- Zucchini in this part of the country grows like wild . There is always an abundance. Its s good vegetable that is full of nutrients, but how much can you use. The obvious answer is to grate and freeze it for chocolate zucchini muffins or cake. It gets veggies into children by magic. You can also dehydrate grated zucchini. Or dehydrate and grind it into a powder to add to soups. Another way to hide it. My mother’s friend used to cook it with tomatoes an d italian seasoning. We have cut bigger ones, took the seeds out and filled it with a mixture of sausage and tomatoes and cheese.
- Tomatoes: obvious one is pasta sauce, tomato soup, and stuffed tomatoes. I recently foun d a recipe for roasted tomato, pepper and carrot soup. You can stuff a tomato with the pulp, breadcrumbs, and some parm. Top with parm and broil. We slice tomatoes and cucumbers and use it as a salad.
- Eggs: you can dehydrate eggs. Its messy and takes f o r e v e r , but it does preserve them. I did it when they were .78 a dozen. It is a good thing for emergencies. You reconstitute them and can make scrambled eggs or use them in baking. My best trick is to make deviled eggs or just make hard cooked eggs. The easiest way to make hard cooked eggs is to put one in each section of a muffin pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and bake the eggs for 30 minutes. Have an ice bath ready and immediately dump the eggs into the water. I use tongs or a large spoon. They peel really easy and there is no watched pot.
- Carrots: carrot cake or muffins
- Milk: pudding, bread pudding . Clam chowder or potato soup.
- Potatoes: french fries, baked potato bar. Loaded baked potato soup. Chilli fries...I made fries last night. I cut the potato after it was washed in vinegar water, and soaked it in more vinegar water for 30 minutes to get the starch out. I dried them with a paper towel and put them in a green container with paper towels between two layers. They were in the refrigerator until we were ready for dinner. Put the potatoes in a bowl and dry them off with a paper towel. Drizzle some olive oil on them and sprinkle with your favorite seasoning. We use garlic pepper. We cooked them in the hot fryer for 20 minutes. Start at 15 and add if needed. Shake half way through. We set it at 400 degrees: You could also bake in a 400 degree oven and turn over half way through. Air baked, or oven baked fries with little good oil and no salt is a good way to eat french fries. In moderation !!!
- Bread. Bread pudding, toasted cheese sandwiches, french toast, stuffing for pork chops. Make stuffing, add chicken stock, veggies, dried or chopped fine and apple and craisens. Brown pork chops on both sides and place on stuffing and bake off covered until chops are done.
Keeping ‘zones” in the refrigerator is a good way to avoid missing something in a ‘black hole”
- Condiments, large bottles
- Dairy , a plastic basket groups yogurt.
- Leftovers
- We keep cheese: mozzarella and Mexican blend, a celery box, and miscellaneous items on one shelf.
- The door is set up to take salad dressings, condiments like mustard, and a butter space.
- There is a drawer for meat and sliced cheese.
- A drawer for veggies
- And a drawer for back up cheese.
