A lot of people freeze a lot of things. I am thinking about investing in a deep freezer myself because the freezer on my side-by-side refrigerator is not very big at all. Anyway, what do you guys freeze? I obviously freeze meat and vegetables, and I sometimes stock up on various frozen items that I know we'll eat. I also like making meatballs and freezing them. They're as convenient as the frozen kind that you buy at the store, and I can use them when I'm in a hurry to make spaghetti and meatballs, cocktail meatballs, meatballs and gravy, etc. I also like to boil chicken leg quarters (or other cuts, but I generally buy those because they come in huge 10 pound bags for $5 at my local grocery store, so you really can't beat it.) Anyway, I boil them with onion and garlic, salt and pepper and a few other seasonings, then let them cool and shred the meat off of the bones. I then freeze the meat in freezer bags with a bit of the broth. It's nice to have pre-cooked chicken on hand when I'm in a big hurry but want to make something homemade. Oh yes, and I like making homemade stock by putting the bones, some vegetables and seasonings in my crock pot and allowing everything to simmer overnight or all day long. I then freeze it into separate portions and keep on hand for soups and such. I would really like to get more involved in freezer cooking, but I'm unsure of what to do next. So, what do you guys like to freeze?
I really don't know exactly what freezing does, other than 'change the liquid to ice' & maybe 'preserve the food' (like Han Solo in the carbonite in STAR WARS-V & -VI ). In MY little freezer, I've got ice cream, an ice pack (for if I twist my ankle or knee or something), a beer-can cozy, a coupla temperature-preserving bags, a mini-cooler, some popsicles & some hot-dogs. I remember my mom's freezer at her place has a lot of that, with some ice-trays & some coffee. But mostly it just seems like a good place to keep the bugs away from the food.
LOL! Well, the main point of freezing food is that it lasts longer. If you put meat in the fridge, you can only keep it for a couple of days before you must eat it or throw it away. On the other hand, meat that is put in the fridge can last for months or even years. It's a good way to stock up on more food than your family can eat right away without worrying about it going bad.
Hmmm ... I guess the question is more like 'what are you freezing that you DON'T have to freeze (so you can move it out of your tiny freezer to make room for stuff you need to freeze)?' yeah? ... (reviewing your opening post ...) oh, Freezer-Cooking---I dunno, look into dry-ice prices? (don't know why ... jus` that dry-ice is 'neato!') And your foods, they all sound like they need to be frozen (i.e. because you've cooked them already). At the grocery-store, they seem to keep all their (uncut) fruits-&-vegetables in an open refrigerator for a week (only guessing ... I just shop; I don't 'work' there). But it seems like--after you keep them in the freezer--you CAN'T keep them in the refrigerator ... I tried to with a few cucumbers & a bag of apples---after the freezer, they go soggy after a day in the `fridge. (A friend could still use the soggy apples in some apple-pie.)
We live near the supermarket so anything we need that we don't have at home is within walking distance. At the moment we only freeze meat that we bought from a bigger supermarket (as the price is cheaper then), some sausages, and also a large box of ice cream We have a small freezer on the top side of our fridge and we can't actually put much thing on it.
I have a freezer full of meat, fruit, vegetables, and ice cream. Since freezing makes food last I tend to stock up as much as I can. My wife and I go to Sam's Club a few times a year to do this. We see a lot of great deals.
A deep freezer is worth every penny! Even if you buy one brand new, it'll more than pay for itself by saving you money over time if you use it regularly. Also, check Craigslist and local yard sales. I bought an awesome full-size stand-up freezer a few years ago that was only 50 bucks!! It was twice the size of my chest freezer and super cheap.
Vegetables mostly. When I find them cheap I buy them in bulk, chop them in little pieces then store them in plastic bags. This way I'm having vegetables ready for cooking available at all times. Meats I avoid storing for too long and the same goes for dairy products - excepting cheese. Cheese, I mix with salt, then I give it round shapes and freeze it. It's of great help when I want to cook some pasta or other dishes that I like to prepare with cheese.
I freeze the obviously frozen foods and meats, but I also freeze bread and milk as well. We go through quite a bit of bread and milk in our house so it pays to bulk buy them and put them in the freezer and take them out as and when we need them.
Currently, I've been freezing my butt off and NOT because it's cold outside. I've been making huge batches of food and freezing them for later consumption. It's a nice way to have a meal already prepped when you get home. Pop it in the oven and BAM a good hearty meal. I cannot for the life of my freeze cheese. I know people do but I feel like it steal something from the taste.
I like what you freeze, LindaKay! I just made bone broth for the first time and I froze it and had nice stock for over a month. It took me about a month to save up enough chicken bones to make it but it was worth it. I also boil chicken and take off the meat for a separate use then take the bones and skin and cook it 24 hours in my crock pot with onion scraps (skins and all!) and seasonings. I strain that and I get a nice soup base. I also like to make a large pot of chili with black beans and kidney bean and then freeze it in meal-sized portions. Vegetable soups and stews freeze well, too. Cooking in bulk can really save money and I love having cooked food in the freezer for the month. I definitely freeze bread because we just don't eat it fast enough and it goes bad so quickly. The texture is just fine when it's defrosted, too. I don't freeze milk because the texture just isn't the same when it's thawed out, imo. With a freezer, you can take advantage of buy one, get one free meats and always have some on hand. I really couldn't get by with my freezer!
Ah, so I'm not the only one who does the "make it and freeze it" thing! I make stuff like, meatballs and burgers and freeze them. I'll also get a bunch of meat (like, the family pack) and separate in the portions and freeze it. So if I want to put chicken in a dish, I can just take it out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge or the skin, depending on how much prep time I'd have. I also sometimes buy candy in bulk and separate it into portions also, and freeze them like the chicken. M&M's taste way better frozen! I have learned that you can't freeze certain things, like cream cheese. I do also freeze things like flour, butter, sugar, and various other ingredients. It makes them last much longer then they would in the cabinet, and it also keeps any possible bugs out of them!
I only freeze beef and chips. Sometimes I will buy a few frozen meals but my freezer is mostly just meat and oven chips really. It also has a sack of peas in, but I eat fresh now anyway so I don't think they will get used for a while, unless I cook them just to free up space.
We make soups specifically to freeze here. It's nice to have a homecooked meal without the dishes. We need to bite the bullet and get a deep freeze so that we can start buying whole cows and pigs and saving a ton of money that way.
I usually freeze meats, some veggies, and overall foods and leftovers that still taste good even after you freeze them. I'm not big on frozen food, I prefer them fresh, so my freezer is usually not very full. However freeze stuff like pies, meat, fish, broccoli and stuff like that I usually do like to freeze them just because they don't taste bad after you unfreeze them.
A principle thatLog In takes advantage-of (whereLog In outdoes SUBWAY, because all of {Arby's'} {isn't that how you're supposed to do a 'posessive of a posessive'? I'll ask theLog In} meats & cheeses are sliced "fresh," as opposed to SUBWAY's that are pre-sliced at some central location and shipped out ... with SUBWAY all the while keeping it's motto "Eat Fresh!" )
I freeze everything I want to last longer even after their expiration date. It may be a bread, a rice, or anything that's not typically put in the freezer. My grandmother told this technique to me. This is our form of saving foods. If we want to eat the foods we froze, even if they already passed their expiration then we just take them out from the freezer and reheat them, and then that's it. They are already perfectly well to be eaten. But once we took them out, we never take them back.
Well looking at our freezer, I noticed that we usually just freeze meat, chicken, fish and water. The bread that is already hard is stored on the chiller. Sometimes mangoes are also placed in the freezer so that when we eat it it's already chilled, fruits are a lot better to eat when chilled.
My favorite foods to freeze are stews and soups. The reason is that it hardly changes their texture even with the freezing and microwaving process whereas some other dishes are less forgiving. The best thing about it is that you can divide the portions beforehand and get single servings as you please, although I admit I've never done this out of sheer laziness, so I usually just scoop out what amount I'll be needing for any particular day, but it's not that difficult anyway so I don't really mind.
I freeze just about anything, so long as it's not cooked. I don't really like freezing pre-cooked meals, just as I dislike eating tv dinners.
