I am a very busy working mom who is the ONLY one in the household who will eat raw as of right now. I cannot prepare foods constantly each week so I thought "Hey, why not freeze food in small quantities to take out like TV dinners?"

Now I know that you can freeze fruit with no problem but I read where vegtables should be blanched before freezing because they still emit gasses naturally.
So, I wanted to see if I could get around that and I dehydrated me some focaccia bread and was making a live BLT. I vacuum-sealed 2 pieces of the bread with a small serving of dulse happily.

I took it out of the freezer last night and put it in the fridge to thaw.
Went to work this morning and eagerly tried it for lunch. Something wasn't right about the taste. I'm not sure if it was bad or just the flavor was off because I froze the dulse with the live dehydrated focaccia bread.

So, my question is......how do I know what I can and can't freeze for easy meals during my busy work week?


For instance, live cheese has vegtables in it for flavor. Is that unsafe to freeze and eat later or not?

Thanks very much for all your help!
New Raw Foodie Bethoc

I have been wondering the same thing. But I'm betting the list is small.
Also an new raw foodie
Don

What to freeze and when is a fairly large question. Nothing, not even fruit, will be as good after freezing as it was fresh. As you know, most fruit will freeze better than most veggies. That's because vegetable cells are usually less flexible and are more likely to rupture when their internal water freezes and expands. Blanching helps to soften the cells so they are more flexible.

It stands to reason that veggies that have been well-blended into a live cheese recipe won't have this problem if you've already broken down all the individual cells. It's unlikely it will be as yummy after thawing out again, though. If it's not frozen too long, and it's well sealed it should fare better.

If you're making food on the weekend to eat throughout the week, then I suspect most of what you make would last as well in the fridge as the freezer for five or six days. If you're just getting used to raw food eating, it may take some experience to learn to predict the shelf life of unfamiliar foods. Dehydration, oil and salt will all make foods last a little longer than otherwise.

I usually freeze a lot of fresh fruit and berries during the summer months, and bananas all year long when I want to make banana sorbet. That's about all that I do freeze. When I used to cook a lot of food, I found that it froze and thawed again with better results than the fresh raw foods.

Freezing does diminish the nutritional value and enzyme activity. Something to consider just because the whole idea behind raw is the get the most nutrition and enzyme activity as possible. Don't feel like you can't ever do this, just know that fresh is always best!

All I can recommend to someone who is very busy is to try to learn to eat as simply as possible. Make a nut/seed pate for the week and just cut up veggies as you want to eat. Make a yummy chocolate spread, which can also last a week, and carry apple or mango slices to eat with it. Always have a simple snack combination of any of the follow: cacao beans, goji berries, mulberries, dried figs, dates (use sparingly - 1 or 2 should do the trick), walnuts, cashews (again, use sparingly - very high carbohydrate). Cacao beans really quell your appetite.

Hope this helps!!

All the best,
Cat

You can freeze the majority of prepared raw meals. Just anything that could turn soggy you shouldn't such as lettuce & nori. Things I've tried that worked great-soup, stir fry,lasagna, tuna, stuffed peppers, pasta.

You can just simplify your diet rather than eating prepared meals. But I guess that depends on where you are in your raw diet journey. It's always good to have those meals when needed.

Simple Raw Recipes & Health Tips

Just rinse, chop and freeze. Easy