Vegetarian Freezer Cooking Report: Using up Produce

Pictured: 2 servings Summer Squash Frittata, one 8x8 Fruit Crisp, 3 meals of Kale White Bean Soup, 3 meals of Eggplant Stew. Also pictured are 5 servings of Quinoa Vegetable Soup that I made several weeks ago.

In addition to the produce I already had, I received a vegetable box from a local delivery service, so I had even MORE produce to work with! This meant a few revisions to the freezer plan, as well as a cheat recipe--I added Kale White Bean Soup to the plan--it's non-vegetarian, but uses a large quantity of kale.

Thursday Evening (2 Thursdays ago!): quickly cut and peeled peaches for Peach Berry Crisp (filling) while dinner was cooking, added the extra ingredients, and froze it in the freezer. I place the freezer bag inside the pan that I will use to bake the crisp so that the mixture froze in the shape of the pan. I still need to make a few batches of Crisp Topping...

Friday Morning: Started making White Bean and Kale Soup in the crock pot. (If you used a replacement for the ground sausage, it would still be vegetarian... but mine includes hot Italian sausage. :)

I also whipped up the Summer Squash Frittata, topped it with tomato and basil from the garden, and ate a piece for (second) breakfast. I put several pieces in the freezer to test and see how well it freezes (not too well. It gets very watery when I go to reheat it) The rest we ate for breakfasts the next few days.

Monday: I made the Eggplant Stew and doubled the recipe to use up all of the eggplant! It was wonderful as usual, despite the fact that I quadrupled the tomato sauce rather than doubling it. Rather than add cannded diced tomatoes, I used fresh (skins and all). I also left the skin on the eggplant even though the recipe said to peel it (I never peel it). I ended up with three meals left over for the freezer.

 I also made and served Sesame Baby Bok Choy with leftover Baked Chicken Tenders--not cooking for the freezer, but fitting in with my need to use up produce.

Now it's a new week and I just need to use up this by Friday:

Today's Harvest

Ack!