Run Plant Based

Formerly The Raw Project - Running on a Healthy Vegan Diet

It Came from the Freezer

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This cold has morphed into full blow laryngitis today, trying to talk at work has just been embarrassing. But it also relieved me of my training duties, kind of can’t when the poor trainee can’t understand a single word I say. So I was able to pass that on to another co-worker and try to work quietly at my desk all day. While drinking tea, lots and lots of herbal tea.

It’s odd that I feel okay, a little stuffed and tired, but functional. Still I’ve been trying eat very well hoping to shake this fast because our weather is too nice to be sick! Breakfast was a huge smoothie loaded with spinach, carrot, banana, flax seed, and Sun Warrior Vanilla Protein Powder.

By lunch time, I was feeling pretty lazy and thankful I had leftovers from last night’s curry salad.

That was maybe chased by air-popped popcorn seasoned with garlic olive oil, nutritional yeast and salt – I tend to crave salty and crunchy when I have a cold.

By dinner I was feeling very lazy, trying to function all day at work with this cold was starting to get to me. Good thing dinner was defrosting in the fridge just waiting to be heated.

I’ve always been a bit nervous about freezing homemade cooked foods. Not sure why, possibly a hangover from my non-vegan days and worrying about meat safety and freezer burn. But I love the idea to have a fast, healthy, home-cooked meal just waiting to be heated in the freezer. For Christmas Eve, I made a huge batch of Simple Green Lentil Stew to take to our family gathering. But it was too much to fit in my slow cooker to take, so I poured some off into a freezer container, stashed it in my freezer and forgot about it. I’m glad I found it because I already miss kabocha squash since it’s only available in the winter here and this stew is loaded with chunks, what a treat to have in the spring!

I just poured it into a soup pot and warmed over medium heat until nice and steamy.

Then I added some fresh spinach to add more fresh greens and enjoyed.

While the kabocha squash was much more mushy after defrosting, it was still great – slightly sweet and comforting. I also used pricier French green lentils in this dish and they held their texture nicely through the freezing and re-heating process. They also reminded me that I like them just a little more than regular green lentils and I must get more on the next Whole Foods trip.

Are you a fan of freezing home-cooked meals?

Comments

  1. I hope you get better soon! I love having a frozen meal ready at home. Too often my BF eats everything I cook though, so leftovers are a rare luxury!

    Make sure you get lots of sleep :)

  2. I never freeze much other than desserts because my husband can eat the same thing for day son end and uses it for lunches. If it were just me I’d freeze more for sure.

  3. You made your own tv dinner, i.e. microwave meal, that you didnt actually microwave but reheated on the stove. And probably didnt eat in front of the tv :)

    I love planned leftovers and freeze indiv portions of things to be unearthed and consumed on sick days, busy days, etc. Love a freezer stash.

    And your comment to me about photo editing being a major computer resource hog. YES! How about it! I love that you’ve also transfered computers and data so many times that you have a little “system” downpat. Classic. Not sure what I am going to do. maybe buy more Ram?

    Feel better! (I am sick too but telling myself i am not)

    • I did eat it while flipping through an Us Weekly. :-)

      For your Mac, maybe try running a repair permissions in the disk utilities on your system files since it’s an older Mac OS image.

  5. Yep, I freeze! I cook in bulk and then freeze at least half of what I make. I just forget to label my containers and often have “mystery” dinners :)

  7. I love to utilize the freezer, but my parents are not fans of it. I think it’s handy to have leftovers ready to pull out and eat, personally!