You say tomatoe, I say tomato

Today, along with our regular veggie box, we also received a 20lbs box of Organic Roma tomatoes. No, I don't have any canning tools (maybe next year) but I do enjoy using our extra freezer to store fresh pick berries, homemade soups and fresh frozen veggies for use during the winter, which made me start wondering if I could freeze all the amazing tomatoes that are coming in our veggie box lately. I did a little research and found this website telling me that I could...so I thought, lets give it a go. I love the ease of canned tomatoes but have been disappointed to find out that all tomato cans are lined with BPA, something I am trying to completely cut out of Orson's diet. I can't wait to see if they are any good this winter. What do you like to freeze at home?

Here they are in the box, I saved a few to make fresh salsa later in the week.

After washing them, place them in a pot of boiling water for around a minute, I found these needed more like 3 minutes for the skin to loosen up.

Then dump them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Next you peel and seed them and then let them drain off their excess liquid. After I finished all of the tomatoes, I squeeze them by hand to get even more liquid out.

Then dice, halve or crush them (however you prefer, I diced) and place them in zip lock bags (which are BPA free). Make sure to label the tomatoes and remove the air. I added home-dried herbs (basil, rosemary,thyme and a little lavender) from my garden to half of them to make Italian tomatoes for sauce later. Place them all on a tray and then....

...clear out a spot in your freezer to start the freezing process. Once they have been in there for three or so hours you can move them to a deep freeze (or more convenient spot in your regular freezer) as they will hold their shape.

I can't wait to use up my canned tomatoes and start in on these!

In other news, my good friend at Healthy By Choice created a work out plan just for me. I have been trying hard to follow it and feel better and have more energy (thus, tomato making got done all in one blow!). She has years of experience creating work out plans and healthy living plans and I am sure she would love to help you reach your goals too. Check out her blog when you get a chance :)