These days there’s a lot of emphasis placed on eating “fresh” fruits and vegetables, but during the Winter when some of your favorites may be out of season, you need to consider alternatives that offer great taste and healthy options for feeding your family. Our advice – check out the refrigerated aisle in the grocery store and you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what you see there.
Frozen vegetables have come a long way since the classic peas and carrots mixture you had growing up. Now there are incredible varieties of vegetables that can be used in any number of recipes from side dishes to casseroles to hearty soups and stews.
Frozen fruits abound there too and are great for smoothies and for adding to breakfast cereals, muffins and pancakes in the morning. You can also turn frozen fruit in to preserves and create great desserts like crumbles (see recipe below).
Although frozen foods were introduced in grocery stores in 1930 and were considered a cooking staple for decades, over time growing techniques and transportation advancements increased the availability of all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables everywhere; relegating their frozen cousins to second class status. Since then frozen foods have taken a back seat to fresh for many shoppers, particularly those concerned with supporting locally grown produce. Many people today even believe that frozen foods aren’t as healthful as fresh, but on the contrary, frozen fruits and vegetables can be more nutritious than their fresh counterparts.
Consider these important points:
- Food intended for freezing always gets processed and quickly frozen within hours of being picked, whereas fresh produce from the grocery store is usually picked while it’s unripe so that it can withstand shipping.
- Fresh produce may sit in storage or on the shelves for days, weeks, or even months before you buy it.
- Nutrients in fresh foods deplete the longer they sit on the shelf, whereas freezing preserves the majority of nutrients in foods, even when frozen for an extended period of time.
- As an added bonus, all the washing, trimming and chopping has been done for you!
Frozen foods have definitely improved – today companies that produce frozen vegetables today use the phrase “field to freezer” to describe their modern process of capturing fruits and vegetables at the peak of their flavor and preserving that freshness for consumers to enjoy at their convenience.
Many of the companies that produce the popular frozen food brands such as Birdseye and Green Giant have Web sites that offer cooking tips, recipes and coupons for great savings on frozen fruits and vegetables.
We like frozen fruits and veggies because they are so easy and they give you lots of healthy options when you get home at the end of a cold day and you need to make something great for you and your family.
Let us know which frozen food brands are among your favorite and how you incorporate them into your meals!
Brought to you by the Green Giant ~ Minestrone with Italian Sausage
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
1 lb bulk sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped (1 cup)
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic
5 1/4 cups Progresso® beef flavored broth (from two 32-oz cartons)
1 can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen® organic diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (15.5 oz) great northern beans, drained, rinsed
1 cup uncooked small elbow macaroni (3 1/2 oz)
1 medium zucchini, cut lengthwise in half, then cut into 1/4-inch slices (1 cup)
1 cup Green Giant® Valley Fresh Steamers™ frozen cut green beans
Directions
1. In 5-quart Dutch oven, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add sausage, onion, carrots, basil
and garlic; cook 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until sausage is no longer pink; drain.
2. Stir broth, tomatoes and great northern beans into sausage mixture. Heat to boiling.
Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook 7 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in macaroni, zucchini and frozen green beans. Heat to boiling. Cook over medium-
high heat 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are hot and macaroni is
tender.
A second simple recipe for a yummy crumble follows –
you could even eat this for breakfast with a dollop of low fat yogurt!
1) Put a frozen fruit mixture (assorted berries would work nicely) in a glass baking dish
2) In a separate bowl mixing about 8 tablespoons of plain flour with 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and a handful of oats.
3) Line a pie dish with the frozen fruit and sprinkle with brown sugar.
4) Meanwhile, toss all the other ingredients apart from the oats into a bowl and rub together until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
5) Cover the fruit with the mixture and then sprinkle the handful of oats over the top.
6) Bake in the oven at 200C for around 30-45 minutes until the top is golden brown.
Minestrone Soup Nutrition Information:
1 Serving: Calories 380 (Calories from Fat 140); Total Fat 16g (Saturated Fat 5g, Trans Fat 0g); Cholesterol 25mg; Sodium 1400mg; Total Carbohydrate 38g (Dietary Fiber 6g, Sugars 5g); Protein 20g Percent Daily Value*: Vitamin A 60%; Vitamin C 8%; Calcium 10%; Iron 25% Exchanges: 2 Starch; 0 Other Carbohydrate; 1 Vegetable; 1 1/2 Medium-Fat Meat; 1 1/2 Fat Carbohydrate Choices: 2 1/2 *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.