How To: Freeze Wild Alaskan Blueberries

Our freezer is becoming more and more stuffed with delicious berries.  While we are eating some of them fresh, others are bound for canning and the freezer.  Even in a city like Juneau there is a serious lack of fresh (and decent) produce throughout the year.  What better way to combat this than freezing our own fresh fruit?! So, here is how we did it…

Picking blueberries at the ski area. 

1.) Soak blueberries in water for 10-15 minutes. This will soak out any worms while bringing leaves and other debris to the surface. 

2.) Place berries in a strainer for another 10-15 minutes to allow them to dry/remove excess water. 

3.) Place the berries on a non-stick pan.  Make sure that they are not piled on top of one another.

4.) Place pan and berries in the freezer (quick-freeze area) until they are completely frozen.  

5.) Remove berries from the pan and place in either vacuum-sealable bags or ziploc freezer bags. If using ziploc bags: use a straw to suck remaining air out of the bag to lessen the chances of freezer burn.  

6.) Store in the freezer.

7.) Un-freeze and add to delicious pancakes on a rainy day :)

Questions:

What is your favorite type of berry?

Not a berry-lover? What is your favorite fruit?

Stress Cooking

This week was…stressful, to say the least.  Cody and I both had insane work weeks and came home completely pooped each night.  Needless to say, blogging was not on my mind.  Cooking was far from my mind as well.  My days consisted of waking up, going to work, running errands, cooking dinner, and going straight to bed.  None of this makes for particularly interesting blog entries.  At any rate, I still had to make some meals this week.  Here were three of my favorite meals from breakfast, lunch, and dinner this week.


 


Breakfast: Open-face fried egg and fakin' bacon sandwiches.  Made with Silver Hills Bread (Vegan), organic eggs, and MorningStar fakin' bacon.  It was topped with some Cairo BBQ Sauce, which Cody's parents sent us in the mail because it is a local sauce.

Lunch: GF wrap with smoked tofurkey, kale, spinach, onions, and tomatoes.  I topped this with a little bit of Roasted Garlic Sauce from BWW (also mailed to us by Cody's parents).  I ate it with some Kettle Chips and Light & Fit Greek Yogurt.







Dinner:  Chik'n Patties on Vegan Bread.  Cody topped his with just cheese,  I had mine with cheese and veggies.  Served with a side of Annie's Mac N' Cheese.  Quick, easy, and delicious.

Obviously we were slacking a bit on the cooking this week.  We are hoping this weekend we can get back in the healthy-cooking groove.  Wish us luck!  In the meantime I plan on continuing to look something like this….

Picture courtesy of Cody.  Payback to come. 

Wishful Thinking

Surprise, surprise….I am sick again! The kiddos at my school are officially germ monsters who are covering me with diseases at every turn (ok, that may be a wee bit dramatic).  But, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.  I am pumping myself with good foods and beverages at every turn in hopes of getting my health back. However, I am beginning to think that being healthy is just wishful thinking.

In the throws of illness.  Tucked in my house with a warm cup of tea. 

This weekends meals were BORING.  I was pretty much on a soup/soft food diet because my throat was lined with razor blades (at least it felt like it). So, here are my food choices this weekend.  Soup, soup, tea, soup, and soup (check out Pacific Organic Soup here)  Oh, and I had some oatmeal…thrilling.

Pacific & Imagine brand soups = perfection.
Celestial Teas are my lifesaver. 

I decided to be nice and cook Cody some meat dishes this weekend since I so rarely cook us anything non-vegetarian.  I will occasionally cook him some fish or chicken to be nice.  This obviously is against my veg-belifs, but Cody makes sacrifices for me so I do the same for him occasionally.  I make sure he only buys organic and nicely treated animals (i.e. local).  So, here is one of the dishes I made him this weekend.

Fresh Tilapia, seasoned with cilantro, salt, pepper, and lemon. Side of rice & organic Soy Sauce. 

On Sunday I was finally feeling a little bit more energetic so Specks and I took a stroll.  Normally, we take one long (60+ minute) stroll/hike a day when I am off work.  Poor puppy has been mostly confined to the house with me while I have been sick though.  I couldn't manage much more than a thirty minute walk today.  Especially with the chilly weather and hilly terrain.  But, I managed to snap a few cute pictures a long the way and get the puppy some exercise.

Treacherous waters that Specks and I waded through.  

Beautiful heart-shaped bird seed.  These were hanging all along the trail. 

In other random news, I finally got my new bedspread in!!  I have been dying to get a new bedspread.  Our old one was dark, which made Specks's hair show all the time.  Literally, five minutes after washing it, it became covered in dog hair.  I also wanted to invest in a warmer bedspread.  So, I got a flannel duvet cover and a down alternative comforter to go inside.  Now, all we have left to do is find a cute headboard to match the bedroom furniture.  Check out the bedspread, I am in love with it!

If you look closely you can see that the stripes form Birch Trees. 

Specks- banished to the floor so he doesn't ruin the new bedspread. 

Last, but certainly not least, Cody has a ride-along with Juneau PD this week to determine if he gets the job.  I am soooo excited and proud of him for pursuing this career.  It will be a big change for us and will definitely give us the bank account boost to let him start taking some college classes.  Fingers crossed that it all works out!

I leave you with this funny picture I happened upon.  Cody and I took a PhotoBooth photo shoot on Christmas and this was one of the bloopers.

Outtake 1 of 50!