Frozen Blueberries?

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resiIient
resiIient Posts: 11 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I’ve recently been on a kick of having a cup of blueberries every morning. I buy the small plastic containers my store sells and rinse them in the container. I typically get (2) 1 cup servings (150g) which is 85 calories. I believe the recommended serving size.

I was thinking of switching to frozen blueberries. They seem easier to manage and cheaper too.

For frozen blueberries is there any downside? The bag says 2.5 servings and 140g serving, which they call a cup.

Can I weight these the same as fresh, or do they weigh more?

Do I need to defrost them or just toss them into oatmeal frozen?

Can I leave in fridge if using this week?

I dropped a plastic container tonight in the driveway, which made me eagerly want to switch to frozen lol 🤨

Replies

  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    I used to microwave them and add them to oatmeal. I see no downside. There's probably an entry for frozen blueberries, as the weights per nutrient/cal are likely a little different (based on my experience with spinach and strawberries). But if you can't find one it won't be a significant enough cal difference to matter.
  • Jpedno
    Jpedno Posts: 301 Member
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    I really like Wyman's brand frozen wild blueberries. I don't defrost. I add them frozen to greek yogurt or cottage cheese. Or add them frozen to pancakes, muffins or smoothies.
  • gigius72
    gigius72 Posts: 183 Member
    edited January 2021
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    Blueberries are filled with liquid so when frozen might lose a little weight, but it's really minimal.
    As per quality, that is up to luck. As a general rule frozen blueberries (like all fruit and veggies) are frozen almost immediately after harvest. While fresh fruit and veggies is picked before being ripe and spend longer time between travel, backroom in stores and on the shelves. In some cases it turned out that frozen ones are better quality.
    Changes a little kid you so local produce.
  • LazyBlondeChef
    LazyBlondeChef Posts: 2,809 Member
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    I used to buy the Trader Joes wild blueberries because they're smaller and I always thought they had more flavor than the bigger ones.

    I would just use the label on whatever you buy and see if you can find a frozen entry that matches for calories and portion size. If not you can enter your own.
  • gigius72
    gigius72 Posts: 183 Member
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    LazyBlondeChef wrote: »
    I used to buy the Trader Joes wild blueberries because they're smaller and I always thought they had more flavor than the bigger ones.

    I would just use the label on whatever you buy and see if you can find a frozen entry that matches for calories and portion size. If not you can enter your own.

    I used to cut out labels and tape them on a sheet of paper (with the description written next to it) to have on hand to use. I don't change much what I eat so i could do that.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,656 Member
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    I noticed that for baking I had to adjust recipes because of higher water content of frozen berries. Typically clafoutis or muffins.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    edited January 2021
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    I actually prefer the flavor of frozen blueberries. I think they taste better than fresh. Watch labels. You may want unsweetened. Depending on brand, they may have added sugar. I thaw them before eating them or adding them to something. Just personal preference. They thaw pretty quickly. They will bleed into added foods a lot more than fresh. Calorie content is the same as fresh, as long as the frozen are unsweetened.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,952 Member
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    I only get fresh blueberries in season, and I pick them myself.

    The rest of the year I buy Market Basket frozen wild blueberries, which to me are only distinguishable from Wyman's by the lower price.

    I use the "Blueberries, wild, frozen" entry.

    I have a smaller serving size - 40 g - and defrost them in the microwave for 30 seconds.

    I also love Market Basket frozen raspberries and have 40 g of these most nights with yogurt.
  • elmusho1989
    elmusho1989 Posts: 321 Member
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    Measure a portion the night before and let them defrost in the fridge. Then you can have them on porridge in the morning, or whatever you want😊
  • Safari_Gal_
    Safari_Gal_ Posts: 1,461 Member
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    I use fresh or frozen to sweeten up cottage cheese or plain yogurt. When I use frozen/ I let them defrost on the counter for about 15 min before I use them.

    I’ve also defrosted in fridge to use for the week and had no probs. Beware of leaky bags. (From a person who learned the heard way by finding blue juice dripping all over the fridge!! Lol) 🫐🫐🫐

    RIP to the berries you lost in the driveway!
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    I actually like microwaving and that they have lots of extra juice, as when I do make my higher protein and fiber pancakes or use them for oats, they basically work in place of syrup/add extra liquid.

    I mostly use frozen blueberries (currently have some from a farm) in smoothies and think out of season frozen taste as good and are probably more nutrient-dense (although it doesn't matter much, the nutrient difference is likely slight).

    I also prefer frozen strawberries out of season. I never buy non frozen this time of year, as I think they are tasteless.
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
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    Safari_Gal_ wrote: »
    I use fresh or frozen to sweeten up cottage cheese or plain yogurt. When I use frozen/ I let them defrost on the counter for about 15 min before I use them.

    I’ve also defrosted in fridge to use for the week and had no probs. Beware of leaky bags. (From a person who learned the heard way by finding blue juice dripping all over the fridge!! Lol) 🫐🫐🫐

    RIP to the berries you lost in the driveway!

    This^

    I don't thaw out a weeks worth, instead portion mine out into those little zip-lock containers. Grab-n-go for yogurt parfaits in the morning. I love semi-frozen berries......gotta try cottage cheese.
  • chrtlade
    chrtlade Posts: 3 Member
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    I put frozen blueberries on top of my regular oatmeal and cook in the microwave and add flax seed. Sometimes I don't even add milk. For a dessert I thaw blueberries and add plain greek yogurt with reddi whip on top.
  • wilson10102018
    wilson10102018 Posts: 1,306 Member
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    Get fresh blueberries, put in gallon freezer bag. Lay it flat so the blueberries are in a single layer on a dinner plate, put the whole thing in the freezer. When frozen remove the plate. That way they don't clump together.

    I have frozen blueberries in my cereal every morning.
  • Gisel2015
    Gisel2015 Posts: 4,144 Member
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    I like Costco/Kirkland frozen blueberries. I always have them in the freezer, even during the fresh blueberries season because we finish the fresh one quite fast. I also like the frozen mixed berries for a change.

    I don't eat them frozen, I let them thaw in the fridge and use them on top of ice cream, yogurt or cottage cheese, and sometimes just topped with whipped cream or mix with fresh fruit.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,406 Member
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    Calories of frozen blueberries?

    Weigh them frozen, one of two ways:

    1. Put the bag of berries on the scale, tare (zero it), dip out however many look good, note the negative number of grams. It's how much you took out.
    2. Put a bowl on the scale (it can have other stuff in it if you want, like yogurt or something - doesn't matter). Tare. Dump in desired quantity of blueberries. Note the positive number of grams. It's obviously how many you added.

    Next, look up "blueberries, frozen, unsweetened" (or sweetened, if it's that; or even "blueberries, wild, frozen"). Use the serving size drop-down to switch it from "1.0 package (20oz)" to "100.0g". If you weighed (say) 137 grams of blueberries, enter "1.37" in the servings. Save it to you diary. Now that's in your recent/frequent foods, already to reuse with any quantity you may weigh out.

    (You can use 1g instead of 100g if you like, and avoid the math. Mostly, I like 100g for some reason.)

    Other people said how they like to use them. Mostly, I do the "microwave to thaw, put in oatmeal with other stuff" option. Sometimes I mix plain Greek yogurt with some original or chocolate PB2 peanut butter powder, then add berries, still frozen. It becomes ice-cream-esque, sort of. Also, it's good, more than sort of.

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