawberry salad.
Here are your beautiful strawberries. Seriously, aren’t they the most loveliest things in the world? I hope one day I can be at least 1% cool and classy as strawberries.
Now you want to wash them, wash them real good.
Then once they are washed, you want to hull them. Basically you want to rip off their green tops and cores. You can do this a variety of ways with special tools, or just a knife. Personally I just use my finger nails to get in there. Then lay them on a cookie sheet and let freeze. Once they are frozen, put them into freezer bags.
Then when you need some strawberries, take them out of your freezer and bask in the glory of them! Use them however you want. I will be making myself one happy strawberry smoothie. 🙂
Kale Kale, the winner of everything cool in 2013. Do you hear all the buzz about kale? What a popular guy. It seems to be the king of greens! One cup of kale contains 36 calories, 5 grams of fiber, and 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6, 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K. It is also a good source of minerals copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. Can we say it’s healthy?
So what to do with kale? When you’ve eaten your share of fresh raw kale, let’s figure out ways to preserve it, so you can be eating this vegetable powerhouse for months to come!
I like to make kale cubes, which is basically kale all chopped up, frozen into cubes. It’s all kale, nothing else added in.
What you can do with those frozen kale cubes?
-Smoothies! Again! Want a real pick me up? Throw a kale cube into your next smoothie.
-Defrost and mix into pasta. Warm through.
-Throw a cube or two into any soup or stew. Just a little bit of frozen kale goes a long way in getting your vitamins in!
-Defrost and mix with meats to make delicious ravioli.
-Defrost and mix with meats to make delicious meatballs!
Kale! You hearty animal you (not really a animal). I destem it. I do this with my hands too, I just rip it off. Maybe I’m the animal here. Then I rip it into pieces to fit it into my food processor. A few pulses later and your once entire food process cup hardly has any kale in it. Kale likes to shrink. Then spoon it out and throw in some ice cube trays. Fill them up to the top. A entire bushel of kale filled up one ice cube tray, so pack it down. Now put into the freezer. Once they’re frozen, poke them out with a fork. I find it works best to let them sit on your counter for a few minutes, then poke them out. They defrost pretty quickly for you to grab one out of the tray. From here you can keep them in the tray and use as you want, or throw them in freezer bags. Because you packed them in, they stay in cube form nicely.
Basil Who else loves the smell of basil? I love picking fresh basil and putting it in pasta, and especially on pizza! A slice of margarita pizza with basil is the key to my pizza loving heart. But what do you do when you have pounds of basil and you can’t eat 8 pizzas a nights (don’t try this, just believe me). You can dry it! I love dried herbs. Almost 80% of the time if a recipe calls for fresh herbs, I will ignore it and use dried herbs. Why? Because I know the dried herbs are ones I grew, loved and they will taste just as good in the dish! What can you do with dried basil? -Any dish call for fresh basil? You can substitute with dried basil. -Use in any tomato pasta. -Sprinkle over each lasagna layer. -Sprinkle over pizza.
-Use in rices.
-Use in a varieties of stews and soups for extra seasoning.
-Use in pasta salad.
-Sprinkle on garlic bread.
So let’s pick your basil! What you want to do is wash it, then let dry. I do this by putting it on paper towel sheets and then help blotting excess water on top. Let dry completely. Then find a space of your home that you want to smell like basil for the next few weeks. Grab a rubber band and hang on something. We have screws in the top of our loft that we drilled in just for drying herbs. This is at the very front entrance of our loft, so as soon as you walk in… it’s fresh city USA. Then just let dry until they are completely brittle. If the basil seems “fresh” and flexible they aren’t dry enough. You basically want them to the point of if you touched a leaf, it would crack. You can see in the top right of this picture I have some dried oregano ready to go. Then pick the leaves off the plant (do this over a bowl, the leaves are going to fall apart beautifully). Throw in your food processor and you’re done. If you don’t have a food processor, just crumble with your fingers. Now you have dried basil ready for whenever you want!
The last few afternoons I have been craving a smoothie. We’ve been hard at work gardening and all I want is a cold “pick me up” when I’m exhausted. This does the trick! The best thing about this recipe is that you can match fruit to your liking and create your own. Other examples: banana, orange, pear watermelon, kiwi banana, orange, strawberries banana, blueberries watermelon, orange, pineapple banana, apple, orange pineapple, kiwi orange, strawberries banana, peach strawberry, banana blueberries, apple, banana banana, cherries pineapple, blueberries blueberry, pomegranate, banana There are so many more variations. Isn’t it amazing? I also love this recipe because it gets rid of any fruit where you aren’t sure what to do with. Many times I’m left with a few random strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, a banana that is very ripe, half an orange, etc. Put all the soon to go bad fruits in your blender and you’ll quickly have a delicious drink.
You’re about to become everyone’s favorite at any gathering!
I love green bean casserole. It reminds me of holidays, friends, smiles. I also love it because it’s green and beautiful. A few days ago around midnight, Matthew came into the bedroom where I was reading and asked if we could have green bean casserole “tomorrow”. I told him we would gather the ingredients the next day. Then I came to thinking how I made broccoli casserole last year and I loved it so much, so why don’t we mix these beans and brocs and make a delicious green bean and broccoli casserole? I can’t be happier about how it came out! In the recipe below I am using frozen vegetables which adds simplicity in the time saving department.
Stir in frozen beans, frozen broccoli and 1 cup fried onions. Stir good.
Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes. (Make sure it's hot inside)
Stir it, then top your remaining 1/2 cup onions on top.
Bake 5 more minutes until your onions are golden brown.
Enjoy!
We are getting down to the nitty gritty with saved frozen vegetables from the garden last year. I found these guys hiding in the back of the freezer, they are the last bag.
Here are all your ingredients.
Cream of mushroom soup – I love you.
Does anyone eat cream of mushroom soup by itself? I don’t but I can imagine how good it would be as I always lick the spoon clean after scooping it out.
Then add your milk.
Mix it! Arm workout!
Add pepper and stir again!
Add your frozen beans..
Then your frozen broccoli…
Here are your fried onions. Truth: I don’t like onions. I’m really picky about them. But for some reason I’m 100% fine with these fried onions – how that makes sense, I have no idea.
Sprinkle your onions in..
Then more arm power and keep mixing..
Until you have a creamy beautiful mixture that looks like that. Into the oven it goes..
Then 40 minutes later, this lovely smelling dish comes out.
We want to add some more onions to crisp the top. This will really make the casserole extra special!
5 more minutes until they’re slightly browned on top.
Oh man, about this time Matthew just happily showed up in the kitchen. I slapped his hands away.
Many people serve bean/broccoli casserole as a side, but we had it for a man dish with some toasted garlic bread/bread rolls. There is creaminess residing in the casserole so you want to have some bread to dip in..
Serve away! Just wait for the “ooohs” and “aahhs” and “iloveyous”.
These Vanilla Frosting Cupcakes made with fresh spinach is a sneaky way to include vegetables in your kids diet. You won’t believe how good these are!
Now before you go reading the title and thinking I’m crazy, I just want to make it clear that I’m a genuine cupcake lover. I’ve been known to go to Crumbs, get the biggest cupcake in the display with vanilla frosting, rainbow sprinkles and eat it up in a couple bites. I’ve been known to go back for seconds. I love sweets, I love cupcakes. So when I found a recipe a few months ago saying I could make cupcakes with fresh spinach and it would taste amazing, I didn’t quite believe it. Even while making these and mixing the spinach in, I still was worried. Really, I could make cupcakes full of spinach and it was going to be good? Really? Well folks.. I have the verdict..
YES YOU CAN.
THESE CUPCAKES ARE AMAZING.
WE ARE TALKING “OMG THESE ARE MADE WITH SPINACH?! WHAT? ARE YOU LYING TO ME? NO IM NOT. “
They will probably change your life.
I have had a post-it note on my desk since June to post the recipe and finally today, I am!
Rejoice! Bake these cupcakes. They will change your life. I’m totally serious
DIY frozen pesto cubes! Perfect to use for easy dinner recipes!
If you are growing herbs in your garden then right now you might have alot and not sure what to do with them. Do you dry them? Do you use them as is? How about we make delicious pesto and freeze them? Yes, let’s do that! Here we will use our fresh parsley and basil. Just think about in December when it’s freezing out and you’re in a bad mood because your boot has a hole in it and you stepped in a big slush pile. You come home, cranky, boil some pasta. What to put on top.. pesto… from your garden.. oh the summer time memories.. everything feels better now. 🙂
What can you do with pesto besides put in pasta? Use it as a pizza sauce. Marinade chicken or steak or shrimp in it. Use it as a vegetable dip. Make soup. So many options!
Let’s make some pesto and freeze it!
Directions: Blend all ingredients together. Put in ice cube trays, freeze for a few hours. Take out and then package in freezer bags. Can it get more simpler?
From the recipe/ingredients above I made 2.5 batches of it which equaled 6 cups of fresh parsley and 1.5 cups of basil. I also made a quick batch of just basil pesto.
Gather your supplies.
I have 2 bags of walnuts just in case. I totally didn’t need all those but I’m overly prepared (in life). I have so many bottles of soy sauce in the pantry.. just in case.
Our kale in the garden is out of hand, it’s basically taking over. So last night I decided to pick some to make kale meatballs! Not only are the ingredients easy, but the directions are as well. While eating dinner Matthew proclaimed “This is the best spaghetti meal I ever had in my life”. Good job kale! 🙂
Update:
We put these meatballs on the grill and boy were they delicious! So if you are grilling this summer, try this recipe. I like adding sticks inside them once they’re done, makes eating fun!
Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to a pan over medium high heat. Add kale and spices. Cook until your kale is wilted.
Put kale mixture and garlic into a food processor and chop it up. Add your turkey and egg and pulse until it’s all combined.
Form this mixture into 1 inch balls.
Add one more tablespoon of olive oil into your previous pan, turn to medium-high heat and then add your meatballs. Cook until browned on both sides (make sure to flip them).
Serve with some spaghetti, sauce, cheese on top..and some bread on the side!
Charlene
I canned this today using same water bath canning time that I use for salsa - 30" for pint jars…