I am a big fan of my slow cooker and eating healthy meals on a budget. Do any of your freeze your food? I know a lot of people make things like soups on Sunday, freeze it, and have soup to eat all week. I would love to do this, but I'm not sure how to get started. My slow cooker is only 1.5qt, so it doesn't make enough past 2 people and maybe someone's lunch the next day. In terms of "freezing" food, the most I've ever done is put (uncooked) ingredients into a ziplock bag and then dump it all into the slow cooker. But, that's easy - I'm talking about ready-made food, after the cooking. People just say, "Freeze it." But, how? I feel very dumb for asking, but do I just put the food that I've already made into containers or zip lock bags... and just throw it in the freezer? Do you defrost it and heat it back up? Isn't it soggy? I think the reason I am afraid to start (despite the fact I've read such great things about making meals in advance) is that I'm not quite sure how it all works. Are certain foods better to freeze than others? Thanks for all of your help.
I usually do this with stocks or chili, since both reheat very well. I recently saw a recipe video for breakfast burritos, that said to make a bunch of them and individually wrap and freeze them for breakfast on the go. I think I may give this a try, since I am a huge breakfast person, but when I wouldn't have time, I would wind up getting a breakfast sandwich from the vending machine. Those things are loaded with fat and preservatives. Plus, burritos would heat up easily in a microwave, as opposed to something like english muffins.
I'll freeze some food if I get it for cheap when it's on sale and don't plan on eating it for a while. We did that with hot dogs and buns and it works great. They stay preserved and taste just as good when thawed out.
Rice, pasta, potaotes, and breads dont freeze as well. I usually plan out what we are going to eat and make the freezer meals on the day I am going to eat the first one. For example we love to have italian creamy chicken. I fill my crockpot 2/3rds full with chicken breasts, add a cube of butter, a package of italian dressing mix (like the stuff you would mix with oil and vinegar to make dressing), two to three cans of cream of chicken soup and a few blocks of cream cheese. I let this all cook until the chicken is cooked through stirring every once in a while to keep the stuff from burning onto the side of the crock pot. The cooking time depends on your crock pot and how much you fill it. Just cut the chicken up to see if its cooked. If it shreads then its done. I like to chop up the chicken into inch squares. It seems to cover more that way. I eat it for dinner that night over pasta. I also get 4 freezer bags and fill them with the mix from the crock pot. I lay them flat on the counter for while we eat dinner. After dinner I put them in the freezer and we eat them later. We have it with rice, pasta, over bread or over potatoes. These things dont freeze well so that is why I dont add them in the first step. I cook once and get 5 meals from it. I just need to make sure that I have a starch in the pantry ready for when we eat it. Freezer meals save time and money. You can buy the stuff in bulk and get the savings but split it into many meals.
I have found that most foods are not good candidates for freezing, but there are a few, and they are worth the extra effort. My two favorites are chicken stock and beef stock - both homemade. I also keep a small amount of demi glace, but that one is a lot more trouble. I do all of the cooking in my house, and I always save my vegetable and meat trimmings and freeze them. A couple of times a year, I bring out the frozen bits and spend a day cooking up big batches of stock. I cool the stock and freeze it in ice cube trays (if you haven't tried this, it's a great idea). I keep them wrapped tightly in my freezer, and any time I need some stock for a dish, I pop out a couple of cubes of stock. It's a little trouble to do this, but trust me, you will not regret it.
HMM. I never thought about freezing drippings in ice trays for later. That is a great idea. I always wondered what to do with the extras. I could never think of anything.
If you'd like any of my stock recipes, message me. I'd be happy to share them There is just no replacement for cooking with homemade stock.
When I make lasagnas or stuffed shells I will cook two pans and freeze one for later. I also freeze soups, stews, chili, empanadas, and etc. We have a big freezer so I have a lot of room. It works out great if. I am sick all my husband has to do is heat something up for he and our kids. I. Would invest in a larger crock pot if you want to start freezing extras.
I don't freeze food much, but when I do I mainly use Ziploc freezer bags. I purchased some reduced meat the other day and immediately froze half of it for later use. Also, cooked beans seem to freeze and defrost well. I usually store these in a plastic container until I am ready to use them.
Wow. Thanks for your help with this. That sounds like a great recipe that goes great with any carb or starch. Buying in bulk is always more cost-effective, but since I only live with one other person, it's hard to "use up" all the food before it goes bad. Freezing will really help. I figured that rice and pastas wouldn't be good to freeze - but I never understood how people froze everything else. I usually make chili or soup, and then pop the leftovers in the fridge and try to eat it all up. Sounds like I have better luck freezing everything if I don't want to eat chili 3 days in a row to eat it all up.
To freez something to store for future is always the best idea. I like it but the only thing that I love to freez is the icecream.
This topic brought back a memory I had forgotten about. When I was right out of high school and away at college, my grandmother would make an extra plate every night when she prepared dinner and freeze it. I was able to come home once every couple of weeks, and when I did, I was rewarded with a cooler full of delicious grandma cooking to take back with me. Obviously, it was not the same as sitting down at grandma's dinner table and eating the food right off of the stove, but it was far better than college kid food. I think it helped me do as well as I did
I am not really in to freezing food unless it is raw and will be cook later onward. But freezing with the foods that are needed to be is really of course in need
I've only just discovered freezer cooking recently, and so far I'm loving it because I rarely get to throw leftover food nowadays. I've tried it with soup, some stews, pasta sauces, chili, meatloaf, and some french and homemade pita bread pizza. I want to try to make some burritos, I've been researching for freezer cooking recipes on the internet and I just adapt them to what my family likes. To thaw, I just put it in the fridge the night before I use it and put it in the oven and heat it in a skillet on the stove top the next day so we can eat it hot!
The only thing Id like to eat frozen everyday is Ice Cream. I just hate it when any cooked food was frozen and to be heated and eaten the next day. The taste is so bland. Anyways, I want it fresh even though its not healthy and not money wise, so I opt to order from fastfoods like McDonalds or Pizza Hut.
Another technique I've seen was vacuum sealing salad mixes in mason jars. This Youtuber said she picked up a vacuum sealer used at a garage sale, and she will prep a week or so worth of ready to go salads in a jar to bring to work for lunch. Apparently it helps the lettuce and other ingredients last much longer so you can take advantage of sales and not have to worry about it all going bad before you can finish it. I've even seen little cups that are designed to fit into mason jars now, so you could store dressing in them and keep it separate from the salad until you are ready to eat it.
I put mine in microwave dishes and freeze them. We collect them from the Chinese, lol. We freeze lots of things in this house in both bags and containers. Why waste good food that's what I think. So many people are starving in the world, so we don't agree with wasting good food.
I love freezing meals, and we did a lot of this before I had my baby so we did not have to cook for weeks. You can freeze pasta dishes, casseroles, soups, you name it. I have not really found that thawing them makes it soggy. It tastes, to me, as good as it did the first time I had it.
I think freezing food is a good idea, it can save money and it is convenient but I don't do it very often because I usually cook enough for one meal, I don't cook extra portions. However, freezing is great for curries, I cook up a big batch and stick it in the freezer.
I don't know how she does it, but my sister will freeze some of her food and bring it round for my dad so I can have a couple of days off a week from cooking for him. Does anyone know if the frozen meals that supermarkets sell are any good?
