Frozen Food: Healthy or Handy-Get Ideas To Freeze Own Food
Do you get attracted towards Frozen Food Products?
My ten year old son is always furious with me as I don’t give him ready-made fries or nuggets in his lunchbox or as evening snacks. I somehow never liked those
frozen food products or snack available in the market. I rarely keep them in the freezer as I know kids will always demand for it and it is quite handy for a mom to just fry and serve. Chicken Nuggets, Kebabs, French fries, Chilli potatoes, you name it and you will get it all ready! The love for
frozen food products drive our kids towards the frozen section of any superstore. But the question is how healthy are these frozen foods for us or for our little ones?
6 facts about Frozen Food Products that one should know!
Healthy Kids food
- Frozen French fries, chicken nuggets are high in saturated and Trans fat. You can check for the product details at the back and one can see how much hydrogenated oil it contains. It is undoubtedly,dangerous trans fat.
- Frozen food products contain high level of sodium or salt which is obviously not good for health.
- Check for the ingredients list on the packet which will make you aware of the list of preservatives and artificial flavouring agents added to the frozen foods to enhance its flavour.
- Now a days, a variety of Indian curries or cheesy sauces are available in frozen food packaging, which contain three times more oil or fat.
- Many researches have shown that frozen foods are far less nutritious than the fresh. Even while freezing vegetables and fruits, vitamin C content gets lost.
- Vegetables like peas are good to have frozen as they are flash frozen and the freshness is preserved. The nutritional benefits is still preserved. Hence it can be used.
Frozen Food Products
So next time if you are in a superstore, think twice before picking any
frozen food products. You can restrict its usage to only emergency situations when you are left with none. Whether you are a working mom or a home maker, we always try giving the best to our kids. Hence why not trying out some of these
homemade frozen meals and easy snacks ideas. This will sure make your life easier and hopefully better:
4 Easy ideas to Freeze your own food
- Whenever you cook your kids favourite meal like butter chicken or Biryani or Kebabs make it in large quantity. Separate it in batches brings it to the room temperature and freeze. Homemade frozen meals are always better than the ones purchased from the supermarket as you at least know about the nutrition. And moreover no additional preservatives needed to store it.
- You can make your own chicken nuggets at home. Sounds fun, right? I'm sure even your kids going to relish the tasty and freshly prepared nuggets. Take boneless chicken pieces add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, onion power, garlic powder and cornflour to it and leave for an hour. Keep it in freezer if you want to fry it later or coat the chicken with crushed cornflakes and deep fry. If you want to make it healthy it can be coated with quaker oats and bake it at 200 degree C.
Freeze your own vegetables
- Make a mixture of boiled potatoes, peas, grated carrot, coriander leaves, onions, ginger garlic paste. Fry it in one tablespoon oil. You can use this mixture to make grilled sandwiches, tikkies or fill it with cheese and cover it with breadcrumbs and shallow fry. Super tasty Burger Patties are ready!
- It is always better to freeze your own veggies or fruits like peas or mango pulp. Freezing vegetables at home is quite simple, just peel the peas and pack it in Ziplock bag and freeze. Mango pulp can also be frozen in boxes so that our kids can enjoy mango shakes in winter too.
Say "NO" to "Packaged Foods and Preservatives" and "Yes" to "Fresh Foods".
Stay Healthy, Stay Happy!
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