Freezing Fruit and Vegetables

This is kind of a cop-out, but when researching methods for freezing vegetables, I came across a link that had everything you need to know about it. Basically, most things can be blanched (quickly boiled for 3 minutes, then immersed in an ice bath to immediately stop the cooking and set the color) and then packed in freezer bags/containers and frozen (after being cooled - which will mostly take place in the ice bath).

I would use this method to take advantage of this week's produce sales on asparagus (Whole Foods) and Zucchini and Mushrooms (Stop and Shop and Shaw's).

Fruit can also be frozen...here's an article on it. Basically, most things are well frozen in a container, and things that go brown are dipped in lemon juice and then frozen. I love using frozen berries and bananas in smoothies. I usually buy my berries frozen, but if they ever go on a sale that's too good to be true, you can bet I'll be stocking up and stocking my freezer with these babies. I break bananas up into 3 pieces, then I put them in a freezer bag. I always re-use this bag and keep it stocked with frozen banana pieces for smoothies or baking.

Frozen veggies and fruits are usually almost always cheaper than fresh, but when fresh occasionally goes on sale cheaper than frozen, I will buy a bunch of fresh and freeze it myself. This is also a great technique for when you just happen to buy too much produce and won't get a chance to use it all up. Ooh, and if you have a garden, and just have way too much (you could give it away to friends - like generous people do - but screw that, I grew it, and I'm keepin' it!) you could use these freezing techniques to have garden fresh veggies all year long. Just freeze it, and take your time using it! Voila!

Frozen Veggies are great: added to soups, stirfries, fritattas and omelets (just steam them quickly - don't add them frozen), stews, and rice/other grains as a side dish.

Frozen Fruit is great for making: fresh ice cream and pancake toppings, muffins, pies, ice cream, smoothies, and snacking on. I love to take a cup of frozen mangoes or cherries and eat them for dessert. Since they're frozen, they take forever to eat, and since it's fruit, it's filling and low calorie.

I hope you find the above 2 links helpful. I will work on developing recipes that use frozen fruit and veggies to share with you!

Ooh, and in case you're wondering about the nutrition of frozen versus fresh, I found this from Elaine Magee, a WebMD Weightloss Clinic:

"Nutritionally speaking, frozen veggies are similar to -- and sometimes better than -- fresh ones. This makes sense, considering that these veggies are usually flash-frozen (which suspends their "aging" and nutrient losses) immediately after being harvested. Frozen veggies were often picked in the peak of their season, too.

I ran a nutritional comparison on both fresh and frozen broccoli florets (uncooked), and the frozen broccoli contained a bit more vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin C, and folic acid. A recent government study found no change in amounts of folic acid found in veggies after 12 months of freezing. So don't let nutrition stop you from buying frozen!"

Ooh, and I'll leave you with a recipe I just got in my inbox: Turkey and Spinach Manicotti (you could also use shells and stuff them with this filling). This is a pantry-friendly meal, and contains ingredients on sale in Boston this week. If you're crunched for time and have no sauce, just use 1 1/2 c. pureed canned tomatoes. The flavor won't be exactly the same, but it's just as good in a different way.

7/9 ingredients in this recipe are already in my pantry (stay tuned for my upcoming posts on building your pantries):

-pasta
-romano cheese (that I substitute for parmesan in all recipes - you can too!)
-frozen spinach
-tomatoes (for sauce)
-garlic
-onions
-italian seasoning (make your own with mix of 1 part dried oregano + 2 parts dried basil + 2 parts dried parsley)

*Sorrento ricotta is also on sale $3.49/2 lb. That's a great deal. 1 lb is usually $2.49 at TJs (which would put TJs at $5 for 2 lbs...if the prices beats TJs it's usually a steal. Ricotta can be frozen, too!)

*Turkey (on sale this week at Shaw's - their natural brand is $4.29/lb and S & S - $2.99/lb...it may even be on sale at Whole Foods, but I'm not in the city so I can't check. If anyone knows, please leave it as a comment!)

If you stock up on sale meat, turkey may already be in your freezer pantry, too.

This meal is freezer-friendly, as well.


Goodnight :D

Ten Minute Meal Thursday...ok, like 15 (but that doesn't count the time it takes to boil the water...this is active prep time)

UPDATE: I've added pictures, and changed a couple of things...the cheese was a tiny bit more expensive than I had thought, so I updated the price, and the meal took a little over 10 minutes. That doesn't count the 5 minutes the water takes to boil, though. I'd prep the garlic and tomatoes while the water boils.

Here's the first Ten Minute Meal Thursday Recipe. I'm trying to incorporate a sale item from the area, which would be the organic cherry tomatoes over at Shaw's. Stay tuned next week for another Ten Minute Meal using the $2.99/lb pork sausage at Whole Foods!

Tomato Basil Toss
serves 4

- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes ($2.99 organic on sale @ Shaw's starting 2/27)
- 2 T olive oil ($.24)
- 2 cloves garlic ($.04)
- 1 t. dried basil ($.06)
- 1/2 t. salt (<$.01)

- 1 dash black pepper (<$.01)

- 1 lb. whole wheat or plain spaghetti or linguine (organic whole wheat @ Trader Joe's $1.29)

-1/2 c. grated fresh Romano cheese (I really don't know exactly what this costs, since I haven't bought it in so long, but I'm pretty sure that at TJs it's around $9.00/lb which would make a half cup (which weighs 1.3 oz) cost $.73)

Total: $5.37 for a mostly organic dinner for 4! Not bad.

1. Put on pot of boiling water and salt it well (with, like, more salt than you'd think, about 2 T./pound of pasta).
2. Slice garlic cloves into thin slices and cut tomatoes in half.
3. In a large (preferably nonstick) skillet, heat garlic, oil, basil, salt, and pepper all together at the same time on medium low (if you add garlic to a hot pan it will burn on the outside and stay raw on the inside). You could sprinkle in some red pepper flakes here if you're looking for spice (1/4 t.)
4. Your water should be boiling now, so put in the whole package of pasta.
5. Once garlic is just barely golden, add the tomatoes. Cook for about 3 minutes over medium high heat, or until they start to soften a bit.
6. Ladle out 2 or 3 ladlefulls of pasta water into the skillet and allow that to simmer together on medium until the pasta is done.





7. When the pasta is done, drain it and add it to the skillet (turn off heat), tossing to coat with tomatoes and oil and such. You can add the cheese during this final toss, or add it to each bowl after it's served.

scrimpyTips:

- If you garden in the summer (I'm doing containers on the fire escape!), this is a great go-to meal. It'd be even better with fresh basil from the garden :).
- Reserve some of the pasta water, and if the pasta looks a bit dry try adding another ladlefull of pasta water.
- Taste this before taking it out of the pan, the recipe may under-do the salt. I figure everyone has different taste and you can always add a bit more in the end (however, it's always important to try to season your food to your taste while it's cooking, because salting something while it's cooking brings out and enhances the natural flavors of ingredients, whereas adding salt at the end mostly tastes salty).
- This is delicious leftover and cold, perfect for a microwave free lunch
- You can slice the garlic and tomatoes beforehand and store them separately so they're ready to go when you are
- This is easily made vegan with the omission of the cheese

- Add the cheese in very last, if you add it in while the skillet is hot it gets stringy

The next Thursday meal is going to be a 20 minute meal. I'm going to include the time it takes to make the pasta...10 minute meal is actually a little misleading...