Hints - Frozen Fruit for Smoothies

Posted Earlier . . . A hint for always having fruit on hand for smoothies is to buy it at Sam's Club/Costco in bulk and freeze it. This is especially great for strawberries, pineapple and kiwi. Just peel the kiwi and pineapple and slice them in about 1/2 inch slices, place in large freezer bag and they will be great to toss in for smoothies. Even bananas can be frozen, just peel and stick in a bag.

Update . . . I have recently found that rather than have all of my fruit in seperate bags and needing to open a bunch of them and then seal them and then put the all bag in an organized way in the freezer . . (whew, it's extra work just to type it) . . . that I can put a variety of fruits in one freezer container and then pull out only one container to make smoothies. It is saving me alot of baggy mess in the freezer and is causing alot less frost on the fruit from all of the opening and closing of the bags and extra time with the freezer door open trying to organize.

As you can see from the picture, I need another container as I still have some fruit in bags but you can also see the organizational difference between the bags and container.

* Smoothie Recipes *

Hints - Zucchini

Cami called me because she had been given some zucchini and wanted to know what to do with it so here are a couple of hints that I gave her.

Zucchini freezes really well so don't feel like you have to use it all this week. For zucchini pancakes I cube the zucchini and put 2 cups of cubes in a freezer bag and freeze it. This way I can take the bag out of the freezer the night before and it is already measured and ready to go by morning. Also, you can freeze grated or chopped zucchini. I freeze that in 1 cup measurements.

I use the 1 cup measure/frozen/chopped zucchini to add to spaghetti and lasagna sauces. I don't change anything else in the recipe because the veggie carries enough water in it that it doesn't thicken it too much. If you already use green peppers in your sauces then the zucchini just blends in. I like to use 2 cups if I'm adding it to a meatless lasagna sauce because it gives a little texture of ground beef without the extra fat. Keep in mind that I add 1 cup/2 cups to a sauce large enough for a family of 7 to eat so you may want to add a little less.

Recipes:

Zucchini Pancakes

Veggie Tortilla Pizza

Broiled Zucchini

and of course Zucchini Bread which I am trying a new recipe for (zucchini-pineapple) so I may post that later . ..