Prepping the freezer

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sweetpumkinpye

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All this talk of bacon is making me very hungry LOL.
I will definitely have t try the bacon in the oven. I will keep an eye out at the shop for when it is a great price and certainly add this to the summer prep.
A hour hour in prep now is so worth it.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Aunt Jamelle, I love that cookie rack idea! I have two that are coated so it wouldn't work for me now. But... I think I know what I can put on my Christmas list (and I usually can't think of gifts for myself.) :D
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Mary, what a great idea to add the racks to you Christmas list. I have to check if I have suitable racks here, if not I will grab some.
 
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AuntJamelle

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Bacon, bacon, bacon! The "duct tape" of the kitchen! :) :) :)

I've added another bag of flour to the freezer after grocery shopping yesterday. I'm going to use the "good" flour this year and see what difference it makes in my baked goods. I've always just used the all purpose flour from Aldi, but have been picking up bags of King Arthur Unbleached all Purpose flour, one each grocery trip (twice now, but I plan to keep going!) and I will keep tucking those away for holiday baking!
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Lucie, flour freezes very well, I only found that out a few years back.

I have a chest freezer in the shed and it always seems to be a bit of a mess and I can't see what is on the bottom.
Can anyone share any ideas of how they organize their chest freezers?
 
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Ahorsesoul

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Can anyone share any ideas of how they organize their chest freezers?

I roughly have it divided into thirds. Meats in one section, chicken next and then breads. My freezer has two sliding hanging shelves that I use to store veggies and cheese. There is another small section that I keep for ice cream.

I freeze everything in gallon bags and try to get them frozen flat so they will stack side by side instead of stacks.
 

Miss JoDee

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Baskets. Put like items in a basket the stack them on top of each other. You could color code baskets for what is the them for example blue for bread, green for chicken, red for beef etc. then you can lift out the baskets to get the one you need if necessary.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Diedra and Jody, both great ideas, I have some basket type things here that I can use.
I just went to the supermarket and they have boxes of icecreams at 50% off so I got 3 boxes to store for the upcoming warmer days. It is things like the boxes that are never the same size that annoy me because I find them hard to stack.
 
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Minta

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Never heard of putting flour in the freezer!

When I buy flour I put it in the freezer for about 48 hours then transfers it to a container with a screw on lid. This will kill any eggs that may have gotten into the flour during the milling process. Since I started freezing the flour, no more surprise bugs in the flour.
 

HouseElf

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I seriously need another freezer! Will add it to our wish list for the house :) We have a single small chest freezer - but really could use another! With three boys and DH I never seem to have enough room in there for it all.

I organize in section as well but it seems with the boys they cannot figure out the system and it becomes a mess quickly. Thinking the extra space would help as it would not be so packed/jumbled.
 
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Minta

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I organize in section as well but it seems with the boys they cannot figure out the system and it becomes a mess quickly. Thinking the extra space would help as it would not be so packed/jumbled.

I do not let my kids in the chest freezer for that reason. I place anything they may want in the kitchen freezer.

I started using grocery bags in the chest freezer , one bag for the chicken breast, one bag for the steaks and beef cubes, one bag for fruits and one bag for veggies. I double or triple bag incase one bag rips.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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I miss the old fridge/freezer that we had at our old house. I liked that the fridge could hold all our summer drinks and be used as spare storage around the holidays. It had a small freezer too. It was too old and used a lot of power. I like my chest freezer but would love an extra fridge
 
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AuntJamelle

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I've always struggled with keeping things organized in our chest freezer. I've resorted to the bag method as well. 20 one cup Ziplock bags of chicken stock frozen flat slip and slide like CRAZY! So into a bag they go! I use the heavy plastic bags from Aldi or sometimes smaller fabric shopping bags. So now I have a mission! One bag for single servings of red chili, one for white chili, one to hold frozen DIY Cream of Mushroom soup, one for the DIY Refried Beans and so on.

Scheduling time to do this!
 
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MinnieCo

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I've been freezing veges like crazy from the garden and since I have access to another freezer I'll be using them throughout the winter. That's nice! This isn't exactly freezer prep, but I got some jelly canning done today for gifts. That always makes me feel good. I made some crazy zucchini jelly...never made it before, but it's done and ready to hand out at church to those families I want to bless a bit.
 
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ejagno

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You ladies are such inspiration. Today I got a large batch of banana bread pancakes cooked up and in the freezer. Tomorrow I want to make ahead some chicken salad, hamburgers and cabbage rolls. Minnie, my canning project for this week is going to be some hot tamale's. It's my first time doing this particular meal in a jar but there's good reviews so I'm going to give it a shot. I love canning as much as possible to save my valuable freezer space whenever possible. I'm on my last jar of butter I'd canned 6 months ago so it's time to get that going also. I adore soft real butter on hot toast, muffins or biscuits.
 
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Cindylouwho

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I have frozen marinades in an ice cube tray and then placed the cubes in a labeled freezer bag. When I take out the meat to thaw I pop in a couple cubes of the frozen marinade with the meat in the freezer bag.

Love this idea! Now I need to come up with more marinades. I have a few standard ones I use but I could use more. I'm ramping up to do some freezer cooking. Have been working my way through the junk that loaded up in the freezer over the summer with all the kids in the house. Now it needs some serious cleaning out and defrosting. Then I can see what I really have. I'd like to get some freezer cookie dough going in there by next month for the holidays.

Looking forward to perusing all the recipes that are on here. Need to get mine in line for this year and am looking for new ideas. :)
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Strawberries here were very cheap last week so I stocked up. Ended up making strawberry sauce and put it in the freezer. I will use it for milkshakes and my Christmas eve drinks. It was very easy so I might see what other fruits it will work with.
 
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Minta

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Strawberries here were very cheap last week so I stocked up. Ended up making strawberry sauce and put it in the freezer. I will use it for milkshakes and my Christmas eve drinks. It was very easy so I might see what other fruits it will work with.

Awesome ... maybe you could some as a topping for pancakes and waffles or maybe drizzle some into the batter as it is cooking.
 

Minta

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Love this idea! Now I need to come up with more marinades. I have a few standard ones I use but I could use more. I'm ramping up to do some freezer cooking. Have been working my way through the junk that loaded up in the freezer over the summer with all the kids in the house. Now it needs some serious cleaning out and defrosting. Then I can see what I really have. I'd like to get some freezer cookie dough going in there by next month for the holidays.

Looking forward to perusing all the recipes that are on here. Need to get mine in line for this year and am looking for new ideas. :)

I have a go to marinade that I use for London broil ... 1/2 c beef broth, 1 tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, onion powder, garlic powder and black pepper. You can freeze it in the marinade, let it thaw in the marinade or let it marinade already thawed for at least 4 hours. Rinse off before cooking.