Free I Quit Sugar for Life by Sarah Wilson Page A

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    Use cookbooks or recipe apps that list things based on the ingredient (I love Stephanie Alexander’s
The Cook’s Companion
for this). If you have two
aubergines, look up recipes that are aubergine-based.
    BULK-BUY ’N’ FREEZE
    Buy up the following in large amounts when they’re in season:
    ▶ Avocados . Purée with coconut water and/or coconut cream and a little lime juice. Freeze in ice-lolly moulds to eat as
lollies or to pop out and blend with some extra greens to make a nutritious smoothie. Feel free to replace the lime with raw cacao for a choc version.
    ▶ Lemons and limes. Juice and freeze in ice-cube trays ready for smoothies.
    ▶ Onions, celery, peppers, tomatoes . Dice and freeze ready for soups and casseroles.
    ▶ Courgettes. Dice and freeze, as above, or grate and freeze in ice-cube trays ready to pop out and use to ‘dense
out’ meat dishes, omelettes or soup.
    ▶ Kale, Swiss chard, broccoli. Par-Cook ’n’ Freeze as per page 51. You can also purée them and freeze in
ice-cube trays ready to pop into smoothies.
    ▶ Cauliflower. Par-Cook ’n’ Freeze or grate raw (to make cauliflower ‘rice’) and freeze ready to make
Cauliflower ‘Fried Rice’ ( here ) or my cauliflower pizza base ( here ).
    ▶ Beetroot. Par-Cook ’n’ Freeze as per page 51.
    ▶ Pumpkin and sweet potato. Again Par-Cook ’n’ Freeze, purée (as per page 51) ready to bulk out meals and to
make Sweet Potato Casserole ( here ) and Snickery Pumpkin Mud Smoothie ( here ).
    ▶ Mince. Make a batch of mince into meatballs or patties and freeze, uncooked, ready to make my Deconstructed Hamburger (see here ).
    ▶ Egg Whites. Freeze each white in an ice-cube tray. Then transfer to a freezer container. Make sure you thaw them completely
before using – they’ll beat better at room temperature.
    ▶ Egg Yolks. Gelation causes the yolks to thicken, becoming too gluggy to use when frozen, so whisk ⅛ teaspoon salt or
1½ teaspoons rice malt syrup per 4 yolks.
    ▶ Bacon. It can be a chore to fry up if you’re only using it for flavouring (as I often do). Dice and cook a pack in one
go, ready to crumble on top of soups or add to eggs.
    ▶ Fresh herbs. See here .
    ▶ Whole berries . Place in the freezer ready for smoothies (no need to use ice).
    ▶ Nuts and seeds . Store in the freezer. They keep fresher this way and won’t go rancid. Better still, activate them and
then freeze.
    KNOW HOW LONG TO FREEZE YOUR FOOD
    As far as food safety is concerned, freezing food for any length of time is safe. However, flavour and visuals can be compromised.
    ▶ Meat soups: 2 months.
    ▶ Vegetable soups: 3 months.
    ▶ Par-Cooked ’n’ Frozen vegetables: 3–6 months. Generally they don’t need to be defrosted prior to
cooking, although some leafy green vegetables are much easier to separate if defrosted a little bit first.
    ▶ Cooked meat: 2 months. If possible, slightly undercook any meat that is going to be reheated.
    ▶ Cooked fish: 1 month.
    ▶ Baked muffins: 3 months. Freeze in individual bags or in a single container with sheets of freezer paper between the muffins
so they can be easily separated.

FINESSING YOUR FREEZING SKILLS
    ▶ Label your foods as they go into the freezer with the date by which they should be used.
    ▶ Defrost foods in the fridge, not on the worktop. The slower you defrost, the closer it resembles its pre-frozen state.
    ▶ Wrappin’ good: glass and ceramic containers, brown paper bags or paper (not greaseproof) are your best options, but not always
practical. The good news: cling film is now much safer (no longer made from PVC) and there are safer BPA-free plastic lunchboxes now.
    ▶ Freeze things in a thin layer in your zip-lock bag, so you can ‘snap’ off what you need as you go.
    ▶ When freezing things in ice-cube trays, transfer your frozen cubes to a zip-lock bag, to free up your tray.
    ▶ Keep a