Fresh summer strawberries are one of the most popular fruits of the market. They are refreshing and nutritious with lots of antioxidants and best of all they don’t rapidly boost blood sugar if you are sensitive to blood sugar levels.

We wish we could keep these tasty berries around longer so we freeze them! It’s relatively simple to freeze berries, but here are some tips.

TO FREEZE

Select fully ripe, firm berries with a deep red color.  Discard any berries that are beginning to become overripe or not ripe enough. 

Wash and remove tops. 

Place whole or sliced berries on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. Freeze for 2-3 hours, then transfer to a freezer-safe container or bag and freeze for up to 1 year. 

To Use: thawing any fruits or vegetables will likely result in mushy produce. But you can thaw to use in baking or cooking. Use frozen for smoothies or margaritas!

Strawberry smoothie

½ cup strawberries (Rodriguez Bros. Ranch)

½ banana

½ cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup orange juice

½ cup crushed ice

Directions

Put all ingredients into a blender and process until smooth.

 

…or Margarita (Courtesy Guy Fieri)

2 cups crushed ice

1 cup frozen strawberries

1 cup tequila

2 limes, juiced

Splash Triple Sec

 

Splash simple syrup (equal amounts sugar and water heated until sugar dissolves, then cooled).

 

Combine in a blender, ice, strawberry water, tequila, lime juice, Triple Sec and simple syrup. Puree until smooth. Pour into rocks glasses and serve.