Ice Cube Food

Food & Drink Completed Projects
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Alrighty! I have enough done to prove to myself this is a good idea…Tasty, simple, and quick (minus the hand washing the ice cube trays…Hoo boy, I hate that, :rofl:)

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The main image is a cup of rhubarb, blueberry, and oats. A nice little treat…A really nice little treat, :grinning:

To make one cube, I use a small 11 oz cup, and pour in enough water to cover about 2/3rds the cube. (I haven’t done so yet, but you could also use almond, oat, coconut, etc milk instead). Then heat it for 30 seconds in the microwave and stir til the cube is completely melted. For the savory soups, I’ll sometimes add another 20 seconds after the first cook and stir.

Also, for sweet ones, or if you want a cold soup, put in half the water, heat, then add an ice cube to cool it down.

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The ice cubed rhubarb one (in a bag because I don’t have another cannister, and I don’t want the sweet flavors mixed with soups, heh).

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Mushroom soup, and a sweet and savory beet with oatmeal.

The best methods I have found is making any ones (such as the rhubarb) stronger, or with less water. For others, such as the mushroom soup, reducing by 1/3 or 1/2 over low heat.

As for adding the oatmeal, old fashioned holds its shape quite well (although, it’s the only kind I get, so maybe rolled oats will work? :person_shrugging: ). anyway, I add those after the soup/sweets are fully cooked/reduced, with the heat turned down, for about two minutes, then I turn the heat off, and immediately cool the pan (and soup) in some ice water. Then spoon fill each ice cube tray.

Lost my train of thought, but meh, I’ve got it started. So I’ll add more info when it comes to me…as well as I’ll try to actually write down some recipes, heh.

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Interesting!

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Sounds like a nice and healthy treat! About how many ice cubes do you need to make a bowl of soup?

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:thinking: I’d wager 2 to 6 depending on the appetite, but mostly these are something for a person who needs small snacks between meals. I’ve read quite a bit of conflicting info, but for someone like me who has pretty severe hunger pangs (even when not hungry), and acid reflux, it might not be in my best interest to eat full on meals whenever I get those hunger pangs. So having a lot of smaller snacks would be better. Plus, throw in that I had my teeth removed, and can’t stand having the dentures in, what I can eat is not a whole lot.

However…However…That does beg the question, are there larger ice cube trays? And if so, this might be a good way to do food prep that’s really really easy. :thinking:…To google, and AWAY!

Update: Ok! There are silicon ones, titled freezing trays. Up to one cup or more in storage capacity. Mental note to self: Remember this.

Huh! Looking them over, and…I don’t understand the reasoning of making the freezer trays (specifically for soups, and what-not) rectangular…That’s not exactly bowl friendly. :no_mouth:. That’s so odd. Not a single round one. Just squares and rectangles. :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

Whoa! They are a little pricey (for me, at least), but definitely on my to-get list.

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There’s a restaurant I go to that sells spaghetti sauce by the pint. I like to buy it and then scoop a cup of sauce into baggies and freeze them flat (once frozen, I put the smaller baggies into a gallon freezer baggie so the sauce doesn’t get frost bitten). When I want to use some, I just stick a bag of sauce into some warm water to defrost it enough to pour it into a pan. It seems like that would be a good way to freeze larger soup portions as well.

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Hunger pangs like that can be associated with blood sugar levels. Protein snacks have been recommended to me, a small amount every 4 hrs. A handful of nuts or seeds, a little bean dip with veggies, avoiding anything too high in fats, sugar & simple carbs. Those foods are quite filling too. We make a nice protien ball with some healing herbs that are good.

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Yeah! That’s the crux of it. Having no teeth really makes this so much harder. And I had worried that after I decided to get them pulled something was going to happen that I’d need them. Oof!

Anyway, I’m still trying different things. Adding oats and almond milk, for the moment. I still have to get some beans made, so I can add those. I do have some chicken bones and a small bit of broth in the freezer to make some more ice cube soups. But that’ll wait til I can get more of the counter cleaned off.

Another ill kitty, stress, and worrying about the archway, and more is taking up a lot of mental real estate. So doing what I can when my addled brain can think of it.

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My mom adds nut butter to smoothies, no reason it wouldn’t work for soups/stews too. Bean paste as well, no chew proteins!
I cool stuff then freeze it in ziplock baggies. The smaller size is a great single serving. Usually they thaw quickly enough, I just rest them in a container in or out of the fridge in case of leaks.
There are a few pastas made of beans or lentils, no flour at all, just the legumes. The texture is very pasta like! They even get pretty mushy if overcooked, which would make them easy to chew & great for pasta or in soup.
I make a sauce with red lentils too, they cook down to mush in the tomatoes. Good flavour, very high protein.

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