How to Make Freezer Salsa and Put Up Tomatoes 7 Days Post C Section

1.  Assemble your salsa veggies (cilantro, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno)
2.  Enlist your husband's help.
3.  Clean the vegetables and remove all stems and blemishes.
4.  Place whole, uncut vegetables into your slow cooker.
5.  Cook on low for 8 hours.
6.  Cool.
7.  Blend in your blender.
8.  Place into freezer containers.

I know this post sounds insane.  What person in their right mind is putting up tomatoes and salsa 2 days after a C-section?  However, my garden does not understand this.

Before Kai's arrival, I had seen a Pinterest post on using your slow cooker to do salsa.  That seemed like a brilliant idea to me since the vegetables would not need chopped up and could be cooked whole.  The Pinterest post had a recipe of sorts but I just kind of dumped whatever vegetables I had in my batch.  It worked so slick.  (Other than my poor hubby who despite washing his hands numerous times ended up getting jalapeno in his eyes when he tried to put in his contacts.)  If I were to do it again, I would put an acid in withe the veggies since it was a little bland but I'm just planning to add some lime juice or vinegar to my salsa once I take it out and am ready to serve it.

I also used the same method to freeze plain tomatoes and some Italian tomatoes.  Since I will probably use those in soups and casseroles, I didn't want the tomatoes too pureed, so once I took them out of the slow cooker, I used a spoon to gently smash them.  That broke the tomatoes apart a bit and made it easy to discard the skins.  For the Italian tomatoes, I used onion, green pepper, tomatoes, garlic powder, basil, and oregeno.  I used a spoon on the tomatoes but then gently diced the onion and green peppers.  So much easier than peeling your tomatoes by putting them in boiling water and then standing over the stove cooking them.