The $1.25 Dollar Tree Freezer Find I Use All the Time

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It's extremely flexible and really convenient, like having a sous chef always available.

I genuinely enjoy the meditative aspect of chopping vegetables. When I have the time available, the repetitive sound of the knife hitting the cutting board as I prepare my ingredients for a dish is strangely fulfilling.

I'm really fond of getting dinner ready before everyone starts getting crabby from being hungry. So I took a chance and bought the $1.25 TJ Farms "seasoning blend," a Dollar Tree frozen vegetable mix that I hoped would help me tackle busy weeknights.

This 12-ounce bag of pre-chopped onions, celery, and both red and green bell peppers is essentially the "Cajun Trinity," which is the key component of many mouthwatering Louisiana dishes, with a bonus of extra red bell pepper. This has been a super convenient and budget-friendly pre-chopped mix that has really helped me prepare the base of a lot of our family meals.

I'm a big fan of Dollar Tree's Frozen Seasoning Blends. One of the reasons is that they offer a lot of versatility in the kitchen. Each blend is specifically designed to add unique flavors to your dishes, and that's exactly what I appreciate. They have a Mediterranean blend, an Italian blend, and a spicy blend, just to name a few.

I'm a from-scratch cook who was taught the importance of a French mirepoix and precise vegetable cuts in culinary school, but real life and taking care of my family don't always let me follow that approach. Lucky for me, a frozen mix from Dollar Tree turned out to be a great convenience, saving me a ton of time.

This dish forms the base of many a soup, stew, and roast. It's great, but may not be ideal for busy nights.

When I'm busy, I've been using this pre-made mix instead of the finely chopped mirepoix I've been trained to use - and it might even be even better. The flavor is a bit different (although in a large dish it's hard to notice), but it adds a similar depth to dishes. It's mostly onion and celery, with a few peppers added for color. I'm glad to have these prepped aromatics in my freezer at all times. It's like having a personal sous chef on standby.

6. You can also use the frozen seasoning blend as a spice from within a dish. A friend uses it like this: 'a dash of thyme' and it adds a lot of flavor. It's clear that this frozen blend is compatible with a range of foods and no doubt more variety can be found the more you try.

.. will help you create that New Orleans-style flavor without all the prep work.

I've also used it to enrich the nutrients in a pot of chili, cooking it along with ground beef. The result was so delicious that I will definitely continue to do it using Muir Glen chili starter, another excellent product I found at Dollar Tree.

I'll always have a fondness for cooking from scratch, but this simple frozen mix has saved me a lot of time on busy weeknights. For $1.25, that's a convenient option I'm more than happy to use.

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