My freezer is invaluable to me and it is packed with home-cooked food. Having these staples on standby means they can be whipped out after school pick up and I never have to reach for a ready prepared bought meal. I also find using freezer food really useful for lunch boxes and after school snacks. Having frozen muffins, granola bars, banana bread, etc means I can give different things every day so they do not bore the kids.
Freezer Tips
When freezing baked things, freeze on a tray first to prevent them from sticking together. Once they are frozen hard you can store them in zip lock bags or Tupperware.
I use silicon muffin trays to freeze so many things. Once they are frozen I pop them out and store in zip lock bags. It means I have individual portions sizes frozen and I can take as many as I need at a time. Great for bolognaise, soups, rice, curry, even things like crumbles and rice pudding – anything really.
If you are cooking something that is a bit more time consuming, always try and double the recipe so you can freeze some. I buy aluminium food containers (available from most supermarkets) in lots of different sizes meaning I can freeze things for as a meal for one or six people.
I usually have frozen Spinach Fish Cakes, Chicken Pie, Chicken Curry, bolognaise, Seasonal Crumbles, Rice Puddings and Healthy Muffins.
I also have a stock of different marinated meats in zip lock bags (for example, Honey & Mustard Chicken, Harrisa Chicken, Lemon and Garlic Chicken, Sesame Salmon Sticks, Sticky Glazed Salmon). These are so easy to cook and since the flavour is already packed in, they can be simply served with rice or vegetables.
Useful frozen fruit and vegetables include petit pois, chillies, lemon grass, edamame, spinach, mashed potatoes, herbs, chopped onion, berries.
I freeze my chillies as so often I buy a bag of chillies and only use one and the remaining sit and mould in my fridge. By freezing them you are locking in the freshness. I usually slice them when still frozen as once defrosted their consistency does break down slightly and retain quite a bit of water however is still perfectly fine to use.
Use freezer bags or zip lock bags. I use them for all my meat and marinating. They take less room in your fridge than Tupperware and are much better for being able to really massage the marinates/dressings into the meat. Just always make sure you freeze things on a flat surface in the freezer first (like the bottom) as if they freeze on the racks often whilst freezing the liquid expands causing them to get stuck.
