Every summer, I love to grow lots of zucchini. I love their big leaves, big flowers and even bigger fruits that grow (yes even though zucchini is referred to often as a vegetable, it is actually a fruit). From one plant, we grow so much fruit, that we give lots of them away to our neighbors as well as eating a ton of it ourselves (stir fry, zucchini bread, BBQ etc.). However, we inevitably always have leftovers at the end of the season. So what do you do with them?
For us, I like to freeze the zucchini and then use the frozen zucchini in replacement of ice in our smoothies. Zucchini is low in calories but is packed with great nutrients and high fiber content making it an ideal food to feed my kids. Since zucchini is practically tasteless when it is frozen, I use frozen zucchini as a substitute for ice in my kid's smoothies. It is a great way to sneak in some nutrients without them complaining. ;)
The best and easiest way to freeze zucchini is to:
Grate it
Add grated zucchini to a cheese cloth bag
Wring out the moisture of the zucchini as much as you can.
Divide zucchini into 1 cup servings
Place into a ziploc bag or containers
Store in freezer
When you slice the zucchini and really want to use it in a stir fry, it would be best to blanch the zucchini pieces first and since that is just too hard for me, I find it much easier to just grate. Also since my kids love smoothie's so much, grated zucchini works perfect for that. The frozen zucchini can last in the freezer for up to 3 months so you have plenty of time to make some yummy smoothies.
One of my kid's favorite smoothies is:
1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk
1 cup Frozen Blueberry
1 scoop Peanut Butter Powder
1 scoop Protein Powder such as Orgain
1 cup frozen grated zucchini (shh they don't know about the zucchini)
Ice Cubes (about 5)
Blend it all together and Enjoy!
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