Shortcuts with frozen foods in winter
June 8, 2012 in Cooking with Woolies, Woolies Pantry
Frozen food shelves today are heavy with innovative and delicious fruits, vegetables and prepared foods. They aren’t at all like the frozen foods selection that I had when growing up. To be honest, we hardly ever even went down that aisle on our shopping trips.
Now that there are so many great products on offer, it’s hard not to give them a try. These are things that you will always find in my freezer.
• Peas – said to be more nutritionally valuable to our bodies if eaten from frozen (as opposed to fresh) and they are so easy to prepare.
• Fish can be cooked straight from the freezer in a hot oven with a drizzle of olive oil, lots of fresh cherry tomatoes, 2 cloves of crushed garlic, crumbled feta and torn fresh basil. It turns out just as firm and succulent as fresh fish.See more ideas from my previous blog post on cooking with hake.
• A fun and easy way to entertain friends or the family is to buy frozen pizza bases and let everyone add their own toppings.
• We all love chips and instead of the traditional fries, you can buy frozen ones that go straight into the oven for a quick bake and are just as delicious but also much healthier.
As well as the utmost convenience of being able to cook straight from the freezer, freezing also means that fruits like mango and berries are now available all year round, which is fabulous. At the moment, I try to make sure I have a packet of frozen summer berries or blueberries from Woolies in my freezer.
For a list of all the delicious, convenient foods available from Woolies, visit their Frozen Food section.
I love them roasted on top of homemade sweet focaccia, stewed with spices and honey for chocolate puddings or to make berry coulis for baked cheese cake. I am a huge berry fan so this is the perfect easy way to indulge during the cooler winter months.
This is my go to easy entertaining dessert in minutes for winter nights when I have a few of my friends over.
Croissant bread and butter pudding with berries
- Ingredients:
- 4 croissants in half
- Butter
- Raspberry or strawberry jam
- 4 extra-large free-range eggs
- 1 t vanilla extract
- 2½ cup milk
- 1 t grated lemon zest
- 2 to 3 generous handfuls of frozen mixed berries
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Slice croissants in half, butter one side and spread with raspberry or strawberry jam.
- Arrange in a greased baking dish.
- Whisk together extra-large free-range eggs, vanilla extract, milk, grated lemon zest, then pour the mixture over the croissant slices and top with generous handfuls of frozen mixed berries.
- Bake for 30 minutes, then serve warm.
This bread and butter pudding looks ovely at the table and can be made with things that you already have in the cupboard, like butter, eggs and milk. Just make sure you pick up a few croissants when you get your frozen berries and keep them in the freezer until you need them.
Pop on over to the Woolworths Pantry for more delicious ideas and recipes!
Enjoy the weekend,
Hannah
xx
Consultant Food Editor, Woolworths TASTE magazine
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