Making the purchase and thinking about the menus of the whole family takes a long time. One way to optimize this time is to cook the weekend and freeze the rations for each day. Having frozen food, both raw and cooked, can get you out of a hurry, and it allows you to save a lot of time, to invest in more rewarding things.
In general you can freeze any food, without its nutrients are much altered. Freezing is a conservation method, very useful when you have plenty of seasonal foods and you do not know how to cook them so you do not get bored.
In the summer season we have plenty of beans, peppers and tomatoes and in winter a good crop of green leafy vegetables (spinach, chard, nabicol, turnip tops …) and cruciferous (cabbages, cabbages, broccoli, kale …), which you can scald to inactivate the enzymes present in the food, to prolong the life of the frozen product and thus also maintain an appetizing texture. Blanching and subsequent freezing allow you to enjoy your varied and balanced Coherent Diet all year round.
But every rule has exceptions; there are foods that you should not freeze, like these:
Milk: when defrosted it forms lumps, because the serum separates from the other components. The same applies to cream (unless its fat content is less than 40%) and with normal or Greek yogurt. It is not the case of yogurt ice cream, which is already prepared for freezing.
Fried foods: the grace of a battered food is that it is crispy, but if you freeze it the batter will be soaked with water and will be soft with a less pleasant texture. In addition to that it will surely fall part of batter. If you have already frozen it, we recommend that you hear it in the oven so that it recovers some of its original texture.
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Cucumber, eggplant and zucchini: the vegetables of this type do not take well the freezing since their contribution of water will cause that they break. When thawing, they are so soft that they will not be at all appetizing.
Fruit: once defrosted, it remains as a “paposa” texture. Yes you can freeze the natural fruit juice. A trick when you have a lot of seasonal fruit is to peel and cut it into pieces. You can freeze it in a plastic bag or if they are whole berries (blackberries, raspberries, currants …). With these frozen fruits you can make granitas, desserts, jams or Green Smoothies.
Mushrooms: it is advisable to blanch or cook them before freezing. Once thawed, the flavor can be boosted so do not salpify excessively. As we are in the time of mushrooms, we give you some ideas to conserve them and take advantage of their culinary potential.
Many spices: with freezing they become bitterer, they lose texture, color and flavor. The best way of conservation is to dry them using a food dehydrating machine.
Eggs: you know what happens when you freeze a liquid in a container that is full, it will overflow! Well the same happens with eggs, the most normal thing is that the shell is broken and that white and yolk are scattered through the freezer. The mounted whites cannot be frozen, they will lose the fluffiness and you will find an inedible liquid.
Cooked pasta and rice: as soon as you thaw them, their texture is very soft “chewy” type, because the pasta and rice absorb a lot of water, so it is better to keep it in the fridge.
Mahonesa: the perfect emulsion between the egg and the olive oil breaks after freezing, leaving a thick mass that is not so pleasant. The same applies to the pastry cream, you must also label with the date of freezing, all culinary preparations that carry egg type sauces or creams, because freezing reduces the multiplication of bacteria, but does not kill them, so you should not freeze these food more than a month.
Cheese: the hard cheeses when you thaw them, they become floury and brittle, the fresh cheeses, lose their fluffiness also modifies their texture. If you freeze them, you can use them to cook lasagna, sauces or stuffed meats…
Honey: it will never get frozen because its water content is very low with respect to the amount of sugar, however it can form ice crystals that will affect its texture.
Keep in mind that if you are going to consume raw fish, you must freeze it beforehand, to inactivate the Anisakis parasite waste, which are larvae that coil themselves and are usually present in the fish casings, but when the fish is not so you can see them fresh in the muscle (the part we eat). The cooking does not destroy their antigens, which generate symptoms of gastroenteritis in allergic persons.
Unlike the refrigerator, the freezer works better the fuller it is. When you take out a food, you must open and close quickly, so that the temperature varies as little as possible.
Finally remember that it is better to thaw slowly, to minimize the loss of nutrients and to modify as little as possible the texture of frozen foods. Inside the refrigerator, the night before consumption, better than at room temperature.
If you have doubts about the properties of the food after thawing, leave us a comment and our Online Nutritionists will help you.
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