[fuzzyboo]

Thought I would start a thread where people could post helpful tips for freezing foods. I will start.

When making a casserole to freezer, line the dish/pan with aluminum foil making sure to leave extra on either end for handles. Then once your dish is ready, you can freeze it then once it is frozen, remove from the pan/dish and wrap in more aluminum foil and label. The aluminum foil is cheaper than using the disposable aluminum pans. Or if you have a ziploc big enough you can just slip it in one of those. Then when you are ready to heat it, you can just unwrap and put it back in the original dish.

[mcdlady1]

when freezing green peppers or fruit flash freeze it first on a cookie sheet and then slide it inot ziplock bags and label with 1 cup etc and it's measured when you need it or take out what you need and reseal. Veggies are better used in soups or casseroles and fruit is better used in smoothies and not to just eat either one raw.

[hcsig]

You can freeze green peppers for stuffed peppers by cutting off the tops and cleaning out the insides. Freeze the gutted pepper, 2 per baggie. They will feel a little mooshy once they are defrosted but taste the same after cooked in the crock pot!!!

[Mavourneen]

My family and I love to eat bacon on the weekends, but opening a package for 3 people is wasteful, and none of us needs that much bacon cooked at once.

Open a package of bacon, and roll each strip up into a small round bundle. Stand the bundle on its end on a cookie sheet, and freeze.
Once frozen, the little frozen bacon rolls pop right off the cookie sheet. Store in a ziplock freezer bag.

Come weekend breakfast time, I just take a few frozen rolls from the freezer, set them on the counter for a few minutes, and I've got a perfect portion of bacon without cooking a huge batch.

[miss4kids]

I plant zucchinni in my garden and there is always more than I can handle, so I like to stick in in my food processer and shred it and freeze it in bags in 2 cup portions. Great for making zucchinni bread in the winter months.

[Shay]

Good tips, I do almost all of these. I especially love doing the zucchini in zipper bags for bread. I even go one step further and put the Cookbook name, recipe and page # on the bag I intend to use the zucchini (or whatever) in.

I blanch and freeze green beans from my garden
I cook up extra ground beef or turkey and season some for different things like taco and freeze for a late use.
Freeze extra pancakes since they are DD's favorite and she always asks for them during the week. When I buy boneless chicken breast or boneless pork chops, I make Smoosh meals w/ my Homemade Gourmet seasoning. I just add seasoning and 1 -2 ingredients in the zipper bag w/ the meat. Seal and smoosh. Can be dumped into crockpot and cooked from frozen.
I shred cheese and add cornstarch to keep it from being one big clump and can use it in cooking and get just the amount I need. I freeze the wrapper from butter and have it to butter a pan. It is just enough without wasting all the good bit left on the wrapper.

[NeeNee]

Originally Posted by Mavourneen

My family and I love to eat bacon on the weekends, but opening a package for 3 people is wasteful, and none of us needs that much bacon cooked at once.

Open a package of bacon, and roll each strip up into a small round bundle. Stand the bundle on its end on a cookie sheet, and freeze.
Once frozen, the little frozen bacon rolls pop right off the cookie sheet. Store in a ziplock freezer bag.

Come weekend breakfast time, I just take a few frozen rolls from the freezer, set them on the counter for a few minutes, and I've got a perfect portion of bacon without cooking a huge batch.

What a clever idea! I NEVER would have thought of this. thank you!

[nbp2452]

I cook all the bacon at once drain it and then freeze it by using a length of wax paper and rolling each slice up as I go. When all rolled up lengthwise, I them put them into a gallon zipper bag. We just unroll what we want, put the rest back in the freezer and warm in the oven with the bisquits or put in the micro wave for about 10 seconds. Its good. Sausage is done the same way. Then we have breakfast sandwiches for next to nothing. All that good bacon grease can be frozen for use later in making gravy. You can freeze it in ice trays and then transfer to baggies, or just use the snack bag size baggies.

[hcsig]

Originally Posted by Mavourneen

My family and I love to eat bacon on the weekends, but opening a package for 3 people is wasteful, and none of us needs that much bacon cooked at once.

Open a package of bacon, and roll each strip up into a small round bundle. Stand the bundle on its end on a cookie sheet, and freeze.
Once frozen, the little frozen bacon rolls pop right off the cookie sheet. Store in a ziplock freezer bag.

Come weekend breakfast time, I just take a few frozen rolls from the freezer, set them on the counter for a few minutes, and I've got a perfect portion of bacon without cooking a huge batch.

I just did this as a trial run and it worked great! Thank you so much!

[amylynnk]

Whenever I make a casserole type dish I always make 2 it really adds no additional time, we eat one I freeze one.

I brown 5 pounds of ground beef and season it with taco seasoning divide it into 5 servings freeze.

I freeze cooked pasta. when making say Penne for a dish for dinner ill cook 2 boxes instead of one and freeze what I am not using for dinner that night. If I freeze in a food saver bag I can just place a frozen bag in boiling water to unthaw and reheat

[jl531]

Originally Posted by Shay

When I buy boneless chicken breast or boneless pork chops, I make Smoosh meals w/ my Homemade Gourmet seasoning. I just add seasoning and 1 -2 ingredients in the zipper bag w/ the meat. Seal and smoosh. Can be dumped into crockpot and cooked from frozen.

Would you share a "Smoosh" recipe? That sounds interesting - and easy!
THanks!

[justfluffyme]

I have a vacum sealer. It's worth the investment, and make sure you get one that will seal jars, too. I make whatever, dish out individual servings and freeze first if it's something smushy like lasagna (you'd have a clump of something) Once in the bag, I can cut a corner off and microwave, or toss into a boiling pot of water. NO FREEZER BURN! Tastes like I just made it. The jar storage is handy, too. Make soup and then vacum seal it into a jar and keep in fridge.

HTH,

Lauren

[justfluffyme]

Get a gallon size bag, after every meal put your left over veggies in there (except salad). If you've just got three kernels of corn, doesn't matter, into the bag. When the bag is full, you've got all your veggies for a stew precooked, just add to water/stock add meat enjoy.

HTH,

Lauren

[roseythings]

I use canning jars for things like strawberries, blueberries, figs and homemade ice cream. I believe they keep far longer without the "frostbite"
I also use then for leftover soups, store eggs etc. in them. These jars can go from freezer to microwave or heater in an emergency.
Lately, I've used them in the fridge as well for batters and things like potato salad. I think they keep foods better than most bowls and I can see what I have on hand.
I freezes packs of dry peas, beans and cornmeal for 48 hours then let all moisture dry off before storing for long term storage. That kills any chance of weevils setting up camp in my food.
I live alone now so I store like "TV dinners" left over from cooking complete meals on occasion and eat a decent meal months later by reheating.

[living4fridays]

Canning jars? Never woulda crossed my mind, so thanks for posting!

You know what my freezing tip is? Buy a blanking generator. The only thing I wanted for Christmas this year was this super sexy upright freezer.... it went on sale late in the fall and DH bought it for me. Used my newly acquired coupon prowess to stock that sucker up - I was so proud! A few weeks ago, we had this horrible icestorm and lost power for 10 days (and we're lucky cause some around here STILL don't have power) and lost every bit of it. ARGH. When I told DH the value of what we lost, he didn't balk at buying a generator. We had a five day outage last February, but we only had the freezer in the side by side, so not that big of a loss.

At any rate, got the fridge stock built back up for necessities so I'm looking forward to getting back to my freezer work!

[earrdr]

Sorry for you loss Living4 fridays. We bought a generator during the storm and I am not sure we came out ahead on the total amt. Generator 1000.00, plus 20.00 dollars a day for gas. But we do have the generator for future use. Electricity seems to go off around here at the slightest wind, especially when you live in the country.

I freeze my strawberrys on a cookie sheet. Then put them in a ziplock. Take out the amount I need.

You can also freeze onions and green peppers this way. To be used in your favorite soup, stew, casserole etc.

I freeze whole tomatoes from the garden after blanching and peeling the skin off. You can also cut into quarters.

Good freezer bags are the secret to freezing any food. I am going to check on Fluffys vacuum sealer. Sounds like just what I need.

[TwoBlueOnePink]

My freezer is in our shed. My DS left the door open a little in the middle of the summer. By the time i realized everything had to be thrown out. So i got one of those wireless thermometers off amazon. It works up to 100 feet. Now I can look on the fridge in the house and know that the freezer is fine.

[vikwing2]

Everyone in my house loves french toast but I hate to cook it. So when I finally break down and do it, I do 3 or 4 loaves of bread (there are 7 of us) cook them and put 2 to a baggie and freeze them. The kids can just pop them in the toaster and they can have them any time they want. Absolutely can not tell the difference.

[dixiedarling]

What kind of bags are y'all using? I am planning on trying these tricks but I hate freezer burn. I have the sealer but the bags are too expensive right now.

[travelingfool]

earrdr- We used to have freezer parties when I was stationed in upstate NY. The food was ok the first three days or so, after that one had to start cooking (propane camping stove) so I would grab anything in the front of the freezer, cook it, and invite all our friends. If the power came back on withing the first 5 days, then I would empty out the freezer, cook everything and re-freeze it all! Anything over 5 days, it was trash!

Other things to do--make a huge batch of basil pesto, freeze in ice cube trays, and freeze in foodsaver--lasts until the next millenium, pancakes-pop 'em in the microwave or toaster, any leftover bread-stale of not--get's used in the next meatloaf or meat ball mixture, rice stuck in the bottom of the pan- freeze, toss it in the next soup batch, always pre-marinate the meats going into the freezer- SURPRISE- guess what we are having for dinner!, I buy 20 lbs of chicken legs when they go on sale 59¢ or under- bake 'em all and freeze them one or two legs per bag--my husband is a leg man!, I always have chicken legs, meatballs, ribs, porksteaks, and meatloaf frozen in individual bags- I can serve an army in minutes or a hungry husband no matter when he shows up and what he is in the mood for--

A small tip== my husband is a hunter. You never know when they go into the woods or up the river when they will return or what will happen during his day--I always send "frozen " ice packs to keep his food cold--but I send one frozen juice bottle (Langers juice concentrate comes in a bottle) in case he is stuck somewhere and needs some extra food or he has an injury and needs an ice pack. You just never know when a motor will conk out or the river will rise too high to get out or the 1001 other things that can happen to a hunter out in the wilderness.

[shellie_wnj]

Awesome tips! I do a lot of the same things. One thing I am surprised I didn't see mentioned was freezing sauces. When I make pasta sauce, or brown gravy, or whatever, I make between 3 and 4 times the amount I need. Then I freeze the extra in glass jars (Please leave about 1 inch headroom, I learned this the hard way!) Whenever I need sauce for something, I always have it :-)

[CDmama]

Originally Posted by vikwing2

Everyone in my house loves french toast but I hate to cook it. So when I finally break down and do it, I do 3 or 4 loaves of bread (there are 7 of us) cook them and put 2 to a baggie and freeze them. The kids can just pop them in the toaster and they can have them any time they want. Absolutely can not tell the difference.

This is a GREAT idea!! Thanks!

[neidert]

vacum sealer if you dont have one you dont know what you are missing not only does meat last years longer but no freezer burn and you can use it on anything say you have lost of pasta ect you repackage it the sealer and last years longer i actually have 3 of these deer season omg cant get anything better we butcher our beef ect and garden stuff and especially ceral will last longer to and less freezer space if you freeze it i cant say enough about these things they are so wonderful beware dont buy cheap ones you get what you pay for on these they are well worth the investment i promise i also freeze sauces anything i mean anything you can put in these i alot of the times buy the small bags and freeze serving sizes of anything soups spegetti you name it

[neidert]

god my spelling is bad today my last post shows it

[MommyMandi]

Instead of buying frozen waffles (unless they are nearly free, of course I make whole-wheat waffles from scratch with fresh fruit and freeze them. Did a quadruple batch last time and the kids at healthy waffles every morning for weeks. They loved it! Also make 4-6 loaves of bread at once, pop them back in the oven wrapped in foil from the freezer...yummy! I also love that I have an upright freezer now and can really stock up on all the clearance meat and bread products I find.