Freezer Sessions 2019...

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Holiday_Mom

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I love my Instant Pot but I've found somethings do better in the Crockpot. Like Mississippi Pot roast does better in the crockpot. Only thing I didn't like done in the Instant pot was an Asparagus Soup I make. I tossed it. Made the asparagus taste icky. I do a lot of BBQ Ribs in the Instant Pot. So fast and tender.

This is good to know. Thank you!

I was sitting on the fence for about two years regarding the Instant Pot. I wasn't sure about a pressure cooker and I do like the crock pot. I saw that I could use it as a crock pot if I wanted and that's what sold me on finally taking the plunge and asking for it as a gift. I've been slow to learning it but I thought I'd try things out when I have extra time in the kitchen to make mistakes. I will update with any freezer meals that I make using the Instant Pot.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Will be following this, as I too am still on the fence about an Instant Pot. Will have to do a bit more research before going ahead and buying one as they are quite expensive here. Maybe a gift for Christmas.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Added a container of stewed apples and 1/2 an iced ginger cake to the freezer. Will be nice for desserts over the next few months.

Do any on you have a 'spreadsheet' of what you have in your freezers? How do you record what you have stored?
 
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Ahorsesoul

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Added a container of stewed apples and 1/2 an iced ginger cake to the freezer. Will be nice for desserts over the next few months.

Do any on you have a 'spreadsheet' of what you have in your freezers? How do you record what you have stored?
I do write down a list every few weeks. I have items stored in cloth shopping bags. A red one has meat in it, green one is pizza crusts and shredded cheese, blue one hold bakery items and the tan one veggies.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Diedra, that is a great idea. One of my goals this year is to utilise the outside freezer better and as it is a chest freezer it gets disorganised very quickly. Will want to look into this more.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Will be following this, as I too am still on the fence about an Instant Pot. Will have to do a bit more research before going ahead and buying one as they are quite expensive here. Maybe a gift for Christmas.

Yes, they are quite expensive. There were sales going on for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I started to track prices on them in July. Amazon had a good sale on it during their Prime Day. I had it in my cart that day but still couldn't hit the buy button at that point. LOL!
 

Holiday_Mom

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I do write down a list every few weeks. I have items stored in cloth shopping bags. A red one has meat in it, green one is pizza crusts and shredded cheese, blue one hold bakery items and the tan one veggies.

I like the color coded cloth bag idea! I try to keep all similar items in the same grocery bags to pull from the chest freezer. Did you make your bags?

I don't have list of the items in my freezer. I do label the date and the frozen item. Sometimes I'm super specific if I'm planning to use that item for a later day. For ex. the freezer bag might say: 8 March 2019; 3 cups of shredded chicken; Youth Group chicken dish; Part 1 of 2; This helps when my family is getting food out of the freezer for me.
 

Ahorsesoul

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I hated finding something in the freezer before I started with the bags. I had an upright freezer in the side by side refrigerator and I hated it. Was fine if everything was totally flat but other wise things just fell out. Might have worked if I had tried small cloth shopping bags for storing things.
 
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Holiday_Mom

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I really like the way you organized it. Our freezer is a hand me down from my grandmother. It had one shelf when we got it. Did your freezer come with two shelves or did you buy one? I never even considered getting a second shelf until now.
 
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Ahorsesoul

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It only had one. I ordered another. It was a little pricy but well worth it.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Diedra, I have freezer envy. Thanks for the photos it gives me some direction to head. I love having the second freezer just don't like how it is organised.
 

MinnieCo

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I finally opened my instapot and made refried beans for my 1st attempt and it was a success. Made an all day process in the crockpot happen in less then 2 hours tops from start to finish. After that I made turkey stock in 1 1/2 hrs. That also usually takes mutliple hours to cook down. No idea how I'll feel about it with meat, but time will tell. I like to stock up on homemade beans in the freezer for Mexican food nights, so this will help make that happen for sure.
 

sweetpumkinpye

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Michelle, nice that you have had a few successes already
 

Ahorsesoul

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Tetris is a perfect way to explain getting things out of the freezer!!
 
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Myron's Mom

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Wow! What a neat chest freezer. Mine never looked like that lol. I have a upright now. I find it so much easier for me to use. I currently have some plastic dishpans that I stack like items in. I try as much as possible to freeze my stuff flat when I vaccum seal. That is some times a challenge though. My husband is suposed to be ordering me another shelf. Hopefully will have it by fall.....
I keep looking at the instapot. i don't know if I would use it that much and where to store it. If I didn't like it I could give it to my son, I guess. Have to think about it some more.
 

Holiday_Mom

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I made a 32 oz. bag of rice using the instant pot. The pot could have held more water and rice but I didn't have any more. Next time, I'll increase the amount I make at once. One third of the rice was for dinner tonight and the other two thirds were frozen. While the rice was cooking, I browned a family size pack of ground beef on the stove. I used one third for dinner tonight and the other two thirds was frozen. I will update with how the frozen rice turns out the next time I have it for dinner.
 
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