Last night I prepped enough minced garlic to last us a good six months. I don't really know how long it will last, but a LONG time. I started with a huge 3 lb container of peeled garlic from Costco, which cost all of $5. Not much, if you ask me. I trimmed off the hard end of each clove, and popped them in my food processor.
I chopped up the garlic until it was minced. Then I dumped it out onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Using a spatula, and then another piece of wax paper on top, I pressed the garlic into a nice thin layer on the cookie sheet.
Once the garlic was pressed down, I took my handy pizza cutter and cut horizontally and vertically to get little squares, about 1 teaspoon each.
I covered that up with wax paper and froze both trays overnight. In the morning, I broke up the pieces and put them in zip-lock bags to go back into the freezer. Now, when I need garlic, I don't have to take the time to crack open a clove, have the skin stick to my fingers as I hurriedly try to mince it, inevitably ending up with too-big chunks. I just open my freezer, take out a square - or more - and throw it in my pan or pot. One thing I love about this, is that I end up using a lot more garlic this way, and I LOVE garlic! No mess, my favorite.
You could also do this with hot peppers, diced onions, or other high-maintenence veggies, though I have never tried it on this scale.
Eat well and happy cooking!
Hi, I found your article through hip2save's site. You have a neat and time-saving idea there. I did something similar with orange juice. I like to make smoothies, but can't use up the whole pitcher of orange juice while it's still fresh, so I made a pitcher of OJ and poured it into ice cube trays and froze it. Then, I put the individual cubes into a ziplock bag and whenever I want to make a fruit smoothie, I just take a couple of cubes and add it to the rest of the mixture :-) It's neat getting everyone's helpful hints. ~Pam
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