Thursday, March 19, 2015

Freezing Avocados or Guacamole

As you know if you read this blog, I sometimes get overages of food from our local food bank. 
 
If a truck comes in and has more than our food bank can give out of food that can go bad, they will have me give it out. I spent from 3:30 until 8 p.m. distributing avocados to people around town. 

No one complained getting free avocados of course but, it does take lots of time and sometimes hurts the back hauling cases of things in and out of the car but in the end, it is a huge blessing for my family as we get foods that often times we can't afford normally. 


A few weeks ago, we got blackberries and I spent a few days delivering those. (See my post about freezing and making fruit leather here.)


Last week, we got cases of asparagus and I spent a few days delivering those.


We have enjoyed all of these wonderful items and I got to try something new this week. Usually, we can't afford avocados in bulk as the cheapest I have ever purchased them is 2 for $1. So, I wouldn't purchase more than a bag that we could eat in a week or two. 
 
Having two crates of them, I figured I would try to freeze them and if that didn't work, I would give the rest out.
 
I cut the avocados in half and then hit the pit with a knife, twist the knife and the pit pulls right out without any of the fruit on it. 

We like a little flavor and spice in our avocado so I sprinkle them with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. I also squeeze a little fresh lime on them to keep them from darkening. 
 
I cut about ten of them up and lined them up on the counter and then sprinkled the seasoning and used about 1/4 of the lime squeezed over them. 
 
I used a spoon to pull them out of the peel and the put them into a snack sized zip lock bag. 

Once both sides of the avocado are in the snack bag, I used a fork to squeeze and mash the avocado. 

Once it is completely mashed, I squeeze all the air out of the bag before sealing it. Air makes the avocado brown so try to get as much of the air out as possible. 


To freeze them, make sure they are lined up and not stacked as the longer they take to freeze, the more brown they get.

Once they are frozen, then, I put them into a gallon zip bag and store them that way. 

You can fit about ten of the snack baggies into the gallon zip bags.


Over a two day period, I froze over 100 avocados. The ones I froze in the deep freezer turned a bit more brown than the one I stuck in the other freezer on the fridge. 


I think it was because the deep freeze is so full that the air didn't circulate around them while freezing as much. I feel very blessed that I have the food bank in our lives. My freezers seems to keep full with all the things they get in overages.

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