Feeding your Freezer

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Do you want to eat like it matters but think you can't afford to? Linda Watson shows you how with her Cook for Good website, which includes free recipes, shopping lists, videos, and tips for cooking delicious, healthy, seasonal food on a budget. She's the author of Wildly Affordable Organic: Eat Fabulous Food, Get Healthy, and Save the Planet--All on $5 a Day or Less.

Feeding your freezer is one of the easiest ways to save money and time in the kitchen, making an organic diet downright affordable. Double or triple the quantities of a recipe that you cook, then eat one yourself right away and "feed" the rest to your freezer. It will feed you back when you want strawberries in February or a loaf of bread in August.

  • You can get the lowest prices and peak taste by buying in bulk in season
  • You'll also be creating your own ready-to-eat meals, especially useful around holiday or other crunch times
  • If you are trying to eat a higher percentage of local, organic food, stocking up on produce in season will help you make it through the dark days of winter without reaching for produce shipped across the equator

In mid-June, I froze 15 pounds of local, organic strawberries and used another 10 pounds fresh. A five-pound box at the farm stand was only $14, a big savings from the $5 a pound I'd paid the week before at the farmers' market. That comes out to just $2.80 a pound or 51 cents a serving. And the berries couldn't have been any more ripe or delicious.

The Strawberry Ice Cream recipe below is so good it makes me happy to be alive with every bite. This healthy dessert is easy enough for a week night and fancy enough for a dinner party or special occasion. Use local, organic berries and milk if you can to support farmers in your community. If you have a lot of strawberries, make up batches of strawberry puree. Stretch out expenses by blending and freezing just the berries and sugar. When you are ready to make ice cream later, just thaw the strawberry puree and then add the milk and vanilla.

Do you freeze, can, or dry food to eat out of season? Let us know your favorite ways and recipes in the comments section below. This is my last day as a guest blogger here at DrGreene.com, so I can't give you a preview of tomorrow's recipe. But it's been great fun! If you enjoyed my recipes and tips, please sign up for the free weekly newsletter on CookforGood.com. It will help you save money, eat well, and do good!

Strawberry Ice Cream

I used to make ice cream only when we had company because I didn't realize you could store home-made ice cream. But now I just freeze any extra in single-serving containers and thaw for about 20 minutes before serving. Fresh is best, but frozen and slightly thawed is still much better than commercial ice cream, especially for the ripe fruit versions.

Active time: 20 minutes, plus about 40 minutes of occasional attention, depending on your ice-cream maker. Total time: 1 hour. Makes 8 servings, 1/2 cup each. Cost in April 2009: 69 cents with organic strawberries, milk, and vanilla.

Ingredients

3 cups sliced strawberries or 3 heaping cups whole berries
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

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July 24, 2009
Note: This Perspectives Blog post is written by a Guest Blogger of DrGreene.com and is provided in order to offer a variety of thoughtful points of view. The opinions expressed on this Perspectives Blog post do not reflect the opinions of Dr. Greene or DrGreene.com. As such, Dr. Greene and DrGreene.com are not responsible for the accuracy of the information supplied. This post is used under Creative Commons License CC BY-ND 3.0.