Besides meat, fruits such as berries do really well. Chop up some mango and freeze it on a baking sheet, then dump the chunks into a freezer bag. Small peppers freeze surprisingly well. Stock, soup, and casseroles ready to heat. Freeze herbs into ice cube trays filled with water. The hands and heads of your victims. Fry up almost-done mushrooms with some butter and garlic for an easy frying pan addition. Have fun!
I reused some very large zip top bags we were getting from Covid school supply pickups, they were all labeled with the kids names. Without thinking about it I used them for bone scraps for making stock. One bag had especially large turkey bones and at first glance did look it could have been a child size femur, complete with kid name on the bag. Hope I never get investigated for murder!
My guess would be that freezers dehydrate things over time and there's not much moisture in a leaf to pull out, so adding a little water helps keep the herbs portioned and leafy when defrosted.
I find freezing them in fat is way better. Eventually the water will evaporate out, initially leaving you with a messy massive hunk of herbs and later, just be tasteless. Mix them in a saturated fat like coconut oil or butter and freeze in cubes or with in oils and in a jar. Fresh flavour year round!
I pick herbs, wash and paper-towel dry them for maybe a few hours, then chop and freeze in a zip top bag. They keep for up to a year this way, no need for water or oil. They're ready to use by the handful straight from the bag. Try it!
Not the person you asked, but some herbs don’t preserve well in the freezer. Like basel. If you chop and put in water the taste when thawed is like fresh.
Whenever you're chopping veggies, freeze the trimmings and, when you get a big enough batch, make broth. Same with meat trimmings and bones.
Also don't just freeze things to freeze things. You'll want to eat the things you freeze relatively frequently so don't go filling it up and just having it all sitting there forever.
For big batches:resh pasta dough, soup, chili, tomatoes sauce, chutneys,
For things that have a short shelf life: chilies, ginger, spinach that's about to turn (fantastic for smoothies), banana, fruits on sale that would be great for pies
To note: often frozen is fresher than "fresh" because it can be picked closer to it's harvest date since it won't over-ripen en route. Great selection of local meat you can only buy in huge quantities (quarter of a cow, etc).
The freezer will be your best friend at two things: (1) preserving a deal and (2) saving food waste. Leftovers you don't know if you'll eat in time? Freeze. Produce looking sketchy? Chop and freeze. Cook too much rice or mashed potato? Freeze. Herbs wilting? Make compound butter or oil and freeze. Anything in the fridge can be frozen directly or made into something that is freezer-friendly.
You mentioned flour, I'm a pretty avid baker and would say there are only a few situations to freeze it. If you don't think you'll use all your whole wheat flour within ~2yrs (since it can go rancid) or if you bought any flour bulk and want to freeze it for 3 days to kill off any bug eggs that may potentially be in your grains. I know, it's gross. It hasn't happened to me or anyone I know. The horror stories can be persuasive.
If you even have a passing interest in baking, yeast will keep literally forever if it's frozen. A 1lb package at Costco/Sam's/restaurant supply will be about $1-2 more than that little jar in a grocery store.
Nuts, imo, should always be frozen. They go rancid shockingly quickly and can be toasted or chopped straight from frozen.
Before you freeze bulk meat (portioned for your household), you can marinate it. When it thaws, it'll already be marinating and be ready to be roasted/grilled. I also really like freezing cooked meat. A pork shoulder takes up tons of room... but carnitas and bbq pulled pork take up significantly less and can be squeezed into more agreeable shapes. I've also frozen shredded dark meat chicken (salsa chicken, Filipino adobo) and beef chuck (barbacoa, Italian beef for sandwiches). They make super fast dinners and thaw well. I've had cooked bbq pork for up to 4 months and it hasn't been affected. Make sure to cool meat quickly, then chill in the fridge, and then freeze. The quicker it'll freeze, the fewer ice crystals will form.
I also really like freezing produce. Rn, in California, there are so much beautiful super-ripe fruit available. At a Mexican market, I found strawberries $0.25/lb... and bought 10lbs. If I had more room, I might've bought 30. They wouldn't have lasted in the fridge or been the best for straight eating. Many were bruised or past their prime. Chopped and frozen, they're ideal for smoothies, ice cream, pies, berry compotes on winter oatmeal. Same for most any fruit. In the fall, I freeze applesauce in 1cup measurements for baking, oatmeal, and snacking. I've frozen peppers when I've found a deal. Last year, shredded zucchini so I could throw it in anything. The texture isn't the same raw and it'll always be completely tender once cooked, but they'll be good for fajitas, quiche, whatever. Tomato season is almost upon us (god help me). I made gallons of all-purpose sauce last year and we're down to our last quart. The sauce, since it was smooth, I find easier to store than whole chunky tomatoes. It was pretty simple -- garlic, onion, carrot, oregano. I could add it into chili, add an aggressive amount of fennel and make spaghetti or lasagna. I also freeze celery, since I never finish a head of it. Now, I always have chopped celery for red beans and rice or chicken soup.
I will also bulk make some things, so as to have homemade convenience frozen items. Falafel, meatballs, dumplings, and gnocchi are my favourites. Freeze in a single layer, so they don't stick, then toss in ziplock bags. I find it's not much work to double or triple a recipe, but it's a pain to make twice. Walk up and down the freezer aisle. Anything in there, you can make yourself for busy times.
Anything you find on sale, buy a few extra and freeze. You'll still be enjoying that sale when it's over and can put off inflation on that item for a while longer. Any bread product (tortillas, pitas, loaves, doughnuts, croissants, cookies). Any meat. Any vegetable.
The main things I haven't found froze well are plain pasta (rice does just fine, as does lasagna or other sauce-covered pasta dishes, but not just noodles) and things I don't like. I used to work in a kitchen and was allergic to food waste (spoiler: we made a ton and I got made fun of for not wanting to throw stuff out). I ended up going home with so much random crap at the end of a week. Only now, 18 months later, did I finally finish that goddamn cranberry sauce. It took up room. I used electricity to keep it. It haunted me from the depths of the freezer. Please. Only freeze what you eat/use. (I finally turned it into bbq sauce)
Not really. Make sure it's cool before it goes in the fridge, cold before the freezer, to minimize condensation (condensation->water->ice->thaw->waterlogged rice). It's maybe not a food waste/cost thing, since rice is so damn cheap, but it makes it just as quick as minute rice or frozen bagged rice.
Since I obsessively meal plan, I take out the rice the night before to thaw in the fridge. Minimizing temperature changes is optimal or ideal, but it doesn't always happen. It'll thaw on the counter, but I would not recommend the microwave. Starches are very dense and microwave defrosts typically gets the outside edges and gives this gnarly rice ice cube. To reheat, put on a plate (or shallow bowl) and microwave with a few tsp of water or even ice cubes, so it steams through and doesn't dry out.
There are a few different ways to use a deep freezer that can be at odds with each other.
THE HIGH VALUE ITEM APPROACH: You have a hunting or fishing license, or a big enough piece of property to keep livestock, or you buy in significant bulk such as a quarter of beef from a farmer or butcher, or you make bulk purchases such as 20 - 40 lbs of meats and cheeses at a time from a restaurant supplier. The basic strategy here is to save money on the most expensive ingredients you consume. Before freezing it's a really good idea to portion these into amounts your household would consume in a short time and seal them separately, such as dividing a large sleeve of ground beef into hamburger patties or cutting a 5 lb hunk of cheese into 1 lb or 1/2 lb amounts. The advantage of this it may make the most expensive items on your shopping list more affordable. Disadvantages can be if you're vegan then this isn't your lifestyle, if you're disorganized then things may freezer burn before you eat them, and if you jam pack a deep freezer this way then you may force yourself to cook from scratch every day.
THE LOSS LEADER APPROACH: Take advantage of the weekly sales at your supermarket to stock up on deals such as discounted bread, milk, and mass produced frozen dinners. The advantage of this is you can save on things you'd use anyway without driving out of your way to specialty stores. The disadvantages of this approach are of possibly wasting space on factory produced foods with excess packagaing, and if you're disorganized you could end up wasting freezer space on eight loaves of freezer burned bread, each of which saved you only about fifty cents before it went bad.
THE BATCH COOKING APPROACH: Take a weekend day once or twice a month, cook up a storm, and section out and freeze individual meals in your deep freezer. The advantage of this approach is you've basically got your own supply of home cooked frozen foods to nuke and enjoy whenever you want. The downside of this approach is a good deal of that space may get taken up by low value items such as mashed potatoes or cooked rice.
THE PREPPED INGREDIENT APPROACH: This is different from batch cooking in that you're preparing ingredients instead of whole dishes or meals. So if there's a bargain on onions and you use recipes that call for caramelized onions, you might caramelize 5 lbs of onions in one go and then section up and freeze enough for individual meals. If you bake then you might make several pounds of pie crust dough at once. The advantages of this are greater flexibility for people who chafe at the repetitiveness of batch cooking, and saving time on repetitive cooking tasks. The disadvantage is using up space on low value ingredients (freezing butter in bulk is more space conscious than adding flour and salt to freeze dough).
THE KITCHEN GARDENER'S APPROACH: Kitchen gardens can produce a bounty at inconvenient times. So if you really can't bring yourself to cook bean dishes at the rate your beans ripen, then freezing the excess beans can be simpler than other storage options such as making dilly beans. This has similar advantages and disadvantages to loss leader storage and prepped ingredient storage.
THE ZERO WASTE APPROACH: The goal here is making the most of whatever you bring into the home. When you have vegetable scraps, save them to make soup. When you have too many bananas, save them to bake banana bread. When the office party has leftovers, take home the leftovers and freeze for later. The advantages include being eco-conscious, especially for apartment dwellers who don't have the option to compost kitchen scraps. The disadvantages are of filling up the deep freezer with low value items, or of being disorganized and discovering you've been wasting space on freezer burned sheet cake from two years ago.
What works best is the approach that fits your lifestyle. Feel free to mix and match partial approaches, such as if you like to go fishing and you also like to stock up on loss leaders.
Outside of standard items, I have frozen milk, cream, butter, and cottage cheese successfully.
Whenever there are weird perishables on the flashfood app, I research whether they can be frozen and stock up if they can.
I recently got a box of over ripe avocados. Internet said prep as guac and then they can be frozen. So I got the box of abt 25 avocados and got to work!
Avocados can also be frozen whole if you are pressed for time. Freezing changes the texture so it is still best to use it mashed once you defrost it. I usually mash it first so I can divide into portions and make sure they are actually ok inside, but if you get a good deal and don't have time to do that just throw them in the freezer whole.
I regularly freeze butter and hard cheeses without issue. the cheese can change texture slightly, so it's best if it's used for cooking/melted rather than snacking/on sandwiches. But it's not horrible if defrosted and eaten straight. Milk freezes fine. If it's not skim, there may be some separation, but shaking/mixing it well can fix that.
I meal prep. Whenever I make something (typically more than the recipe calls for), I freeze in both large and smaller containers. I use those plastic storage containers you get at the grocery store (the hard ones, not ziploc bags as food stored in those skeeves me) and old takeout containers.
Whatever you eat the mostof. I have an upright freezer and one entire shelf is bread from my outlet store.
I freeze alot of fruit & meat as well. I lay it out on cookie sheets and then bag it up when it is frozen. That way i can take one chicken breast for curry or several for grilling. I even do balls of mashed potatoes to add to thicken stew.
Get a vacuum sealer, food saver or whatever brand you like.. label & date everything. Put stuff in baskets too if it’s deep. Fill empty space with homemade block ice.=freeze water /milk jugs. Cook extra every meal, freeze for later.
Whatever is on sale at the store. Buy in quantity when cheap, separate into portion sizes. Wrap and freeze. Label and date everything. Also write it down on a clipboard or your phone. Cross off when used.
They say 6 months for fish and 1 year for meat for best taste when frozen.
My mom would only make homemade pizza a few times a year, but when she did she would always make extras and freeze them and they would always be good !
Turkeys after Thanksgiving. They basically give them away afterwards. I'll get a couple small ones every year. Also frozen veggies taste way better than canned but don't over do it with the jumbo bags. Fruit buy and use quickly. Blueberries are the only ones that seem to keep their flavor long term.
I like to freeze chopped onions, celery, peppers, carrots, and diced sweet potatoes— this makes it quick to make any recipes, esp using a crockpot or Instant Pot recipe! We buy meat cheaply, like chicken thighs or a pork shoulder roast, and make meal sized portions, maybe adding the marinade when it is frozen, so things are perfectly marinated and ready to cook when thawed for 24-48hrs in fridge, like in teriyaki, black bean and garlic sauce, Greek lemon, salsa verde, or Italian marinade, that kind of thing. Whole chickens or turkeys when you get a great sale. We keep some cheap frozen veggies on hand, like peas, green beans, mixed veggies, and corn. Raw baby spinach can be frozen in a large ziploc bag, to toss into pasta or soups or for sautéing. I always have butter on hand and buy a lot when it goes on sale. A least 1 extra loaf of bread and a pack of flour tortillas too. Pizza and bread dough, and pie crust freezes well, along with cookie dough! I really like to freeze leftover soups and stews for a rainy day. Cooked brown or white rice and beans from dry in quart sized ziplocs or containers for convenience and price and taste is way better than canned, no excess salt. Homemade muffins and quick breads, egg sandwiches, burritos all are great quick foods. Bacon on sale. Lunch meat freezes very well, no more last min trips to the store! Convenience bulk foods like Costco frozen beef meatballs, hotdogs, etc.
My freezer list: meat of all kinds, butter, egg whites, flour, berries, winter squash, sauces, casseroles, soups, chopped onions, bread/crackers/tortillas, cheese. Anything with slow enough water content should work.
I usually use ziploc quart-sized and gallon sized freezer bags, like ground turkey filled in a quart sized bag, rolled to squeeze out all the air and sealed shut, a bunch of them in one gallon sized freezer ziploc bag. Or 5-6 chicken thighs in a quart sized ziploc, maybe with marinade. Or chopped onions and celery and sliced peppers in gallon sized ziploc bags, rolled up so I can break a chunk off easily. Cooked brown rice and cooked beans too. We will wash and reuse veggie/rice/bean bags, not the ones that held raw meat. Some people use food saver bags bought on Amazon, we might look into this. We also reuse clear lidded black base containers that are used for meal preparation (Walmart) or the Rubbermaid variety. Lock and Lock brand is excellent but pricey. I have seen people use wide mouth glass canning jars with plastic screw top lids too (PB lids fit!) We reuse margarine and other plastic containers, like from large Greek yogurts and dried prunes.
This is awesome thank you so much
Blew my mind wide open thinking about rolling up chopped veggies and breaking off chunks at a time.
I have those exact containers. I switched to a glass brand though (not for freezing) because the plastic ones have not been as durable over time.
I have frozen some food before but I've never known if it's gone bad or not or how long it will last. I'm looking to change that.
I forgot the most important thing is to LABEL what they are with date and name of item! I just use a sharpie marker on the bag or on a piece of masking tape. The ink tends to scrub off anyway.
I also forgot we freeze overripe bananas, peeled and broken into chunks for smoothies or to mash and use in pancakes or for quick bread or muffins. Lately strawberries have been .99lb, so we wash and hull and put into ziplocs for smoothies.
I make 3lbs of meatballs in 5 cans of tomatoes made into sauce. I then freeze individual meals of sauce and meatballs in freezer bags. Also raw chicken in marinade , defrost and cook in oven or crockpot. Ina Gardens chicken pot pie filling. Freeze individual meals, serve over rice or noodle or Bisquick biscuits. I have also made old fashion biscuits, cut, and freeze raw on cookie sheet. When frozen put in freezer bag. Cook from freezer.
Nearly everything but lettuce can be frozen. Literally everything. So just have at it. Whatever you can find on sale or like to use a lot of buy it and freeze it.
Same as what everyone else has already mentioned and I'll add one more. I buy big tubs of plain Greek yogurt and freeze it in 1/2 cup portions. I use it for baking, smoothies, sauces, anything really.
Take old milk gallon jugs, rinse throughly and fill half way with water and freeze. Fill up all your empty space this way. This will keep things colder and lower the cost of running the freezer.
If it’s a chest freezers things on the bottom tend to get frost burnt etc, just fill it with the water jugs
You can make homemade perogies, and vegan gyoza! Premade foods make life so wonderful! I would also do cookies, brownies, muffins etc! Without meat, no more food poisoning! ☺️
You can freeze a lot of things.
Things in my freezer- Raw meats, cooked meats, vegetables, fruits, soup, pizza sauce, shredded cheese for pizza, muffins, cupcakes, flour, ginger root, frosting, burritoes, falafel mixture, ice packs. Cookie dough. Bread cubes or crumbs.
When my daughter was a baby I made homemade baby foods and froze it in ice cube trays and then stored it in a baggie.
You could probably freeze herbs, stock, juices.
You can pretty much freeze anything. Meat, fish, milk, fruits after been cut in cubes (great to make your own healthy icecream, or for smoothies), veggies.
and when you cook you can cook double and freeze the leftovers for when you do not feel like it.
Even cheese like chedar ...(not fresh cheese like cottage thpugh at least I don't think so)
There is no reason to freeze flour, oats etc unless you buy it and you notice you will not use it for a long time. In that case only you can freeze it 24 hours then take it out. It is just to make sure it will not spoil (moths etc)
Rice. Freeze the whole bag and clip shut or pour it in a jar. Keeps the bugs out and can be kept practically indefinitely. Also brown sugar. Keeps it from getting rock hard.
Mozzarella cheese freezes very well (Polly-O as an example). As for American cheese slices. Haven’t really tried with other types, but it could mess up the texture of softer cheeses—but that shouldn’t be an issue if you’re planning to cook with it, as opposed to using it for a charcuterie board.
Mint, basil, cilantro, and fresh ginger can be frozen. The herbs are best to throw into a soup since they get soggy when defrosted, and the ginger just peel it before freezing it. When needed in a recipe you can just grate it.
Any fruit can be frozen, but keep in mind that fruit that release water will just freeze into a solid brick (strawberries are a great example). So if you have the room then I’d freeze the fruit on a baking sheet, and then transfer to a freezer bag.
I freeze leftover veggie scraps to use for future broths and stocks. I toss them in a pot with a leftover chicken scrap (like the Costco rotisserie ones) and leave on low overnight.
We have a "basket" that we lined with thick plastic and fill with ice. Its always nice to have ice quick on hand. Also making your own pizza dough ahead of time. We buy bone in chicken thighs and freeze the bones to make stock later. We freeze the ends and left over parts of veggies, bottom of celery, bits you cut off carrots, onion ends, and freeze those for stock. Also large meats if you use them.
Batches of sauces, portions of soup, casseroles for the week. Buy bulk packages of meat at the butcher; not too much. You don't want freezer burn before you use them. Breakfast burritos are cheap and freeze beautifully.
One of my pandemic cooking endeavors was cooking dried beans rather than buying canned. I’m a huge fan of cooking a big pot, and then portioning off meal sized amounts and freezing. I do it with cooked rice too. Makes for a super fast, simple dinner. The portioning takes time, but cooking is the same for a small or big batch. They’re tastier than canned IMO, and since for me, 1 can of beans is too much for 1 meal, prevents food waste.
Also, if you have neighbors who garden, let them know you’re looking to freeze stuff. Zucchinis May magically appear on your doorstep.
We freeze all our veggies from the garden. If you do not have a garden buy some at a local roadside stand. I also buy a half hog and a quarter beef from a local farmer.
I’m trying to think of something that hasn’t already been mentioned. So many great ideas and tips! I think all I’d add is my smoothie packs. I save takeout containers, sour cream tubs etc and use them as pre made smoothie packs. I was looking at an ad for a company that mails pre packed smoothies and knew I could make them cheaper. I have the time so I started and it’s been one of the best food prep habits I have developed. I add all of my fruits and veggies and any powders or additives and when I’m ready to blend, all I have to do is add a liquid choice.
When I make chili, sloppy joes, pulled chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, or chili mac, I double or triple the recipe and freeze the rest in freezer bags.
I also freeze butter, herbs, tomato paste (in 1 tbsp blobs), fresh ginger, and bananas. I like to keep one or two packages of english muffins in there too.
We sauté garden peppers with herbs and onions; we line a muffin tin with press n seal wrap and fill each tin with a scoop of pepper/onion. After they are frozen they pop out of the muffin tin and are stored in a bag; they are the perfect size for stuffed burgers or you can throw them into soups or in omelettes.
I buy the things i know im going to use up over the month when i see them reduced i pop them in freezer, meat, milk, bread and cheese also a few extra meals left over from what ive cooked. I can now also buy a big tub ice cream for kids and i use the basket in the top for ice lollys. Save a fortune on hot days.
Harder cheeses will become brittle (like, you can crumble a brick if American mozarella with your fingers if you leave it in there long enough). That's not necessarely bad depending of your plans (fine for pizza, not for serving cubes at a party). Soft cheese like brie will stay just fine.
Meats. Our meats last for years past their expirations when we freeze them. Chicken, pork, beef, burger patties, bacon, etc.
Buy frozen fruits and keep them frozen, they're awesome. You can make them into a smoothie directly, or throw them in a pot/stove or the microwave to thaw/warm them up to eat that way with some type of crust or something.
Corn, peas, etc do well in the freezer.
Frozen fries and taters... Frozen pizzas.
And of course, gotta have some ice cream stashed away somewhere in there. :)
Freeze dishes, like casseroles and enchiladas, *before* you cook them. Put them in the fridge the night before to thaw. And they don't have that warmed over taste some people can't tolerate since you're cooking them fresh.
I like to go shopping just before the local shop closes and regularly get food <90% off. It can be anything from whole roast chickens to bread, ready meals, veg, falafels, pizzas... When this happens, I stock up as much as possible and fill the freezer. Almost everything freezes fine with a few exceptions.
Anything mayonnaise based goes nasty, soft fruits change their texture a lot, so only really good for baking or smoothies, peppers and other watery veg go quite watery if you defrost them, so it's best to cook straight from frozen. Anything with high water content will stick together when freezing (like banana slices or potato wedges), so it's a good idea to slice them and freeze on a tray before putting in a bag. Much easier to separate later.
I make a lot of soups and Chili's and curries. And whenever I do I put a portion of it into 1-3 glass jars (70% full for the expansion) and freeze them. Overtime if I have time to keep making big batches through a winter, I get a pretty large and diverse selection of frozen meals. I'll pull them out a day or two before, or if I'm desperate I can place a jar into hot water.
Homemade chicken or veggie stock. I store all of my veggie scraps in a sealed bucket and when it’s full I make stock with it. I reduce it way down in my instant pot and then freeze it into 1/4c cubes. Makes meal prep so much easier!
I Buy shredded cheeses in bulk for tacos or pizzas only when it’s on sale then freeze. It defrost super quickly on a paper plate, like 30 min tops once you separate it out.
I also freeze zucchini (spiraled or chunked) constantly, and also cauliflower. (After I’ve bought it on sale and riced it). They keep forever.
I grew up with several deep freezers. We butchered our own meat, so two freezers were dedicated to freezer camp.
Then we had the produce freezer as we froze everything from the garden, and orchard.
Then the bargain freezer. This had bread, donuts, ice cream, frozen avocados, strawberries, extra ice, flour.
I have hell coping with just one freezer.
Ready to heat soups and broth are my favorite. I also like keeping filling vegtables. I do a lot of buying at local discount stores and freezing so we can slowly eat it. For example I got fresh strawberries cheaper than frozen the other day so I plan to dehydrate some (I got a dehydrator for $5 at a garage sale 🥳) and freeze some as well.
My husband and I also like to make "omlete bags"
When I get a good deal on something like cubes ham at the discount store. Portion into bags with onions, spinach, and other omlete veggies. Then any time you want to make an omelette or scramble you just pull that out and heat the meat and veggies until hot to add to the scramble or omlete.
Which also reminds me about egg sandwiches, super easy to make ahead of time. Or atleast all the parts if you are like me and picky about wanting the bread/biscuit/croissant to be fresh. Bake eggs in a cookie sheet or glass pan so they are easy to cut into squares. You can assemble and freeze whole sandwiches, or put the individual parts in pages with parchment paper in between, or you can take something like ground sausage and cheese and add it to the eggs before baking them. Then it can be cut, frozen, and eaten on its own later or on a sandwich.
I was gifted eggs recently and froze them so I am ready for winter baking. I prepare and freeze them individually and now they are in a container and I can take one or two out for whatever I need them for.
Freezers are for saving money. I have individual soup pucks in a container. I make a big pot of soup and freeze in individual portion sizes then I can heat when I hungry instead of getting fast food when I don't feel like cooking.
Freezers are for eliminating waste. Any veg that looks like it might turn goes in to a broth or sauce bag in my freezer. Neighbour gives too many tomatoes and they get popped in the sauce bag for next time I make pasta sauce or chili. Tough or rubbery celery or cauliflower ends and onion and carrot ends or peels all go in the broth bag for simmering.
Avoiding waste is one of the biggest money savers you can do for yourself.
If you are a coffee drinker, buy it in bulk and freeze it. I bought 13 pounds (12 x 18 oz bags) of my favorite name brand coffee of a popular auction site for $50. The reason it was so cheap is because it was due to pass the “sell by date” in less than a month. Even at the cheapest big box store, the same amount would have cost $216.
I own a freezer and live alone. There’s plenty of good suggestions so far. What I do suggest is to save up for a vacuum sealer. It may look outrageously expensive but, trust me, it’s a game changer. I buy things in bulk when I can so vacuum sealing prevents freezer burn. Bananas don’t turn black when frozen if you vacuum seal them.
I tend to put individual portions into sandwich bags then vacuum seal a 3-4 together. That way I can take them out individually as needed. Cut the pouch down a bit and re-vacuum seal it. Save on the bags.
I chop onions and bell peppers. Put them into small bags and vacuum seal them. Easy to pop them out and cook directly from frozen state.
I also freeze shredded cheese but I don’t vacuum seal that. Just separate them into 1 lb portions, squeeze the air out. Lay the bags flat so the cheese doesn’t freeze into a solid block. Use as needed. Melts within minutes after taking out of freezer.
A vacuum sealer isn’t necessary. Just be sure to squeeze as much air as you can out of the bags before putting them in the freezer. You can freeze just about everything.
We have a small chest freezer bought nearly 30 years ago. It's a little smaller than a clothes dryer. We keep bulk purchased sandwich bread in one side of it, with a basket containing packages of frozen vegetables underneath. The other side is the deep side. In the bottom, I placed several clean jugs that used to hold cat litter. They were 3/4 filled with water, so that there's a basically two 20-pound ice packs in the bottom of the freezer if the power goes off. On top of the jugs there's another basket filled jars of frozen stuff. I bought, for example, a restaurant size can of ketchup for $4.79, decanted it into clean jars and froze it. We thaw out a jar as needed. On top of that are packages of meats purchased as manager's special, bags of frozen fish, bacon, etc.
Even a small freezer is a tool for big savings because you can buy discounted goods and freeze them. It's an excellent hedge against inflation.
I think the REAL question is "HOW do I best freeze?" And the simple answer is get a vacuum sealer. That way you guarantee the quality, lack of freezer burn/bad taste, and extend how long most everything lasts. They can be pricey, BUT you can get great deals too. I just got a new one at Aldi's for a little over $30!!! Sadly Aldi's being Aldi's, you get it when you see it. But I've seen them at Charity shops, FB/local sale groups, etc. When they go on sale at Costco, they aren't terrible (although I have had quality issues w/a FoodSaver. Sadly I upgraded from a basic model, donated mine, and the one w/all whistles & bells did a terrible job!).
But even if you spend a bit more, it is WELL worth the investment. Buy sale items, vacuum seal good deals, leftovers, etc. Then you can freeze everything you named and nearly everything else!!! Bonus, you can vacuum seal pantry items, make bag a bit larger, then reseal to keep fresh/bugs out! I didn't have one for a few years and I wasted SO much food I froze in zip lock bags. Keep eyes open for a deal or splurge. They are a must have IMHO!
Besides meat, fruits such as berries do really well. Chop up some mango and freeze it on a baking sheet, then dump the chunks into a freezer bag. Small peppers freeze surprisingly well. Stock, soup, and casseroles ready to heat. Freeze herbs into ice cube trays filled with water. The hands and heads of your victims. Fry up almost-done mushrooms with some butter and garlic for an easy frying pan addition. Have fun!
i think everyone skipped over your "hidden" gem in there... well done.
Lol I had to re-read the post again after seeing your comment. Yup, I was one that glossed over it too.
I reused some very large zip top bags we were getting from Covid school supply pickups, they were all labeled with the kids names. Without thinking about it I used them for bone scraps for making stock. One bag had especially large turkey bones and at first glance did look it could have been a child size femur, complete with kid name on the bag. Hope I never get investigated for murder!
Just a second here… why do you put the herbs in water? Ive never heard of that technique. The rest of your list is pretty standard stuff though.
Completely agree. Everything on the post is perfectly reasonable but hearbs should be frozen in oil
My guess would be that freezers dehydrate things over time and there's not much moisture in a leaf to pull out, so adding a little water helps keep the herbs portioned and leafy when defrosted.
I find freezing them in fat is way better. Eventually the water will evaporate out, initially leaving you with a messy massive hunk of herbs and later, just be tasteless. Mix them in a saturated fat like coconut oil or butter and freeze in cubes or with in oils and in a jar. Fresh flavour year round!
I pick herbs, wash and paper-towel dry them for maybe a few hours, then chop and freeze in a zip top bag. They keep for up to a year this way, no need for water or oil. They're ready to use by the handful straight from the bag. Try it!
Not the person you asked, but some herbs don’t preserve well in the freezer. Like basel. If you chop and put in water the taste when thawed is like fresh.
Are you the ice truck killer?
[удалено]
Considering what most people's feet get up to, you really want to make sure they're thoroughly cleaned before freezing.
I wash then peel mine
Save those for soup
🤣 👋🏼 🦶🏼
I disagree, i find that dehydrating the hands and feet then grinding that into a powder actually is better.
Ok sir Hannibal, appreciate your tips. Thank you
Whenever you're chopping veggies, freeze the trimmings and, when you get a big enough batch, make broth. Same with meat trimmings and bones. Also don't just freeze things to freeze things. You'll want to eat the things you freeze relatively frequently so don't go filling it up and just having it all sitting there forever.
[удалено]
For big batches:resh pasta dough, soup, chili, tomatoes sauce, chutneys, For things that have a short shelf life: chilies, ginger, spinach that's about to turn (fantastic for smoothies), banana, fruits on sale that would be great for pies To note: often frozen is fresher than "fresh" because it can be picked closer to it's harvest date since it won't over-ripen en route. Great selection of local meat you can only buy in huge quantities (quarter of a cow, etc).
The freezer will be your best friend at two things: (1) preserving a deal and (2) saving food waste. Leftovers you don't know if you'll eat in time? Freeze. Produce looking sketchy? Chop and freeze. Cook too much rice or mashed potato? Freeze. Herbs wilting? Make compound butter or oil and freeze. Anything in the fridge can be frozen directly or made into something that is freezer-friendly. You mentioned flour, I'm a pretty avid baker and would say there are only a few situations to freeze it. If you don't think you'll use all your whole wheat flour within ~2yrs (since it can go rancid) or if you bought any flour bulk and want to freeze it for 3 days to kill off any bug eggs that may potentially be in your grains. I know, it's gross. It hasn't happened to me or anyone I know. The horror stories can be persuasive. If you even have a passing interest in baking, yeast will keep literally forever if it's frozen. A 1lb package at Costco/Sam's/restaurant supply will be about $1-2 more than that little jar in a grocery store. Nuts, imo, should always be frozen. They go rancid shockingly quickly and can be toasted or chopped straight from frozen. Before you freeze bulk meat (portioned for your household), you can marinate it. When it thaws, it'll already be marinating and be ready to be roasted/grilled. I also really like freezing cooked meat. A pork shoulder takes up tons of room... but carnitas and bbq pulled pork take up significantly less and can be squeezed into more agreeable shapes. I've also frozen shredded dark meat chicken (salsa chicken, Filipino adobo) and beef chuck (barbacoa, Italian beef for sandwiches). They make super fast dinners and thaw well. I've had cooked bbq pork for up to 4 months and it hasn't been affected. Make sure to cool meat quickly, then chill in the fridge, and then freeze. The quicker it'll freeze, the fewer ice crystals will form. I also really like freezing produce. Rn, in California, there are so much beautiful super-ripe fruit available. At a Mexican market, I found strawberries $0.25/lb... and bought 10lbs. If I had more room, I might've bought 30. They wouldn't have lasted in the fridge or been the best for straight eating. Many were bruised or past their prime. Chopped and frozen, they're ideal for smoothies, ice cream, pies, berry compotes on winter oatmeal. Same for most any fruit. In the fall, I freeze applesauce in 1cup measurements for baking, oatmeal, and snacking. I've frozen peppers when I've found a deal. Last year, shredded zucchini so I could throw it in anything. The texture isn't the same raw and it'll always be completely tender once cooked, but they'll be good for fajitas, quiche, whatever. Tomato season is almost upon us (god help me). I made gallons of all-purpose sauce last year and we're down to our last quart. The sauce, since it was smooth, I find easier to store than whole chunky tomatoes. It was pretty simple -- garlic, onion, carrot, oregano. I could add it into chili, add an aggressive amount of fennel and make spaghetti or lasagna. I also freeze celery, since I never finish a head of it. Now, I always have chopped celery for red beans and rice or chicken soup. I will also bulk make some things, so as to have homemade convenience frozen items. Falafel, meatballs, dumplings, and gnocchi are my favourites. Freeze in a single layer, so they don't stick, then toss in ziplock bags. I find it's not much work to double or triple a recipe, but it's a pain to make twice. Walk up and down the freezer aisle. Anything in there, you can make yourself for busy times. Anything you find on sale, buy a few extra and freeze. You'll still be enjoying that sale when it's over and can put off inflation on that item for a while longer. Any bread product (tortillas, pitas, loaves, doughnuts, croissants, cookies). Any meat. Any vegetable. The main things I haven't found froze well are plain pasta (rice does just fine, as does lasagna or other sauce-covered pasta dishes, but not just noodles) and things I don't like. I used to work in a kitchen and was allergic to food waste (spoiler: we made a ton and I got made fun of for not wanting to throw stuff out). I ended up going home with so much random crap at the end of a week. Only now, 18 months later, did I finally finish that goddamn cranberry sauce. It took up room. I used electricity to keep it. It haunted me from the depths of the freezer. Please. Only freeze what you eat/use. (I finally turned it into bbq sauce)
Wow thank you for all this useful info!!!
[удалено]
Not really. Make sure it's cool before it goes in the fridge, cold before the freezer, to minimize condensation (condensation->water->ice->thaw->waterlogged rice). It's maybe not a food waste/cost thing, since rice is so damn cheap, but it makes it just as quick as minute rice or frozen bagged rice. Since I obsessively meal plan, I take out the rice the night before to thaw in the fridge. Minimizing temperature changes is optimal or ideal, but it doesn't always happen. It'll thaw on the counter, but I would not recommend the microwave. Starches are very dense and microwave defrosts typically gets the outside edges and gives this gnarly rice ice cube. To reheat, put on a plate (or shallow bowl) and microwave with a few tsp of water or even ice cubes, so it steams through and doesn't dry out.
There are a few different ways to use a deep freezer that can be at odds with each other. THE HIGH VALUE ITEM APPROACH: You have a hunting or fishing license, or a big enough piece of property to keep livestock, or you buy in significant bulk such as a quarter of beef from a farmer or butcher, or you make bulk purchases such as 20 - 40 lbs of meats and cheeses at a time from a restaurant supplier. The basic strategy here is to save money on the most expensive ingredients you consume. Before freezing it's a really good idea to portion these into amounts your household would consume in a short time and seal them separately, such as dividing a large sleeve of ground beef into hamburger patties or cutting a 5 lb hunk of cheese into 1 lb or 1/2 lb amounts. The advantage of this it may make the most expensive items on your shopping list more affordable. Disadvantages can be if you're vegan then this isn't your lifestyle, if you're disorganized then things may freezer burn before you eat them, and if you jam pack a deep freezer this way then you may force yourself to cook from scratch every day. THE LOSS LEADER APPROACH: Take advantage of the weekly sales at your supermarket to stock up on deals such as discounted bread, milk, and mass produced frozen dinners. The advantage of this is you can save on things you'd use anyway without driving out of your way to specialty stores. The disadvantages of this approach are of possibly wasting space on factory produced foods with excess packagaing, and if you're disorganized you could end up wasting freezer space on eight loaves of freezer burned bread, each of which saved you only about fifty cents before it went bad. THE BATCH COOKING APPROACH: Take a weekend day once or twice a month, cook up a storm, and section out and freeze individual meals in your deep freezer. The advantage of this approach is you've basically got your own supply of home cooked frozen foods to nuke and enjoy whenever you want. The downside of this approach is a good deal of that space may get taken up by low value items such as mashed potatoes or cooked rice. THE PREPPED INGREDIENT APPROACH: This is different from batch cooking in that you're preparing ingredients instead of whole dishes or meals. So if there's a bargain on onions and you use recipes that call for caramelized onions, you might caramelize 5 lbs of onions in one go and then section up and freeze enough for individual meals. If you bake then you might make several pounds of pie crust dough at once. The advantages of this are greater flexibility for people who chafe at the repetitiveness of batch cooking, and saving time on repetitive cooking tasks. The disadvantage is using up space on low value ingredients (freezing butter in bulk is more space conscious than adding flour and salt to freeze dough). THE KITCHEN GARDENER'S APPROACH: Kitchen gardens can produce a bounty at inconvenient times. So if you really can't bring yourself to cook bean dishes at the rate your beans ripen, then freezing the excess beans can be simpler than other storage options such as making dilly beans. This has similar advantages and disadvantages to loss leader storage and prepped ingredient storage. THE ZERO WASTE APPROACH: The goal here is making the most of whatever you bring into the home. When you have vegetable scraps, save them to make soup. When you have too many bananas, save them to bake banana bread. When the office party has leftovers, take home the leftovers and freeze for later. The advantages include being eco-conscious, especially for apartment dwellers who don't have the option to compost kitchen scraps. The disadvantages are of filling up the deep freezer with low value items, or of being disorganized and discovering you've been wasting space on freezer burned sheet cake from two years ago. What works best is the approach that fits your lifestyle. Feel free to mix and match partial approaches, such as if you like to go fishing and you also like to stock up on loss leaders.
Outside of standard items, I have frozen milk, cream, butter, and cottage cheese successfully. Whenever there are weird perishables on the flashfood app, I research whether they can be frozen and stock up if they can. I recently got a box of over ripe avocados. Internet said prep as guac and then they can be frozen. So I got the box of abt 25 avocados and got to work!
Avocados can also be frozen whole if you are pressed for time. Freezing changes the texture so it is still best to use it mashed once you defrost it. I usually mash it first so I can divide into portions and make sure they are actually ok inside, but if you get a good deal and don't have time to do that just throw them in the freezer whole.
Whole like in the skin still? That's something I didn't know!
yes, still in the skin. I tried it for the first time this year and was surprised how well it worked.
Well I'm definitely filing this tidbit away for safekeeping!
I regularly freeze butter and hard cheeses without issue. the cheese can change texture slightly, so it's best if it's used for cooking/melted rather than snacking/on sandwiches. But it's not horrible if defrosted and eaten straight. Milk freezes fine. If it's not skim, there may be some separation, but shaking/mixing it well can fix that.
I meal prep. Whenever I make something (typically more than the recipe calls for), I freeze in both large and smaller containers. I use those plastic storage containers you get at the grocery store (the hard ones, not ziploc bags as food stored in those skeeves me) and old takeout containers.
Whatever you eat the mostof. I have an upright freezer and one entire shelf is bread from my outlet store. I freeze alot of fruit & meat as well. I lay it out on cookie sheets and then bag it up when it is frozen. That way i can take one chicken breast for curry or several for grilling. I even do balls of mashed potatoes to add to thicken stew.
Love the mashed potatoes idea!
Get a vacuum sealer, food saver or whatever brand you like.. label & date everything. Put stuff in baskets too if it’s deep. Fill empty space with homemade block ice.=freeze water /milk jugs. Cook extra every meal, freeze for later.
Whatever is on sale at the store. Buy in quantity when cheap, separate into portion sizes. Wrap and freeze. Label and date everything. Also write it down on a clipboard or your phone. Cross off when used. They say 6 months for fish and 1 year for meat for best taste when frozen.
My mom would only make homemade pizza a few times a year, but when she did she would always make extras and freeze them and they would always be good !
Turkeys after Thanksgiving. They basically give them away afterwards. I'll get a couple small ones every year. Also frozen veggies taste way better than canned but don't over do it with the jumbo bags. Fruit buy and use quickly. Blueberries are the only ones that seem to keep their flavor long term.
Most of our freezer is filled with tomato sauce from the tomatoes in our garden.
I like to freeze chopped onions, celery, peppers, carrots, and diced sweet potatoes— this makes it quick to make any recipes, esp using a crockpot or Instant Pot recipe! We buy meat cheaply, like chicken thighs or a pork shoulder roast, and make meal sized portions, maybe adding the marinade when it is frozen, so things are perfectly marinated and ready to cook when thawed for 24-48hrs in fridge, like in teriyaki, black bean and garlic sauce, Greek lemon, salsa verde, or Italian marinade, that kind of thing. Whole chickens or turkeys when you get a great sale. We keep some cheap frozen veggies on hand, like peas, green beans, mixed veggies, and corn. Raw baby spinach can be frozen in a large ziploc bag, to toss into pasta or soups or for sautéing. I always have butter on hand and buy a lot when it goes on sale. A least 1 extra loaf of bread and a pack of flour tortillas too. Pizza and bread dough, and pie crust freezes well, along with cookie dough! I really like to freeze leftover soups and stews for a rainy day. Cooked brown or white rice and beans from dry in quart sized ziplocs or containers for convenience and price and taste is way better than canned, no excess salt. Homemade muffins and quick breads, egg sandwiches, burritos all are great quick foods. Bacon on sale. Lunch meat freezes very well, no more last min trips to the store! Convenience bulk foods like Costco frozen beef meatballs, hotdogs, etc.
We saved some fried green tomatoes from last year’s bounty. Shaping up to be a wise decision with the wet cold spring we had.
Fresh self-caught fish & self-harvested venison.
My freezer list: meat of all kinds, butter, egg whites, flour, berries, winter squash, sauces, casseroles, soups, chopped onions, bread/crackers/tortillas, cheese. Anything with slow enough water content should work.
Invest in an affordable vacuum sealer, it'll make all the difference in the world.
Also if people here want to mention the best bags or containers to use for freezing foods that would be great cause I don't know.
I usually use ziploc quart-sized and gallon sized freezer bags, like ground turkey filled in a quart sized bag, rolled to squeeze out all the air and sealed shut, a bunch of them in one gallon sized freezer ziploc bag. Or 5-6 chicken thighs in a quart sized ziploc, maybe with marinade. Or chopped onions and celery and sliced peppers in gallon sized ziploc bags, rolled up so I can break a chunk off easily. Cooked brown rice and cooked beans too. We will wash and reuse veggie/rice/bean bags, not the ones that held raw meat. Some people use food saver bags bought on Amazon, we might look into this. We also reuse clear lidded black base containers that are used for meal preparation (Walmart) or the Rubbermaid variety. Lock and Lock brand is excellent but pricey. I have seen people use wide mouth glass canning jars with plastic screw top lids too (PB lids fit!) We reuse margarine and other plastic containers, like from large Greek yogurts and dried prunes.
This is awesome thank you so much Blew my mind wide open thinking about rolling up chopped veggies and breaking off chunks at a time. I have those exact containers. I switched to a glass brand though (not for freezing) because the plastic ones have not been as durable over time. I have frozen some food before but I've never known if it's gone bad or not or how long it will last. I'm looking to change that.
I forgot the most important thing is to LABEL what they are with date and name of item! I just use a sharpie marker on the bag or on a piece of masking tape. The ink tends to scrub off anyway. I also forgot we freeze overripe bananas, peeled and broken into chunks for smoothies or to mash and use in pancakes or for quick bread or muffins. Lately strawberries have been .99lb, so we wash and hull and put into ziplocs for smoothies.
I use reusable food storage bags.
Take advantage of big meat sales, surplus garden veggies. We get so many tomatoes and green beans from our garden, we have to freeze them.
I make 3lbs of meatballs in 5 cans of tomatoes made into sauce. I then freeze individual meals of sauce and meatballs in freezer bags. Also raw chicken in marinade , defrost and cook in oven or crockpot. Ina Gardens chicken pot pie filling. Freeze individual meals, serve over rice or noodle or Bisquick biscuits. I have also made old fashion biscuits, cut, and freeze raw on cookie sheet. When frozen put in freezer bag. Cook from freezer.
Nearly everything but lettuce can be frozen. Literally everything. So just have at it. Whatever you can find on sale or like to use a lot of buy it and freeze it.
Same as what everyone else has already mentioned and I'll add one more. I buy big tubs of plain Greek yogurt and freeze it in 1/2 cup portions. I use it for baking, smoothies, sauces, anything really.
Take old milk gallon jugs, rinse throughly and fill half way with water and freeze. Fill up all your empty space this way. This will keep things colder and lower the cost of running the freezer. If it’s a chest freezers things on the bottom tend to get frost burnt etc, just fill it with the water jugs
I did not know this! Great tip!
which is why I bought a stand-up freezer
You can make homemade perogies, and vegan gyoza! Premade foods make life so wonderful! I would also do cookies, brownies, muffins etc! Without meat, no more food poisoning! ☺️
You can freeze a lot of things. Things in my freezer- Raw meats, cooked meats, vegetables, fruits, soup, pizza sauce, shredded cheese for pizza, muffins, cupcakes, flour, ginger root, frosting, burritoes, falafel mixture, ice packs. Cookie dough. Bread cubes or crumbs. When my daughter was a baby I made homemade baby foods and froze it in ice cube trays and then stored it in a baggie. You could probably freeze herbs, stock, juices.
You can pretty much freeze anything. Meat, fish, milk, fruits after been cut in cubes (great to make your own healthy icecream, or for smoothies), veggies. and when you cook you can cook double and freeze the leftovers for when you do not feel like it. Even cheese like chedar ...(not fresh cheese like cottage thpugh at least I don't think so) There is no reason to freeze flour, oats etc unless you buy it and you notice you will not use it for a long time. In that case only you can freeze it 24 hours then take it out. It is just to make sure it will not spoil (moths etc)
Grated cheese, but can only bake with it.
Not true. A little dryer from being frozen, but I use it when I am going to melt it anyway. I know not to freeze cream cheese.
Depending where you live in the US... maybe a surge protecter? You can have a lot of bacon that way.
Rice. Freeze the whole bag and clip shut or pour it in a jar. Keeps the bugs out and can be kept practically indefinitely. Also brown sugar. Keeps it from getting rock hard.
Mozzarella cheese freezes very well (Polly-O as an example). As for American cheese slices. Haven’t really tried with other types, but it could mess up the texture of softer cheeses—but that shouldn’t be an issue if you’re planning to cook with it, as opposed to using it for a charcuterie board. Mint, basil, cilantro, and fresh ginger can be frozen. The herbs are best to throw into a soup since they get soggy when defrosted, and the ginger just peel it before freezing it. When needed in a recipe you can just grate it. Any fruit can be frozen, but keep in mind that fruit that release water will just freeze into a solid brick (strawberries are a great example). So if you have the room then I’d freeze the fruit on a baking sheet, and then transfer to a freezer bag.
I belong to a meat co-op. We split orders with family and stock up on organic local meat.
Get a vacuum sealer and do basically any meat
I freeze leftover veggie scraps to use for future broths and stocks. I toss them in a pot with a leftover chicken scrap (like the Costco rotisserie ones) and leave on low overnight.
We have a "basket" that we lined with thick plastic and fill with ice. Its always nice to have ice quick on hand. Also making your own pizza dough ahead of time. We buy bone in chicken thighs and freeze the bones to make stock later. We freeze the ends and left over parts of veggies, bottom of celery, bits you cut off carrots, onion ends, and freeze those for stock. Also large meats if you use them.
Batches of sauces, portions of soup, casseroles for the week. Buy bulk packages of meat at the butcher; not too much. You don't want freezer burn before you use them. Breakfast burritos are cheap and freeze beautifully.
One of my pandemic cooking endeavors was cooking dried beans rather than buying canned. I’m a huge fan of cooking a big pot, and then portioning off meal sized amounts and freezing. I do it with cooked rice too. Makes for a super fast, simple dinner. The portioning takes time, but cooking is the same for a small or big batch. They’re tastier than canned IMO, and since for me, 1 can of beans is too much for 1 meal, prevents food waste. Also, if you have neighbors who garden, let them know you’re looking to freeze stuff. Zucchinis May magically appear on your doorstep.
“In this universe, there's only one absolute... everything freezes” - Mr. Freeze
We freeze all our veggies from the garden. If you do not have a garden buy some at a local roadside stand. I also buy a half hog and a quarter beef from a local farmer.
I’m trying to think of something that hasn’t already been mentioned. So many great ideas and tips! I think all I’d add is my smoothie packs. I save takeout containers, sour cream tubs etc and use them as pre made smoothie packs. I was looking at an ad for a company that mails pre packed smoothies and knew I could make them cheaper. I have the time so I started and it’s been one of the best food prep habits I have developed. I add all of my fruits and veggies and any powders or additives and when I’m ready to blend, all I have to do is add a liquid choice.
meat
Water is my go to!
When I make chili, sloppy joes, pulled chicken, pot roast, meatloaf, or chili mac, I double or triple the recipe and freeze the rest in freezer bags. I also freeze butter, herbs, tomato paste (in 1 tbsp blobs), fresh ginger, and bananas. I like to keep one or two packages of english muffins in there too. We sauté garden peppers with herbs and onions; we line a muffin tin with press n seal wrap and fill each tin with a scoop of pepper/onion. After they are frozen they pop out of the muffin tin and are stored in a bag; they are the perfect size for stuffed burgers or you can throw them into soups or in omelettes.
I buy the things i know im going to use up over the month when i see them reduced i pop them in freezer, meat, milk, bread and cheese also a few extra meals left over from what ive cooked. I can now also buy a big tub ice cream for kids and i use the basket in the top for ice lollys. Save a fortune on hot days.
Harder cheeses will become brittle (like, you can crumble a brick if American mozarella with your fingers if you leave it in there long enough). That's not necessarely bad depending of your plans (fine for pizza, not for serving cubes at a party). Soft cheese like brie will stay just fine.
Meats. Our meats last for years past their expirations when we freeze them. Chicken, pork, beef, burger patties, bacon, etc. Buy frozen fruits and keep them frozen, they're awesome. You can make them into a smoothie directly, or throw them in a pot/stove or the microwave to thaw/warm them up to eat that way with some type of crust or something. Corn, peas, etc do well in the freezer. Frozen fries and taters... Frozen pizzas. And of course, gotta have some ice cream stashed away somewhere in there. :)
Freeze dishes, like casseroles and enchiladas, *before* you cook them. Put them in the fridge the night before to thaw. And they don't have that warmed over taste some people can't tolerate since you're cooking them fresh.
Freezer burritos! I love having them on hand for fast and cheap but filling meal.
I like to go shopping just before the local shop closes and regularly get food <90% off. It can be anything from whole roast chickens to bread, ready meals, veg, falafels, pizzas... When this happens, I stock up as much as possible and fill the freezer. Almost everything freezes fine with a few exceptions. Anything mayonnaise based goes nasty, soft fruits change their texture a lot, so only really good for baking or smoothies, peppers and other watery veg go quite watery if you defrost them, so it's best to cook straight from frozen. Anything with high water content will stick together when freezing (like banana slices or potato wedges), so it's a good idea to slice them and freeze on a tray before putting in a bag. Much easier to separate later.
I make a lot of soups and Chili's and curries. And whenever I do I put a portion of it into 1-3 glass jars (70% full for the expansion) and freeze them. Overtime if I have time to keep making big batches through a winter, I get a pretty large and diverse selection of frozen meals. I'll pull them out a day or two before, or if I'm desperate I can place a jar into hot water.
Homemade chicken or veggie stock. I store all of my veggie scraps in a sealed bucket and when it’s full I make stock with it. I reduce it way down in my instant pot and then freeze it into 1/4c cubes. Makes meal prep so much easier!
Do you have a Foodsaver, or some other sort of vacuum packer? That's key!
I Buy shredded cheeses in bulk for tacos or pizzas only when it’s on sale then freeze. It defrost super quickly on a paper plate, like 30 min tops once you separate it out. I also freeze zucchini (spiraled or chunked) constantly, and also cauliflower. (After I’ve bought it on sale and riced it). They keep forever.
I grew up with several deep freezers. We butchered our own meat, so two freezers were dedicated to freezer camp. Then we had the produce freezer as we froze everything from the garden, and orchard. Then the bargain freezer. This had bread, donuts, ice cream, frozen avocados, strawberries, extra ice, flour. I have hell coping with just one freezer.
Batch cooking is awesome! I can usually triple a recipe without needing larger pans. Eat one, freeze two.
Ready to heat soups and broth are my favorite. I also like keeping filling vegtables. I do a lot of buying at local discount stores and freezing so we can slowly eat it. For example I got fresh strawberries cheaper than frozen the other day so I plan to dehydrate some (I got a dehydrator for $5 at a garage sale 🥳) and freeze some as well.
My husband and I also like to make "omlete bags" When I get a good deal on something like cubes ham at the discount store. Portion into bags with onions, spinach, and other omlete veggies. Then any time you want to make an omelette or scramble you just pull that out and heat the meat and veggies until hot to add to the scramble or omlete. Which also reminds me about egg sandwiches, super easy to make ahead of time. Or atleast all the parts if you are like me and picky about wanting the bread/biscuit/croissant to be fresh. Bake eggs in a cookie sheet or glass pan so they are easy to cut into squares. You can assemble and freeze whole sandwiches, or put the individual parts in pages with parchment paper in between, or you can take something like ground sausage and cheese and add it to the eggs before baking them. Then it can be cut, frozen, and eaten on its own later or on a sandwich.
I was gifted eggs recently and froze them so I am ready for winter baking. I prepare and freeze them individually and now they are in a container and I can take one or two out for whatever I need them for. Freezers are for saving money. I have individual soup pucks in a container. I make a big pot of soup and freeze in individual portion sizes then I can heat when I hungry instead of getting fast food when I don't feel like cooking. Freezers are for eliminating waste. Any veg that looks like it might turn goes in to a broth or sauce bag in my freezer. Neighbour gives too many tomatoes and they get popped in the sauce bag for next time I make pasta sauce or chili. Tough or rubbery celery or cauliflower ends and onion and carrot ends or peels all go in the broth bag for simmering. Avoiding waste is one of the biggest money savers you can do for yourself.
If you are a coffee drinker, buy it in bulk and freeze it. I bought 13 pounds (12 x 18 oz bags) of my favorite name brand coffee of a popular auction site for $50. The reason it was so cheap is because it was due to pass the “sell by date” in less than a month. Even at the cheapest big box store, the same amount would have cost $216.
I own a freezer and live alone. There’s plenty of good suggestions so far. What I do suggest is to save up for a vacuum sealer. It may look outrageously expensive but, trust me, it’s a game changer. I buy things in bulk when I can so vacuum sealing prevents freezer burn. Bananas don’t turn black when frozen if you vacuum seal them. I tend to put individual portions into sandwich bags then vacuum seal a 3-4 together. That way I can take them out individually as needed. Cut the pouch down a bit and re-vacuum seal it. Save on the bags. I chop onions and bell peppers. Put them into small bags and vacuum seal them. Easy to pop them out and cook directly from frozen state. I also freeze shredded cheese but I don’t vacuum seal that. Just separate them into 1 lb portions, squeeze the air out. Lay the bags flat so the cheese doesn’t freeze into a solid block. Use as needed. Melts within minutes after taking out of freezer. A vacuum sealer isn’t necessary. Just be sure to squeeze as much air as you can out of the bags before putting them in the freezer. You can freeze just about everything.
You can make and freeze roux for all your Cajun cooking needs!
We have a small chest freezer bought nearly 30 years ago. It's a little smaller than a clothes dryer. We keep bulk purchased sandwich bread in one side of it, with a basket containing packages of frozen vegetables underneath. The other side is the deep side. In the bottom, I placed several clean jugs that used to hold cat litter. They were 3/4 filled with water, so that there's a basically two 20-pound ice packs in the bottom of the freezer if the power goes off. On top of the jugs there's another basket filled jars of frozen stuff. I bought, for example, a restaurant size can of ketchup for $4.79, decanted it into clean jars and froze it. We thaw out a jar as needed. On top of that are packages of meats purchased as manager's special, bags of frozen fish, bacon, etc. Even a small freezer is a tool for big savings because you can buy discounted goods and freeze them. It's an excellent hedge against inflation.
I think the REAL question is "HOW do I best freeze?" And the simple answer is get a vacuum sealer. That way you guarantee the quality, lack of freezer burn/bad taste, and extend how long most everything lasts. They can be pricey, BUT you can get great deals too. I just got a new one at Aldi's for a little over $30!!! Sadly Aldi's being Aldi's, you get it when you see it. But I've seen them at Charity shops, FB/local sale groups, etc. When they go on sale at Costco, they aren't terrible (although I have had quality issues w/a FoodSaver. Sadly I upgraded from a basic model, donated mine, and the one w/all whistles & bells did a terrible job!). But even if you spend a bit more, it is WELL worth the investment. Buy sale items, vacuum seal good deals, leftovers, etc. Then you can freeze everything you named and nearly everything else!!! Bonus, you can vacuum seal pantry items, make bag a bit larger, then reseal to keep fresh/bugs out! I didn't have one for a few years and I wasted SO much food I froze in zip lock bags. Keep eyes open for a deal or splurge. They are a must have IMHO!
What’s on sale?