Pre-op, I was not strictly a meat and potatoes kind of dude. I truly liked my fruits and vegetables. When cherries were in season I’d go through a pound bag in an evening while sitting at the computer. Blackberries were one of my favorites, and the fresh spring strawberries were always good.
Being a single dude posed a few problems, especially for fruits like strawberries. You get them home and if you turn your back for a minute it seems like they start going bad. I could barely ever get through a whole container of them wthout having to toss a few moldy ones in the garbage. And now… when a single large strawberry is more than I can eat in one meal… well, let’s just say I should have been preserving extra fruits this way years ago, I freeze them.
Most berries will freeze just fine either whole, or if you really want to make it easy, puree them. If you puree your fruit, just pour it in to ice cube trays to freeze and add a couple to a protein shake.
When freezing whole fruits, it’s best to spread them out on a pan and freeze in a single layer, otherwise you risk them freezing together in big blobs. Except for blueberries, they have a natural waxy coating that help keep them from freezing together. I just rinse them out, pick out the bad ones, put back in the container and freeze. After freezing I sort the fruit into freezer bags.
Below are some hints and ideas for working with some of the specific fruits…
Strawberries
These are easy to deal with… cut the stems off, and as you do so, sort… the best looking ones go in one bowl, the not-so hot looking, or those that are maybe getting a bit over-ripe in another. Then rinse them under cold water and drain. The good looking ones, put them in a bowl (cut the larger ones in half, or even quarters) and freeze. Once frozen solid, put in a freezer bag. The overly ripe ones… puree them, pour the puree in to an ice cube tray and then freeze.
The whole ones can be taken out and let thaw to use in desserts, or a couple pieces thawed out can be a side with a breakfast or other meal. The puree, you can thaw a cube in the fridge over night and mix it in with your morning yogurt. Or, take frozen solid or puree cubes and toss in the blender when you make your protein shake. This will pretty much work with any other berry, as long as you have the freezer space and let you take advantage of in-season specials. Except watch it with blackberries… they have the tiny seeds that you have to deal with.
Bananas
About the only way I eat these right now are in protein shakes. When I get them home I let them get nice and ripe. They develop more flavor that way… but be careful because they also develop more natural sugar. Then I peel them, cut them in chunks and freeze. I toss about half a banana’s worth in to a protein shake… chocolate with a dollop of peanut butter is one of my favorites. If the chunks freeze together, they will usually slice apart again very easily.
Rhubarb
When I was a kid, we had rhubarb plants. We would grab a stalk, get a bowl of sugar from the kitchen and chow on that rhubarb dipped in sugar. By the time we were done, I’m not sure what we ate more of… the sugar or the rhubarb.
I’ve found a good way to help offset the natural tartness of rhubarb… stewing it in some water sweetened with some Splenda and some SF jelly. You can do a couple of stalks in about 1/2 cup of water with 1/4 cup of splenda and a tablespoon of the jelly of your choice. Strawberry always goes good with rhubarb. You’ll probably want to peel off the outter skin, the fibers probably would give your pouch some issues, then chop in to 1 inch or so chunks. Toss in a pot (don’t use aluminum, copper or iron for this) with the water, Splenda and jelly and bring to a boil, reduce the heat to then simmer for about 10 minutes. The rhubarb gets sweetened up a bit and turns out very tender. Try mixing it with some yogurt or cottage cheese.
The sweetened water, I freeze that in ice cube trays and add to water for a bit of flavoring.
If all you have is the freezer over your fridge, unless you have a family to help eat this stuff up, you are likely going to run out of freezer room before long. But if you have the space you can take advantage of seasonal sales are different fruits hit their peak and at the rate we eat the stuff, be enjoying this stuff well in to next fall.
