Hi, I'm trying to be as healthy as I can and have been having a lot of smoothies using frozen strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower straight from the freezer.
Are these safe to use or am I going to be consuming too many pesticides etc?
Cooking them before refreezing isn't really feasible but I can wash them and refreeze if that would make much difference?
Not as healthy as eating the raw fruit as the freezing will break down the fibre which protects you from the sugar and as making them into smoothies will also do that to some extent also.
I limit my fruit intake to half a cupfull of blueberries each day but use frozen veg regularly.
Yeah, that's why I use strawberries due to the low sugar content.
I'm kind of OK with the sugar side of things and more concerned about the pesticides or whatever else as the label on the broccoli for example says to cook before consuming.
Frozen vegetables mostly have a warning not to eat them until they have been cooked to a certain temperature to destroy bacteria. Be careful. 😊
Yeah, that's part of the reason why I was asking. The label on the broccoli says to cook thoroughly but realistically I'm not gonna cook it all before putting it back in the freezer to then put in smoothies.
I've been putting them in my smoothies straight from the freezer for months without any problems but I'm trying to work out if I'm really likely to cause myself any problems or not.
Your choice, but me personally, I wouldn't do it. Country of origin labels say vegetables may be coming from anywhere in the world. Who knows what they're exposed to in shipping. Bacteria, parasites... Yikes.
How about cooking a whole batch, then freezing what you don't use -- flat so it's easy to break off pieces?
Yeah, that's a fair point. I've started washing them hoping that should get rid of most of the bad stuff????
I do have a steamer though so could potentially steam and refreeze it all.
Unless you buy from a farmer's market, buying vegetables snap frozen will be fresher (due transport and handling). I would defrost the vege overnight and thoroughly rinse before consuming. I eat my broccoli and berry's raw this way for highest nutritional value. If you forget overnight, you can microwave defrost which is a much better way to cook than people credit.
Quinoa flake and fruit square, gluten free and vegan. 
Can anyone identify this fruit?
