FOODS THAT FREEZE WELL
CHEESE. I almost never buy cheese at full price. I have to be pretty desperate to pay full price because where I live, when it is on sale you save a LOT! Full price cheese is super expensive. Early on I had to figure out how to freeze cheese to take advantage of these savings. Cheese IS freezable, but you don’t want to just through a whole block of cheese in your freezer or it will get crumbly and ruined. You want to grate it first, then stick it in a freezer bag.
EGGS. Yes, you can freeze eggs, but no, don’t try and put a whole egg in your freezer. With owning chickens I needed to know how to freeze eggs when I couldn’t keep up with eating them. To freeze them you crack the eggs, whisk, and then pour into an ice cube tray. Once frozen you can put them in a freezer bag. You can pull one out when a recipe calls for an egg, or you can make scrambled eggs for breakfast.
BUTTER. Butter is another food I really like to buy on sale because full price is not cheap. Butter is super easy to freeze. Just pop it in the freezer as is and take it out when you need it.
BERRIES. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries – they all freeze well. During the height of berry season we like to pick a bunch, and then after I’ve washed them all (and hulled them if they are strawberries) I lay them on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them. Once they are frozen I put them in a freezer bag. This prevents them from sticking to each other and leaving you with one big, squished blob of fruit.
BANANAS. You know when those bananas are starting to turn brown? It’s a perfect time to freeze them for smoothies or baking! Peel the bananas, lay them on a cookie sheet and freeze them that way. Once frozen you can stick them in a freezer bag and pull one out every time you need one.
ZUCCHINI. Unsure of what to do with all that zucchini you got from your garden? You can grate zucchini and put it in freezer bags. I like to put 2 cups of zucchini in each bag. Then, when it’s time to make zucchini bread I just pull out a bag. You will need to drain off the excess liquid from it before baking with it though.
YEAST. For years I struggled with keeping my yeast active. I would go to bake some bread and it wouldn’t rise. I eventually discovered that yeast actually does better in the freezer. I’m never had a problem since always freezing my yeast.
SOUP BROTH. Soup broth is so easy to make, and once you make it you can keep it in the freezer so it’s available at a later date for when you are making a big pot of soup! I use mason jars or plastic containers. Be sure to keep your mason jar lid a little loose while freezing to keep it from breaking. I’ve broken more mason jars than I can count by not doing this.
HOMEMADE PIZZA. We eat pizza on a weekly basis here. Do you know that you can make the pizzas ahead, freeze them, and pull them out when it’s time to eat? It’s a perfect solution to prevent ordering pizza when you have a bunch of them in your freezer and all you have to do is pull one out when you are ready. I also included freezer instructions in that post.
MUFFINS. I have yet to figure out how to have enough muffins left over to freeze once the family gets through them, but, if you are the kind that has muffins on the brink of going stale before you can eat them, pop them in the freezer. The same can be done for things like banana and pumpkin bread.
PASTA SAUCE. You can freeze pasta sauce in freezer safe containers or freezer bags. I like to lay the freezer bags down flat and freeze them that way. Then you can pile them up on top of each other to take up less room in your freezer.
PANCAKES. This is another food I like to freeze flat on a cookie sheet and then toss them in a freezer bag. You can actually take the pancakes out and put them in a toaster to heat them up!
SPINACH. I struggle to get through the bag of spinach before it starts going bad. You can blend up spinach with a tiny bit of water to get the blender moving, then pour it into ice cube trays and freeze. This is perfect for smoothies which is really my main way of using spinach.
ONIONS. You can dice your onions or slice them into rings, toss them into freezer bags, and away you go! Be sure to not dice them up too finely or they may turn to mush. You want to freeze onions in a thin layer, so lay down your freezer bag when freezing so that it will freeze flat.
MILK. You can freeze milk, but if your milk comes in a jug (ours is in a bag over here in most of Canada:) ) be sure to pour some off the top to prevent the jug from busting as it will expand when it freezes.
FLAX AND CHIA SEEDS. To prevent your little seeds of nutrition powerhouses going rancid before you can get through the bag, toss them in the freezer and store them in there.
HERBS. Freeze fresh herbs by chopping them up, mixing them with a little bit of water, and tossing them in ice cube trays. Once frozen just pop them out and store them in a freezer bag.
NUTS. Again, another food to freeze to prevent them from going rancid too quickly.
RAW MEAT. We often buy discounted meat like chicken, beef, and pork, that is going to expire the day we purchase it. We toss it in the freezer and it stays good until we need it.
AVOCADOS. Avocados tend to get mushy after freezing, so if you are going to freeze avocados then it is best to use them for dip, dressings, or smoothies. Blend up the avocados and mix in some lemon juice and stick it in the freezer. You can also freeze avocados diced or halved with lemon juice, but since your avocados are going to be mushy anyways, pureeing them before freezing makes more sense to me.
TOMATOES. Yes, you can freeze tomatoes, but again, this is another food that will come out mushy from the freezer, so if you are freezing them you want to use them for sauce or salsa or something like that. Basically, frozen tomatoes are great to cook with, not so great to just eat raw. This is a great option if you have a garden and are waiting to have enough tomatoes to make sauce from. If you are wondering how to freeze tomatoes, you can just toss them into a freezer bag until you have enough to make a batch of sauce. You can freeze them with our without their skins on. Freeze them in a freezer bag.
SAVING MONEY BY FREEZING FOOD
Knowing what foods freeze well can go a long way in helping you prevent food waste in the kitchen, and therefore saving you money! You don’t need the biggest sized freezer either for this kind of thing. We have just a smaller cube freezer that has worked well for us over the years. Even the freezer attached to your fridge can help you save money if you use it efficiently.