HGP - Feeding the Freezer

[AuntJamelle]

Oh, just thought of something else!

Did you know that over time, the flavor of black pepper gets much stronger in the freezer?

I have a lasagna recipe I used to make and I remember pulling some out of the freezer and making it. It had been in the freezer the max time and we were just trying to use it up.

It was MUCH spicier than normal and I couldn't figure out why. Then I read some where about the pepper getting stronger when frozen.

So I keep that in mind now and either reduce or reserve the black pepper from items I plan to freeze. I usually just add it back in at the time of thawing/cooking.

 

[Tasha]

Balsamic Vinegar can taste stronger after being frozen, even in small quantities. I made some Sloppy Joe mix with it and it wasn't good after coming out, I know wait and add after I thaw it out.

 

[aggy]

Storage Tip:

This may be old news to many, but I think one of my favorite tips for freezing meals is the one for lining your baking dish in heavy duty aluminum foil - filling it with recipe and freezing - then lifting the foil out of the pan to wrap and insert in a ziplock for long term storage.

This frees up the baking dish to go back in the cupboard for normal use. Once time to make the freezer meal rolls around, just pop the foil right back into the dish for baking.

Extra Tip:

To easily shape aluminum foil to any shape baking dish, turn dish upside down and set on counter. Shape sheet of foil to the underside of baking dish. Carefully lift foil off. Turn dish back over and insert the preshaped foil into the dish.

It should be very easy now to snug the preshaped foil into place with no tearing.

I did not know that. Thanks for the tip.

 

[aggy]

Annie I didn't know you could freeze garlic. To think I've been throwing them out thinking they were no good after sitting for a bit.

I have a favorite dish (chicken and biscuits) I love to make during the cold months. I got the recipe from Krafts website. It's easy and fast to make and freezes well.

I was wondering if freezing enchiladas are doable? I love those and would like to make some for freezer meals.

 

[ejagno]

Aggie; Enchillada's freeze beautifully. I've done them several times and they turn out great.

 

[aggy]

Thanks Ejagno. I'm adding that to my list.

 

[DebbiGall]

AJ I updated my freezer list this weekend! I too have a 'freezer board' on Pinterest. I never thought of freezing the onions & the garlic. Lana made me think of onions last time & now Annie of the garlic. yay!

I freeze leftovers for lunch portions. I try to always have some ground cooked meat with onions mixed in it for quick preps as well as diced cooked chicken. I prepped some beef cubes with marinade to do some kabobs this summer.

For the holidays I prep my fudge, and cookies & freeze the lot. When visitors arrive I go downstairs to the freezer and fill a plate with assorted cookies, fudge & sucre à la crème.

This year though I have a new canning pressure cooker that I want to use so I have more space in the freezer. I want to make spaghetti sauce with it & beans as well as some soups. That way all is ready instantly and dd is going away to University and I want to send her some stuff. I want to cook chicken & pork and put them in the Mason jars too.

Now what I need - I have a chest freezer is a way to ORGANIZE it all properly. see what is in there without having to move tons of things.

Lucie I have a chest freezer also, I am thinking about pulling every thing out to see what I have and using one of CEO's freezer inventory sheets tacked to the wall over the freezer to keep a running inventory

 

[missjane]

Just a note here...several years ago, our chest freezer went out and we replaced it with an up-right. It was a mistake. I don't know what kind all of you have, but I can't get nearly as much stuff in mine as my chest freezer, even though the cubit feet was the same. I don't know what your feelings are about them, but that's mine. Which do you all prefer? If (when) I have to replace it, I will go back to a chest one.

I was thinking about the inventory for the chest freezer. Can you draw a diagram of what is where? Maybe make it like a grid with the "down cubes" representative of how many layers of what you have and the "across cubes" representative of how many rows across you have. Then, label the grid cube, marking through each as you use them...much like CEO's inventory? Just a thought.

 

[snowgoose]

Some good tips on here - especially about the garlic and shaping foil to line a dish. I've always done a lot of baking and cooking ahead of Yule - mostly desserts and baked goods which have become traditional in our house. I'm going to do more main meals this year as well, just everyday stuff that I can pull out when I'm busy - cottage pie. lasagne, cheese and bacon stuffed potatoes & so on. I shall try and make one to eat and one to freeze.

 

[Laney]

WOW! This thread is perfect for me right now! I am trying for the first time in my life to successfully set up a meal plan and commit to eating 3 meals a day at home for 8 weeks. We'll maybe have 2-3 planned meals out during that time. We're doing this because my preemie baby is finally coming home from the hospital after 2.5 months in the NICU and the doctors do not want her to have any outings other than doctors appts for 8 weeks after coming home.

I want to do a combination of freezer meals for busy days when we have doctors appts. Ya'll have given some great ideas here.

How long are meals good for once they go into the freezer? And things like enchiladas and lasagna, do you assemble them and then freeze them pre-cooked or do you cook them partially/all the way and then freeze?

Thanks for the help ladies!

 

[Laney]

WOW! This thread is perfect for me right now! I am trying for the first time in my life to successfully set up a meal plan and commit to eating 3 meals a day at home for 8 weeks. We'll maybe have 2-3 planned meals out during that time. We're doing this because my preemie baby is finally coming home from the hospital after 2.5 months in the NICU and the doctors do not want her to have any outings other than doctors appts for 8 weeks after coming home.

I want to do a combination of freezer meals for busy days when we have doctors appts. Ya'll have given some great ideas here.

How long are meals good for once they go into the freezer? And things like enchiladas and lasagna, do you assemble them and then freeze them pre-cooked or do you cook them partially/all the way and then freeze?

Thanks for the help ladies!

 

[Laney]

Oh! Also, if you mentioned that you have boards for this on your pinterest, can you link your pages so that I can check them out and follow? Thanks!

 

[AnnieClaus]

Laney-Go to the chit chat topic section. There is a thread in there where members are linking their pinterest pages.

Congrats on the baby coming home!!!

Annie

 

[AuntJamelle]

Laney - I don't know about others but I think that most freezer meals are good for about 3 months?

Some freezer recipes will specifically say - freeze for up to X weeks. If they do I go by that.

Lasagna is a good long term freezer meal for sure. I would assemble and freeze that unbaked.

Enchiladas I would also assemble and freeze unbaked as long as any meat you use in the filling was already cooked.

 

[Tasha]

Congrats on your baby coming home!

I freeze lasagna and enchiladas uncooked. Some of the ingredients are already cooked, like the filling in the enchiladas and the meat layer for the lasagna, but the rest is just assembled.

You'll probably get the max flavor for about 3 months but I've had stuff frozen longer and it's still great, but I try not to let something go over 6 months.

 

[AuntJamelle]

I have five 2 gallon sized bags filled with veggie kabobs in the freezer now! I used packing tape to enforce the edges of the ziplock bags so the little skewer ends won't poke right out! Drizzled some Italian dressing in with the veggies too.

When I go to the store at the end of this week I plan to get some fresh chicken breasts to cut up into chunks and throw into small ziplock bags with more Italian dressing. I'll pair these with the frozen veggies for some easy dinners.

These can be grilled or roasted in oven. I plan to thread the chicken chunks onto skewers after thawing. Having the veggies already on the skewers (wooden ones I soaked) will be a HUGE time saver!

I also made a batch of Chicken Pie with Corn Bread Topping and instead of freezing it all together I split it up into two smaller foil pans. Based on my research online, this should work fine. I even put the cornbread batter right on top. I'll let you guys know how it turns out after thawing and baking!!!

I'm determined to keep trying recipes we eat/like anyway in the freezer! I've also been going through a Fix It and Forget It Diabetic cookbook we have and looking for recipes I could pre-prep and freeze ingredients for.

I've seen some great ones on Pinterest where you put all the items in a big ziplock, freeze, and then when the time comes you dump the whole thing in the crockpot to cook. I'd like to mimic that idea, but with DH friendly recipes.

Granted, the Chicken Pie mentioned above is definitely on our "naughty" list - but it is comfort food and better than eating out! Or at least that is what I am telling myself!

 

[HouseElf]

for me it is not only dinner meals, but breakfast, that I need in the freezer!

I find during the school and then the later holiday rush (maybe because we do not get enough sun as the season goes into winter) it is harder for everyone to get up and out the door in the morning.

I like to precook bacon and breakfast sausages, lots and lots of quick breads (carrot, pumpkin, summer squash, banana, spiced apple ...) and muffins, pancakes and waffles - they all can be heated in the oven, put in the toaster or toaster oven, or defrosted the night before. Real time saver for feeding 3 teenage boys before school!

For the freezer meals, I like freezing extra batches of soup - or prep the meat/veggies for the crockpot. Doing all the 'mess' work of washing, chopping and blending before hand seems to really help!

Also from now till October when local produce is plentiful, I buy and freeze ahead of time. We buy half a cow, a pig, and a dozen or so chickens each year from local farmers.

The plan is for us to have three chest freezers (they are smaller - as we have lost a single huge chest freezer that held everything once - a very expensive loss!). Two to hold meat and the third baked goods and frozen produce. We also have set up a temp and power outage alarm - so we can have a warning when things are not right in the freezers!

 

[luludou]

Wow HouseElf that is organization. Never heard of the temp-alarm... would be a good idea. how it it rigged?

 

[AuntJamelle]

HouseElf - You are rockin', girl!!! I would love to hear more about the temp alarm too! That just makes good sense!

You know what I would love? A temp alarm that is also rigged up to ping my smart phone - that way if I am away from home I would be alerted too. Maybe someday... Am I dreaming or what?

Also, on the bacon in the freezer front, we have been doing this a lot lately. Buying bacon in bulk and then we cook it on the grill. We use an old cookie sheet to grill in on and it works great!!! And no bacon smell in the house for days!

I've also heard you can freeze quiche (after baking), but usually see the recipes say only keep frozen for a couple weeks. That seems like a really short timeframe to me. Does anyone know why that is? Or if they really do just fine if kept longer in the freezer?

 

[AuntJamelle]

Oh! Oh! So maybe I can't have my smart phone pinged if the power goes out to the freezers while I am on vacation, but here is a low tech tip that would work!

"Lets say you go on vacation and while you are gone the power goes out at your house. All of the food in your fridge and freezer thaw out. A couple days later the power kicks on again and your food refreezes. You then come home and open your fridge. Everything is nice and cold and you have no idea that the meat you got out to cook for dinner has actually gone bad and is going to make your entire family sick. So how can you prevent this from happening? Fill a leak proof container (jar, water bottle, ect..) half way with water. Place the container in the freezer on its side. Once the water in the container is frozen solid, place the container upright. If you power goes out the water will start to melt to the bottom of the container. Always check your container after being gone for awhile."

Courtesy of Lucie's tips Pin today!