Hi there, it's Nisha. Today I'm going to give you a tour of my vegan freezer. I'll show you how to smartly stalk your freezer so that you can have healthy or relatively healthy meals in just a few minutes. So let me show you what I keep in my freezer and also give you some ideas for how to use these foods. One of the things I like to keep in my freezer are almond milk ice cubes. And I know that sounds a little hipster-y, but I do live in Brooklyn, so sometimes those crazy hipsters have really good ideas and I steal them. And I just take store-bought almond milk and I pour it into ice cube trays and freeze them. And the reason I do this is because if you want your smoothie to be cold, you could add regular ice cubes made of water, but it's going to water your smoothie down. So if you want a cold smoothie that's also creamy, adding almond milk ice cube is a great way to do that. And it's a fun treat to add to iced coffee in the summer. This wouldn't be a proper vegan video if I didn't have frozen bananas in my freezer because the vegans freaking love frozen bananas. We put them in smoothies and smoothie bowls and ice creams and desserts. To get the creamiest, smoothest texture or your ice cream or your smoothie, you want to make sure you're using really ripe bananas. Basically, they're going to be really brown and almost have gone bad, and that's when you want to slice them up and put them in the freezer. To make sure they don't stick together, I slice them up and put them on a baking tray or a flat surface. And then once they're frozen, I transfer them to a jar or container. As you may have noticed on Instagram, frozen berries are all the rage, and I'm here to share the secret with you to achieving that frosty berry look. Well, it's not really a secret because all you do is put fresh berries on a plate or a tray, you freeze them, and then you take them out, and then they're frozen. Now you have the secret to the hottest food trend on Instagram. You're welcome. In all seriousness, I always have some sort of frozen berry in my freezer, and I like to buy them fresh when they're seasoned and they're the sweetest and cheapest, and then I freeze the leftovers. I add them to smoothies, obviously. It's a great way to get a little bit of sweetness into your smoothie without adding too much sugar, and you have all those antioxidants from the berries. But I also like to make berry compote out of frozen berries. I just take some frozen berries, heat them up on the stove until they're defrosted and their juices run, and then I add some lemon juice and maple syrup, and it makes a really great topping for oatmeal or ice cream. There's one thing you should know about me, it's that I love dessert. So right now I have some vegan ice cream in my freezer. It's from the brand Nata Moe, which means no cow, which is really cute, and they make such delicious vegan ice creams. It's made with coconut milk, but it doesn't have that super strong coconut-y taste. It's decadent, it's rich, it's creamy, and it's everything you're looking for in ice cream. When you think of smoothies, you probably think of fruits, or if you're thinking vegetables, maybe something like spinach or kale for a green smoothie. But if you are a foodie who likes to make a beautiful smoothie bowl, you might want to create a particular color for your smoothie, but adding kale with blueberries and almond butter and protein powder is going to give you a smoothie that looks like poop. So I use two vegetables that are neutral colored in order to add bulk and nutrition to my smoothies without changing the color, and they are zucchini and cauliflower. For zucchini, just peel back the green layer of skin and then slice it up like you would a banana, and add it to your morning smoothie or your smoothie bowl. And the second vegetable cauliflower is super easy because it's already white. You don't have to do anything. And the reason I use these vegetables frozen instead of fresh is because the frozen texture gives it more of a smoothie-like consistency, similar to bananas, but without all the sugar. I like to keep some sort of leftovers in my freezer so that I can have a quick and healthy option, even when I'm in a bind, and don't have any other food, instead of going out to get fast food or eat junk food. Right now I have some butternut squash soup and lentil soup in my freezer, and usually when I make a big batch of food for meal prep, for instance, I get tired of eating it after a couple days, so instead of throwing it away, I store it in the freezer as leftovers, which saves time and money. And if I wanted to eat this for dinner after work one day, I would put the jar in a bowl of hot water and let it come to room temperature. I love nuts, so I eat a lot of nuts, and usually I just store them in my fridge or pantry because I go through them pretty quickly. But if I buy a particular type of nut that I don't eat as frequently or I'm buying a big bag of nuts that could go bad quickly, I will store it in the freezer to preserve the freshness. Right now I have pecans and hazelnuts in my freezer, which I love to bake with as well as snack on, so I keep them in my freezer because they're a little more icy than almonds and cashews, which I eat pretty regularly. Another thing I keep in ice cube trays in my freezer is vegetable stock, and the reason I freeze it in ice cube trays is so that I have sort of like individual sized servings of stock. If I only need a few tablespoons or just half a cup, I can just pop in a few cubes and I know exactly how much I need. And of course, you can freeze homemade stock like this, but I'm not quite on that like, Martha Stewart Barefoot Contessa home maker level, so I might just use store-bought stock. Okay, back to my sweet tooth. I also have this frozen whipped topping in my freezer, and it tastes like the cool whip you probably grew up on, but it's better, and it's better for you, and it's completely vegan. I usually reserve it for topping desserts with because it gives it a fancy elegant flare without you having to do any extra work. These are two items that I keep in my freezer so that I can have healthy meals in just a few minutes. The first one is a frozen brown rice room traitor Joe's. All you have to do is microwave the brown rice, and it's ready to eat in a few minutes. And the other one is a veggie burger from Dr. Preggers, which is probably one of the better veggie burgers I've tasted. And you can cook it on the stove or in the microwave or in a skillet. Did you know that you can freeze homemade waffles and they'll still be delicious when you warm them up? Did you also know that you can buy frozen waffles, and it's really easy? Sure, they're not as fluffy or delicious, but they certainly work when you're in a bind or if you don't have a waffle maker, like I do. You can make them as healthy or as decadent as you like. If I want something healthy, maybe after a workout, I will take multi-grain waffles, top them with almond butter and some plant-based yogurt, some fruit, nuts and seeds. And if I want something a little more sinful, I will top my waffles with vegan butter, chocolate chips, maple syrup, powdered sugar, basically anything sweet and sugary will do. If you've seen my previous videos, which I hope you have, you know that I love Adamame. Adamame are just soy beans, and I know sometimes soy gets a bad rap, but it's super packed with protein. It's got a lot of health benefits, and if you're buying organic soy beans, which are readily available these days, you're avoiding all of those jumos that people are scared of. I like to add Adamame to whatever I'm eating, whether it's salad or rice bowl or grain bowl, and it just adds a quick protein boost, so I keep some in my freezer so that I can always have it around. It's always good to keep some sort of frozen vegetables on hand so that you can easily add them to meals. You can saute them, you can bake them, you can add them to stir fry, soups, chilies, stews, casserole, you name it. So if you're having trouble eating veggies or you don't have fresh veggies on hand, just keep some frozen vegetables in your freezer and it will make your life a lot easier. Well that's everything in my vegan freezer. I hope you found this video helpful and it gave you some ideas of how to stock your freezer. If it did, please leave me a comment below, and don't forget to subscribe because I post a new video every week that helps you live a healthier and more delicious life. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you next week. you