Trying out Preprepaired Salads

[Taterbug]

I can't say yet if this is effective or not but this thread is to document a little experiment I'm doing with my salads.

There have been quite a few questions about freezing salads and stuff so I'm giving something a try... I've read a bit about parrot keepers who make "chop" or "mash" for their birds so they can prepair a bunch of healthy food ahead of time. Aside from things like beans and pasta I figure why not try it for Pepper? It's a big pain to have fresh produce in a nice variety of items and watch it go bad before he eats it.

The haul from the grocery store. So many things were on sale I think I only spent about 7-10$. This made about 9 portions and lots of leftovers for my dinner.


Chopped it up uniform and small. This helps make sure the mix is balanced when portioned and that it's harder to pick out favorites. I ran some quick numbers and weighed it the quantities so the Ca ratio is about 1:1. Supplements (supper veggie in silver cup) and the greens I'll add as fresh will boost that up. The other cups have bee pollen and probiotic, cause why not. Clockwise from the top: Brussels sprouts, Apple, squash, carrot, prickly pear, sugar snap peas, asparagus, kiwi.


Mix it up


In a freezer tray for storage (total it made 3 serving fresh and I froze 6 servings). The frozen cakes may be more like 2 servings each, it's hard to judge.


Two cakes got stored in a Tupperware


The rest in vacuume sealed bag. Not sure if there will be a difference or anything but I love using the vaccume sealer.


The first salad was a hit, I think. His plate was pretty cleared when I got home and it didn't look like he'd kicked it all over his enclosure or anything.

I'll post updates about the frozen ones when I get to feeding them. If they thaw ok and he likes them the same I'll be able to make bigger batches and be able to offer a more elaborate but balanced salad regularly.

 

[CooperDragon]

That's a good idea! Thanks for documenting it. I look forward to hearing how the frozen batches go over. Are the Ca ratio numbers from your old food guide?

 

[Taterbug]

That's a good idea! Thanks for documenting it. I look forward to hearing how the frozen batches go over. Are the Ca ratio numbers from your old food guide?

Yep, still trying to make it work as something useful but it helped for this at least.

 

[AHBD]

Looks great ! You're a genius and I'm jealous, or maybe hungry....actually getting ideas for dinner. If I get ambitious enough I may try something like that.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I freeze my in icecube maker trays. Been doing that for years.

Big time saver making the salad/veg mix in bulk.

I simply pop out a cube as needed and let it thaw.

My recipy
1 C raw frozen green peas
1 C raw frozen green beans
3 - 4 raw carrots (skinned / grated)
1/2 a raw sweet potato (skinned / grated)
1 large whole buk choi or 3 baby whole buk choi (washed / drained , roughly chopped greens and whites)
whole lot goes into food processor with a chopping blade to cut greens more finely and mix.

I add 1/4 TSPN repcal juvi beardie pellets and 1/4 TSPN vetafarm lizard pellets (soaked to soften) with the thawed icecube sized portions of the above and often add some roughly torn buk choi greens.

 

[AcceptableGeek]

We don't have trays like that. Maybe a muffin pan could work?

 

[Taterbug]

We don't have trays like that. Maybe a muffin pan could work?

probably, my only worry would bi if its too wet it might be hard to get out of the pan. Ice-cube trays would work too.

 

[AcceptableGeek]

I got a non stick muffin tray that makes 12. pretty decent sized for the salad portions that I made up last night. I'm really hoping that this idea will work well. Thanks for the write up and showing us how you did it!

 

[Taterbug]

I've found my mixes done freeze rock hard either so the bigger ones I can break into chunks of they are too big.

 

[AcceptableGeek]

The muffin pan worked wonderfully this morning. since it is non-stick the salad comes right out as one solid frozen piece. I put the salad in the food bowl and hopefully it will slowly thaw out and still be fresh by the time she wakes up to get started and bask.

 

[Taterbug]

That's what I've been doing this week. Most of the food is eaten by the time I got home so it's thawed enough to be palatable. Glad the muffin tray worked!

 

[AcceptableGeek]

Thank you so much for this thread. I have been struggling to provide a good daily/ every other day salad. This makes things SO MUCH easier. I should start meal prepping for myself haha.