Fresh Tip: How to keep fresh herbs fresh and convenient

So, I know that I haven't blogged anything in awhile. Sorry! I have been super busy starting back at work and moving, but things have finally settled and I have lots planned for you all. Yay! I thought I would start off with something that I tried awhile back.

In this journey to eating healthier, I started trying to stay away from most processed foods and start buying fresh foods (mostly fruits and veggies). I started exploring the produce section of the grocery store which I usually avoided, except for maybe a bushel of bananas or apples. Turns out, you can buy fresh herbs (who knew, right?). I got unusually excited about this idea, and my husband I got some. Now, I don't know if you have ever had fresh herbs, as opposed to the dried, prepackaged herbs I grew up with, but let me tell you, so much better! I could actually taste the flavor it added, and the smell was delicious! I'm never buying prepackaged, dried herbs again. So, if you are like me and have seen the light, here is a fun, convenient way to store and use your herbs.

All you need is:

• Fresh herbs of your choosing
• Ice cube tray 
• Olive oil

It is actually really simple. At the grocery store, you can buy bundles of herbs like rosemary, basil, scallions, thyme, and parsley. They actually give you quite a lot to one bundle (way more than I could use in any reasonable amount of time before they went bad). Now, I realize that most grocery stores' pricing varies, but for this post, I am just going to go with Wal-Mart (because, we all know we end up there no matter how hard we try to resist). For the dried, prepackaged herbs, the price is somewhere between 3-5 dollars, depending on the herb and brand (and that's for the smaller container). The fresh herbs from the produce section were all around 3-4 dollars for great big bundles. So, the fresher herbs were, on average, cheaper than the ones already packaged. So, not only do they taste better, they are cheaper, too. Awesome!

(Parsley, scallion, rosemary, and thyme. Almost had a Simon and Garfunkel song going... so close!)

But, alas, we arrive at the dilemma of the fresh herbs going bad quickly, while the others last longer. So, here comes my nifty trick! After chopping up all the herbs, place them into the ice cube trays and fill them with olive oil. Then stick them in the freezer. Yup, that's it.

 (I made different types. Some were just the leaves of the spices, others were finely chopped, and then, I did a whole tray of mixed herbs.)

Now, you have individual olive oil and herb mixtures that you can just pop out and throw in the pan with your dinners! The herbs stay fresh without losing any flavor this way, and these are easy to use. The great thing about freezing fresh herbs (and fresh food, in general) is that they will stay fresh for a ridiculously long time. Mindblowingly awesome, right?

(I do recommend not using star shaped ice cube trays, no matter how awesome they are (which they are), because they make the popping out part a bit harder then needs to be)

If you're not completely sold on the idea of fresh herbs yet, here are some more interesting facts about the dried prepackaged herbs you might not have known.

• Prepackaged herbs have a shelf life. So all those bottles of herbs you have in your cabinet - that have been in there for years - probably are bad and have no flavor left. For leafy herbs, like the ones in this blog, the shelf life is about a year to three years, depending on the herb. I know I never finished off one of those containers in a year. 
• The longer you have them, the more flavor they lose. As soon as that seal is broken, the herbs you just bought start to lose their potency and flavor. Bummer.