Are You Making the Most of Your Freezer?

It was fun finding so many good freezing ideas.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

Great Post! Also thank you for the link to Canned Laughter.

My Blog: http://www.cannedlaffs.com

I also have containers in the freezer full of scraps of meat and veggies for making stock! Thanks for reminding people.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

Great post! I freeze all kinds of things and most of them have been mentioned here. One other thing I do with my freezer is that I keep a couple of big ziploc bags that I add to when I can. One bag has chicken parts like wing tips and backbones, and the other bag has odd leftover pieces of onion and tired carrots, etc. Whenever those things might be discarded, I put them in the freezer instead. Eventually, those bags come out and are used to make stock. 

lisa from lisa is cooking

http://lisaiscooking.blogspot.com/ 

Glad you might get some use out of presoaking/cooking beans
then freezing them. Anything to make taking advantage of that budget
stretcher easier is well worth sharing.

I don't use enough chickpeas, I need to work them into our menu more often.

At our local flea market, we can buy chickpeas SUPER cheap still on the plant. They're harvested the day before the market, you can't get any fresher than that. They made AMAZING hummus. This year I'll have to really stock up on them!

I bet that's EXACTLY what happened with that bread. I asked my daughter to put something away once and discovered that the freezer had been left open a touch and I had HEAPS of frost on everything. It may have even been the day we put that bread in there, or the bread may have started to thaw on the bottom then refroze, making it yucky.

Thanks so much! I think the mystery's been solved!

Maybe you could eat a piece every few months (saving some for the anniversary, of course!)

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

Ha! Our freezer is mostly filled up by our wedding cake that we'll eat (or at least look at) on our first anniversary. Until then...not much room :-)

We have to freeze out here.  It's not as bad where we live now (town 30min away) but we used to live 2hrs to the closes grocery store and it was essential to freeze!  I heart my vacuum sealer and wouldn't survive without it. Thanks for the link up Kalyn! Lori
 *******************

My Wooden Spoon ( http://mywoodenspoon.com )

A Cowboy's Wife ( http://acowboyswife.com )

I guess that's a topic for another post!

I can see that the farther you live from the store, the more you'd love your freezer!

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

What a great way to spend an afternoon with friends, and good eating for months afterwards. Cilnatro pesto has been on my "must make" list for a while now.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

I had four friends over recently on a Sunday afternoon.  We made up three compound butters (lemon and thyme, basil and garlic, chili and lime) rolled them in plastic wrap and froze them in small portions. Use a slice on grilled fish, pasta, rice, chicken, or place a slice on a grilled steak - it makes your ordinary meal so much better especially when you're in a hurry. 

We also made gallons of stocks, beef (roasted the bones), chicken (did it in a pressure cooker) and vegetable and split up those and took them home to freeze. I got beef and chicken parts at the asian market at a cost of next to nothing and we all saved our vegetable scraps and peelings from the preceeding week for the veggie stock. 

Finally we made basil and cilantro pesto and froze those in mini muffin tins, then when they were firm popped them out so you can keep small portions in ziplocs in the freezer. Again, you can add a cube to pasta, rice or vegetables.  It made for a fun afternoon of zesting, grating, blending and of course wine drinking and for about ten bucks each our freezers were... well... stocked!

Leslie J. Serra

Serra Ventures

Food, Wine, Travel

I haven't had a problem with the glass bottles. I am careful not to thaw with hot water; so far never had one break.

I freeze the same kinds of things you do!

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

I see you freeze lime juice in glass bottles--how does that work to keep the glass from blowing?  Just leave enough airspace at the top?

I freeze several items already mentioned:  bread bits (to grate & toast for nice homemade panko-esque crumbs), beans, herbs, etc.

Some other things I freeze: 

- I make a roasted eggplant-bell peppers-onions puree that I use to add to quick tomato sauces for pasta; it really helps get dinner on the table in a flash.

- Bananas, right in their skins.  We usually don't have enough go overripe at the same time for banana bread (or other recipes), so I toss them in the freezer until I have enough.

- Leftover sliced holiday ham.  I toss ham into various dishes and it's nice to have it handy right in the freezer.

- Bones and various veggie bits; when I have enough, I make soup.

I only have the freezer that is on top of my fridge, so I have to be pretty creative with space.  The main use for my freezer, though, is storing meat that I purchase in family-packs and break down.

Amanda
Mrs.W's Kitchen ( http://mrswskitchen.blogspot.com )

Glad you like it.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

www.susiej.com ( http://www.susiej.com )

Thank you for this extensive list... I use my freezer like crazy, and I hope to employ many of these ideas with my (fingers crossed!) bountiful harvest from my garden this summer.

And another big example of why freezing is so cool (no pun intended!)

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

it sounds to me like she's having a temperature problem in her freezer. Frozen bread should be freezing quickly enough that it goes 'stale" all at once. What she's describing sounds to me like water migrating, which would happen if one section was cooling faster than another. Checking the temp by using a thermometer designed for freezers in several places in the freezer (like checking your oven temperature...remember when we did that?) will tell you if there's an area where your stacking, for example, is impeding the freezer circulation that keeps the temp balanced. Checking the door seals would also be wise. ;)

 http://www.blogher.com/blog/she-who

and those are really the apex of "seasonal" because they aren't shipped. So far this week I've frozen wild greens pesto, steamed wild greens in recipe sized bags and I'm making pasta. We're still eating the bamboo as quickly as we can get it, though, lol. 

http://www.blogher.com/blog/she-who

Perfect example of a somewhat pricey ingredient that can be frozen and used as needed! Thanks for sharing.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

They come in small cans, but we rarely use more two peppers at a time, so we just put the rest in small plastic containers and freeze.

~Andrea,
Andrea's Recipes ( http://www.andreasrecipes.com )

I also grew up in a family where we froze everything! That's probably where my love affair with the freezer started. And yes, I also have pasta sauce, soup, and slow roasted tomatoes.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

I've been freezing things in ziplock bags for so long I can even imagine what my freezer would look like without it. When I was growing up we didn't have a lot of money so we harvested stuff when it was in season and froze it. We'd spend hours picking wild blueberries, etc and freeze those. We'd buy a bushel of apples from the orchard and peel, core and slice those up to freeze for pies. (Actually we froze a lot of pies too.)

We buy meat in bulk/on sale and repackage and freeze it. Your freezer really is one of the biggest budget helpers I know of.

There's less fruit in my freezer these days but lots of pasta sauce, soup and slow roasted tomatoes. I can't wait until I have a house and room for a chest freezer. :)

Sassymonkey ( http://sassymonkey.ca/ ) and Sassymonkey Reads ( http://sassymonkeyreads.ca/ ).

Never thought of that but I love that idea. Especially for chickpeas...I use a lot of chickpeas and I hate it when I forget to plan in advance and have to use a can.

Sassymonkey ( http://sassymonkey.ca/ ) and Sassymonkey Reads ( http://sassymonkeyreads.ca/ ).

I am a little passionate about freezing, so it was fun researching what other people freeze that I haven't tried.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

I love that visual image of your frozen food in ziplocs, all lined up like books in a library! Freezing the beans ahead is a great idea too.

I'd try freezing the bread in the regular wrapper, then inside a large Ziploc bag to see if that would help. My only guess would be that the bag you're freezing it in is letting in too much air.

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen ( http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com )

A definitive guide to freezing. Just, wow.

Thanks Kalyn.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings ( http://www.flamingohouse.net/ )

Any advice on what I might be doing wrong when I freeze bread? The last several loaves (all store bought, frozen in their regular wrappers) have come out WEIRD.

Hard and dry-ish on top, and moist and gooey on the bottoms! That's not cool.

I did use the bread just fine for some grilled cheese sandwiches, but I would much appreciate any ideas you have.

The idea for the freezer that really changed how I do things is freezing things in ziplock bags and laying them flat to freeze. They stack better, they freeze and thaw better, and you don't end up with those odd lumpy frozen blocks in your fridge. I can see everything I have in the freezer, like looking at books on the shelf.

Thanks for the reminders to freeze the last bit of tomato paste I always end up with. It never sits in the fridge long enough for me to use the rest.

OH! The other thing I've been doing that's been great is soaking then cooking a huge amount of dried beans at the same time (last time I did 4 bags), then freezing them in smaller portions. This way they're as convienient as canned beans, and without the added sodium. I HATE soaking beans, but not as much as I hate all the cans you go through if you buy canned beans. This is a great balance (and cheap!)

Thanks for the fun post, I am glad to say I work our freezers, but am always on the look out for ways to make it work harder for us ;)