Preparing For Summer - The Tasty Way

As well as preparing the freezer with plenty of ice cubes and ice lollies I'm getting it ready by filling it with plenty of home baking too. During the summer we always have a few picnics with home baked goodies when the weather is nice enough and this year will be no different... even if my baby is going to be leaving me to go to School at the end of it!

The great thing about having the freezer full of treats and home baked goodies is that you can whip something up in an instant, you know what the treats contain and also it's fun to be able to bake without any mess.

Bake without any mess?

Yes, bake without any mess. When baking make double batches and put the second batch either baked or unbaked in the freezer. If you freeze them baked you can just throw them in the picnic box and let them defrost whilst keeping other things cool and they will be ready to eat in just a few hours. Normally it's enough time to get to where you are having your picnic.

Freezing them unbaked is just as fun as you can just get a few out to bake at a time, rather than making 100's of cookies in one go and spoiling your summer diet.

Baked Cookies Ready for the Freezer

I've made the following sweet treats for the freezer and as all the recipes are available on this blog, I've linked to them in case you want to make them too.

Carrot And Oat Cookies
Carrot Apple and Sultana Muffins
Mixed Spice Biscuits
Raisin Cookies (Just replace the chocolate in the recipe with raisins)

Most of them are fairly healthy because they contain added fruits and vegetables, but when it's presented as a biscuit or cake children don't notice the health aspect and eat them up as easily as if they were dipped in chocolate!

We're also making some Savoury bits and pieces, because you can't just eat sweet treats all summer, no matter how much you want to. Things that we have made for the freezer for summer are;

Quiche (not star shaped this time, but just as fun!)
Sausage Rolls
Scotch Eggs
Pizzas


Do you stock up the freezer before Summer? Are you getting ready for picnics and easy Summer Suppers? What else should we include in our preparations?