Overcome by a League of Incredible Vegetables!

One of my (many many many) life-aspects that I am working on improving is our out-of-control food bill. Yikes! I plan our meals, shop sales, and use up everything, but we are still spending a TON of money on food. And we don't even buy free-range or organic anything yet! (I'm embarrassed to admit that... but I promise to work on it. That will be a separate project.)

Recently, I went to a local market that sells supermarket excess - stuff that would otherwise go in the trash. It's not perfect-quality, but it's quite acceptable. The only downside (beside it not being organic) is the PROCESSING TIME! Wow! I only got half of it processed today - the other half is going to be done post-Sabbath, tomorrow evening. 

Here's what I got: 

Tomatillos, 3# -  These have now been cooked and are waiting to be made into salsa verde. 

Green peppers, 10 each. These are being eaten raw and frozen for pizza and fajitas. 

Poblano chiles. I followed the directions (really!), but apparently I did something wrong, because they were utterly destroyed in the process of cooking them. Farewell, sweet poblanos! 

Roma Tomatoes, a ridiculous amount. These are destined to become crockpot salsa tomorrow night! 

Grape tomatoes - These are being eaten out of hand, with another big batch drying overnight in the oven. Wish I'd gotten more! (I could have, but I thought I had enough. I didn't.)

Pickling cucumbers, 5# - I hadn't planned to learn pickling right now, but apparently I'm destined for it anyway! Pickling lessons, tomorrow night. Since I don't have a pickling crock, my sugar and white beans are going to be evicted from their containers so that I can have somewhere to pickle these! 

Four melons, type unknown. Hopefully they're good! But I'm guessing they'll end up as baby food anyway, so it won't much matter!

And there you have it! My latest effort at bringing down our food bill. We'll see if I can keep it up!

Happy New Year, everybody! And Happy Sabbath!