Kitchen Makeover Series Week 4: Confront Your Freezer

No need to give your freezer the cold shoulder. I’ll help you change out those Ice Aged relics for a winter wonderland of healthy and tasty choices.

Fruits and Veggies
Frozen is as nutritious as fresh! Frozen fruits and veggies are picked at the peak of freshness and flash frozen, a process which traps all the vital nutrients when they are at their highest level. Another advantage of buying frozen fruits and veggies is that they often cost less than fresh, especially when they’re not in season. Be sure to keep these pointers in mind:

• Check the date. Many people believe that freezing a food renders it in a state of suspended animation. Freezing does extend the shelf-life of your produce. However, as a general rule, four to six months is the longest you should keep it. After that, nutrition and quality go “bye-bye.” Refer to the “born on” date on the package and start counting from there, rather than when you purchase it.
• Wrap it up. It’s always wise to double wrap anything that you are freezing to reduce the likelihood of developing that “off” taste from freezer burn. Purchase plastic wraps designed for the freezer, or you can wrap the food in plastic and then in aluminum foil to preserve its quality.
• Refuse to recycle. Also, if frozen produce defrosts, due to leaving the freezer door open, power failure, or pulling it out and not using the entire package, don’t keep it. Freezing, defrosting, and refreezing produce may cause it to lose its nutritional quality, be less safe to eat, and it probably won’t taste as good!

Frozen Dinners
What an invention! Who should we thank for this brilliant idea? According to the National Refrigerated and Frozen Foods Association, it was the ancient Chinese who first used ice cellars to store food in 1,000 B.C. Clarence Birdseye modernized the idea in the 1930s. Maxson Foods offered the first complete frozen meal in 1945. But it was C.A. Swanson who catapulted the “TV” dinner into popularity in 1954.

As we became more health conscience as a nation, the popularity of “healthy” frozen meals really caught fire. These days, you’ll find the words “lean” and “healthy” in bold print in the freezer aisle of your local grocer, but you can’t believe everything you read. Even if the calories are “low-ish,” the dish could still be high in sodium, fat, and low in fiber.

Here’s a handy checklist to help you choose the right foods in the freezer aisle. The entire meal should contain:

• Less than 600 calories
• Less than 7 grams of saturated fat
• Less than 500 milligrams of sodium
• At least 3 grams of fiber--5 or higher should be the goal
• At least 14 grams of protein

Bonus: If the entire entrée is a single portion, contains whole grains, and half the meal consists of fruit or vegetables—yes, potatoes count—you get a gold star! What these frozen meals really have going for them is portion control. Save the containers to portion your own meals!