Every Day Counts – Day 3

Today’s project – This is probably the truest interpretation of the Every Bit Counts Challenge. Today it’s bits and pieces of several things going into the freeze dryer.

First is 1-1/2 trays of tomato skins.

Once these are dry, I will run them through the blender. One of my favorite ways to use this is in the winter when there are no home grown tomatoes and I’m cooking okra that was freeze dried. I will use cut okra, lightly brown it in a bit of olive oil, sprinkle corn meal over it, stir it and let the cornmeal just start to get brown. When I have tomato powder, I will add a couple of teaspoons of the tomato powder, stir that around and it tastes just like okra and tomatoes.

There’s also 1-1/2 trays of cut okra and one tray of cream cheese.

I started out laying the little rectangles flat but realized I was going to run out of room so I stood them up on one end. Thank goodness I pre-froze those.

I have never tried this before but I cut three 8 oz packages of cream cheese into roughly .5 oz. cubes. I’ve read/watched youtubes that the cream cheese rehydrates very nicely. I almost always have cream cheese in the fridge but it’s on those rare occasions that I don’t have it that I need it. Once this is freeze dried, I’ll pack it into probably quart jars, vacuum seal it and that amount will probably last us a very long time.