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I love breakfast, but there’s almost nothing I hate more than having to clean up the kitchen first thing in the morning on a workday. One way I’ve totally solved this problem: To make my favorite kale and onion omelet, I’ve been freezing and vacuum-sealing little cubes of sautéed onion and sautéed baby kale in advance, so all I have to do day-of is plop one of each into my pan to warm up, then throw some egg on top and call it a day.
Not only does this save me so much cooking time and effort in the moment, but it also means I can use my kale and onions at once instead of risking a portion going bad and having to throw out perfectly good produce. The key is a highly rated and well-reviewed compact vacuum sealer from Anova that I bought a few years ago on Amazon. It has completely lived up to the hype and been majorly handy, durable and — most importantly — time and money-saving.
I want to buy one for my sister, so I was thrilled to see it’s currently on mega-sale.
This vacuum sealer has a vacuum-and-seal button that’s simple to use, a pulse vacuum button you can use with liquids or when you want to be careful not to crush soft items like fruit, and a seal-only button for making custom-sized bags or using the pulse function. And that’s it. It’s just that easy and simple to use. I’ve found the sealer itself works really, really well, and haven’t had any issues with leaking bags or non-airtight seals (Anova is a sous vide brand, so you know they’re serious about sealing). Freezer burn is distant memory I left behind with Ziploc bags.
At only about 17 inches wide and 4 inches deep, this little appliance is compact enough to sit in a drawer until I need it, but I’ve been using it constantly. In addition to freezing cubes of sautéed onion and kale, I’ve been freezing sautéed spinach and bagging up personal portions of pulled chicken, carnitas and roast turkey breast for quick and healthy meals. I’ve been using it when I open smoked salmon that I can’t eat all at once, but don’t want to get gross in my fridge as quick as it usually does. I preserve fresh herbs in cubes of olive oil, and slice and freeze over-ripening bananas for use in future smoothies (nothing gets mushy faster than the last banana in the bunch!).
The possibilities are endless when it comes to ways you can meal prep and preserve seasonal fruit and veg, proteins, sauces, soups, coffee and dry goods.