With my GERD diagnosis, I had to cut back on my tomato sauce intake. Pre-GERD, I routinely had pasta with tomato sauce (about half a cup) for breakfast every morning. Post-GERD, I have a small bowl of pasta a couple of times a month with a small amount of tomato sauce (about a tablespoon) mixed in real good, which, with judicious cheese ratios, is almost as good flavour-wise as slathering half a cup on top. Who knew?
But I quickly discovered a new problem: my tomato sauce kept going bad before I use it all up. Even though I was putting it in the coldest part of the fridge, it kept going moldy after only a few uses, with maybe 3/4 of a jar left.
After some trial and error, I discovered the solution: freeze it in ice cube trays, then put all the frozen cubes in a tupperware in the freezer for storage. I got this kind of ice cube tray, because the bottoms are flexible so you can just pop each cube out rather than having to twist the tray (which is more difficult when the substance in it is denser than water). The ice cubes made by this tray are, conveniently, one teaspoon in volume, which is useful if you ever need to measure how much sauce you're using.
You can thaw it either by taking a couple of cubes out and just letting them thaw, with a quick zap in the microwave (supervise carefully if you're doing very small quantities), or by tossing it in with your cooking. It takes a bit of stirring to get the texture right, but it stands up.
Once I started doing this, I realized it also solves my Hollandaise problem. I like Eggs Florentine as an occasional treat, but I only need a small quantity of Hollandaise sauce and always have a bunch left over. Then I'm frantically trying to think of things to do with Hollandaise before it all goes bad. Next time, I'm just going to freeze is and then thaw a cube whenever the mood strikes.
2 comments:
This is brilliant!
Also, it's interesting that you discovered how less sauce will go a long way.
Also also, I love that you eat pasta for breakfast. I like to eat non- breakfast food (in the typical sense) for breakfast and eat breakfast food for lunch if possible. I wonder if this is more common than I think.
I started on it because I found I was having trouble eating a large breakfast made of breakfast food, but also that I was craving pasta every day. So two birds with one stone.
I found myself less enthusiastic about the pasta before the GERD even started (although that could have been pre-symptomatic GERD) so since my diagnosis I'm back to small amounts of breakfast food. It was better for weight management to have the large pasta breakfast though - filling, fibrous, and I was perfectly content if I didn't eat any other "main course" food for the rest of the day.
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