The benefits and harms of frozen foods. Freezing food and prepared foods: true or false

Are there days when you don’t have the time or desire to stand at the stove? Prepare for them in advance!

If you have your eye on something interesting on our website, but are not sure that you have enough time for it, reconsider your attitude towards the kitchen! We're not asking you to leave the stove and take up cross-stitching or soap making. We want to teach you how to save your time and use it more efficiently by freezing ready-made meals.

What can you store in the freezer?

We have already written that fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, tomatoes for pizza and much more can be frozen for the winter, and the fact that during the preparation season it is a huge success means that there are always useful preparations in the freezers of our readers !

But did you know that you can freeze not only plant foods, semi-finished products, dumplings and dumplings? It is much more economical in terms of time to freeze ready-to-eat dishes, which you only have to reheat and serve. For heating, it is best to use a microwave - one of the most household appliances in the house.

Take these basic recipes and start experimenting with your favorite snacks!

How to freeze chicken

Every third housewife thinks about whether it is possible to freeze fried chicken, but only every fifth decides to experiment! In fact, chicken cooked in the oven or according to the tapaka chicken principle tolerates freezing well and practically does not lose either its taste or consistency.

After defrosting, the chicken completely retains its shape, the skin remains in the same place, the color does not change. Checked! If you're afraid, try freezing a small piece, such as a wing or leg!

You can cook chicken on a free day, and it is much more convenient to bake several carcasses at once; this will save time, since you will have to wash the dishes and oven once. Cool the finished chicken well at room temperature, then wrap it in cling film so that less air gets into the packaging, and place the appetizer in the refrigerator. If you have an unexpected visit from guests or simply when you don’t feel like cooking, heat it up, cook it as a side dish and enjoy!

Cutlets and meatballs - a quick dinner

When preparing cutlets, meatballs or other minced meat dishes for lunch, cook them in double quantity. In terms of time spent, you will lose practically nothing, well, maybe an extra half hour will be spent on frying the cutlets. But then, when you don’t have time to prepare dinner, these preparations will definitely help you out.

The cutlets look no less appetizing than fresh ones

It is best to cool meat cutlets for freezing and wrap them in film, 2-4 pieces at a time. Meatballs can be frozen directly in tomato sauce by placing them in a portioned plastic container that can withstand both low and high temperatures. You can also freeze fried pieces of meat with or without sauce, chops, including lazy ones, stuffed peppers and cabbage rolls.

Freezing dumplings and dumplings

Now a little about how to properly freeze dumplings and dumplings. Dough products intended for cooking are best frozen raw. Always place dumplings in a single layer on a plate, trays or heavy cardboard.

You can prepare homemade dumplings not only on the stove, but also in a slow cooker. This will save a lot of time. They are also convenient to use for quickly preparing soup or for a hot snack in portioned pots.

Dumplings in vareniki should be placed in one layer

Preparations for soups

To avoid wasting time preparing frying soup, make several preparations at once. Fry onions, carrots, mushrooms, and other vegetables that you like to add to broths and freeze it all in small portions in plastic bags or plastic cups. The glasses will then need to be wrapped in film to prevent air from entering.

With the same success, you can freeze broths, which, for example, remain after boiling meat or chicken for salad. Plastic bottles and containers are suitable for this purpose.

The broth can be frozen in bags

Basics for pilaf and julienne

If you fry the meat in pieces, onions and grated carrots, and then freeze this mixture, then it will take a few minutes to prepare the pilaf. All you need to do is defrost the base, heat the meat and vegetables in a cauldron, add washed rice, add boiling water and wait for the dish to cook!

For a quick julienne, prepare mushrooms and onions. You can also add fried chicken or boiled mussels here. At the right time, heat everything in the microwave and act according to one of the steps. By the way, fried mushrooms can be added to potatoes or rice.

How to freeze a cake

Many desserts can be frozen, but the best results are for honey cake, which can even be made from ready-made cake layers sold in stores. The main thing is to use butter-based cream for the layer, not sour cream. The cake (or its pieces) should be wrapped in film before placing in the freezer, and it should be defrosted in the refrigerator, taking it out several hours before use.

You can serve the cake with coffee made from frozen cubes. Just brew the aromatic drink in a higher concentration, and then pour boiling water over it. But it’s better, of course, not to be lazy, but to cook fresh!

The cake can be frozen whole or in portions

Ready-made pancakes with or without filling, fried and baked pies and pies, pizza, biscuits without filling, and bread tolerate freezing well. We could go on and on and on about dishes that can easily withstand freezing without losing their properties.

We are confident that our readers, being passionate women, will not be afraid of experiments, will try new things and share their advice with us and other housewives in the comments.

As a rule, comparisons are made based on the least stable vitamin - vitamin C. Under adequate production and storage conditions (which are not always observed in Russia), about 10% of vitamin C is lost during blanching, and another part is lost during storage and subsequent processing.

These losses will be significant if storage conditions are not met, defrosting and subsequent freezing occurs, and exposure to light occurs.

As for fresh vegetables, it’s worth drawing a line between seasonal, local vegetables and fruits (from your garden, for example) and everyone else.

The latter, as is known, are collected immature, transported for a long time, stored in warehouses, treated with chemicals against rotting, etc. As a result of such a long transportation to the consumer, vegetables and fruits, which have not yet had time to gain maximum vitamins due to immaturity, lose a greater percentage of what they contained.

As a result, both fresh vegetables and fruits from store shelves and frozen products contain approximately the same amount of vitamins, depending, first of all, on the conditions of collection and transportation of a particular batch, and not on the processing method.

When stored properly, frozen foods can contain more vitamins than fresh store-bought foods.

If you compare fresh vegetables and fruits from your garden, just picked at the peak of ripeness, they, of course, will contain much more vitamins than frozen foods.

As for berries, especially those that perish quickly, such as raspberries, for example, fresh raspberries contain more vitamin C than frozen ones. Simply because fresh raspberries have a very short shelf life, and it will not be possible to pick them green and take them to the point of sale. Although blast freezing technology allows you to freeze raspberries and preserve most of the nutrients they contain.

There are also losses in other vitamins during freezing and subsequent preparation: for example, during freezing, about 25% of vitamin B1 (thiamine) is lost, vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - from 4 to 18% (according to various sources). Vitamin A is not lost during blanching and freezing; losses occur during long-term storage, so when purchasing, for example, frozen carrots, it is important to look at the production date.

The conclusion is this: to get the maximum amount of vitamins during the harvest season, it is better to eat vegetables and fruits from your own garden or grown in your region. In winter there will not be much difference between frozen food and fresh food.

Myth #2: Freezing kills germs

In fact, bacteria are much more sensitive to high temperatures than to low temperatures. Before freezing, the products are washed and blanched (preparing for freezing, quick cooking or simply treating with boiling water), while a small number of microorganisms die, while the rest, when frozen, become inactive, in which they can remain for quite a long time.

When the pathogenic microorganisms that were in them are activated. Therefore, frozen foods, like fresh ones, need to be thoroughly washed and heat treated.

If the product was defrosted or simply kept at a higher temperature than it should have been (frozen food should be stored at -18 degrees), some bacteria could begin to multiply, despite the fact that the product itself was not defrosted. Then the contamination of the product with pathogenic microorganisms will be high. To prevent intestinal infections, such products must be treated at high temperatures before consumption.

Myth #3: Frozen meat and fish products are the same as vegetables.

In the production of semi-finished meat products, food additives, flavor enhancers, stabilizers and flavors are used. In addition, salt is added - and later when preparing the dish you will not be able to regulate its amount. Often frozen semi-finished products are over-salted.

When making frozen fish, it is glazed by repeated immersion in cold water. This is done so that the outer layer of ice prevents shrinkage during storage and slows down the process of fat oxidation.

However, the weight of such water, according to GOST, should not exceed 4% of the weight of the fish itself. Unscrupulous producers not only freeze more ice on the surface of the fish, but also inject water inside the carcasses to increase weight. In addition, the injection solution may contain stabilizers, dyes and flavors to improve the commercial qualities of the product.

Rapid freezing (shock freezing) results in the formation of small ice crystals that do not damage the cell walls. Slow freezing causes the formation of large crystals, causing the fish meat to lose its consistency after being frozen. Therefore, when producing frozen fish, only shock freezing should be used.

In general, we can say that the quality of frozen meat (including semi-finished products) and fish depends on the production technology and the integrity of the seller. But since the consumer cannot control the production method, the amount of additives and storage technology, nutritionists do not recommend consuming frozen semi-finished products as part of a healthy diet.

Myth #4: Frozen food doesn't spoil.

In fact, nothing can preserve a product forever, not even blast freezing. Thus, the shelf life of frozen vegetables is 24 months; dumplings, other semi-finished meat products and fish - 6 months. Naturally, it is not recommended to eat such products after the expiration date.

Frozen foods should be stored at -18 degrees - at this temperature most microorganisms become inactive. When the temperature rises even by a few degrees, some types of bacteria can begin to multiply and then, if such a product is consumed, cause illness.

If frozen food is accidentally defrosted (during a power outage, for example), it should be cooked immediately.

Myth No. 5: A person chooses whether or not to eat frozen foods.

Often we don’t even know that the product sold to us arrived at the store or restaurant in a frozen state.

Nowadays everything is frozen: in addition to vegetables, fruits, meat and fish, these are also semi-finished bakery products (in the bakery you only need to defrost them and keep them in the oven for 10 minutes), confectionery products (cakes, pastries in restaurants, etc.), ready-made pasta , dough, seafood, ready meals, mushrooms, milk...

Freezing is the most convenient way to transport food, and blast freezing allows you to preserve the maximum properties of a fresh product.

Rules for choosing frozen foods

1. When buying frozen foods, give preference to vegetables, fruits and berries; other products are better to use fresh and cook yourself.
2. It is better to buy packaged frozen foods, in which case the production date is indicated on the package.
3. Packaging of frozen food must not be damaged.
4. The temperature in the freezer (in the store) should be below -18 degrees.
5. Check the product's expiration date and production date (it must coincide with the harvest season).
6. The fruits in the bag should lie separately; if you feel a solid piece of ice, this indicates a violation of the process of transportation and storage of the product.

You can freeze not only dumplings and cutlets, but also pies, stuffed pancakes and even broths for soups. Below you will find 10 original dishes suitable for freezing. But before moving on to the recipes, a little theory.

In the freezer -18 ºС. At this temperature, the action of microorganisms stops - frozen food for a long time without losing its taste. How much exactly? Considering that we constantly look into the freezer, that is, temperature changes occur, food slightly thaws and freezes again, no more than two months.

Some foods are not suitable for freezing. For example, zucchini, cucumbers and other watery vegetables. After defrosting, almost all the flavor leaves them along with the moisture. Lettuce leaves lose their texture, and raw potatoes take on an unpleasant aftertaste.

You need to know how to freeze and defrost food. The colder the dish is before going into the freezer, the better. If foods have been heat-treated, it is recommended to first cool them at room temperature, then keep them in the refrigerator and only then freeze them.

Thawing should be done in the reverse order: take the dish out of the freezer, place it on a tray and put it in the refrigerator for 10–12 hours. Slow thawing allows food to absorb moisture lost during freezing. This way the taste is preserved as much as possible. But, if you don’t have time, you can use the defrosting function in the microwave.

Vacuum bags, plastic and glass trays are used to store food in the freezer. Bags with zip locks are convenient when it is not necessary to maintain the shape of the dish: they significantly save space in the freezer. Plastic containers can be taken with you to work, they are convenient for heating lunch in the microwave, and glass trays are ideal for cooking in the oven, since there is no need to transfer the dish from dish to dish.

Debbie R/Flickr.com

Muffins are a sweet pastry, but if you use ham and cheese as a filling instead of chocolate and fruit, you can get hearty mini-buns for breakfast. They take little time to prepare, and after freezing and reheating, they are just as delicious as piping hot.

Ingredients:

• 3–4 pieces of bread;
• 3-4 slices of ham;
• 100 g cheddar or other hard cheese;
• 8 eggs;
• 1 glass of milk;
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder;
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper;
• dried parsley and other spices to taste.

Preparation

Cut the bread and ham into thin strips. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Fill the muffin tins about two-thirds full with this filling.

In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, milk, mustard powder and pepper. Pour the resulting mixture into the mold. But not to the edges, otherwise the muffins will run away during baking. Sprinkle each cell of the mold with dried parsley and other seasonings to your taste.

Preheat the oven to 200 ºС. Bake the muffins for 15–20 minutes. Let them cool, then put them in a plastic container and put them in the freezer.

Julia Frost/Flickr.com

In the morning you can get the required number of buns, heat them in the microwave and get a quick, satisfying, and most importantly, tasty breakfast.

cupcakesandkalechips.com

Ideal for breakfast, nutritious and healthy. It provides about 20% of the daily value of fiber and protein, contains a lot of essential nutrients and helps control appetite. If you are too lazy to bother with preparing porridge in the morning, there is a solution - frozen oatmeal cups with various fillings (fruits, nuts, dried fruits, etc.).

Ingredients:

• 2 cups oatmeal;
• 3 glasses of milk or water (optional);
• 1 tablespoon honey;
• 30 g butter;
• a pinch of salt;
• fruits, berries, chocolate, nuts, dried fruits and other fillings.

Preparation

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. Add oatmeal and mix thoroughly. Reduce heat to low and simmer porridge for 5–7 minutes until thickened. Stir constantly. Remove the oatmeal from the heat, add a knob of butter and a spoonful of honey, mix well. Let cool slightly.

Grease a muffin tin with vegetable oil and place the porridge among the cells. Sprinkle some filling on top of each serving. This could be diced bananas, raspberries, raisins, flaked coconut - whatever you like to eat your oatmeal with.

Wrap the pan in cling film and freeze. When the cups are well set, remove them from the mold and wrap them individually in film. This will significantly save space in the freezer.

Remove the required number of cups from the freezer the night before to easily have a healthy and delicious breakfast in the morning. Just heat the porridge in the microwave. Add milk if necessary.

Barbara Krawcowicz/Flickr.com

Frozen stuffed peppers work almost as well as dumplings or dumplings. If you know you have a busy day ahead and won't have time to cook, take the peppers out of the freezer the day before. They will thaw overnight in the refrigerator, all you have to do is put them in the oven.

Ingredients:

• 8 bell peppers;
• 700 g minced beef;
• 250 g rice;
• 250 g tomato sauce;
• 1 onion;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• hard cheddar cheese;
• salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation

Wash the peppers, cut off the tops to create “cups”, the inner cavity from the seeds. The cut caps can be crumbled and used in the filling.

Peel the onion and garlic and chop finely. Combine ground beef (you can use ground turkey instead of ground beef), rice, peppers, onion, garlic and tomato sauce. Salt and pepper to taste. Stuff the peppers with this. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

In this form, the peppers can already be frozen. When you need to cook them, defrost and bake in the oven at 180ºC for 30–40 minutes.

budgetbytes.com

What to take for lunch or? For many, this is a daily headache. This recipe will help diversify the contents of your lunchbox. The ingredients are simple, the preparation is easy.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of potatoes;
• 500 g salsa sauce;
• 500 g hard cheese (for example, cheddar);
• 50 g butter;
• 9 eggs;
• 1 tablespoon olive oil;
• 1 teaspoon paprika;
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder;
• ½ teaspoon salt;
• ground black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Wash the potatoes and cut into cubes. If it is young, you don’t even have to peel it. Add paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the bowl with the potato cubes and add olive oil. Mix everything thoroughly. Place the potatoes in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the oven preheated to 200 ºC for 45–60 minutes. Stir the potatoes about halfway through cooking.

While it's cooking, make the omelette. To do this, break the eggs into a bowl and lightly beat them with a whisk. Melt the butter in a frying pan and carefully pour in the eggs. Remove the omelette from the heat a couple of minutes before it’s ready; the eggs should still be a little runny.

Divide the potatoes into containers. Add 2-3 tablespoons of salsa or any other sauce of your choice to each of them. Divide the omelette into portions and sprinkle with grated cheese.

budgetbytes.com

With this amount of ingredients you will get six office lunches. Store them in the freezer, and when necessary, take a container with you, heat them in the microwave and enjoy excellent country-style potatoes.

Scott/Flickr.com

Short pasta in the form of corrugated tubes with diagonally cut edges is called penne. You can use them and ground beef to make a delicious casserole, which will help out if you don't have time for dinner. You can take it to work for lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg minced beef;
• 800 g of tomatoes in their own juice;
• 500 g penne pasta;
• 400 g marinara sauce;
• 400 g ricotta;
• 400 g mozzarella;
• 1 large onion;
• 1 egg;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2 teaspoons of Italian herb mixture;
• ½ teaspoon coarsely ground red pepper (flakes);
• salt and black pepper to taste.

Preparation

Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic. Fry them in olive oil. Then add ground beef to them. Fry it, stirring constantly, until excess moisture evaporates. When the minced meat is browned, pour the tomatoes in their own juice and marinara sauce into the pan (if you don’t have it on hand, you can use any other tomato sauce). Add spices: Italian mixture, red and black pepper, salt. Simmer for half an hour. After 30 minutes, transfer a third of the sauce from the pan to a separate bowl. Cool.

Also, in a separate bowl, combine the ricotta, grated mozzarella (save some cheese for sprinkling) and eggs. Salt, pepper, whisk until smooth.

Boil the pasta. Rinse them under cold running water. Mix with minced meat and cheese. Place everything in a glass container. Pour in the remaining tomato-meat sauce and sprinkle with grated cheese.

Thrivinghomeblog.com

You must use a glass container so that when you take the casserole out of the freezer, you can immediately put it in the oven. Bake at a temperature of 190 ºС. Moreover, if you put the casserole in the oven straight from the freezer, the cooking time will be 2–2.5 hours. Therefore, it is better to first defrost the dish in the microwave or naturally, on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

Nikki G/Flickr.com

Taquitos are a Mexican dish consisting of stuffed corn tortillas. This recipe is a salvation for those times when everyone is hungry, but there is no time to cook and nothing to cook with. In just 15 minutes you will have dinner on your table no worse than a restaurant one.

Ingredients:

• 15 corn tortillas;
• 500 g chicken breast;
• 250 g cream cheese;
• 170 g salsa verde sauce;
• 4 tablespoons chopped cilantro;
• 2 tablespoons lime juice;
• 1 teaspoon onion powder;
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder;
• 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder;
• ¾ teaspoon cumin;
• vegetable oil for frying and greasing.

Preparation

Cut the chicken breast into strips and fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Mix cream cheese with cilantro, lime juice and spices (cumin, onion, garlic powder and chili powder). Since the dish is Mexican, Pepper Jack cheese goes well with taquitos. It has a creamy taste with slightly tart notes. But you can use other semi-soft varieties.

You can make your own tortillas or buy them ready-made. In the latter case, first microwave the tortillas for 1-2 minutes so that they are soft and do not break when folded.

Place chicken and cheese mixture on tortillas. Add some salsa verde. Read about how to prepare it at home. Roll the tortillas into a log.

Preheat the oven to 220 ºС. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with vegetable oil. Place the rolls on it so that the edges are down and they do not touch each other. Bake for 15–20 minutes.

Happymoneysaver.com

Once the taquitos are baked and cool, place them in a zip-lock freezer bag and place them in the freezer. In a situation where “everyone is hungry, but there is no time to cook and nothing to cook with,” place the rolls again on a baking sheet, lightly sprinkle with vegetable oil and reheat in the oven for 10–15 minutes.

Arnaud Dessein/ Flickr.com

Nuggets are usually associated with fast food, but they can be the basis for a second one for lunch or dinner. When you don't have time to fry the cutlets, remove them from the freezer and reheat the nuggets. As a side dish, you can boil pasta or make mashed potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ kg chicken fillet;
• 200 g flour;
• 200 g corn flakes;
• 5 eggs;
• 1 tablespoon paprika.

Preparation

Rinse the meat, dry it and cut it into small pieces about 3–5 cm long. Grind the corn flakes in a blender. Mix flour and paprika in a separate bowl. Also whisk the eggs separately.

Dip each piece of chicken first in flour, then in eggs and finally in cereal. Do this carefully if you want the nuggets to have a real crunch. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the breaded chicken pieces on it. Bake the nuggets in the oven at 180 ºC for 15–20 minutes.

Once the nuggets have cooled, place them in a sealed plastic bag and place it in the freezer. It is useful to label frozen food packages. Indicate the name of the dish and the date of preparation.

Julia Frost/Flickr.com

Meatballs are an Italian dish made from minced meat balls. They are similar to meatballs and meatballs, but neither. Meatballs are usually stewed, meatballs are boiled in broth, and meatballs are baked in the oven (Italian version) or deep-fried (American version). Meatballs are a great solution for those who don’t have the time or desire to stand at the stove. It's tasty and satisfying. Meatballs can be eaten as a separate dish or served with a side dish.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg minced beef;
• 200 g breadcrumbs;
• 200 g ricotta;
• 2 eggs;
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil;
• parsley, salt, pepper and other spices to taste.

Preparation

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Ricotta can be replaced with thick sour cream, but it is better to use minced beef: pork is too fatty for this dish.

Julie Magro/Flickr.com

Form the resulting minced meat into balls about 5 cm in diameter. Place them in a container, wrap it in foil and freeze. Meatballs should be baked at 180 ºС for 20–30 minutes.

Stew with chicken and vegetables - preparation for multicooker

Thehumbledhomemaker.com

Significantly simplifies life: put in groceries, press a button and go about your business. And if, in addition, you freeze the preparation, where all the ingredients have already been washed and cut, then the time savings becomes even more noticeable.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken fillet;
• 2 bell peppers;
• 1 onion;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• 1 tablespoon honey;
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar;
• 1 tablespoon chili powder;
• 2 teaspoons cumin;
• 1 teaspoon paprika.

Preparation

Wash the chicken and cut into strips. Also wash the pepper, remove seeds and chop. Peel and chop the onion and garlic.

Take a ziplock bag and add all the ingredients, including honey and apple cider vinegar. Release as much air as possible from the bag. Freeze. When needed, defrost the bag, pour its contents into the slow cooker and simmer the stew for 3-6 hours. You can do all the manipulations in the morning so that in the evening, when you come home from work, you can enjoy a delicious dinner.

N i c o l a/Flickr.com

Guests are on the doorstep, and there’s a ball rolling in the refrigerator? For such a case, it’s a good idea to have a pizza preparation. Remove the foil and cling film, and after 15 minutes a delicious treat is on your table. Pizza dough, of course, can be bought at the store. But homemade tastes better.

Ingredients

For the test:

• 200 ml hot water;
• 2–3 cups flour;
• 2 tablespoons olive oil;
• 1 tablespoon honey;
• 1 ½ teaspoons dry yeast;
• ½ teaspoon salt;
• 1 teaspoon each of a mixture of Italian herbs and garlic powder (optional).

Filling option:

• chicken fillet;
• salami;
• olives.

Preparation

Dissolve a spoonful of honey in hot water, then add yeast and let stand for 5-7 minutes. Pour in the olive oil, add salt and seasonings if you decide to use them. Mix well. Carefully gradually add flour and knead the dough. Cover the bowl with the dough with a towel and leave for half an hour. The dough should rise and double in volume.

Roll out the dough. You can make small portioned pizzas (it’s easier to store), or you can make one large circle. Bake the dough without (!) filling at 220 ºС for 7–8 minutes.

Remove the future pizza from the oven, let it cool slightly and brush with sauce. It can be anything, such as alfredo, barbecue, or just ketchup and mayonnaise. Place the filling on top. It also depends on your imagination and the products at hand. Don't forget to sprinkle with grated cheese!

Wrap the semi-finished pizza in cling film and then in foil and freeze it. When guests arrive, place the pizza in the oven for 15 minutes. All you need is for the filling to bake and the cheese to melt.

Bon appetit!

Write in the comments what foods and dishes you freeze.

And we use ideas from this article by Elizaveta Pravikova:

Lent has arrived - and what is a person forced to think about most of all, especially those with a large family? Of course, about food, alas and ah. About food, about its composition, about how to prepare dishes tasty and nutritious, and ideally, simply and quickly. Because the prospect of spending the entire fast at the stove does not make me happy, that’s for sure.

The most interesting thing is that there are many recipes for lean food, there are also opportunities, but how lazy to put all this into practice... Moreover, the result (in the sense of whether they will eat it or not) in my family, for example, is unpredictable. It can easily turn out that half of the family will like it, but the other half will not eat what is cooked. However, creating a Lenten dinner is not a particularly big problem; everyone except me dines outside the house. The problem is different - breakfast, that's what requires a truly creative approach!

There is a constant “ambush” with breakfasts during Lent. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s a constant headache to make sure my husband and children don’t leave home hungry for the whole day. Oatmeal is fine for me, if I have it, the issue of breakfast is always resolved. For me, but not for children, in whom you can’t stuff oatmeal with milk, let alone its lean version. And this year we have a very interesting situation - three older children get up before us, get ready on their own and go to school. This means that we need to provide them with breakfasts that do not require any effort from them to prepare: something that they can take out, heat up and eat, and that are nutritious and tasty. So I started thinking about how to ensure this. And in the process of my thoughts this list was born.

Please note that these are not specific recipes, but rather 5 ideas for a meatless breakfast. To be honest, I don’t really like to use exact recipes (unless it’s baking, where strict proportions are important), because they require a certain set of products, certain manipulations, and time. And people's tastes are too different. That's why I personally prefer ideas as a basis for creativity. Like things and ideas from IKEA - you pick what you like, pick up the idea and create based on your personal taste and preferences. My list includes both quick ideas and those that require cooking and preparation, that is, homemade semi-finished products. And, by the way, continuing the theme of the last article - all ideas are more than budget-friendly!
Pancakes

I start with pancakes, because they are the Lenten “salvation” for us; all my children eat them! The main thing is that the filling is different. Yes, this is a dish that will have to be prepared in advance. And if we take on it, then in full. It's stupid to make dough for the sake of a dozen pancakes, right? That's why I do a lot at once. Lean yeast pancakes turn out very tasty and elastic if you add more sunflower oil to the dough, and also let the dough rise, and then stir it well.

The composition of the dough is simple - water, salt-sugar, yeast, flour and sunflower oil. Also, to prevent the edges from drying out during the making of pancakes, it would be good to cover the finished pancakes with a lid (while warm). Your pile of pancakes is the basis for further creativity in terms of filling. Its quality can be anything, depending on your taste - cabbage, rice, potatoes, beans, peas, with the addition of fried onions (onions and greens), mushrooms, fish, seafood. Sweet fillings include berries with sugar, grated apples, thick jam. And then everything is simple, wrap the filling in a pancake, preferably a roll, and put it in the freezer. That's it, a delicious and nutritious instant breakfast for several days is ready!

2-3 minutes in the microwave, any child and any husband can handle this on their own. And I can’t help but add about the budget nature of this dish: I calculated that 20 pancakes (larger than those sold in packs) with cabbage and rice, very tasty, cost me 50 (!!!) rubles. And, of course, plus my work on days off.

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Vegetable cutlets

Our second main dish also requires preparation, and again we prepare it in industrial quantities. Potato cutlets (or pancakes, as you like). The basis is jacket potatoes, then, of course, peeled and minced in a meat grinder. Then add to this dough, again, whatever you want - mushrooms, onions, herbs, spices. This is a very convenient semi-finished product; the cutlets can be frozen unfried (and then their preparation will take a little more time) or fried (then just reheat). You can use them as a hot dish, with peas for example, or with sauce, or you can put them on a sandwich. The sandwich usually uses “yesterday’s” cold pancakes left over from dinner. Any vegetable cutlets you like, made ahead and frozen, also work great for breakfast. Again - the dish is very inexpensive.

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Oatmeal, sir!

But my favorite oatmeal is a truly fertile basis for creativity! In my opinion, it is not included in the “porridge” section precisely because of its versatility. Quick, tasty, nutritious, you can add anything, make it any consistency, you want it, boil it, you want it, no, you want it, fry it like pancakes, in general - a miracle.

Another good thing about it is that it doesn’t require any recipe. Everything is prepared here, as my grandmother used to say, according to the principle “everything good is included.” You can add soy milk, liquid or dry, to it, you can cook it in water with honey, apple juice, or cocoa. Add any spices, nuts and dried fruits, any fruits and berries, everything to taste. You can make jelly and delicious nutritious cocktails from it. It’s great to combine it with bran. You can pour it in the evening and eat it cold or reheat it in the morning. Taking a banana, a handful of berries, a glass of liquid (water, juice, soy milk) and a few spoons of cereal and blending it all with a blender, we get a cocktail. Add bran, let it sit - and here is a new dish. The same can be done in the vegetable version by whipping liquid porridge with herbs, spices and vegetables. In general - there is more than enough creativity! And again, mind you, it comes out very budget-friendly.

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And porridge

For those who are not opposed to cereals, this is one of the most versatile breakfast dishes. Yes, it’s a little boring without milk, but let’s get creative. Unlike oatmeal, however, most porridges require more time to cook. However, now there are a variety of cereals on sale: buckwheat, rice, corn, etc. But if you want it to be budget-friendly, it is better to stick to cereals.

For example, did you know that buckwheat doesn’t need to be cooked? Moreover, uncooked it is much healthier. Just in the evening you need to fill it with water, cold or hot, you can immediately add salt, sugar, honey, spices, dried fruits or hot seasonings (again, everything to taste), close the lid and leave. And then in the morning all you have to do is add oil as desired and heat it up - very tasty!

You will have to cook the rice in advance, of course, and in the morning you will have to diversify it somehow. Happy people are those who love pumpkin, because rice and millet go well with pumpkin. And by adding zest, ginger or other spices, you turn this porridge into a culinary masterpiece.

And, so as not to offend our favorite children's porridge, I will share an idea based on semolina. Semolina porridge is very tasty cooked with lingonberry or cranberry juice. You need to cook it thinner than usual, and then, after cooling a little (or completely, if you do it in advance), beat thoroughly with a blender or mixer. The result is a delicate and delicious nutritious mousse. If you make it in advance and in larger quantities, then you should put it in vases and bowls and put it in the refrigerator. At any moment you have breakfast/afternoon snack/snack/dessert ready. Children, by the way, eat with great pleasure (and don’t even always realize that it’s semolina).

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Sandwiches and pies

Well, for those who categorically do not want to eat all sorts of healthy cereals and vegetables, but always prefer a cup of coffee with pastries or a sandwich, there are also countless lean options. Well, firstly, fish and seafood - salted, smoked, caviar, various pates. This, however, is not budgetary at all. Even if you do everything yourself. But sometimes you can treat yourself, right? Secondly, various types of “non-sea” caviar: vegetable, mushroom, legume. Both store-bought options and homemade items will come into play here. Bean and pea paste can also be made from canned food for speed - beat it with a blender, add what you want, to taste, put it in the refrigerator. Vegetable and mushroom caviar, of course, takes time. But the good thing about all these “spreads” for sandwiches is that you can make a lot of them at once, even for a week. And, of course, no one canceled preserves and jams for spreading on a sandwich! By the way, anything can also become the basis for sandwiches - bread (regular and in the form of toast), dry bread, pita bread, pita bread, tortillas.

The topic of Lenten pies is worthy not just of a separate article, but of an entire book. Therefore, I will limit myself to a simple life hack for breakfast pies. I always have a pack of puff pastry in the freezer for Lent, it’s very convenient. For example, you have something left over from dinner (for us it’s usually a side dish), you quickly defrost the dough, make a filling from the leftover dinner, adding something else for taste, like herbs or fried onions, and make envelopes or triangles from puff pastry. It bakes very quickly, a little fuss too, and a delicious breakfast is right there!

I hope our ideas will help you develop your own creativity in preparing delicious Lenten breakfasts and spend less time cooking during Lent. And, of course, we expect you to share your ideas too!
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