Frozen foods: myths and truth. Frozen food - harm or benefit

Are there days when you don’t have the time or desire to stand at the stove? Prepare for them in advance!

If you have your eye on something interesting on our website, but are not sure that you have enough time for it, reconsider your attitude towards the kitchen! We're not asking you to leave the stove and take up cross-stitching or soap making. We want to teach you how to save your time and use it more efficiently by freezing ready-made meals.

What can you store in the freezer?

We have already written that fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, tomatoes for pizza and much more can be frozen for the winter, and the fact that during the preparation season it is a huge success means that there are always useful preparations in the freezers of our readers !

But did you know that you can freeze not only plant foods, semi-finished products, dumplings and dumplings? It is much more economical in terms of time to freeze ready-to-eat dishes, which you only have to reheat and serve. For heating, it is best to use a microwave - one of the most household appliances in the house.

Take these basic recipes and start experimenting with your favorite snacks!

How to freeze chicken

Every third housewife thinks about whether it is possible to freeze fried chicken, but only every fifth decides to experiment! In fact, chicken cooked in the oven or according to the tapaka chicken principle tolerates freezing well and practically does not lose either its taste or consistency.

After defrosting, the chicken completely retains its shape, the skin remains in the same place, the color does not change. Checked! If you're afraid, try freezing a small piece, such as a wing or leg!

You can cook chicken on a free day, and it is much more convenient to bake several carcasses at once; this will save time, since you will have to wash the dishes and oven once. Cool the finished chicken well at room temperature, then wrap it in cling film so that less air gets into the packaging, and place the appetizer in the refrigerator. If you have an unexpected visit from guests or simply when you don’t feel like cooking, heat it up, cook it as a side dish and enjoy!

Cutlets and meatballs - a quick dinner

When preparing cutlets, meatballs or other minced meat dishes for lunch, cook them in double quantity. In terms of time spent, you will lose practically nothing, well, maybe an extra half hour will be spent on frying the cutlets. But then, when you don’t have time to prepare dinner, these preparations will definitely help you out.

The cutlets look no less appetizing than fresh ones

It is best to cool meat cutlets for freezing and wrap them in film, 2-4 pieces at a time. Meatballs can be frozen directly in tomato sauce by placing them in a portioned plastic container that can withstand both low and high temperatures. You can also freeze fried pieces of meat with or without sauce, chops, including lazy ones, stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls.

Freezing dumplings and dumplings

Now a little about how to properly freeze dumplings and dumplings. Dough products intended for cooking are best frozen raw. Always place dumplings in a single layer on a plate, trays or heavy cardboard.

You can prepare homemade dumplings not only on the stove, but also in a slow cooker. This will save significant time. They are also convenient to use for quickly preparing soup or for a hot snack in portioned pots.

Dumplings in vareniki should be placed in one layer

Preparations for soups

To avoid wasting time preparing frying soup, make several preparations at once. Fry onions, carrots, mushrooms, and other vegetables that you like to add to broths and freeze it all in small portions in plastic bags or plastic cups. The glasses will then need to be wrapped in film to prevent air from entering.

With the same success, you can freeze broths, which, for example, remain after boiling meat or chicken for salad. Plastic bottles and containers are suitable for this purpose.

The broth can be frozen in bags

Basics for pilaf and julienne

If you fry the meat in pieces, onions and grated carrots, and then freeze this mixture, then it will take a few minutes to prepare the pilaf. All you need to do is defrost the base, heat the meat and vegetables in a cauldron, add washed rice, add boiling water and wait for the dish to cook!

For a quick julienne, prepare mushrooms and onions. You can also add fried chicken or boiled mussels here. At the right time, heat everything in the microwave and act according to one of the following. By the way, fried mushrooms can be added to potatoes or rice.

How to freeze a cake

Many desserts can be frozen, but the best results are for honey cake, which can even be made from ready-made cake layers sold in stores. The main thing is to use butter-based cream for the layer, not sour cream. The cake (or its pieces) should be wrapped in film before placing in the freezer, and it should be defrosted in the refrigerator, taking it out several hours before use.

You can serve the cake with coffee made from frozen cubes. Just brew the aromatic drink in a higher concentration, and then pour boiling water over it. But it’s better, of course, not to be lazy, but to cook fresh!

The cake can be frozen whole or in portions

Ready-made pancakes with or without filling, fried and baked pies and pies, pizza, biscuits without filling, and bread tolerate freezing well. We could go on and on and on about dishes that can easily withstand freezing without losing their properties.

We are confident that our readers, being passionate women, will not be afraid of experiments, will try new things and share their advice with us and other housewives in the comments.

And we use ideas from this article by Elizaveta Pravikova:

Lent has arrived - and what is a person forced to think about most of all, especially those with a large family? Of course, about food, alas and ah. About food, about its composition, about how to prepare dishes tasty and nutritious, and ideally, simply and quickly. Because the prospect of spending the entire fast at the stove does not make me happy, that’s for sure.

The most interesting thing is that there are many recipes for lean food, there are also opportunities, but how lazy to put all this into practice... Moreover, the result (in the sense of whether they will eat it or not) in my family, for example, is unpredictable. It can easily turn out that half of the family will like it, but the other half will not eat what is cooked. However, creating a Lenten dinner is not a particularly big problem; everyone except me dines outside the house. The problem is different - breakfast, that's what requires a truly creative approach!

There is a constant “ambush” with breakfasts during Lent. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s a constant headache to make sure my husband and children don’t leave home hungry for the whole day. Oatmeal is fine for me, if I have it, the issue of breakfast is always resolved. For me, but not for children, in whom you can’t stuff oatmeal with milk, let alone its lean version. And this year we have a very interesting situation - three older children get up before us, get ready on their own and go to school. This means that we need to provide them with breakfasts that do not require any effort from them to prepare: something that they can take out, heat up and eat, and that are nutritious and tasty. So I started thinking about how to ensure this. And in the process of my thoughts this list was born.

Please note that these are not specific recipes, but rather 5 ideas for a meatless breakfast. To be honest, I don’t really like to use exact recipes (unless it’s baking, where strict proportions are important), because they require a certain set of products, certain manipulations, and time. And people's tastes are too different. That's why I personally prefer ideas as a basis for creativity. Like things and ideas from IKEA - you pick what you like, pick up the idea and create based on your personal taste and preferences. My list includes both quick ideas and those that require cooking and preparation, that is, homemade semi-finished products. And, by the way, continuing the theme of the last article - all ideas are more than budget-friendly!
Pancakes

I start with pancakes, because they are the Lenten “salvation” for us; all my children eat them! The main thing is that the filling is different. Yes, this is a dish that will have to be prepared in advance. And if we take on it, then in full. It's stupid to make dough for the sake of a dozen pancakes, right? That's why I do a lot at once. Lean yeast pancakes turn out very tasty and elastic if you add more sunflower oil to the dough, and also let the dough rise, and then stir it well.

The composition of the dough is simple - water, salt-sugar, yeast, flour and sunflower oil. Also, to prevent the edges from drying out during the making of pancakes, it would be good to cover the finished pancakes with a lid (while warm). Your pile of pancakes is the basis for further creativity in terms of filling. Its quality can be anything, depending on your taste - cabbage, rice, potatoes, beans, peas, with the addition of fried onions (onions and greens), mushrooms, fish, seafood. Sweet fillings include berries with sugar, grated apples, thick jam. And then everything is simple, wrap the filling in a pancake, preferably a roll, and put it in the freezer. That's it, a delicious and nutritious instant breakfast for several days is ready!

2-3 minutes in the microwave, any child and any husband can handle this on their own. And I can’t help but add about the budget nature of this dish: I calculated that 20 pancakes (larger than those sold in packs) with cabbage and rice, very tasty, cost me 50 (!!!) rubles. And, of course, plus my work on days off.

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Vegetable cutlets

Our second main dish also requires preparation, and again we prepare it in industrial quantities. Potato cutlets (or pancakes, as you like). The basis is jacket potatoes, then, of course, peeled and minced in a meat grinder. Then add whatever you want to this dough - mushrooms, onions, herbs, spices. This is a very convenient semi-finished product; the cutlets can be frozen unfried (and then their preparation will take a little more time) or fried (then just reheat). You can use them as a hot dish, with peas for example, or with sauce, or you can put them on a sandwich. The sandwich usually uses “yesterday’s” cold pancakes left over from dinner. Any vegetable cutlets you like, made ahead and frozen, also work great for breakfast. Again - the dish is very inexpensive.

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Oatmeal, sir!

But my favorite oatmeal is a truly fertile basis for creativity! In my opinion, it is not included in the “porridge” section precisely because of its versatility. Quick, tasty, nutritious, you can add anything, make it any consistency, you want it, boil it, you want it, no, you want it, fry it like pancakes, in general - a miracle.

Another good thing about it is that it doesn’t require any recipe. Everything is prepared here, as my grandmother used to say, according to the principle “everything good is included.” You can add soy milk, liquid or dry, to it, you can cook it in water with honey, apple juice, or cocoa. Add any spices, nuts and dried fruits, any fruits and berries, everything to taste. You can make jelly and delicious nutritious cocktails from it. It’s great to combine it with bran. You can pour it in the evening and eat it cold or reheat it in the morning. Taking a banana, a handful of berries, a glass of liquid (water, juice, soy milk) and a few spoons of cereal and blending it all with a blender, we get a cocktail. Add bran, let it sit - and here is a new dish. The same can be done in the vegetable version by whipping liquid porridge with herbs, spices and vegetables. In general - there is more than enough creativity! And again, mind you, it comes out very budget-friendly.

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And porridge

For those who are not opposed to cereals, this is one of the most versatile breakfast dishes. Yes, it’s a little boring without milk, but let’s get creative. Unlike oatmeal, however, most porridges require more time to cook. However, now there are a variety of cereals on sale: buckwheat, rice, corn, etc. But if you want it to be budget-friendly, it is better to stick to cereals.

For example, did you know that buckwheat doesn’t need to be cooked? Moreover, uncooked it is much healthier. Just in the evening you need to fill it with water, cold or hot, you can immediately add salt, sugar, honey, spices, dried fruits or hot seasonings (again, everything to taste), close the lid and leave. And then in the morning all you have to do is add oil as desired and heat it up - very tasty!

You will have to cook the rice in advance, of course, and in the morning you will have to diversify it somehow. Happy people are those who love pumpkin, because rice and millet go well with pumpkin. And by adding zest, ginger or other spices, you turn this porridge into a culinary masterpiece.

And, so as not to offend our favorite children's porridge, I will share an idea based on semolina. Semolina porridge is very tasty cooked with lingonberry or cranberry juice. You need to cook it thinner than usual, and then, after cooling a little (or completely, if you do it in advance), beat thoroughly with a blender or mixer. The result is a delicate and delicious nutritious mousse. If you make it in advance and in larger quantities, then you should put it in vases and bowls and put it in the refrigerator. At any moment you have breakfast/afternoon snack/snack/dessert ready. Children, by the way, eat with great pleasure (and don’t even always realize that it’s semolina).

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Sandwiches and pies

Well, for those who categorically do not want to eat all sorts of healthy cereals and vegetables, but always prefer a cup of coffee with pastries or a sandwich, there are also countless lean options. Well, firstly, fish and seafood - salted, smoked, caviar, various pates. This, however, is not budgetary at all. Even if you do everything yourself. But sometimes you can treat yourself, right? Secondly, various types of “non-sea” caviar: vegetable, mushroom, legume. Both store-bought options and homemade items will come into play here. Bean and pea paste can also be made from canned food for speed - beat it with a blender, add what you want, to taste, put it in the refrigerator. Vegetable and mushroom caviar, of course, takes time. But the good thing about all these “spreads” on sandwiches is that you can make a lot of them at once, even for a week. And, of course, no one canceled preserves and jams for spreading on a sandwich! By the way, anything can also become the basis for sandwiches - bread (regular and in the form of toast), dry bread, pita bread, pita bread, tortillas.

The topic of Lenten pies is worthy not just of a separate article, but of an entire book. Therefore, I will limit myself to a simple life hack for breakfast pies. I always have a pack of puff pastry in the freezer for Lent, it’s very convenient. For example, you have something left over from dinner (for us it’s usually a side dish), you quickly defrost the dough, make a filling from the leftover dinner, adding something else for taste, like herbs or fried onions, and make envelopes or triangles from puff pastry. It bakes very quickly, a little fuss too, and a delicious breakfast is right there!

I hope our ideas will help you develop your own creativity in preparing delicious Lenten breakfasts and spend less time cooking during Lent. And, of course, we expect you to share your ideas too!
http://www.matrony.ru/5-idey-postnyih-zavtrakov/

In the modern world, women have very little time for housekeeping. But you can’t leave your family hungry. This is why frozen foods in colorful packaging are becoming increasingly popular. However, not everyone knows about the dangers or benefits of such products.

Experts say that frozen foods retain many vitamins. After all, the time from the moment of harvesting vegetables to freezing them is reduced as much as possible. This allows most of the vitamins to remain in the vegetables. However, some types of beneficial substances still die.

At very low temperatures, vitamins oxidize. And therefore, a frozen food dish becomes less healthy. However, this can be fixed. To do this, you need to add fresh products to frozen vegetables. For example, onions, carrots and so on. Then the dish will turn out tasty and healthy.

When food is frozen, vitamin C decreases the most. This applies to cabbage, broccoli, peppers, green peas, and so on. Other vitamins are also reduced in frozen vegetables, but in smaller quantities. That is why it is not recommended to exchange fresh vegetables for frozen foods. Everyone understands that dumplings cannot be made only from pure meat. After all, the price of frozen dumplings does not correspond to their filling. However, many people are tormented by the question of whether frozen foods with other fillings are healthy. Experts say that in products such as dumplings there is nothing except water dough and ordinary potatoes.

As for frozen pancakes, they contain practically no harmful substances. However, this dough cannot be consumed daily. The dough from which pancakes are made contains a lot of dyes, emulsifiers and stabilizers. These approved food additives are necessary to mix several dry parts. However, this leads to the fact that a person does not receive the required amount of vitamins.

Many people wonder how long frozen food can be stored. The shelf life of frozen foods is no more than six months. However, it must be remembered that the shorter the product is stored frozen, the better. After all, ice crystals destroy the structure of the product. For this reason, frozen foods that are stored for a long time lose vitamins and become useless to humans. Such foods can only satisfy the feeling of hunger. But a person will not receive vitamins after eating frozen foods that have been stored for a long time.

Carefully look at the packaging and condition of the product before purchasing. If the food is stuck together, it may mean that it has already been defrosted and re-frozen. It is better to avoid such products. Also look at the quality of the packaging. Carefully read the label on frozen food packaging. It must indicate the manufacturer's address, product name, expiration date, production date, and so on. If the label on a product is unclear or blurred, it is best not to purchase the product. Vegetables that have been deep frozen contain more vitamins than other frozen foods. Deep freezing occurs at a temperature of minus thirty-five degrees Celsius. This should be indicated on the packaging.

People who suffer from gastritis, stomach ulcers and other diseases associated with the gastrointestinal tract are advised to avoid frozen food. As a last resort, you can use frozen vegetables. However, they must be boiled, not fried. Never defrost food under running hot water. This contributes to the reduction of vitamins in foods.

When you go to the supermarket to buy groceries, pay attention to the frozen food counters. Their assortment is quite diverse: vegetables and mixtures, berries, semi-finished products, nuggets, cutlets, fish.

Some regularly carry a cart of groceries past, without even looking in the direction of frozen foods, while others, on the contrary, buy them in large quantities, sincerely believing that it is convenient: they put it in the freezer and cook it when needed. Who is right after all?

Together with nutritionists and experts in the field of proper nutrition, we decided to figure out whether frozen foods are as healthy as people think. Our joint verdict will surprise you!

Frozen foods are different

The first and most important rule to understand before you go shopping: frozen foods come in different varieties. On the shelves you can find vegetables and berries, fish, semi-finished poultry or meat products. Not all of them are equally useful or, on the contrary, harmful.

Tatyana Rybakova:

When we think that it is better to buy fresh, we forget that fruits and vegetables that travel to from warm countries undergo ripening on the way, and transportation and storage also do not have a very good effect on them, so no one can say for sure , which is more useful.

It is better to refrain from purchasing frozen semi-finished products, that is, so-called fast food. You cannot know for sure what ingredients such food was prepared from. It’s better to spend a little more time, but be sure that the dish on your table is healthy and tasty.

Vegetables and berries, on the contrary, can and should be bought. Modern technologies make it possible to preserve maximum benefits and nutrients in them. This is exactly what you need to make up for the deficiency of vitamins during the winter and off-season. Feel free to cook vegetables as a side dish and add berries to natural yogurt.

Tatyana Rybakova:

Cold is probably the best preservative that has ever been invented; thanks to proper freezing, the main beneficial components of the product are preserved.

If you don't already do this, now is the time to fix it: be sure to read the information on the packaging. There you can find a lot of interesting things and decide whether to choose a specific product for your diet.

Frozen foods differ markedly in composition. The same product from different manufacturers can be frozen using completely different technology. Berries, for example, can be frozen without any additives, or mixed with sugar and other preservatives. Of course, in this case, preference should be given to the first option. This is the most natural product, which still contains nutrients.

Anastasia Belaya:

nutritionist, wellness coach, was certified as a “Sports Nutritionist” at the College of Fitness and Bodybuilding named after. Ben Vader

Frozen foods are different from frozen foods! If we are talking about pizza, dumplings and dumplings, then undoubtedly I am against eating this “food garbage”. If we are talking about frozen vegetables, berries, fish and seafood, meat, then there is nothing dangerous or harmful in their consumption.

Pay attention to the expiration date

Shelf life is a fairly important characteristic when it comes to frozen foods. Such food appears on the shelves after special processing, and not fresh. This implies special technologies not only for freezing, but also for transportation and subsequent storage.

Anastasia Belaya:

Current shock freezing technologies make it possible to preserve all microelements as much as possible. Of course, frozen foods do not provide their original benefits; some vitamins are still lost, but by combining them with seasonal fruits, you will definitely eat well.

Choose the right cooking method

There is nothing harmful in the frozen foods that we mentioned above, but it is important not only to choose these products wisely, but also to prepare them correctly. Only in this case will you really be able to retain the beneficial and nutritious substances in their composition and not turn these products into “forbidden” foods.

Freezing is a great way to store food. But such food can be both beneficial and harmful to the body. It is important to learn how to choose frozen foods correctly in order to get vitamins and important microelements from such food.

There is constant debate about the benefits and harms of frozen foods. Fruits, herbs, and vegetables are sources of vitamins, but if improperly processed or not maintained under storage conditions, they lose their properties. The amount of vitamins decreases, some of them oxidize. The website contains a useful reminder "", it will help prolong the freshness of products and preserve their taste.

To extend shelf life in an unnatural way, manufacturers add chemicals that negatively affect the human body. In order to preserve the useful components as much as possible, you need to learn how to properly defrost food.

Frozen food production

• selection by size, quality;
• the washing up;
• removal of seeds, skins, stalks;
• blanching;
• cooling;
• weighing;
• freezing;
• packaging, labeling, packaging.

Freezing meat products

Freezing vegetables and fruits

Frozen meat, poultry, and fish are especially popular. They are stored longer if processed in their raw form.

How to choose quality frozen foods