When fresh is in season and local, it can be cheaper and healthier. That means that almost always, frozen is cheaper and healthier. In fact, frozen is often better than the equivalent fresh at the grocery store because it’s frozen right after it’s picked - it doesn’t ride to you in a truck.
Likewise, almost all year the canned tomatoes are way better than fresh, because they don’t have to look good and travel to the grocery store - they can just be good tomatoes.
Ah, so it’s my California bias showing in that respect.
Fair enough.
Sautee spinach with grated ginger, minced green chili, and a big handful of fresh cilantro. Salt to taste.
Sautee spinach with minced garlic and balsamic vinegar.
My first recipe is for Gingered Glazed Carrots, a recipe so yummy my 8YO requests it!
1lb bag frozen sliced carrots
2Tbsp butter
2Tbsp brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp fresh grated ginger
salt
Put frozen carrots in a pot with a splash of water and dash or two of salt; cook until softened. Add butter, ginger and brown sugar. Stir almost constantly until the sugar and butter melt to form a glaze. Yummy.
Creamed Spinach
(I do not like cooked spinach in any of its permutations; my hubby loves this, though)
20 oz. frozen chopped spinach
Olive oil
2 cans cream of celery soup
1 small onion, finely chopped
salt and pepper
Half&Half
Cook spinach in microwave. While spinach cooks, sautee onion in olive oil. Drain cooked spinach, and add to pot along with soup and S&P. Heat through. If it is still too thick, add Half&Half until desired consistency is reached.
This can be quite successfully frozen.
I do look for good fresh vegetables when I go to the store. But I won’t pay $4.99 a pound for out-of-season fresh asparagus that just isn’t very good (in-season fresh asparagus is quite good, and I wish the asparagus season were longer, but the out-of-season stuff isn’t worth it). I’d rather have frozen broccoli than that. Frozen vegetables can also take a lot of the prep work out of having vegetables, which is a good thing for me.
Thanks for the recipes- a lot of them sound good! I’ll have to try them sometime…
First the testimony: Neither I nor my son enjoy tomatoes. Both of us despise the sweet and sour flavour of them. This dish, however, results in yummy savoury tomatoes, completely infused with the tasted of the shallots, garlic, oil and seasonings. It was awesome, and even resulted in my son asking for second helpings.
Baked Tomato Slices
adapted from www.sassandveracity.typepad.com
5-6 firm, ripe roma tomatoes
2 shallots
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
extra virgin olive oil
dried oregano
sea salt or kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
Prepare a baking sheet by lining with parchment. Slice each tomato into 1/4-1/2 inch slices and place on the baking sheet. Drizzle the olive oil over all, then sprinkle generously with oregano. Slice shallot thinly, separate rings and place over tomatoes. Sprinkle minced garlic over tomatoes. Try to get one piece of shallot and some garlic on each slice. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake for about 1 hour, or until tomatoes and shallots are very brown. I actually baked ours for about 1.5 hours, but I wanted them extra roasted.
Using a small spatula, place tomato slices in a shallow bowl and pour over pan juices. Let cool to warm or room temperature.
Enjoy with some bread and soft cheese (cream cheese, goat cheese and brie all work), if desired. Our meal consisted of the bread, tomatoes and cheese, plus a salad and a light vegetarian soup. It was very satisfying and very delicious.
Acorn squash-
Cut an acorn squash into thick slices (about 0.5 inches thick)
Clean out the seeds
Place each slice on a cookie sheet brushed with a bit of oil
Dot the squash slices with butter/margarine, or brush with olive oil
Sprinkle each slice with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, pinch of salt
Ginger or cloves would be nice too.
Bake in a fast oven (375 ish) for about 15 minutes until tender. Add more brown sugar/butter midway through cooking if needed.
Serve each person a slice or two.
Yum!
Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage
My recipe (well, actually, it’s my mother-in-law’s recipe) is somewhat similar to this one, with a couple of substitutions.
Chop up a head of red cabbage
Heat a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a deep pot
Throw in cabbage and stir/toss to coat
Add about 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (more if you want it more tart)
Add about 1/4 cup honey (more or less to taste)
Sprinkle with salt
Stir thoroughly, put a lid on it and let it cook for about 15 minutes until soft.
Glazed roasted asparagus
These asparagus spears are tasty and crispy and sticky-sweet and good. My go-to company vegetable recipe, because it’s very easy but it seems elegant.
Preheat oven to 400 or so. Break the tough ends off some fresh asparagus spears.
Arrange asparagus spears on a lightly oiled baking sheet. (You might want to line your baking sheet with foil, as this makes a bit of a sticky mess – cleanup is the hardest part of this recipe.)
Mix together equal parts soy sauce and apricot jam. Throw in a minced garlic clove and maybe a little ginger, if you like. Pour this over the asparagus and toss to coat.
Roast – I’m not really sure how long – maybe half an hour? Pull one out and munch on it to see if it’s done.
These are quite good if you do them before the rest of the meal, and serve them at room temperature.