Flash freezing fruit and veg is one of those kitchen tips that I cannot believe I have not done sooner. I have been freezing bananas in little bags for over a year now (re-using them a number of times each) and using the bags bothered me. The bags broke after a few washes and dries and sometime I didn’t want the whole bag of banana, but the fruit was stuck together so I had to use it all or get a knife and cut it up.

Flash freezing solves these problems for me. I just love it!

My first flash freezing experience was with Kale. Kale has been a new addition to my smoothies, but I was finding it hard to store it so it would keep fresh over the week.

Kale is one of those veggies that needs a good wash before eating. I give it a little soak and scrub in cold water with vinegar added.

Give it a shake out and let it air dry for a couple  of hours on a clean towel.

Once dry, I place some baking paper on a large tray and lightly layer the kale on. You could do single layer, but mine was more like a triple layer.

Place it in the freezer for an hour. Kale freezes and defrosts very quickly. Once you are ready to store the kale, work quickly to transfer it to a freezer safe, air tight container and place it back in the freezer.

Now when making my smoothies, I grab a few handfuls out at a time and it works perfectly.

For my bananas, I cut them up into even pieces.

Place them in single layers, with no touching on a lined tray and freeze for 1.5 hours.

EDIT 2016: After a tip from a reader, I no longer place the cut-up banana onto baking paper, I simply use a cooling rack and freeze them on that!

Then move them to an airtight freezer container to store.

I purchased a number of punnets of strawberries on sale, so gave them a go to. I washed and dried the strawberries, cutting up any strawberries that were big, so they would be roughly all of a similar size. Placed them on a lined tray and froze them for an hour before transferring them to an airtight freezer container to store.

I am now keenly keeping an eye out for any fruit and veg on sale (like mangoes!) that I can apply flash freezing to.

Our Family Menu Plan For This Week

This week I have recycled a menu plan from a few months ago! This is one of the benefits of menu planning, you can reuse them easily to save yourself time when needed. It is taking me a little while to find my feet with all the changes we have had with the start of the school year this year and Mr Is hectic workload.

Day	Week Commencing 26th October 2013
Sat		Homemade Tacos
Sun	Chicken Wings, Baked Potatoes and Corn	Chicken wings, baked potatoes and steamed corn Left over mince recipe - taco puffs Oat and seed lunchbox slice
Mon		Slow cooker balsamic beef with pumpkin salad
Tue		Pumpkin soup
Wed	Chicken stir fry
Thu		Sausage and veg
Fri		Easy BLT
Shopping List	Weekly menu plan shopping list 26th October 2013