I have always been an active person but with a busy schedule, my exercise routine became secondary, and my healthy eating habits went out the window. At one point keeping healthy habits while working long shifts and taking care of the kids and the house seemed impossible. I had to examine my approach to both exercise and meals and find a way to make it all work. I found the best solution was meal prepping. By preparing meals and snacks on a Sunday I had plenty of healthy options available during the week. This worked great and as time went on I found great ways to speed up the process. Allow me to share one of those ways with you now.
I have always being a fan of quick and easy ways to eat well and for a long time now, I have set time aside to prep and plan my meals for the week. The most common prep approach I would use was to blanch vegetables or fruits to save time in the kitchen.
If you do not know how it works blanching is a simple cooking technique to preserve color, texture, flavor and nutritional value of food. It consists of putting your veggies in boiling water and then abruptly ceasing the cooking process with cold water and ice. You can blanch a wide range of foods, not only carrots or broccoli but also leafy greens and onions. Each vegetable has a determined time that you can find out with a quick google (or like me through trial and error).
Be aware though, over blanching causes loss of flavor, color, vitamins, minerals, and under blanching stimulates enzymes and is worse than no blanching. Salt is also a part of the blanching process and it will contribute to the flavor of your food. I usually put more salt when blanching than I would during regular meals but don’t worry, your food will not be salty.
As well as all of these benefits blanching makes our meal prep far more practical and easy, but you do have to set some time aside to do this process and there are many steps involved. It does require some focus and concentration to ensure you do it properly to get the benefits and expected results. With kids running around the house it can sometimes be tough to find this focus.
So to try to help people with busy schedules and very little time to cook I want to show you that you can skip the blanching process and still preserve your veggies with their delicious taste and nutritional benefits intact. The first step is to cut the ends off the carrots. You do not need to peel the carrots and it is even better if you keep the skin on.
Second, chop the carrots evenly. This step is very important not only because it will allow the carrots to freeze evenly but because it will help you when cooking the carrots. You want your carrots to have the perfect soft texture and for that, they all need to be in similar size.
Back to our steps, after chopping, the carrots lay them on a tray, covered with a baking sheet, and set them in the freezer for around 24 hours. The last step is to take the carrots out of the freezer and conserve them in a freezer bag. Do not forget to label your bag. I also like to date it so I have an idea of what ingredients are due to expire soon and what I should use first to avoid waste.
This process may bring a different texture compared to blanching but it does save some time and that is a better option than ordering fast food and spending money. It is important to have a routine that allows you to prepare meals in a fast and easy way. While I still love blanching sometimes we need a solution that is even faster.
