I filled my veggie jar, now what?

[danimarie0820]

I kept a jar to put leftover veggies in it for later. My jar is now full and I'm not sure what is best to make with them. Any recipes? I'd like a crock pot recipe but I'm willing to try any recipe that sounds good! TIA!

[NewLeaf]

I keep a gallon ziploc bag in the freezer to put leftover vegies in. When full enough I dump it in a pot, add a broth and a can of tomato sauce, some leftover meat or chicken-then I cook it and have soup. Sometimes I'll add an onion or spices , just whatever I want that day. If I have no meat that's fine, it makes a wonderful warm vegie soup. I like to have a warm bread or bisquit with it.

You can really do whatever you want. If you don't have broth you can use boullion cubes & water.

[Grainlady]

I do essentially what NewLeaf does. If I want a meat base, I'll add some browned hamburger, or whatever is languishing in the freezer to make vegetable soup. I'm not much of a crock-pot user, so I can't help you there.

I also save the trimmed off bits and parings from veggies used all week, in the refrigerator in a quart jar, and make vegetable stock out of it.

[pollypurebred39]

I do the same as newleaf and grainlady.

You could try adding homemade dumplings or rice, pasta to it. I'm partial to dumplings. Dumplings take a bit of time but they are worth it if you can spare the time. So chicken, beef or turkey vegetable rice, noodle or dumpling soup.

Or a creamy vegetable chowder. You could also add cheese and make it a cheesy vegetable chowder. Stovetop in minutes.

Or make vegetable beef soup using beef broth or tomato based. Use ground beef, beef cubes or mini meatballs. Could be done in a crock.

Depending on the type of vegetables you could go Italian bread soup. Chicken broth, bits of chicken or mini chicken meatballs, a bit of Italian sliced sausage and a few slices of bacon fried and added to broth, fat and all. Add garlic, salt & pepper and simmer to marry flavors. Serve in big bowls with a hunk of crusty italian bread in the bottom of the bowl, or garlic bread in the bottom of the bowl, soup ladled over top and give a good shake of grated cheese on top of each bowl or a swirl of olive oil. YUMMY! Could be done in a crock.

Again depending upon the vegetables you could make a great crockpot vegetable chili, adding cans of beans, tomatoes, chili powder, garlic, salt pepper. of course you could also add beef cubes or ground meat to it.

A beef vegetable barley soup could be done in the crock.

Depending on the vegetables you could go mexican, adding beef or chicken broth, chili peppers, taco seasoning. Serve over top of slightly broken corn chips and top with a mexican cheese and allow to melt.

Or how about something with an Asain twist. Use chicken broth, soy sauce, garlic and a touch of ginger. Add spagetti noodles or woton wrappers for noodles. top with chow mein noodles.

Or you could make baked meat pie just add a cream gravy, beef gravy, or chicken gravy. add extra cubed potatoes if needed. Add meat according to gravy and then put in a double pie crust for a meat pie and bake in oven.

Or even a meatloaf done in the crock. Just give the vegetbles a fine chop and mix with ground meat, bread crumbs, eggs, and spices. Add carrots and cubed potatoes on the sides like a pot roast. Cover meatloaf in ketchup, tomato sauce or pasta sauce. My son likes it with prego sauce.

Or how about stuffed meat roll. chop vegetables finely and add to a well seasoned bread stuffing. Pound meat thin and cover with stuffing and roll up like a pinwheel and place in crock. Cover with cans of cream of mushroom soup, or make a homemade cream of soup and cover meat roll. Could be done with chicken breast or chicken thighs also.

Even vegetable/meat burritos depending on the vegetables. Just fry up some burger, add some beans, some taco seasoning, maybe a bit of tomato sauce, a touch of red pepper or chilis and roll up in soft tortillas. You could also use corn tortillas and roll put in a baking dish, cover with taco sauce and bake. Cover with cheese 5 minutes before you pull out of oven.

A vegetable cheesy rice bake. Just add a cream sauce or canned cream of any soup, cheese, cooked rice and vegetables. Add meat if you wish. Cover with buttered bread crumbs and bake.

A shepards pie. Mix vegetables with ground beef and a bit of ketchup, or some tomato based product or a cream of soup and cover with well seasoned mashed potatoes. Could be done in a crock.

Sloppy joes depending on the vegetables. I've made them with string beans, carrots, celery, canned beans & ground meat or shredded pork or chicken and served on crusty rolls. A lot depends on the type of sauce you would use. I used crock for this, the flavors married really well in a crock.