#I am very good at making soup

[poisonandpages]

Levelled up as a lesbian today (figured out which switch I had to flip in the fuse box because my kitchen appliances randomly stopped working).

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

what if i said ****** is a good cook . what then

[teaandinanity]

I feel a little weird that my biggest problem during what appears to have been the apocalypse was being without power. Like, now that I am caught up on what's happening in the world outside my direct line of sight? Holy shit.

I am the moron who only notices she's in a zombie movie 2 days in when she tries to go get Starbucks.

[tortoise-teapot]

thinking about belly buttonless solas

"uh. lostitinthefade."

[bashfulkisser]

Brb gonna be thinking so hard about this when I should be trying to get some sleep

Maybe I should draw some stuff like this later.... Gotta put a pin in that <<

[steelycunt]

im so good at distributing my shopping at the self checkout between my two plastic bags in a way that ensures they are more or less equally weighted. can i put that on my cv

[1roentgen]

.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Any further tips/advice for freezing veggies? Or any kinds of dish that are good for frozen veg that loose their usual texture (like celery, potatoes etc)?

Basically, cut and clean them to the size you will want in the final dish, since they'll be a bitch to try to cut once freezing makes them soft. For anything juicy, spread it out to freeze first so it doesn't all stick together in one chunk, or portion it into the servings you want to take it out in.

[When I get a camera cord, remind me to photograph my freezer stash, I have mixed potatoes, cabbage, celery and some other things in there now waiting on doing a duck roast,]

And honestly I haven't noticed much loss of texture after cooking. Unless you are used to very lightly steamed celery, the difference in texture there, as example, isn't notable. I don't use celery in stir fry, for example, because I don't eat stir-fry, but I use it in sauces and soups or in tiny bits in stuffing for poultry, so there's no difference there.

If it's the kind of thing that browns you can try tossing it in vinegar or lemon juice but honestly I don't care much about the look of my potatoes or whatever oxidizing slightly.

Pasta sauce and soups, or sauce put put on rice, curry etc.. is a good use for bits of frozen veg.

Really any dish where they normally get cooked a lot in with other things or fluids of any kind. Even tossed into meat pies I haven't notice a difference. It seems scary when they're raw because they seem weirdly soft like if they went bad, but it's because the water in their cells has burst out, much like it would with cooking anyway.

You can puree onion and garlic or herbs instead of having to cut it and make ice-cubes with it, and toss them in a bag, or even pre-caramelize all the onions and then make ice cubes of them to take out one at a time.

And potatoes, potatoes you don't freeze after cooking into a dish, you freeze them pre cut into either chunks for boiling, fries, wedges or shreds, freeze them, and when they come out you put them in whatever you would normally, like boiling them to make mashed potatoes, or mixing them into hash or latkes... It's like how you can get bags of frozen french fries and they bake or deep fry like fresh. I would not pre-make mashed potatoes necessarily because the other ingredients might separate oddly, unless I was making perogis to freeze for later or something. But freezing can even help get out extra water so they're easy to drain and dry or squeeze out for frying or adding to batter.

The goal isn't to necessarily find something to batch cook, it's to just get them cut up in a usable state and in the freezer with as little work as possible before they spoil. Deal with actual meal planning later as a whole separate process.

Pre-shredding carrots can mean having shred carrot to add to things easily, like cakes, tomato sauces, meat or vegetable pies, soups potato hash, ect, but it might help to freeze it spread out on a tray so it all doesn't stick together in a lump, or ice cube tray it, and then bag it, or -alternately- dehydrate carrots in a dehydrator in thin slices for soups. Dehydrated carrot is shelf stable a long time but if you freeze it dehydrated they last indefinitely, which can help make use of those huge bags of big cheap carrots that go on.

I'm not big on eating vegetables raw or half raw due to digestive sensitivities, and boiling or baking them makes them way softer than freezing does anyway. It isn't going to give you something lightly roasted or steamed, but it's better than throwing them out.

If you want to get clever about it keep track of how you cut up various veg for various meals and settle on 1-2 sized you are okay with them being in a variety of things and go with that.

The main thing is to predict to some degree what you'll want to make, but the benefit is being able to just reach into the freezer and grab pre cut veg. I like to grab out a pinch of frozen onion slices one meal at a time, rather than having an onion to work through in the fridge.

And if you are really into soups, you can actually puree tomatoes, cucumber and even lettuce that's about to go off, just clean it up and blend it, and then add it to soup stocks and stews and sauces, where it won't add much to the texture, but it'll add in those nutrients you would have missed from throwing them out instead. Most veggies that turn to utter mush when frozen can be blended and used for soups and sauces so long as you are at peace with them not adding any texture, and looking like goop or a block of coloured ice coming out of the bag.

Just make sure you clean and cut them like you would for meal prep first. You will NOT be able to clean and cut them properly -after- freezing, so you can't just shove them in there thinking you'll deal with any of the prep later, you have to do it first.

Personally, I batch prepare veggies this way into freezer bags before winter and stock up my box freezers with them, that way I have veggies all winter that are nearly fresh. I can just reach in and grab pre-cut peppers, onions and mushrooms to toss into a meal.

It's kind of easier to batch process like 10+ bell peppers at once and not worry about any other meal prep and then just have them for later, as example, and you can buy the bulk packages of stuff that's on sale because it's about to go off. It ends up saving money, sure but also means you are eating a more well rounded diet because you end up with this selection of veggies to just grab and toss in to anything on a whim... That aren't going bad.

You can buy enough corn on the cob to feed a big family, when it's cheap or on sale, and then just defrost one or two at a time for yourself.

Frozen ginger gets soft enough that you can squeeze out all the juice with a garlic press and leave behind the stringy bits, so if you cut it into 1/2-1inch chunks it can be good for that, and then you can take the crushed bit and brew it in a cup of tea, or soup stock... just rinse the ginger off before freezing it.

I also buy huge cuts of meat when they are on cheap, portion them myself and freeze them for later, so basically any meal just becomes taking out your pre-portioned ingredients and doing the actual cooking part with about 0 food waste. I also take the bones and fat off of meat I am cooking and freeze that separately for soup later, or frying or baking etc. Bones are a mash of bits by the time I am throwing out the remains.

Have leftovers you don't want to eat immediately in the following day? Frozen for later! next time you are hungry and don't want to cook you just toss that boy in a baking dish, bam! No food waste.

And when a whole bunch of something is about to go off, you don't have to stand there trying to figure out what you want to cook in the next 3 days that's going to use up 20 potatoes, you just cut them up and put the pause button on them.

If you don't have a box freezer, they are typically sold for 100$ second hand on facebook or kijiji and are a good one time investment when a tax cheque comes in.

Just make sure you are actually using the frozen food. You can't be thinking of it as less good than fresh or harder to make use of, because if you avoid using it and just keep buying more, you are going to run out of space and end up with freezers full of food you aren't eating. Get comfortable reaching for portions of frozen vegetables to add into things, and shop your freezers when you are getting ready to cook meals. [Pinch of bell peppers? Don't mind if I do! It's like a spice rack of vegetable add-ins now! Peruse.]

The last tip I have is to not buy a bunch of stuff to do this with all at once thinking you will have the spoons to do a week of meal prep with it all. Space it out. Buy the big bag of onions one trip, and get most of them frozen before you worry about grabbing a big bag of apples or potatoes, buy cabbage and celery the next trip and cut up most of those to freeze when you get home, or in the following days. Whatever is about to go bad, if it comes to that, just clean it up cut it and freeze it. or prep the whole things when you get to the meal you bought some of it for, depending on what it is, and freeze what you don't use.

Before long you'll have a stash of basically everything you use on hand. Then you can get pickier about waiting to buy things until they are on sale when you can. Like I buy butter on sale only and keep it frozen, but I also buy raw cranberries once a year at Christmas for 2$ or less a bag and just rinse and freeze the whole bags [they have holes int he bags for air flow]. I buy pumpkins for sale -after- halloween and cut them into quarters, bake the quarters so they are squishy, fold them flat into freezer bags, and then have a quarter pumpkin to use in pies or whatever I want. You get pumpkins for like a dollar, so you get each bag of frozen pumpkin for 25 cents [I have known people who do this -after- carving them for Halloween, if they aren't outside, just rinse bake and freeze them for food]. They have a sale rack sometimes of food that's about to go off that's all been bagged up together and discounted, and that is your friend if you are taking home one thing at a time and actually using it.

Frozen apple wedges, btw, do fine in an apple pie. And apple dehydrates nicely at home too. Same logic applies as carrots, if you dehydrate and then also freeze them, they don't stick together and you can have them indefinitely, and they take up a lot less space. But really I just freeze apple slices and then make pie filling with them [or add them to stuffing].

I will eventually formalize and share actual recipes, but so much of the cooking I do is measuring with my feelings that I need the spoons to go through making each dish and documenting what has it come out the best. There's some batch cooking things I do like pre-roasting chickpea flour to coat dumplings and rolls in so they don't stick together in the freezer. I make about 50+ spring rolls at once from frozen bean sprouts and etc, and then freeze those to eat 2-3 at a time.

I just can't stand having food go bad in the fridge if I don't have the energy to cook, and I hate the idea of simply not eating vegetables because of it. I'm trying to save money and also eat well and my response to problems tends to be a little "smash it all with one simple elegant solution". If you have any specific questions please let me know <3

[ereborne]

Song of the Day: May 5

"I Hope It Rains" by Jana Kramer

[sandinthepipes]

The next time ao3 is down read Shadow of the Templar

[starbuck]

Hey friends! I recently got my driver’s license (FINALLY!!!!!), so, if anybody has any recipe recommendations—particularly dinner recipes of easy-to-moderate difficulty OR healthy snack-type things i could take to work—i am ALL ears because i’m about to enter my Meal Planning Era.

[wereshrew-admirer]

:)

[eggs-can-draw]

komaeda anon: im singlehandedly fueling babysitter komaeda in this au /j the shenanigans are just so funny to me

He is the silliest disaster babysitter this is the best thing to happen to his mental health in a while

[snowychicken]

8, 14, 16 (aro time)

Hi Soup!!!!! C: <2 Okay I'm laughing so hard about this bc I never actually posted this ask game but I got an ask for it lmao. BUT I do really appreciate the ask and appreciate you thinking of me so I'm gonna answer them anyway, you just can't be disappointed with my answers lol

8. What are some of your favorite arospec characters? This can include characters from popular media or OCs.

Honestly, I don't know very many characters where their orientation comes up at all (unless they're straight of course), let alone arospec characters. BUT fortunately there is Lillly from Other Girls <2

14. What are some stereotypes about arospec individuals that annoy you the most?

The biggest one is that arospec people are always emotionless/uncaring/cruel/cold/etc. (Also hate hate hate that the main argument I see people make against that stereotype is "aro people still feel love" bc some of us fucking don't. But idk if that's a common enough belief to be considered a stereotype itself)

16. Do you have any arospec OCs? If so, tell us about them?

I do not unfortunately :(. I don't think I have any OCs really. Sorry to disappoint

Thanks so much for the ask Soup!!! <2 <2 <2

Link to the game (linking Soup's post since I don't have my own lol)

[llycaons]

hm yeah forgive me if this is blindly obvious to everyone/not really unique but um I don’t think lwj ever wanted to die with wwx or particularly wanted to give up his life, even if he risked it when he fought for what he believed in. I think he would die for wwx if the circumstances called for it, but unlike wwx I see him as such a continuously life-affirming character for himself as well as people he’s close to. he’s selfless but not self-sacrificial to the degree that we see other characters. he just never comes to a point where he would give up on that, on living that life that’s filled with good things he loves, or at least on living a life he can be proud of. he fights for that. he persists in his actions and values even in the face of the death of the person he loved the most, a situation where other characters in the series absolutely just lose it. he wants the people he loves to thrive and he wants to be by their side...he wouldn’t accept dying with them or after them. for both their sakes

[cactusapple]

during ezlian’s few years in the alliance, whenever it was his turn for cooking duty, the others would always show up to “help out” (prevent a mass food poisoning incident). he never caught on and would just be like wow! :) so nice of everyone to pitch in! :) these guys are the best! :)))