Some people like mixed vegetables and some don't. I buy the frozen packages because I like them cooked with a bit of butter or to fill out soup made with leftovers. One year a dear friend who hates them made the recipe her mother used to make which caused her to hate them and brought it to our Christmas party. Mixed vegetables suspended in lime jello. Uh...I don't recommend it to anyone. This was a recipe that came into being during depression times or possibly during war years when some things were hard to get or you had to stretch your meals. Either way I probably wouldn't like mixed veggies if it had been served to me this way either, especially in lime jello as I really dislike that.
Back to what I recently did with some mixed vegetables. I opened the frozen bag and dumped the veggies onto a clean towel to thaw and drain. Then I covered the trays of my dehydrator and let it work its magic. With my dehydrator I have to rotate trays every so often so things dry evenly. If I do much of this I will probably invest in a better dehydrator. They were pretty much dry and shriveled after about 4 hours. I left them there until the next morning as it was bed time. Next day I plugged the thing in for another 2 hours to be sure everything was good and dry. I didn't want any moisture from those green beans or lima beans destroying my batch. Once everything was cool I used a funnel and poured them into a cleaned out juice jug. A little big but I intend to make more. I also added a couple packs of these little silica packets that come in vitamins. So far so good after 2 weeks. Everything is dry and colorful and should work well for soup making. Lightweight and easy to store it helps fill out the pantry with yet another option just in case.
In case of what? Natural disaster, economic collapse, further drought or anything else that causes food to be hard to get or too expensive to buy. I'm not a doomsayer but I do believe in being prepared, it just makes sense. And I have enough camping skills to get me through. Living on the Texas Gulf Coast, when a hurricane comes through I lose power for at least a week, thankfully I have not lost water. I have a fire pit I can cook over if need be, and I have done it during those times.
I do need to buy some screen to cover the trays in the dehydrator as the veggies shrunk to fall through the slots...LOL!
2 comments:
It's 'Colonial House' all over again except without all the drama. It's really a good, practical idea. I may think about doing it except without the peas and lima beans ewwww!
Fruit coctail and mini marshmallows are the only things that should be suspended in Jello. I hope whoever invented the veggie-infused jello is suspended in Jello themselves somewhere in Jello hell.
My mom did a green jello-thing, too, but not with mixed veggies. She used shredded cabbage, carrots and other stuff...not my favorite either. Where'd you learn all those survival skills....sounds like camp somewhere?
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