Ahh… the infamous question… “What’s for dinner?”

If your heart stops when you hear that question, here’s a helpful little tool from ConAgra. If you look in my sidebar you’ll see a little widget that will help you come up with a family-friendly meal idea.

It will actually take you to the Give Every Night New Flavor website where you’ll be able to choose a type of meal, how many people to serve, and a maximum prep time. Set one, two, or all three of the criteria and you’ll get a recipe that’s sure to please. Or – if you’re feeling more adventurous, just click the Surprise Me choice and see what the recipe generator says is cooking tonight! In addition to recipes, you’ll also find a shopping list that will help you make sure that you buy everything you need to make dinner.

Check out the great meal ideas at Give Every Night New Flavor, and then check back on 4/4 to get $2o worth of ConAgra e-coupons! I’ll be sure to remind you about the coupons.

Over the past two days, I’ve bought 7 pounds of strawberries and 3 pounds of blackberries. (We ate some and shared some, so the picture doesn’t have all of them in it.) We’re a family of three, so there’s no way we’re going to eat all of the berries I bought before they go bad.  But I bought them to save money later.

Berries (and other produce) are priced best when they’re in season.  If you want strawberries or blackberries out of season, you’re going to pay for them! And they won’t be quite as sweet as they are when they’re in season.  I like to buy a bunch when the price is right and then store them in the freezer to use later.

I start by soaking them in water with a splash of vinegar, as recommended by Life As MOM. Then I trim the stems and cut them.  Next I dry the berries on a cookie sheet lined with paper towels.

Once the berries are dry, I flash freeze them.  To do this, I remove the paper towels, put the berries back on the cookie sheet in a single layer, and pop them into the freezer for a while. Once they’re individually frozen, I place them in freezer bags, squeeze out the air, and store them in the freezer.  Flash freezing them allows me to freeze the berries without worrying that they’ll be one big frozen clump when I want to use them.  I can take out as many or as few as I need. 

I bought a bag of frozen berries at Walmart recently and paid almost $3.00 for a pound.  By buying fresh, in-season berries, I was able to drastically cut this cost. Now we have lots of strawberries and blackberries for baking, making smoothies, or just eating frozen!

My Flash Freezing Tips:

• Don’t forget to remove the paper towels before you pop the cookie sheets in the freezer.  Don’t ask me how I know. I just do.  Enough said.
• Don’t forget to leave out a few fresh blackberries for your family to eat.  Don’t freeze them all.  Again, I just know this.
• Don’t think you can squeeze 2 1/2  pounds of blackberries into a small freezer bag. Not going to happen. I just know.

Strawberries are on sale at Kroger this week for $1.50/pound.  We may see some prices closer to $1, but $1.50 isn’t too bad around here. If you’d like to start flash freezing some for yourself, this might be a good week to start.