Freeze My Veggies?

  • OK this may sound silly. Angie and I eat a lot of veggies....frozen and fresh...raw and steamed. And of course canned green beans...Angie has to have canned green beans

    Today she brought home a little fresh pack of veggies...carrots, bok choy, edamame, corn, broccoli, mushrooms....she added onions and some red bell pepper.....stir fried it up a bit to go with our rice and orange chicken.

    The mix was good...but also $6.00.....and we ate it all.

    I asked her if we couldn't buy the fresh stuff, cut it up and bag it in the quart size bags and freeze servings...taking them out as we would need them.

    I always buy green-red-yellow-orange peppers on sale....always....then seed them and cut them up....they get a bit soggy when thawed but no problem because we cook them...

    Angie wondered if it would be the same with a mix of our own...would they get soggy as they defrosted?...would they still stir fry up ok?

    Any experience with it gals?
  • Probably mostly OK in a stir-fry. Because, after all, you can buy stir-fry mixes frozen already.
  • I agree, for stirfrys or casseroles it would be okay--anything where a slight lask of crispness won't make a difference. I would also recommend spreading the ready-to-freeze veggies on a baking sheet, allowing them to freeze overnight, and then putting them in a ziploc-style bag specifically for the freezer (to prevent ice crystals). Good planning ahead!
  • I buy many of my veggies pre-frozen for me, including oriental mix for stir-fries. I think they are actually better nutritionally than fresh veggies that have been shipped from who-knows-where and then sit in the produce section for who-knows-how-long. That also saves me all the prep time and wastage when fresh veggies don't get eaten fast enough (as well as those should-I-or-shouldn't-I quandaries when they are obviously past prime). Chopped frozen onions are a no-brainer for me bc I end up crying too much if I use fresh (hubby still buys & uses fresh, though).

    Freezing your own veggies (those that work well) solves some of those problems.
  • Thanks LADIES ~ I guess for the most part it should be fine as long as we are cooking the veggies....makes sense....last night I stir fried some peppers and onions, I had frozen myself, with carnitas and it was fine.