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Using Frozen Vegetables to Create a Budget-Friendly & Healthy Dinner

Sharon Palmer

Using frozen vegetables to create a quick healthy dinner can be a budget-friendly, convenient, sustainable strategy. Check out my top tips on using frozen vegetables to create a budget-friendly & healthy dinner.

It’s time to give a round of applause to the hard-working category of frozen vegetables. While many people may look down their noses at the frozen food aisle, using frozen vegetables to create a healthy meal can be a smart cooking strategy. Did you know that when vegetables are harvested for frozen packaging, they are picked at their flavor and nutrition peak? They are quickly harvested from the fields and flash frozen, thus locking all of those vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals in the bag. So, when you open the package of frozen peas, corn, or spinach and use it in your cooking, you receive a nutrition bounty in return. Not to mention that using frozen vegetables to create a budget friendly dinner can save you money. Another huge benefit is that you can enjoy seasonal produce grown more sustainably during the cooler months, rather than supporting imported fresh produce that hails from miles and miles away. Plus, relying on frozen vegetables makes cooking just so quick and easy. That’s why I’m sharing my 5 top tips on using frozen vegetables to create a budget friendly and healthy dinner.

5 Tips on Using Frozen Vegetables to Create a Budget Friendly & Healthy Dinner

Green Pistachio Smoothie

1. Go Green

Keep a bag of frozen greens—spinach, mustard greens, or kale—in your freezer at all times. Those pre-cleaned, trimmed greens are charged with nutrition, and they’re excellent thrown into a soup or stew, pasta dishes, quiche, stir-fries, or veggie scrambles. Better yet, throw a handful into a nutritious breakfast smoothie for a boost of green veggie power.

Vegan Tamale Pie

2. Get Corny

A bag of sweet, frozen corn is one of the most versatile items in your refrigerator. It’s the perfect basis of a nourishing chowder or tamale pie, plus it can add color, nutrition appeal, and vibrancy to a taco salad, bean burrito, cornbread, or succotash.

Use a mixed vegetable blend in stir-fries, such as this recipe for Snow Pea Seitan Stir-Fry with Brown Rice.

3. Mix it Up

A bag of your favorite vegetable blend, be it Asian-inspired, Mediterranean, or simply peas and carrots, can be the start of a beautiful meal. Toss it in a pan with a healthful protein source, soy sauce, and ginger and create a stir-fry to accompany brown rice. Sauté frozen vegetables with garlic and olive oil and toss them into whole wheat pasta. Stir a vegetable blend into a creamy sauce and top with mashed potatoes or biscuits for a Veggie Pot Pie.

Green Pea Hummus

4. Oh, Sweet Pea!

These tiny green orbs, high in protein and fiber, are the start of a lovely meal. Stir peas and boiled new potatoes into a creamy sauce as a side dish. Fold peas into a curry dish to serve with whole grains. Or toss them into a nutrient-rich, risotto as a one-dish meal.

Mediterranean Edamame Quinoa Bowl

5. Plant-Power it with Edamame

One of my favorite plant-based frozen protein sources is edamame—green, immature soybeans. These nutritious, tasty legumes can add star nutrition power to your meals in so many ways. Stir them into an entrée salad, stir-fry them with vegetables and a whole grain as a one-dish meal, and cook them in a hearty stew.

Check out some of my favorite recipes using frozen vegetables here:

Lentil Risotto with Peas
Tofu Kale Power Bowl with Tahini Dressing
Vegan Tamale Pie
Quinoa Corn Bean Chowder

3 thoughts on “Using Frozen Vegetables to Create a Budget-Friendly & Healthy Dinner

  1. I am sorry but I am not aware of any message boards on this topic. If I think of one I’ll let you know.

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