Wait! Don’t Throw That Out. Freeze it!

5 Re-usable Foods… 

Bananas, Berries, Broth, Bread, and Bell Pepper Seeds

  

Aging, Brown Bananas

Your favorite post workout snack is starting to go brown in your fruit bowl and you see the fruit flies circling for a landing. What do you do? You freeze them! Frozen, over-ripe bananas are a healthy kitchen staple. They can be recycled from a healthy fast-food fuel-up into pancake recipes, muffin mixes, and smoothie staples. Don’t toss those brown bananas. 

                                                                           Freeze them!

Over-ripe Berries

You went to the fridge to grab a handful of berries and saw they’re looking less than tempting. It’s time to put them in a plastic baggie and freeze them for another day. Frozen berries add nicely to muffin and pancake batters, smoothie blends, and dessert compotes.

Vegetable Soup Broth

You made a large kettle of vegetable soup and you’ve been eating on it for a week. You’re tired of veggie soup but there’s still a quart of liquid left in the pot. No problem! Put it in a plastic container and put it in the freezer. Veggie Broth add great flavor when used to cook wild rice, boil potatoes, or steam vegetables.

Stale Bread

That irresistible loaf of whole grain bread you bought from the farmer’s market is now week old and hard as nails.  Please don’t throw it out, put it in a plastic bag and stick it in your freezer. Stale bread is great for making meatloaf and toasted whole grain croutons. You can even defrost it later and use it to make a healthy version of old-fashioned French toast.

Bell Pepper Seeds

Red, yellow, orange or green…the next time you chop a bell pepper, scoop out the little white seeds and dry them in the open air. You can buy dried pepper seeds and flakes at your local healthy market; or you can create your own by re-purposing the ones from peppers you chop. If you usually use pepper flakes, run your dried seeds through a food processor before using them. Dried bell pepper seeds are great for spicing up chili, black beans, meatloaf, veggie burgers and guacamole. Allow them to thoroughly dry (about 2 days depending on the humidity of your region) and placed them in an air tight container.