Freezing Produce

Today I had alot of "kitchen" things to get accomplished.  My wonderful Uncle gave us a TON of green peppers and apples from his garden.  Its amazing how much produce one tree/plant will grow! So this morning I got to work chopping and peeling.  I need to add that my husband and I...well, we make an awesome team!  I love how he is always there to help me out, he never puts household tasks into a "that's a women's only job" category.  He cut all the tops off of the peppers, and got all the seeds out, and I chopped them up.

I decided to cut half of them into strips to use in stir fry, on top of steak with onions, in fajitas, and things like that.  The other half I diced up to put in sauces, eggs, on top of pizzas, etc.  Here is our pile after I was done. Here is what an hour and a half of chopping looks like. :)

Here is a freezer tip that I love to do.  Instead of stuffing a Ziploc full of peppers and throwing them into the freezer, I get out all my baking sheets and flash freeze the peppers spread out onto them first.  That way when I want to get some peppers out for a recipe they aren't frozen all into one big clumpy ice ball.  I can just grab some, or pour them out easily for whatever dish I'm making. 

I also made a batch of homemade applesauce today.  For some odd reason, I forgot to take pictures! :) It was so easy to make.   I only added a tiny bit of sugar to mine because I wanted to feel good about giving it to my kids, especially Maiya.  I froze the applesauce in Tupperware containers instead of canning it.  I wasn't sure about freezing applesauce, but alot of my friends on facebook say that's the only way they eat it.  I still have a bunch more apples to bake with.  Kaylee is requesting some apple-cinnamon muffins, so I will have to get a batch made for the freezer.  My friend emailed me a recipe for pie crust that I want to try out tomorrow also.  I have NEVER been able to make homemade pie crust, so I can't wait to try her recipe.  I will keep you posted on how it turns out.