Veg.

So, what's a stay at home mama to do on a Saturday night? Leave the kid with a babysitter and go party it up like the days of old (I make it sound like I was such a barfly back in the days before babe)? Nope. Instead, the baby is tucked away in his crib, dreaming sweet dreams of pulling my hair and stealing my glasses off my face (which reminds me that I really do need to call the eye doctor and reorder some contacts....such a simple thing to do that I've been putting off for months) and I'm standing happily in the kitchen with my husband, chopping vegetables.

Who woulda thought?

Anyway, I don't know if you are anything like me but we throw away hundreds of dollars a month in produce gone bad. I buy it with the best of intentions - I'm going to make this soup, or this casserole or cut it up and have it for snacks and 80% of the time, it ends up mushy and growing things with that dark puddle of produce goo gunking up the bottom of my veggie bin. This month I had an idea. I have a few bags of frozen fruits that I bought from the store and earlier this week I was defrosting a few peach slices to cut up and give to Ben for breakfast. Inspiration struck. What if I took the time to freeze my OWN veggies? The ones I buy and spend all this time chopping up (my thought process behind that one was - if I slice it up so it's ready to eat as soon as I bring it home from the store, I'll have more success in actually using it. And some months that works. Some times it doesn't) and just freeze it myself? Then if I want steamed broccoli to go with dinner....all I have to do is reach into my very own freezer and viola!

So, off to the internet we took and found some fairly simple (but slightly time consuming) tips on how to blanch, shock and prep your own veggies for freezing. And so we have spent the past hour and a half, cutting up broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, red & green peppers for freezing. It's kind of boring, yes, and my knees hurt from standing now, but it's time spent with my husband, doing something together. Something other than simply existing in the same space, computers warming our laps while the TV buzzes in the background. We're talking and laughing (I made Nick giggle....apparently my impression of a hungry drain, sucking up the dirty dish water was a good one) and well...it's pretty nice. If I do say so myself.

I heart that I have a husband that will share in these kinds of simple chores with me. :-)