Onions and Pepper mix

Tip Tip # 2
Onions and Pepper mix:

If there is ANYTHING I've gained while working in the food business it's preparation (and admittedly most of these beautiful tips!)

I love onions and peppers, I love them all year around. There is nothing like the sweetness of a red pepper in a dip or some green pepper on a pizza.

Peppers are really expensive however, and when they are on sale it's like an event. You buy as many as you can, but a lot of it goes to waste. I try by best to be frugal and not to waste anything, also- my freezer is my best friend.

What I do is when I find peppers on sale (or just when I find some fantastic peppers and I'm feeling a little spendy wendy) is I buy them all at once and take them home. (Duh?)

When I get home I wash the outside of the pepper (it's important to clean whatever you're about to freeze or keep for a prolonged period of time, you want it immaculate! That isn't to say that you should not always clean your food the very best you can...) I cut the pepper into strips. While I do this I grab a few red onions, white onions, a Spanish onion- it really doesn't matter, but it can't be a green 'spring' onion because they are really atrocious when frozen (limp and blackish). I also cut the onion in strips.

Once everything is a uniform size, I rinse it all and get rid of seeds. I pat everything dry and leave it in paper towel for 20 minutes, this ensures that we won't get ice crystals.

The mixture goes into a bag and the bag goes into the freezer. Voila!

Some things you can use this for:

Mexican food of all sorts.
Stir fry.
Chicken with peppers.
Salad.
Pepper steak.
Rice and peppers.
Quick sauteed peppers as a side dish.

Really, it depends on how much you like peppers- if you're like me and my husband the options are limitless. We like peppers in omelets and having them all cut up saves our fingers on particularly lazy mornings.

The best thing about this is that you save all of the nutrients that are in the peppers.

One thing to keep in mind is when you defrost your peppers they will be limp, this goes for onions as well. I'm not a scientist so I can't tell you why that is, but they wont be those firm and crunchy peppers you once had. This is a disappointing discovery, like so many things in life.

But still! They are convenient and enjoyable!

Eat up!