At Menus4Mums, the weekly family mealtime planners, we’re long-time fans of frozen food. It’s good quality, lasts for ages, and saves on waste. That’s why we recently took a fresh look around the frozen food aisles of the main supermarkets and found some fabulous new frozen products we thought we’d share with you.

Seasoning

Frozen herbs have been around for a little while, but the range has increased quite a bit. It’s not just parsley and basil – now you can get chopped chillies, crushed garlic, chopped ginger (great for curries and stir-frys) plus frozen pesto. So now you don’t have to feel guilty about not using up all the fresh ginger or pesto in the fridge, and you’ll always have some key seasoning for speedy family meals at hand.

Chopped Vegetables

We’re guilty of normally sticking with peas, beans and sweetcorn when it comes to frozen vegetables, but we tested some packs of frozen chopped peppers and char-grilled Mediterranean vegetables to see what they were like. We were impressed with both items. The peppers were a mixture of red, yellow and green and brought some attractive colour to our pasta dishes, stir-frys and omelettes. Similarly, the bag of mixed Mediterranean veg brought some welcome colour and variety to meals without us having to buy lots of separate costly items. We made a great quick veggie lunch mixing them into some couscous.

Garlic Bread Slices

We often find that if we make or buy garlic bread, we’re tempted to eat all of it! These individual frozen slices were great for an occasional treat, and what we didn’t need stayed in the freezer for another time. Ready in 10 minutes, they went down a storm with our children.

Frozen Rice

This comes into its own when cooking for just one or two people as it is frozen in handy portion sachets. What’s more, it only took 3 minutes in the microwave – perfect if you’ve been out all day and want a meal on the table in minutes.

Frozen Gravy

We love home-made gravy best with a roast dinner, but these frozen cubes are really handy when you don’t have a tin of meat juices to make your own. In fact, our children really liked having the gravy with sausages. You can heat up the gravy on the hob or in the microwave, and it takes just 1-2 minutes.

All too often, we’ve been guilty of reaching for the same old frozen foods, but some of the new innovations out there are well worth a try. The chopped vegetables, rice and gravy certainly save time, and the chopped herbs and spices meant we only use what we need and can store the rest for another time. Why not have a fresh browse through the frozen food aisle yourself?