Dont throw away, freeze your onions.

Do you ever find a great deal on a big bag of onions and ask "how can I use them all before they go bad"? Well don't ask yourself that again! During the summer I find this to be more of an issue then during the winter. I tend to cook much less because of the warmer weather. Therefore my large bag of onions continue to sit in my cupboard wasting away. So what to do with those onions? Don't wait until they are no longer usable....freeze them!

I had a 3lb bag of onions that I bought for a $1.50 and only used maybe 3 onions. I had 4 onions leftover that had been sitting in my cupboard for a couple weeks. The older the onion, the more tears and a running nose you will get. I have heard of a trick to wear goggles to help with the tears. But as for me, I just "brave" it out.

So I took a few pictures on how to cut an onion. Hey some people don't know how! There is no wrong way to cut a onion. This is just the way I like to cut a onion. 

Cut the tips off at both ends, then slice down the middle...but make sure you slice the onion from the tip to bottom, not across. While I slice I like to follow the lines of the onion, it seems to serve as an anchor, sort of. Then I turn the onion and slice in the oppisit directions. You will get even cuts most of the time. Those pesky ends, well I will just lay flat and slice those again.

I choose to cut all my onions in stages. Cut off all the tips 1st, slice in half, then remove the top layer of the skin. Once I finish all my onions, then I start dicing away.

I like to have a bowl, or in my case I used a colander and placed a plastic grocery bag over it for my garbage. It keeps my prep area neat and makes for easy cleanup. Once I am finished, I just take that plastic bag, tie a knot in it and throw the bag in my garbage outside. If I would throw that bag  away in my kitchen garbage, my home would continue to smell like onions  much longer.

Once I finish dicing one onion, I like to place the onions in a bag. I recommend another plastic bag, or a Ziploc bag...not a brown bag, which is what I did this time around. The brown bag gets wet and starts to fall apart. The purpose of the bag? Well to shake the onions up. Great way to get your kiddo involved. Let them shake those onions around to separate them up. Its not a perfect method, and once you dump out of bag, you will still need to break them up a little bit. But don't go crazy!

Grab a cookie sheet that has edges and layer the bottom with plastic wrap. I have used wax paper, and aluminum foil, I think plastic wrap is the best. Spread your onions evenly into the bottom of cookie sheet and place into freezer. I would recommend at least one to two hours.

Once the onions feel frozen, you will need to move fast during this next step. Grab some sealable sandwich bags and  1 large gallon freezer bag. I choose to break up my onion into 1/3 and 1/2 cup portions. A 1/3 cup of diced onion equals half of a medium onion roughly. And a 1/2 cup portion equals one whole small onion or half of a large onion roughly. I marked each of the sandwich bags w/ the measurement using a permanent marker. I placed the sandwich bags into my freezer a couple at a time to keep onion from defrosting to much. Once I was done measuring all the onions out, I grab the bags from the freezer and I laid the bags flat and placed into the gallon size freezer bag. Then place bag into freezer and use when you need them.

 I used 4 medium to large size onions and I was able to get 6 bags of 1/3 cups of onions and 6 1/2 cups of onions.

I love to use fresh onions, however these onions are great to have on hand for anything! Plus it is a great money saving tip so you don't waste food. It also makes for a faster process prepping your food.  My one tip for cooking with frozen onions, is  if you are browning chicken in the same pan with the frozen onions, it will steam your chicken or any meat you may use. So make sure that any water that comes from the onions is dissolved before you place any meat in the pan. Or brown your meat 1st then place onions in pan.

Interestingly my Little Cupcake wanted to eat the raw onions....she thought it was a snack LOL

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Blueberry Banana Fosters Cake

I saw a recipe idea for an upside down banana coconut cake here it was their version of a pineapple upside down cake. I loved the idea and it looked so good!

We have been having amazing weather the past month and half. Its been very warm and I have not been wanting to cook or turn on the oven. However today I woke up to a nice break in the weather this morning. It was about 60 degrees and we had a 5 min shower. I had the urge to bake and decided to try the Banana Coconut Cake. So as I am thinking of how I am going to do this I realize I don't have that many bananas, no coconut and no bunt or cake pans....I had gone blueberry picking earlier in the week and had a couple cups worth. The blueberries where not that sweet and I could add them to a desert, so I decided to use blueberries.

My version of this cake has a strong lemon flavor, which is what I wanted. The caramel sauce is not strong in flavor, I am thinking because I used light brown sugar.

Blueberries: I used fresh not frozen. Honestly the way this cake turned out was by accident, I was not sure how it would turn out. The blueberries basically leaked all there juices into the bottom of pan into the sauce. I am not sure how this would work with frozen, it may have the same effect or not.

Bananas: Older the better I think. My bananas were a couple days old, the point of where you bake with them, so nice and sweet!

Pan: I used what I had. I had a 13x9 glass dish pan. I wanted to flip the pan upside down to remove it to display the topping. It worked out just fine!

Brown Sugar: You can use whatever you have on hand. I only had light brown sugar. Like I previously stated I think  the light brown sugar did not have a strong caramel flavor and If I used dark it would be more powerful. It all depends on what you want. I actually like how it turned out personally.

Box Cake Mix: I used Duncan Hines Classic White cake mix. Use any box cake mix you have, white or yellow. I think the white cake mix allowed the banana and blueberry to stand out. If you used a yellow cake mix, it may have a stronger butter flavor. I used Duncan Hines because that what was on sale. Because the recipe is using a cake mix directions I am not sure how another brand of cake mix recipe would compare. You would need to compare the directions. My suggestion would be to use the box directions and you can still add the sour cream.

Oil: I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil. You can use whatever you want. I like using coconut oil where I can.

Water: Ok there was a debate going on in my head about how much water I should use. The orig. recipe I used called for 1/2 cup of however the Duncan Hines cake mix called for 1 and 1/4 cup of water. Now orig. reciepe added sour cream so I assume that's why there was less water used...but, ugh I was worried LOL So I ended up adding 1 and 1/8 cup of water. I think next time I will add the 1/2 cup. I found my cake batter was thin which allowed my cake to be a little bit more packed, however I am sure if you used the 1/2 cup of water it will be fluffier. So even if you choose to follow my amount, know you wont screw it up! But who knows maybe you get a better cake if you used 1/2 cup.

Eggs: I used three eggs, because that's what the box mix calls for. However it only calls for the whites, I used the entire egg instead.

3 eggs
2 tablespoons of Coconut Oil
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 ripe bananas
2 cups of fresh blueberries
1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
1 ripe juicy lemon and zest of 1 lemon


Preheat oven to 350

In a large bowl  zest lemon skin from your lemon. Combine eggs, water, oil, sour cream, cake mix and lemon zest and using your electric mixer (or by hand) mix all together on a low speed for 30 sec. Then beat on a medium speed for a 2 minutes until batter has no lumps and is smooth. Add in blueberries and fold lightly to combine. Set aside.

On a medium heat melt butter, then turn to low and add brown sugar. Using a whisk keep mixing until smooth for about 5 minutes.

Spray your pan well with cooking spray.

Slice bananas and layer into bottom of pan. Then pour over caramel sauce ontop of sliced bananas. Make sure it evenly distributed. Then pour cake mixture over the caramel sauce and evenly cover.

Place in pan and let bake. Check cake at the 32 minutes mark first to see if cake is done. Insert a knife into the middle of cake, if it pulls out clean its done. However if it is not done and comes out "dirty" with cake batter, bake for an additional 10-12 minutes. Check doness one more time with knife. If clean, remove and let cool. After about 15 minutes run a  knife all along the edge's. Let cake cool completely, for about 1 hour. Then take a cookie sheet (make sure its larger then pan) and place upside down ontop of cake. Then flip over and hope cake removes itself from the pan onto the cookie sheet. Now of course if you used cake pans, use a nice plate to flip it over.