It's always best to freeze herbs once they've been chopped. Simply place them in a sandwich bag and pop in the freezer. Oh, and a good idea is to write what herb they are on the bag before you freeze them, because the last thing you want is to accidentally sprinkle chopped parsley on your chilli con carne and chopped coriander on your seafood linguine.
The best thing to do with frozen herbs is to stir them into your dish while it's hot. That way, the herbs will defrost as they get stirred through. According to the Food Safety website, frozen herbs should last for 1 - 2 months. Ever been in a situation where both you and your flatmate come home with milk when you've run out? And now you've got too much. Lucky for you, freezing milk is most definitely an option.
You can freeze milk straight in the plastic bottle you purchased it in, but remember that some liquids, including milk, expand when you freeze them. To avoid your container exploding, simply open the lid and remove an inch or two of milk. This will give your milk plenty of room to expand. To defrost milk, simply pop it in your fridge for a few hours, and it'll be ready to pour over your favourite cereal.
According to the Food Safety website, frozen milk should last for 3 months. Garlic is super-versatile when it comes to freezing. If doing the latter, simply place in a freezer bag, and off you go! To thaw frozen garlic , just leave at room temperature and wait. Obviously, chopped or crushed garlic will defrost quicker than a whole bulb of garlic. According to the Food Safety website, frozen garlic should last for 1 month. Because of their high oil content, nuts can go bad very quickly. So, if you think you won't get through all your nuts before they go off, stick them in a sealed bag and get them in the freezer.
Simply remove nuts from the freezer and leave them to thaw at room temperature. It should only take an hour or two, depending on the size of the nuts. According to the Food Safety website, frozen nuts should last for 6 - 12 months. There's obviously no point freezing dried pasta , but if you've accidentally cooked too much pasta , which everyone obviously does every single time they cook it, then freezing it means it won't go to to waste.
Simply place the pasta in a freezer-safe container and away you go! Defrost frozen pasta in a colander in the sink by running lukewarm water over it. Or, you can even just put the frozen pasta directly into a simmering pasta sauce. How easy is that?! According to the Food Safety website, frozen pasta should last for 1 - 2 months. If, by some miracle, you have some leftover chocolate , you can freeze it and save it for a rainy day.
The trick to freezing chocolate is making sure you bring its temperature down slowly. Grapes and Blueberries: Frozen grapes and blueberries are an excellent summer snack. Our kids LOVE them! SO delicious! Jams and Jellies: I usually can my jam , but my mom and mother-in-law always freeze it. Freezing jam is quicker and easier… if you have the freezer space, here are 20 delicious freezer jam recipes to get you started!
Herbs: I freeze fresh herbs in ice-cube trays filled with water to use for soups, stews, and casseroles later in the year. Once frozen, just smash the bags with your hands a bit and it will pulverize the leaves into tiny bits — perfect for adding to soups, smoothies, casseroles, and so much more!
Meat: Meat is, by far, the most money-saving, time-saving food I freeze. I once had a whole turkey in the freezer for about 18 months and it was absolutely delicious when we cooked it! Beans: I freeze almost any type of cooked bean with fantastic results — black, navy, pinto, refried, etc.
This is especially handy since beans take a LONG time to soak and cook. Lentils: I cook full bags of lentils at one time and then portion them out for the freezer. I often freeze these meals in disposable tinfoil pans so I have the option to give them as food gifts for various people in my life.
The vast majority of the recipes in My Recipe Box are very freezer-friendly! Here are some of my favorite soup recipes that DO freeze well. Just make sure all the ingredients are fully cooked before you freeze it. Pasta Sauce: We usually never go through an entire batch of pasta sauce in one meal so I just pop the leftovers in the freezer for the next time we eat pasta.
Here are ALL my freezable foods posts over the history of my blog. Click here to access my virtual recipe box most of which are freezable foods. Our simple method to defrost our deep freezer. Your email address will not be published. Save my name and email address in this browser for the next time I comment. Hi Vicki! This is really eye opening! Most of the time I use them to pack my lunch.
I end up throwing them out once they get too soggy and smelly in the fridge. My hubs and I are going to do a 1 week challenge of eating plant based meals. Cooking legumes ahead and freezing them will be very helpful. Legumes freeze SO well — that will be helpful for your plant-based eating challenge sounds like fun! Holy cow comment! I often just come over to your blog and read a few posts when I am feeling overwhelmed, and you always remind me I can do a little more and thing will get better if I put in the work.
Need to utilize my empty deep freezer. Sad day. If you have a piece of onion, or a couple of stalks of celery getting a bit wiggly, the last few carrots, etc.
When you have a chicken or turkey carcas left, dump all those bits and bobs of veggies in. You can strain out the veggies and you have great flavored broth. Or, you can use those frozen veggies in a soup or stew. The key is to catch them before they go bad and add to that freezer bag. My friend makes apple pies when apples are in season and she bakes them, cools them and then puts them in the freezer whole, fully baked!
When she wants to eat them, she defrosts them in the fridge and then bakes until the filling is bubbly. Andrea, freezing roasted veggies for later use is smart. This could save a lot of time. If you pop it in the freezer, the bacteria survives and are more likely to reach harmful levels on second thawing. If you have lots of space free, half-fill plastic bottles with water and use them to fill gaps.
Make sure you wrap foods properly or put them in sealed containers, otherwise your food may get freezer-burn. If in doubt, throw it out. Stay fresh. Friendly labels. It may seem a bother at the time, but unless you label you might not remember what it is, let alone when it was frozen.
Buy a blue marker for raw foods and a red marker for cooked foods. You can use big-lettered abbreviations, for example a big red P means cooked pork or a blue F means raw fish. And always add the date it was frozen. Defrosting is a must. An icy freezer is an inefficient one, so make sure you defrost your freezer if ice builds up. Foods should remain frozen in the freezer for about 24 hours, leaving you time to get to the bottom of the problem.
Most individual ingredients can be frozen, and all BBC Good Food recipes are helpfully labelled with freezing instructions. Freezer management is all about forward planning, but some dishes can be cooked straight from frozen. When cooking food from frozen, use a lower temperature to start with to thaw, then increase the temperature to cook.
Foods include:. Just roll the cookie dough into balls and place in a freezer safe container, being careful not to squeeze the dough balls too close together so they are easy to remove later. If you prefer to use a freezer bag, place cookie dough balls on a baking sheet and flash freeze, then transfer to the freezer bag. When the urge for some fresh baked cookies hit, pull whatever amount of cookies you want from the freezer and bake as usual, adding 1 to 2 minutes to the bake time.
In fact, freezing them often seems to make them even moister. Cake My mom almost always had a moist chocolate cake with caramel icing in the freezer to pull out if guests dropped by last minute or just to have on hand for an easy dessert. But I find it much more convenient to freeze cakes frosted!
One word of caution though. I have had some issues with the color bleeding out of homemade colored frosting when I froze it. So just be aware of that! Bread See your favorite bread on sale?
Stock up and freeze it for some easy savings. You can also freeze homemade bread, which is super handy since many recipes make more than a couple of loaves. To reheat, you can either microwave them or if are like us and prefer them a little crispy, use your toaster.
Freezing pie dough has been one of my favorite discoveries! Just shape the dough into a small disc or discs, depending on how many crusts you are freezing , wrap tightly in plastic, place in a freezer bag and freeze. When you are ready to use, simply thaw, roll out the dough and proceed as usual.
Cooked Rice Need a small amount of cooked rice for a recipe? Save time and cook up a big batch and then freeze the extra. Want to use the rice as a side with another dish? Just add a little water to the rice when reheating to keep it from drying out. If you are using the rice in a soup such as my Curry Chicken and Rice Soup , you can just add it as is. Cooked or Dry Beans I love to cook up a big batch of beans and then freeze them in 2 cup portions the equivalent of 1 can. It saves me a ton of time!
You can also freeze dried beans and homemade refried beans as well. The freezer will save them for you! Flour Help your flour last longer by storing it in the freezer! You can either leave it in the paper packaging it comes in, or if opened, simply transfer it to a freezer bag. Chips, Pretzels, Graham crackers, Crackers, Popcorn Have trouble finishing chips, pretzels or crackers before they get stale? Put them in the freezer! This is also great if you want to save money by stocking up on a sale.
Nuts Keep nuts fresh longer by storing them in the freezer. Popcorn Kernels We love homemade popcorn, but sometimes it goes months before I get a bag used up.
After several months, I used to have trouble with the popcorn not popping very well and would have lots of unpopped kernels. My mother-in-law suggested I try storing my popcorn kernels in the freezer and it totally took care of the problem! And homemade soup is so much healthier than store bought too! To freeze, just cool soup and then transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze. Such a sanity saver for busy days when you have no time to make dinner!
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