Using frozen ingredients is a great way to prep for a picnic as the ingredients usually come pre-chopped, pre-portioned and de-boned for ease – so you won’t need the skills of Jamie or Nigella to whip something up. So go on, grab your blankets and baskets out of the cupboards and let’s picnic with frozen food!

Salads

We all love a good ol’ salad. It’s a great picnic staple that can be prepared in advance, stored in an air-tight container and chilled until needed.  We’ve got a great recipe from Young’s Seafood, Frozen Prawn, Avocado and Mango Salad which uses prawns that are pre-portioned – see the ease? Or why not try our Salmon Niçoise Salad recipe? These two light and refreshing recipes would be perfect for a day out in the sun.

Sandwiches

Now you know you can’t have a picnic without sandwiches – they are a must. Frozen prawns and avocados work particularly well on sandwiches with a little extra salad dressing. Or why not try some of our Riverside Foods recipes such as the Chicken Pitta or the Spicy Chicken Sub, which are all ideal to make in the morning before you head out on a picnic! All these sandwiches are packed full of delicious chicken frozen with its freshness locked in, which can be cooked from frozen and served with salad for that extra crunch.

Sweet treats

There’s always room for dessert, even after a savoury packed start to your picnic. Our blogger friend Slummy Single Mummy has a delicious Black Forest Breakfast Oats recipe which can be sliced into flapjack style pieces once cooled, making it a must-have when you’re on the move (the kids will definitely enjoy this!). If you fancy something light, why not take a selection of frozen fruits in a small cool box? Frozen mixed berries make a fruity addition to serve with a slice of cake, or you could mix them with some natural yogurt for a healthy option!

Frozen food means you can be much more adventurous with your picnic choices. There are countless options when it comes to making picnic food from frozen ingredients, and once you’ve cracked using frozen food there will be no stopping you. So fingers crossed that we get some sunshine this week so we can all enjoy picnicking with frozen! Happy National Picnic Week!

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The great thing about cooking with frozen food is that it allows you to choose from a vast selection of seasonal ingredients all year round, as they are picked and frozen in season. With the weather warming up, and some great summery recipes available, we’ve got a rundown of our frozen essentials for the season that are accessible no matter how confident a cook you are!

King prawns

We love prawns because they are quick to cook and great for salads, soups, pasta, curries, tapas and so much more! Feeding the family a delicious home cooked meal after a long day can be a challenge but using frozen ingredients means you can buy items such as prawns pre-peeled and pre-prepared, and only use as much as you need.

If you’re new to using prawns and not sure how to cook them, take a look at one of our light, fresh salad recipes perfect for lunch or a summery evening meal. We love this Frozen Prawn, Avocado and Mango Salad recipe because it uses frozen prawns, avocado (you can buy frozen avocados!), mango, lettuce and limes – and only takes 15 minutes to prepare. For that extra flavour, add sweet chilli sauce and serve it with toasted bread!

Did You Know?: Frozen prawns are perfect for portion control as you don’t have to cook the whole pack. Just take what you need and that way – you reduce waste!

Frozen Burgers

There’s nothing that celebrates warm weather quite like a BBQ with friends, family and hours of clear blue skies – hence why burgers are a must have for your freezer this month.

With the changeability of the great British weather, planning ahead for those precious sunny days can be a real challenge, making frozen your best option! Frozen barbeque food is becoming a real favourite with an array of choices ranging from veggie to meat and chicken burgers.

Did You Know?: Frozen burgers are not the only barbeque food you can buy from frozen. You can also get products such as marinated chicken skewers, sausage sizzlers and pork grills that can be cooked straight from the freezer! (Please refer to all packaging for instructions)

Frozen Fruits

Frozen fruits remain a favourite for many, mainly because they’re so easy to prepare and are available all year round compared to fresh fruits. Frozen berries are also much better for your wallet compared to berries bought in season – win win!

More and more people are becoming creative with frozen fruits, particularly berries, by using them to make desserts such as Filo Parcels. If this dessert is for you, then check out our quick and simple Filo Parcels with Summer Berries recipe. It’s the perfect pudding for a summer evening. You can even make a no-fuss sweet treat by piling whipped cream and frozen berries on top of ready-made meringue nests – tasty!

In addition to desserts, you can also use frozen fruits for overnight oats for your breakfast, smoothies or to make fruit sauce. The list is endless – making frozen fruits a definite freezer essential!

Did you know?: Buying frozen fruits is the ideal way to enjoy some fantastic “not in season” produce all-year round!

Find a range of recipe ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner using these three frozen must-haves here: https://frozenfoodrevolution.co.uk/recipes/.

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Jacket Potato Skins with Sour Cream Dip

The humble jacket potato breaks the mould when it comes to go-to foods. Versatile, it’s a lunchtime dish to keep you full for hours and can also be served as a teatime side. Despite its simple nature, there’s more to jacket potato making than just dashing a potato in the oven. Our Jacket Potato Skins with Sour Cream Dip recipe shares tips on making the best jacket. The crunchy bacon is the perfect addition to the soft and warm potato skins, making this recipe stand out from other.

Top tip: Some people wrap their jacket potatoes in foil, but if you are trying to get those skins lovely and crispy, avoid this approach as it will only retain steam and moisture!

Cassoulet with Pollock, Butterbean and Chorizo

This one-pan meal offers something a little bit different. Cassoulet is a wholesome meal that combines frozen pollock, frozen bacon, butterbean and chorizo. The beans are the backbone of this dish as they are very tender and absorb the aromas of all the other ingredients included. This exotic meal isn’t a dish that demands much in terms of vegetables, so feel free to have a side of spring salad. Follow our recipe for a meal that might just become a regular this season!

Top tip: If you opt for dried butter beans instead of canned, overnight soaking is advisable for better results. For more information on defrosting fish, check out our guide on how to defrost fish.

Frozen Fruit Crumble

An easy-to-make and diverse dessert, frozen fruit crumble can be eaten for breakfast or as a desert.  Traditionally a winter dessert, we love this as a spring classic and with frozen fruit you can use a mix of exotic fruits that are frozen at their peak. Our frozen fruit crumble recipe  is easy to make (and even easier to eat), served warm with ice cream or lashings of double cream.

Top tip: Instead of using frozen mixed berries, try a single fruit filling of frozen raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, redcurrants or blackcurrants.

Make the most of some of frozen food’s greatest ingredients and do something different in the kitchen this spring. Remember to check out our other recipes for more seasonal frozen food meal ideas. Happy cooking!

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Start the day with…

…a healthy breakfast before we gorge ourselves on chocolate. Can there be anybody who doesn’t drool at the thought of Eggs Benedict? Whether you prefer poached or fried eggs in your Benedict, nothing says ‘good morning’ on an Easter Sunday morning as much as this classic dish – it is the day of the egg after all.

If you’re up for something healthy and refreshing instead, then what could be better than a frozen fruit smoothie for breakfast? Fruit smoothies are great first thing in the morning as most of them have lots of protein all thanks to the milk and yoghurt used as the smoothie base. Try our Frozen Fruit Breakfast Smoothie recipe, it will definitely give you the energy boost you need for the fun-filled day ahead.

Later on…

…is when it all gets egg-citing! With the egg hunts and an overflow of candy, children are almost as excited for Easter as they would be for Christmas. On your marks, get set, GO! Nothing is as heart-warming as watching an older child pass an opportunity to get an egg by giving it to one of the little ones during the hunt. Because of moments like this, the annual Easter egg hunt is probably the highlight of the day for most families, so make sure you make it a memorable one for the kids (and the adults too!). However, don’t let the fun stop there – Country Living has some great ideas for fun Easter games to entertain your family – talk about egg-citing!

Finish the day…

…with a feast. Whether your family serves a traditional roast or a celebratory buffet, it’s always a highlight to sit down with your family and enjoy a meal together on Easter Sunday. Here at Fresh from the Freezer, we love to have lamb at Easter and one of our favourite go to recipes is this Heavenly Lamb Shanks Recipe which would be perfect for a large gathering. If you’re doing a buffet, you could include these Jacket Potato Skins in your menu and garnish them with frozen basil or coriander. We love cooking with frozen ingredients as they are easy to cook, limit food waste and reduce preparation time – which is great for special occasions.

When the wonderful food has been tucked into, bring the desserts out. Make sure you have some fantastic frozen treats in your freezer for everyone to enjoy. There’s a huge range of premium desserts you can find from your local supermarket that can be defrosted at home for a show-stopping end to the day, try them out.

Don’t forget to check out our website for all our blogs, competitions and recipe ideas this Easter!

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Feeding the family doesn’t have to cost a fortune if you plan it right. A few tweaks to your weekly shop can save you a large amount of money while making sure you’re getting healthy, tasty meals! Here are a few tips that could help you fight against the January Blues.

Be Frozen Savvy

One of the best ways to save money is through buying frozen food. Not only does it cost less than fresh food on average, but it is also cost effective. Frozen food can be stored longer than fresh refrigerated food, most of it can be stored for several months without losing its quality.

Another advantage of adding frozen food to your shopping list is that it minimises waste as most of it comes pre-portioned. You will no longer be ‘guesstimating’ how much food you need to make for your family and any food that is unused can go straight back into the freezer for use another time!

For an easy, inexpensive family favourite using mainly frozen ingredients, why not try our Sweet Potato Cottage Pie.

Planning

The classic fail to prepare, prepare to fail! It may sound a bit boring and time consuming, but writing a menu for the week will help you get only what you need when you go shopping and actually help you save time and money.

Planning your meals for the week will give you a clear idea of what you need but before you hit the supermarket, check your fridge, freezer and cupboards to see what you already have. Write a detailed shopping list to follow as this will keep you from panic buying expensive meals in the evening, and it will also save you from doubling up on what you already have. Let’s face it, no one really needs 18 tins of beans!

Checking what you already have in the kitchen and planning your meals for the week before hand will guide you on what your budget for the week should be and save you over-spending.

Shopping

Try and pick out one day of the week that’s your shopping day and stick to it. If you make a stop at the store every day or several times a week, you’ll end up spending way more money in the long run.

Make sure you use your list and don’t get distracted by offers such as BOGOF which can easily lead you to buying food you don’t really want or need. If you do take advantage of them, be sure that you need the products, and will use them all.

More often than not, loyalty to one supermarket can work against us in terms of saving. We should always be aware that prices fluctuate between stores. You might find yourself making a substantial saving on your weekly shop by going to a different supermarket rather than staying loyal to one store. Shopping online allows you to compare baskets and also keeps you away from distractions as you make your way up and down the aisles!

Follow these tips and see how much saving you do this January! If you want to get started on making the most of your frozen ingredients, check out our Freezing & Defrosting FAQs and tasty frozen recipes.

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Let us help with some top tips to keeping your tots occupied and you calm and collected this half-term…

Sketching

This is an easy one, and should hopefully keep the kids quiet for more than ten minutes! Let them each choose their own sketchbook and get a selection of pencils and crayons for them to use. Send them off to pick some interesting objects from around the house and sketch to their hearts’ content!

Build a den

On those rainy days, spend some quality time getting cosy with the kids. Pull the sofas together, get some sheets, blankets, pillows, anything you can think of! Get the kids snuggled in the den, pop a Disney film on with some of their favourite snacks and relax for the afternoon. They could even make up a password to allow entry into their den!

Get in the kitchen

The best way to get kids to be interested in food is to get them involved in it. There’s loads of easy and simple ways to get your kids interested in cooking – it might be messy at first but they’ll love it!

Two of our favourite kid-friendly recipes are the white chocolate and raspberry smoothie – fun to make, has a little chocolate treat in and will also fill them with fruit! Another kids’ favourite is the jacket potato skins. You can put almost anything you like into this recipe and they’re a great film snack to have in your den!

Grow a garden patch

If the weather decides to play nice and we get a bit of sunshine during the break, why not mark out a small area in the garden for the kids to own and take care of. Help them plant a selection of flowers and plants that they can choose themselves and watch grow until summer. Give them a spade, put on some old clothes and let them loose!

Hopefully these tips will go a little way to making this half-term a breeze, but make sure to keep your eyes peeled on our Facebook and twitter pages for updates and top tips!

The post Make half-term a breeze with Fresh from the Freezer! appeared first on Frozen Food Revolution.

Chatting about our day and what we’ve all been up to, whilst tucking into a home-cooked meal, is one of the greatest pleasures a family can enjoy together.

But did you know, as well as being quality family time, eating together is proven to be beneficial for our children’s well being too.

According to a study published in the American Journal Pediatrics, children who eat with their families on a regular basis are 35% less likely to engage in an eating disorder, are 24% more likely to eat healthier foods and 12% less likely to be overweight. With further research from the National Literacy Trust, which found that 62% of those who talk with their families at meal times feel more confident to speak in front of a group, making time for everyone to eat together is a must.

However, with work commitments, commuting and after school clubs, how can a busy household still make time for a healthy, nutritious family meal on a regular basis? One way is to choose frozen.

Being part of a busy working family with two sports-mad boys, my own weekday schedule is filled, Monday to Thursday, with post school activities and work obligations all which operate between the hours of 5pm – 8pm. Leaving an incredibly small window in which we can all sit down to a healthy, nutritious family meal together, the only way I have been able to make this work is by ensuring a larger proportion of our meal is cooked using frozen.

With meals such as steamed frozen salmon with vegetables, frozen chicken with frozen rice or frozen pasta, I’m easily able to rustle up a tasty dish in half the time. But it’s not just about the time-saving; by choosing frozen I know I am giving my family delicious, nutritious food that everyone will enjoy and which is vital for a healthy diet. With vegetables that have their vitamins ‘locked in’ and fish which is frozen within hours of being caught (ensuring it retains its valuable nutrients, including protein, healthy fats and minerals), frozen food gives us the quality and freshness we enjoy and need. From its constant availability to reducing potential food waste, as I only use what I want when I need it, frozen food delivers on all fronts.

So if, like me, you want more time to enjoy family meals together that are healthy, tasty and will work with your busy lifestyle – it’s time to choose frozen.

Lyndsey Young, Queen of Easy Green is an easy green living expert, ecopreneur, eco columnist and social media influencer. ‘Living Green, Loving Saving’, Lyndsey is passionate about sharing her practical, time, money and energy-saving tips and advice, as well as reviewing and designing eco-friendly products which make a positive difference to you, your home, your pocket and the environment. To find out more, pop over to her website at www.lyndseyyoung.co.uk, follow her on Twitter @QueenEasyGreen, become a fan of Queen of Easy Green on Facebook.

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Like many families across Britain we’ve been bitten by the recession so I’ve had to find new ways of saving money. Faced with a reduced food budget and soaring supermarket prices, I have found that my best form of defence is the frozen food aisle. Walking down the fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetable sections had become quite daunting. Even things like potatoes suddenly looked like luxury items!

So why are frozen foods cheaper? Well firstly you aren’t paying for the built in cost for wastage as frozen food doesn’t perish like fresh (it’s sold way before its use by date). Plus frozen food companies can also buy when supplies are plentiful.

Hence I find myself down the frozen aisle where I can afford things like chicken breasts, salmon, prawns and roasting joints which are far cheaper than their fresh cousins. Many frozen vegetables are cheaper than fresh ones too. I’ve found frozen potato products like chips (own brand) to be far cheaper than fresh potatoes and that’s without factoring in peel wastage or the bad bits which the factory will on the whole remove. Plus there’s the added bonus of convenience and time saving!

Friday night used to be takeaway fish and chips night but now I just cook frozen ones which I can do for less than £1 a serving – plus I don’t have to leave the house and there’s no petrol cost!

My spending power on fruit, especially soft fruits has also increased in the frozen aisle where I pick up things like cherries, raspberries and blueberries for a saving of at least a third. Best of all, you don’t need to use them up quickly like fresh ones. Frozen soft fruits are so versatile you can use them straight from the freezer in cakes, muffins, homemade ice cream and baked puddings or thaw them to have with yogurt, ice cream and meringues etc.I thawed half a pack of cherries the other day for a Pavlova I made on a whim and they were delicious. Another family favourite is raspberry coulis which I make by sieving some thawed raspberries (adding a little icing sugar if needed) and serve poured over vanilla ice cream.

So if like me you’re feeling the pinch, you can still eat healthily by heading down to the frozen aisle and swapping fresh for frozen – your purse will definitely thank you for it!

Camilla Hawkins is a food writer and recipe developer. She loves the culmination of art and science involved in cooking and enjoys making fabulous food, simply and cheaply. More time eating, less time cooking is her ethos! Her popular blog Fab Food 4 All was started in 2012 and each recipe she posts has to meet the scrutiny of her husband and 2 children!

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However, if we’re honest, we have tended to use it more for everyday meals in the past and haven’t automatically thought “frozen” when having people over to dinner.  Big mistake!  When we were having a hunt around our local supermarkets recently, we realised that a lot of gourmet frozen products are now on sale to make our lives easier when cooking something special.

Whilst we loving cooking for people, it can get a bit stressful juggling all the shopping for fresh ingredients, the cooking, and being a busy parent.  That’s where frozen really comes into its own, as you can buy quality ingredients ahead of time and keep them in the freezer.  And there’s no shame, if time is short, in cooking just some parts of the meal from scratch and buying in others ready-made. With a little creativity, nobody will spot the difference!

For instance, we found some delicious-looking scallops in the freezer aisle of our nearest supermarket.  They would make a great starter cooked in a little garlic, butter, white wine and parsley.  Or why not make a New England-style clam chowder with frozen clams?  Alternatively, you could go “old school” with a 1970s-style Prawn Cocktail made from some of the many types of frozen prawns on offer.

Onto the main course, we were impressed to find frozen beef fillet steak in one of the discount supermarkets.  However, it is in the fish selection that frozen really comes into its own.  Tuna steaks, sea bass fillets, and lobster tails were all available at the big supermarkets, along with more traditional favourites such as lemon sole – perfect with a butter sauce, new potatoes and wilted greens.

Finishing with dessert, there were lots of ready-made favourites available, such as cheesecakes and various gateaux.  In addition, we found that the range of desserts had now gone upmarket.  The supermarkets had their own “Finest” versions of French classics such as Tarte au Citron and Tarte Tartin, and celebrity chefs had also got in on the act.  In Waitrose, we found Heston Blumental’s Black Forest Buche, and Sainsbury’s stocked Raymond Blanc’s Cherry Clafoutis and Chocolat Delice – all of which looked supremely scrummy!  Now you could be honest and admit you’ve bought the dessert.  However, we reckon that you could make an easy raspberry sauce (with frozen berries, naturally!) and swirl it round a slice of one of the above desserts, and nobody would be any the wiser that you hadn’t spent most of the day in the kitchen……

Menus4Mums helps busy parents ditch the takeaways and ready meals and serve up tasty, healthy food for their families, saving them time and money in the kitchen.  Find out more at www.menus4mums.co.uk and download a FREE one week  sample meal plan.

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For starters, a few months back, I wrote a blog post for Fresh from the Freezer about how I’d recently come back from a short break and, after a little bit of over indulging, my weight had increased. I spoke of how I then looked at my diet and one of the things I started to do was have a frozen fruit smoothie in the morning.

After just a month I started to feel the benefits. I cut out the usual toast with jam or honey that wasn’t very nutritious or filling and I had a frozen fruit smoothie instead. It gave me so much more energy and I stopped having that mid-morning snack.

I started introducing other frozen foods into my diet as well. For lunch I would buy frozen chicken breasts (a lot cheaper than fresh) and cook these with frozen vegetables like broccoli, carrots or spinach. It does take a little longer to prepare but one way I got around this was to cook the chicken the night before and then it was just a case of cooking the frozen vegetables which take less than 10 minutes.

From a nutritional point of view, I’m certainly getting my 5 A Day and according to a study conducted by the British Institute of Food Research, certain frozen food products are better for you than their fresh equivalent.

I’m also not that patient when it comes to preparing food. In the past I would have reached to the pizza takeaway menu when I’d either had a long day or not felt in the mood for cooking. But by being more sensible with my money, and paying more attention to the quality and nutrition of the food my family eat, we are using more frozen food.

It is as quick, or quicker, than ordering in and I can now grab something from the freezer, with a very small amount of preparation and stick it in the oven for a tasty meal or snack.

Introducing more frozen food into my family’s diet has really been a revolution. Not only are we eating more healthily but we’re saving money in the process. The fresh fruit and vegetables that would once have gone off have disappeared because we’ve swapped for frozen. This alone is a money saver.

The conclusion I have come to is that adding frozen food to my diet has been a major factor in my path to becoming healthier and saving money.

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