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FOOD EMERGENCY!

EJCC

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GUYS I HAVE A FOOD EMERGENCY. I have a TON of fresh produce that I need to use ASAP and I have no idea how to use it all. (This is all my CSA's fault.)

Reasons why I am calling this an emergency and freaking out about it:

1) I hate wasting food
2) Seriously though, I HATE wasting food

I suspect that part of the solution is to freeze a bunch of it, and/or cook with a bunch of it and freeze the finished products. But there's so much stuff that I'm having a hard time narrowing it down.

TLDR: Please recommend recipes to me that use one or more of the below ingredients, and that ideally would also be inexpensive to make, as I am on a budget.

  • Heirloom tomatoes
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Gala apples
  • Pluots (half apricot, half plum)
  • Red skin potatoes
  • Yellow zucchini
  • Beets
  • Salad greens
  • Either green leaf lettuce or radishes (I don't know yet, I'm picking up said CSA bag after work today, but they sent me a list of what I'm getting)
  • A bit of spinach (needs to be used soon)
  • Red kuri squash
  • White sweet potatoes
  • Mini orange bell peppers

The amounts that I have of each ingredient are either 2-3, or 1 farmers-market-style carton-ful, or just 1 (if a large item).

Thank you so much in advance!
 

ceecee

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You could make frittata or mini frittata with several of the ingredients on your list.
Red skin potatoes
Bit of spinach
Zucchini
Some of the orange bell pepper

Keep it veg or add bacon/sausage/something like that. Think of frittata whenever you have a lot of produce to use up. Plus you can freeze them.

The plums, you could make a quick preserves and freeze it in a air tight container or some freezer safe jars. It's good for obvious preserve uses but plum preserves make great bbq sauce too.

Quick Plum Preserves Recipe | Epicurious.com

Beets. Freeze those.

National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Freeze

Heirloom tomatoes and grape tomatoes - roast those bad boys with some olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. You can cover them with oil and keep them in the fridge when they're done. These are a superior alternative to buying expensive sun dried tomatoes.

Gala apples - Chunky or regular applesauce. You can freeze this too and if you have or can borrow a food mill, you don't have to peel or core.

The kuri squash I would roast too.

The white sweet potato. I love sweet potato tossed with some cinnamon, olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted. You could also cook and mash and freeze. Mashed Sweet Potatoes (that actually freeze well) - It's me, debcb!

The salad greens - you kind of have to eat that up. Radishes can be roasted and pan sauteed.
 
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Maybe you can make one of those Apple Chicken Pecan salads that they have at Wendy's. The chicken smells like dog food, so I tell them to put it on the side and I feed it to the dog. Anyways, the lettuce is sort of bitter which goes well with the sweetness of the apples, dried cranberries, and sweet dressing, and the feta cheese (think its feta, not sure) and the pecans are salty. Think the spinach and salad greens would work well for this.

You could freeze the squash and the bell peppers until you're ready to use them. You could dry the apricots and mix them in trail mix. You don't need a dehydrator. An oven set at a low temp will work fine.
 

Also

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Vegetable Chili:
  • Heirloom tomatoes
  • Grape tomatoes
  • Red skin potatoes
  • Yellow zucchini
  • A bit of spinach (needs to be used soon)
  • Red kuri squash
  • White sweet potatoes
  • Mini orange bell peppers

Roast both types of potatoes. Toss them with oil, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, and S&P. Roast the tomatoes and squash with oil and S&P. Saute Radish and zucchini. Boil salt water, cook spinach for a few minutes, then squeeze moisture out when cooled. Bring broth or water to a simmer, add tomatoes and allow them to reduce or smash them as the water begins to boil. Add roasted vegetables, bell pepper, and season to taste. I like to add the bell peppers last because I like the crunch but feel free to add them before the roasted veggies if you want them to be soft.


Beet Chips:
  • Beets

Bake beets with oil, S&P, and whatever herbs that you like.


Green Juice:
  • Gala apples
  • Salad greens
  • Either green leaf lettuce

Blend apples, greens, juice, ginger if you have it, and ice.


I'm not sure about the pluots. I'm not a huge fan of plums or apricots so I don't eat them often. I do enjoy them in sauce form though. Plum sauce on duck, pork, or thai noodles. Plum jam, or maybe cook them with some sugar (like strawberry sauce) and pour it over ice cream or pancakes.

Minus the pluots, you'll have a full meal. Soup with beet chips and a green juice drink.
 

kyuuei

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I'm a fan of freezing food so that's what I'd go with.

Heirloom tomatoes - Tomato sauce! It is super easy to make and you can freeze it. :) Or marinara sauce.
Grape tomatoes - Poke some holes in them with a thumb tack, peppar vodka + spices in a jar = Bloody mary bites you can bring to a party.
Gala apples - Apple sauce in a slow cooker potentially, or to be used with...
Pluots (half apricot, half plum) + your apples = .... A nice no-sugar-added pie :) You might even throw in a sweet potato into the mix too
Red skin potatoes + zucchini + bell peppers + the kuri squash + spinach = A nice crustless quiche will make use of all of these vegetables, and freezes well. two if you have a lot.

Beets + salad greens + lettuce or radishes = a salad you can throw together and eat for the next few days.

White sweet potatoes - Vegetarian curry :) it, and some rice, can be frozen separately and reheated for an awesome last-minute dinner sometime in the future.

Many of these veggies would go well in a chili-style dish as well that can be frozen into single-serving portions and eaten off of for a few days at a time. I sometimes would shred up greens to add to chili with scallions as a sort of alternative to rice whenever I wanted a bit of crunch in my stew.
 

Luke O

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I pickled my own beets the once. They were still edible over a year after I pickled them.
 

ceecee

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I pickled my own beets the once. They were still edible over a year after I pickled them.

I make pickled baby beets for my husband every summer. Nowhere near my favorite but I do it because I'm a big pushover and he cleans the kitchen, post canning.
 

EJCC

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Food updates and questions:

1) I sliced and roasted the beets, per above suggestions, and added them to a grilled cheese. (I had goat cheese lying around, and I used some of my salad greens for some crunch.) SUCCESS.

2) I got radishes and not lettuce. I also LOVE the radish chips idea. And I found a recipe for radish green soup that also requires potatoes!!

3) I'm wondering if yellow zucchini can be used in zucchini bread like green zucchini? Because that might be good.

4) I diced and froze all the orange snack peppers. Which was pretty time consuming, but worth it.
 

EJCC

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[MENTION=4050]ceecee[/MENTION] and [MENTION=4939]kyuuei[/MENTION] I'm taking y'all's suggestions:

- Thai curry with the red kuri squash and some potatoes
- Crustless quiche with miscellaneous vegetables

Radish chips were a failure, but at least they're roasted now? I'll throw them in with some potatoes (and squash? and sweet potato?) tomorrow morning to make a breakfast hash.

Radish green soup was quite tasty -- surprisingly so, considering that the leaves appeared to be made of pure evil before I cooked them. I had a taste of the soup and put it right in the freezer!

Dinner tonight was a salad with the salad greens, the rest of my goat cheese, and a sliced pluot. YUM. The salad greens are getting a bit wilted now, but they are mostly not lettuce and I hear non-lettuce salad greens taste good sauteed with garlic and olive oil.

Tomorrow or Sunday I am putting all the grape tomatoes into a pasta recipe -- roasted with garlic and topped with bread crumbs that have toasted/cooked with shallots. :wub:

Many thanks to everyone who replied in this thread! You have been a HUGE help!
 

Showbread

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3) I'm wondering if yellow zucchini can be used in zucchini bread like green zucchini? Because that might be good.

I don't see why you couldn't do this... I'm pretty sure the flavor and consistency are the same.
 

ceecee

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I don't see why you couldn't do this... I'm pretty sure the flavor and consistency are the same.

Yes I agree. You could simply shred it up and freeze it too - I do that when we have a lot and I can't make bread or cake right away.
 
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