Grrr….I do not like wasting food! It is one of those top ten pet peeves for me. My family traveled to Texas last week and the day of the trip I cleaned out our fridge. I was able to save almost everything thanks to these little tips. Plus if you garden freezing is a great alternative to canning.

Step One: Wash your green beans, cut them how you like them, and boil them for two minutes.
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Step Two: Set aside a bowl of VERY COLD water. This is for blanching the beans which will preserve them.

Step Three: Drain your beans, remove any that are brown or icky. You only want to freeze the healthy ones.

Step Four: Place your beans into the cold water. Let soak until completely cool.

Step Five: Drain the beans and bag them up! Place them in the freezer and enjoy when you come back from vacation.

Bonus~ You can do this exact same method with spinach.

Challenge: I get laughed at for this, but I encourage you to consider it. Yep, sure enough, plastic is “disposable”. But, that does not mean that it should be. Rather than tossing your plastic freezer/sandwich baggies go ahead and wash them out to be used again. In three years I have bought two boxes of baggies. I wash, dry, and reuse mine until they wear out. Go for it!