DIY Network

Hi - I've never been to this board before, but all the others have always been really helpful. I would love to know how the cooking guru's freeze main dishes for later use. Does anyone use foil pans and cover with foil or is there better ways to do this? Or another site to look at? I have a busy daughter with a husband and 2 little girls, that I would like to surprise with some easy options for suppers. Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance.
julie

Hi Julie!

Because I have a side-by-side I'm always looking for space saving ways to freeze food. One of the ways to freeze anything that does not need to stay in one piece (like a casserole), I just stuff into a freezer bag. I use bags for anything from red sauce to fried chicken and it really helps to store everything in there as compactly as possible. Just one suggestion....

I often double bag items for freezer storage. To make leftover storage easier, I put a ziplock bag or quart or half gallon bag inside a plastic square container. Add contents, seal and when frozen hard, it can be pulled out and placed in another bag (double bagged) and you get to reuse the plastic container.
I find low flat packages the easiest to stack and find.
Many things that are already in packages, can be removed from their boxes, put in a bag and take up less space. Frozen waffles for instance.

And if it is something you like to reheat in small or medium cassarole dish, just line that dish with an open freezer bag. Pour in the contents and freeze. Pull it out of the cassarole when hard frozen and seal up. Ready to slip out of the plastic, place back in and it fits, thaw or microwave when needed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Conrad,

One word: Foodsaver.

Ding! Ding! Ding! No more calls, folks! We have a winner!!

Rick is right on about the food saver.

I purchased one about 2 years ago and it has made the biggest difference in the quality of the foods that you put into the refrigerator or freezer. Hands down, the best choice!

I use small plastic containers to freeze things in. Once they are frozen, I take them out of the containers and pop them into a food saver bag and then seal it and put it in the freezer.

I also enjoy using it to store vegetables, cheeses and stuff in the fridge. You can also use it to store dry goods in the cabinets (just don't try to do powdery stuff ).

I really like taking things out of the freezer to reheat them. I just use a pot of boiling water to thaw whatever I have taken out. I leave the contents in the bag, drop it in the water and let it heat. Saves dirtying another dish and it doesn't have all of the negative effects on your food that a microwave can have when you reheat in it.

I could go on and on....

ToolQueen

Great ideas TQ, Rick, and Conrad! I think I'm going to investigate one of those Food Savers you guys talked about. (How sad is it that I'm excited about frozen food. What has my life come to!)

Thanks so much everyone...the foodsaver thing was something that I had considered. Just didn't know how cost effective it was, when you have to continue to buy bags and I didn't know if they were readily avilable. Thanks for the help.
julie

The bags are readily available where I am. I buy them at Costco. The bags are reusable, though I have had some success and some failures reusing them. It's cost effective for long term storage. I've been able to use food that I would otherwise have had to throw away. If you're only freezing for a few days, just use a ziplock bag.

Hi, Julie...I've got to agree with the others here about the FoodSaver. I love mine!

When you put something with lots of juice/liquid in the bag, BEFORE vacuum-sealing the bag, (with contents inside), freeze first, then seal. Reason? Otherwise, the unfrozen liquids will be 'vacuumed' into the area of the heat-sealing mechanism and it will be much more difficult to seal it closed.

I like to purchase large bags of walnuts, cheese, and chicken breasts. I then freeze in smaller portions, because lots of air gets trapped in the zip-lock bags and that causes freezer burn, as with the chicken.

I have even vacuum-sealed batteries, because I heard that they'll last longer. Don't know if it's true or not, but I do it anyway. Then, I just store them in a cabinet.

I like to freeze casseroles in a lightly-sprayed casserole dish, then when they're frozen, place in a FoodSaver bag, seal it up, label it and place back in the freezer. Some you can boil in a large pot of water, but others, you can just remove the contents from the bag, place back into the casserole dish and bake.

Just be sure to wash the used bags thoroughly in hot, soapy water and you can reuse them over and over again, until they get too small, (from cutting open).

p.s. I've done the same thing for my daughter and grandson! Have fun!

Foodsavers or failing that, tupperware. Most of the time I cook more than I can eat in a given week, so longer-term storage isn't an issue unless I've leftover meat that I didn't use up. With that in mind plastic bags are just fine for 1-2 days.

I totally agree with Food Saver! Have had mine less than a year but LOVE it. And I do use it to store powdery products that I have a large quantity of (like flour). Just put what you want into a food saver bag, fold a paper towel the width of the bag and lay it in there. Be sure to leave enough room to reseal several times if you won't be using all (or just enought to seal the bag if only a one use amount) at once then seal. The paper towel prevents the flour from getting sicked up into the works. I use this to seal paper supplies from moisture too, works great!
Janet

I adore my Food Saver. In my house we cook large batches of food - usually during a big sports day. I can see the TV from the kitchen. We let the food cool and we freeze using the Food Saver. For sauces/chili etc. the food lays so flat and I can stack them so easy. LOVE it! 2 nights a week are frozen dinners - homemade.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: craftycat,

foodsavers are great I put fresh meat in freezer paper and then seal it it is just as good 6 months from now. biggest problem I have had is when our son comes over some of the food leaves with him

Yeah, Food Savers are definitely the way to go if you're going to be freezing A LOT of food. We just buy those Ziploc tupperwares and freeze anything from spaghetti sauce, soup, and sloppy joe filling. We don't have all the kids like we used to, so large quantities have gone with them, lol.