Inside My Mid-life Crisis

Today I must extol the virtues of my Food Saver Vacuum Packer. I am on my second unit in about 10 years. It is approx $200 initial investment and well worth the money. You will recoup this expense in savings by buying food in bulk then packaging in your desired sizes and freezing for later use.
Meat purchased in family packs is normally a $1 or $2 cheaper per pound. If you buy cheese at Costco or Cash & Carry in large packages you can also break that down into smaller packs and cheese freezes easily.
Many of you know we make our own sausage and we also grind our own hamburger by buying sirloin tip steaks when they are on sale for $3.49 or $3.99 per lb; this is waaaay cheaper then buying the extra lean hamburger and you know EXACTLY what is in it.

I will now demonstrate how to blanch and freeze fresh green beans. I have been doing this for several years. You wind up with lovely packs of green beans that taste as they should that can be enjoyed all winter. You will need:
Beans, Big pot, Bus tub or sink for ice bath, Ice, Big collander, Vac Bags, Vac Packer

Buy your beans at a local market-we have great green beans right here in the Puyallup Valley. I bought this 15 lb box for $18.95 at Valley Farms on River Rd.

Get your BIG pot on the stove and fill with water, bring to a boil--no salt. Mine has a strainer basket in it so it is very easy to remove the beans-if yours doesn't you will need to use tongs to remove when the time comes.
Prepare your beans by cutting the little end off where the bean was attached to the plant. No need to cut the other end off.
Gather them up in a handful and do a bunch at a time. I toss into a bus tub (we bought for making sausage but they are very handy to have around) I like to leave mine whole but you can cut into smaller pieces if you like.
When your water is at a full boil, drop beans by handful into the pot- careful not to overcrowd or flood your pan!
Bring back to a boil (takes a couple minutes) then boil for about 3 minutes. Beans should be "al dente" which means "to the tooth" in Italian and means firm to the bite.
After blanching, place the beans in an ice water bath. This shocks the beans and stops the cooking process. Bring your water back to a boil to get ready for the next batch. Notice the nice vibrant green color the beans remain. mmmm

When cool-remove from the ice bath and drain. If you don't have a big tub for your ice bath, you can use one side of your sink--just be sure to clean it well and rinse any soap or comet out of the sink.
Fill your vac-pack bag with the desired portion and vac and seal accordingly. I portion in about one pound packs which is about 4 one cup servings.

Date your bags and freeze! My box of beans yielded 18 packs of beans so that is $1.05 per bag. They are fresh, local, no additives or preservatives and you did it yourself.
These will last in the freezer a year (if you don't run out!). You don't have to buy 15 pounds- buy 5 and give it a try; you can use zip top freezer bags but with out vac packing them you won't be able to get all the air out and they will only hold about 2 months and may get ice crystals in them which will make them a bit watery but still pretty good.