Watermelon Smoothie and Other Freezer Finds
Watermelons are abundant in the summer and we ended up with four of them at the lake last month over the 4th of July weekend. The kids made a strong dent eating wedges off the rind outside, letting the juice ooze down their chins and fingers, but we still had slices left after everyone had their fill along with assorted other fruit. I came home with a zipper bag containing watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries, all about to be past their prime. I threw the lot in the freezer and there it has been for nearly two months.
I've never used watermelon in a smoothie, but Googled around seeing if there was any tricks or tips I should follow. Of course watermelon has a high water concentration, making frozen watermelon ideal in smoothies in place of ice. I simply whizzed up in our Ninja a few chunks of frozen fruit with a scoop of Greek yogurt. We had several extra soft strawberries so those went in as well. I poured them in a glass with a straw and had a nutritious breakfast, by request, on her first day of school this morning.
As part of challenging myself to waste less, spend less, and enjoy healthier food options,my freezer is my favorite tool. Things that would go bad can be used one last time if thrown in the freezer, pulled out, and reused into something new like a smoothie, soup, or stew. Learning how often frozen banana's work in a pinch, I don't worry that a bunch of bananas will go bad before we can eat them, some buy a few more when the price is very low. Extra ears of corn on the cob get stripped, the kernels frozen for eating the taste of summer long after the fields are empty. The spinach salad, heading past it's prime has new life folded into scrambled eggs or tossed on top of a pizza or into a pot of soup. What are your favorite freezer finds?
I've been taking great pleasure in keeping the fridge as leftover free as possible lately. Meaning, eating random things up as quickly as possible and being creative with the leftovers right away. It's resulted in some interesting meals, but opening the fridge & seeing very few "must use" items has been really nice
ReplyDeleteWe keep lots of protein in the freezer, and I'll occasionally find an unmarked "mystery meat". We'll defrost it & it will be quite a surprise when I unveil it for prep. My most hilarious error was when we used to have a persimmon tree. Persimmons get all over the yard & super messy if you don't pick them. I pureed them for future muffin making & froze them. I thought I was defrosting spaghetti sauce & dumped it in with meatballs, etc. . . . It was persimmon puree. Everyone choked it down, but it was . . . not good. ;-)
Wow-persimmon spaghetti. Brave family to get it down.
DeleteI don't make my own pizza sauce (it's not worth it for the cost) so when I buy a small can to make homemade pizzas I use bare minimum and freeze the rest for the next time. I also only use 1/2 can of pinneaple so freeze the rest when I make banana pineapple muffins. Always freeze the mushy bananas for smoothies or to make muffins. I've never tried freezing watermelon though
ReplyDeleteI save bits of pasta sauce for pizza-works a charm. I never thought to freeze pineapple for muffins. The watermelon worked well.
DeleteThe best surprise ever is finding two cooked portions of meat on the day before exbf is coming. I don't have to cook meat! I plan on leftovers so some days I don't have to cook when he comes. Right now, I am looking forward to eating the last of the frozen corn I cut off the free corn I got this summer. I often freeze cantaloupe in chunks. He hates banana in smoothies with blueberries and strawberries. So, he get cantaloupe, blueberries, and strawberries in his smoothie.
ReplyDeleteMy DD is having another one this morning. I agree some combinations don't work for some people.
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