Wednesday 3 October 2012

It's Freezing in Here!



The family and I have invested a lot of money in our future. And frozen the results. This is one money saving tip where you really can not go wrong.

Last weekend there was a very big sale on carrots, potatoes and onions. Naturally, we bought a lot! But once we brought all of that produce home I thought "what are we going to do with all of this food?" What we needed was a freezer. Off to the local (and not-so local) classifieds I ventured. There, I found just the thing. An apartment sized freezer, for a very reasonable price, plus transportation. I am very thankful to have parents that do not mind helping us this way. An hour and a half drive could have turned into a very long and tiring walk, carrying this:

(Okay, it's a little lopsided - please excuse my poor photography)

So we got to chopping up the carrots.. a LOT of carrots.




Blanching them in skalding hot water..




And freezing them in our new dazzling freezer.
(Also pictured are chick peas, black beans and bananas!)



After carrots, we followed the same basic procedure with potatoes. And you know what? I loved every minute of it. It wasn't easy at all, but so rewarding. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I then sent my husband to the store to buy five purple cabbages (they were on sale!) so we can do the same with them over the next couple of days. Lets break down the costs, here.

20 lbs of carrots at $1/5 lb bag is $4.00
40 lbs of potatoes at $2/10 lb bag is $8.00
15 lbs of onions at $1/5 lb bag is $3 *I didn't freeze these*
Apartment size freezer ($20) plus transportation ($20)

That is 75 lbs worth of food for only $15.00! Lovingly preserved with room for more, at a one time purchase of $40.00

Check back tomorrow and I will tell you about even more savings, and show you what happened with those onions.

THIS IS ALSO VEGAN MOFO POST NUMBER FOUR! Vegan Mofo is the Vegan Month Of Food. The idea is to post about vegan food, 20 times during the month of October (minimum!). Vegan MoFo

4 comments:

  1. WOW, so jealous of your new freezer! If I had a space for something like this at my apartment, it would be difficult to not do the same as you and pick one up. Right now, my frezzer is filled--I mean FILLED--with frozen beans, chickpeas, strawberries, and especially raw cashews and slow-cooked tomtatoes. It's sort of out of control. Yet, I have MORE I want to freeze. It's a struggle.

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  2. Thanks, it's pretty wonderful! Actually the freezer is only 2 feet by 4 feet. So it doesn't take up much space, and actually we do not have room. Because of the freezer, only myself or my husband can sit at our small table at a time. It's wall to wall furnishing, baby. :)

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  3. Did you freeze the potatoes? They don't always freeze well :( Often becoming mushy when thawed!

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  4. Oh no! I did freeze the potatoes. I cut them into french fry shapes for the kids. Oh well, if they go a bit mushy we can just have mashed potatoes! :D

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