Huzzah and Question

[hkellick]

Huzzah! The work at BWI is finished! It's opening today!
Huzzah!
Good timing. Gotta book July 4th Tickets soon.

OK, my question..
I need help from people who do much cooking and/or freezing.
I'm trying to figure out a way to make salads easier.
One of the ideas I just had, and I want to test this through people with more experience is... buy a whole bunch of vegetables, cut them up, portion them and stick them in a bunch of freezer bags.
Then freeze them.
I'm thinking: carrot, celery, onion, peppers, mushrooms, sprouts, broccolli, cauliflower, radishes.. if I can find some, some green peas.
And some already cooked chicken (Yay Foreman Grill! :D)
Does anyone see any issues with this plan? Will I have any problem freezing any of these?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: OK, upon further thinking the carrots, celery, onion, sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes should be Ok cut up for a week.
The mushrooms and green peppers could get slimy, though.
I may need to consider taking them out and just sticking with vegetables that would be OK pre-cut for a week in my fridge.

Comments

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Carrots, celery and onions, no problems at all. I'm not too sure about the rest. I'd be hesitant to try to freeze mushrooms if they aren't to be cooked afterwards, and have no clue how peppers, sprouts, broccolli and cauliflower will react. Radishes and green peas should be fine too.

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

Anything that has a lot of water to it probably won't freeze well. (ie lettuce, cucumber, etc.) I would probably put celery in that category too, but the above poster seemed to think it would work and I've never tried it, so I could be wrong on that one.

I'm not sure what you mean by making the salad "easier," either. If you can elaborate on that, I might be able to have some ideas.

[kiwiria.livejournal.com]

Well, I've never tried it either, so I might also very well be wrong. I think the best idea is to freeze a little bit of everything and then see how they defreeze.

[lite.livejournal.com]

What I'm thinking is...
I'm going to try to flip and have my big meal at lunch and a smaller meal at dinner.
I'm doing this under the assumption of coming home late and drained.
I'm looking for quick and easy ways to have something filling. One idea that occured was salads. Salads can be filling, but are lighter than my usual dinner fare.
Unfortunately, it's a big PITA to cut this and that and this and that every day.
I'm looking to make the process of getting salads at night a matter of putting some salads in a bowl and then dumping in alot of already presliced vegetables.
hence my idea of freezing things. My idea was.. I'd take a bag of veggies out before I left to defrost, go to work, come home, dump the lettuce in a bowl, dump the thawed veggies on top, add dressing and enjoy.

[dawnstar.livejournal.com]

Why not just get a big bowl and make a big salad at the beginning of the week, to then carry yourself through the rest of the week? That seems simpler, less wasteful (with all those plastic bags), and you don't run the risk of anything not freezing well.

[lite.livejournal.com]

My major concern is that by Friday, everything would be nasty, soggy, and brown.

Any idea how to get the salad to last, pre-cut and ready, for a few days?

Willing to look into large tupperware (or glassware with a top like my grandma has) container, if people think it might work.

[lainiest.livejournal.com]

I honestly doubt you can get salad to last several days without some sort of preservation method. Like..
Well, you could get a jerky machine and make salad jerky.
But even plastic wrap and all that craps out pretty fast with veggies.
I don't eat salad that much. z_z Generally dad just gets it in bags from the grocery store.

[lite.livejournal.com]

That was my concern, yeah.
Kind of why I'd considered the idea of freezing some of this stuff.
Not the salad itself, that'd make it brown faster, but maybe some of the vegetables.

Also, you're right about the carrots. Alot of the vegetables might be OK for a week. But some, like the green peppers, probably not. They grow slimy quickly. :p

[coderlemming.livejournal.com]

The only thing in your list that's not going to like to survive for a week in salad form is the greens themselves. The rest, you can slice up and keep in tupperware. As for the greens, I've heard of a method where you wash them and store them in a paper-towel-lined tupperware, mostly along the sides. This soaks up the water and prevents it from causing the greens to wilt. I've never tried it. Anyway, of course, the key is that you _don't_ put the dressing on, not until you're right about to eat it.

I think you should be able to do this stuff fine, without even bothering to freeze. Just pull the greens prepared as above out, tear them up (a quick process) and toss them in a bowl with your veggies and chicken. Take a bottle of dressing with you to work, and you're all set.

Btw, a quick way to extend a salad and make it more exciting is to add small cubes of cheese. Try pepper jack for a little kick.

[lite.livejournal.com]

I usually added shredded cheese, but otherwise yeah.
And unsalted sunflower seeds, as much for the protein as for the crunch :)