Oh, how thrilled I was to learn about flash freezing! It enables me to keep my perishable produce and other foods fresh for a much longer time. Here are some ways I’ve used flash freezing:
Bananas. I love peanut butter banana smoothies, and the bananas need to be frozen for the best texture.
Beans. I’ve started soaking and cooking my own beans (more about that in another post). Instead of just soaking/cooking what I need for that recipe, I do a whole batch and flash freeze them. Then I put the frozen beans in a zip-top bag and scoop however much I need from that bag as needed.
Strawberries. When the kids and I picked strawberries recently, I separated the baby strawberries and after cutting the stems, I flash froze them to be readily available for smoothies. Just like the beans and bananas, I put them in a zip-top bag.
Baked Southwestern Egg Rolls, Meatballs, and other freezer meal items. Anything that needs to be frozen separate from one another (to avoid sticking together), can be flash frozen for a quick freezer meal.
I’ve also read about flash freezing chopped onions, peppers, and other vegetables. This would come in very handy when there is a great sale on perishable produce items like this, or when you can buy in-season produce for much cheaper than other times of the year.
How do you flash freeze? You simply take the items and lay them in a single layer on a cookie sheet (I line it with wax paper or foil to prevent sticking; that also eliminates clean-up). 🙂 You stick that in your freezer for 1-2 hours. Once they are frozen, you pop them in a zip-tog bag, andvoila!
I learned how to flash freeze on one of my favorite blogs, Faithful Provisions. Click here to view her video demonstration.
This is one very simple way I’ve found to save money and time!