![\"Frozen](\"http:\/\/i722.photobucket.com\/albums\/ww230\/mcolletterogers\/BerriesFrozenClipArt.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI’m always singing the praises of the freezer pantry, and\u00a0 in September’s newsletter I alerted readers to a frozen fruit and fish buying opportunity.\u00a0 Apologies in advance for being an “I told you so” person, but I’m now reaping so many benefits from my purchases.\u00a0 I want you to reap the same benefits, so I’m going to engage in some teasing and tempting now.\u00a0 Hopefully, a seed will be planted and by fall, you’ll be ready to begin stocking up and experimenting.<\/p>\n
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Frozen Fruit <\/strong><\/span>is especially wonderful in late winter and spring, since fresh fruit is limited, not that great tasting and\/or quite expensive (think peaches, pears and berries flown all the way up from Argentina and Chile.)\u00a0 Meanwhile, local fruit frozen at the peak of perfection or trucked from Oregon or California in the summer and fall is much better tasting, less environmentally damaging and not nearly as expensive.<\/p>\n Here are just a few of the many, easy, good things you can do with a freezer full of frozen fruits:<\/p>\n Fruit “Candies”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So easy:\u00a0 Just keep a bag of individually frozen berries handy in the front of the freezer, with a small scoop inside.\u00a0 Kids love scooping out a few for a treat (and adults are allowed to do the same!).<\/p>\n Breakfast in a Bottle: Good For You Fast Food<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Just this morning I visited with a young woman working in her office while drinking a smoothie containing all sorts of good for you ingredients.\u00a0 Truth be told, I’m not a smoothie person.\u00a0 I love the melding of flavors that happens with cooking, but the speed and convenience of smoothies makes them a doable healthy breakfast for many people.\u00a0 And the nutritional benefits and indisputable.\u00a0 Joseph DiMasi<\/a> is a local nutrition consultant who can fill you in on that aspect.\u00a0 In the meantime, give this combo a try:<\/p>\n Kristen’s Vegetable-Fruit Breakfast Smoothie <\/strong>Note:\u00a0 Amounts are very rough, because that’s the nature (and another benefit) of smoothies.\u00a0 There are no rigid formulas.\u00a0 Just get in a good amount of vegetative matter and do the rest to taste.<\/p>\n Base:<\/p>\n Mix Ins:<\/p>\n *Cinnamon is not only a tasty addition, but could be a beneficial one, too.\u00a0 Some studies<\/a> have shown that “cinnamon may lower blood sugar by decreasing insulin resistance.”\u00a0 Other studies<\/a> indicate that “consuming roughly one half of a teaspoon of cinnamon per day or less leads to dramatic improvements in blood sugar, cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides.”<\/p>\n These kinds of smoothie may be more familiar to you.\u00a0 They are especially nice on warm summer days.\u00a0 Seasonal eaters know, however, that serious fruit production doesn’t happen until mid-summer in the Colorado area.\u00a0 So from now until then, use frozen fruits to quench your craving for the cool refreshment.\u00a0 Follow the format for Kristen’s Smoothies but skip the vegetative matter.\u00a0 Here are a couple notes and other mix-in suggestions:<\/p>\n Fruited Juice:\u00a0 Whole Fruit Substitute<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n My husband likes a glass of juice and piece of fresh fruit every morning.\u00a0 As mentioned above, however,\u00a0 it gets harder and harder to find good tasting fruit as winter wears on into spring.\u00a0 So we blend whole frozen fruit with his juice, e.g., frozen bluberries and cherries with Big B’s 100% apple juice (i.e., not from concentrate.) *\u00a0\u00a0 To save time, we blend up a pitcher-ful\u00a0 that lasts several days.<\/p>\n *Big B’s is from the western slope of Colorado and can be found at both Whole Foods and Vitamin Cottage.<\/p>\n Going to a Potluck?\u00a0 Frozen Fruit Makes for Easy Entertaining Fare<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n My friend Susan always brings the best fruit salads to potluck events.\u00a0 I always wondered how, in between her many pottery classes<\/a>, she cut all the pieces so nicely? \u00a0 And how can the blackberries taste so good in mid-winter?\u00a0 Pre-cut frozen fruit\u00a0 is the miracle ingredient, of course, a long with Susan’s preparation secrets:\u00a0 1)\u00a0 Think ahead\u00a0 so there’s time to defrost the fruit in the refrigerator.\u00a0 This way, the fruit stays plump and almost fresh tasting.\u00a0 2)\u00a0 Bring a cooler to the grocery store so the fruit doesn’t thaw on the way home.\u00a0 Fruit that is re-frozen loses texture (but is still fine to use.)<\/p>\n A beautiful bowl of frozen fruits can be gussied up in lots of ways:<\/p>\n Mary’s Simple Winter Fruit Salad\u00a0 with Orange and Mint Combine the thawed and diced fruit in a pretty bowl, then sprinkle with 2 to 4 Tbsp. fresh or frozen orange juice and 1 to 2 tsp. finely chopped fresh mint.\u00a0 Toss gently to coat and again right before serving.<\/p>\n OK, I’ll stop.\u00a0 But there are so many other ideas.\u00a0 I’ll share a few more next month, as well as the Mushroom Ragout which I promised.\u00a0 I made it at home after our hut trip to make sure it tasted as good as when we were starving in the mountains.\u00a0 It did and it was also good on cod the next day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deals and Convenience Await Those Who Make Friends with this Wonder Appliance I’m always singing the praises of the freezer pantry, and\u00a0 in September’s newsletter I alerted readers to a frozen fruit and fish buying opportunity.\u00a0 Apologies in advance for being an “I told you so” person, but I’m now reaping so many benefits from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1113\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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![\"Strawberry](\"http:\/\/i722.photobucket.com\/albums\/ww230\/mcolletterogers\/SmoothieFruitClipArt.jpg\")
Traditional Fruit Smoothies<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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![\"Fruit](\"http:\/\/i722.photobucket.com\/albums\/ww230\/mcolletterogers\/SaladFruitClipArt.jpg\")
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