***Give Away Alert! I will be giving away three copies of my freezer cooking cookbooks The Frozen Gourmet Just leave a comment on the blog sometime this week and I will pick three winners – the more comments, the more chances to win!***
Wrapping it Up – Everything You Need to Know About Freezing Your Food
First – here is a quick list of things that could have problems freezing:
? Cake icing made with egg whites
? Cream filling and soft frostings
? Pies made with custard or cream fillings
? Cooked egg whites
? Fried foods
? Fruit jelly
? Soft cheese (unless mixed into a recipe)
? Mayonnaise (unless mixed into a recipe)
? Sour cream (unless mixed into a recipe)
? Potatoes (you can do potatoes, but it is a bit complicated for the blog and they can sometimes turn a weird color…)
Freezing your food falls into two different catagories:
1. Casseroles
2. Soups, Stews, Chilli’s and Marinades
Casseroles
For casserole freezing, I have used the foil pans pictured below for years.
I think my addiction to foil cake pans strated when I was doing our freezer cooking swap with a bunch of other girls (to find out more about our group, Six Chicks Freeze and Fix, check back on the blog on Monday.) We would each make our dinners at home, and then bring them to a predetermined location, and swap. We didn’t want the hassle of returning dishes, so the cake pans worked for our needs.
But it was a little silly that I was still doing it once I was only cooking for my family. Besides the cost, all I could picture was trees dying in the rain forest because of my wastefulness.
So I finally broke down and bought a dozen of these inexpensive (OK, cheap,) steel pans from Target.
Here are my instructions for packaging the casseroles:
- Spray the bottom of the serving pan with Pam or some other non-fat cooking spray
- Put your casserole in the pan
- Cover the casserole with foil
-
Label the foil with the name and date of the casserole (I’ll tell you why this is bold in a second.)
-
Slip into a Ziploc bag with the printing on the bag facing down
OK – so here is the money/enviroment tip of the day: If you label the foil instead of the Ziploc (which is just keeping your food from freezer burn and is not actually touching any food) you can reuse your Ziploc bag for protecting other meals. If you bag your food with a label on the foil, and you put the Ziploc imprint on the bottom of the casserole, you will clearly be able to see what is in your meal.
You see, those baggies are expensive, and it is my goal to make them last as long as possible!
If you don’t have all the pans that you need, here is a great suggestion from one of my commenters Deanna:
To save more $ may I suggest lining a casserole dish in aluminum foil and then preparing the meal in it. Freeze it, lift the meal out, wrap it again in foil, label and stick it in the freezer! When you go to cook it just unwrap the outer layer of foil, pop back in the original dish and cook. Makes clean up a breeze too! HTH!!!
Monday – I will be sharing about bagging your marinades and how to start a freezer cooking group!
Love the 5 day project blog posts, and the step-by-step instruction. I love freezer cooking, just not into doing all 30-days at the same time 😉
I’ve always wanted to try this. I already buy in bulk, I’ve bought pans and I even bought a deep chest freezer this summer! I have good intentions, but in typical Sally fashion, I start things and never finish. Looking forward to you speaking at our MOPS group this month. I’m hoping that it will motivate me to get going on this! 🙂
This is good stuff! I’m going to print this out.
Love to know what you have problems freezing. I am always wondering what won’t work! Thanks for the tips!
I have always had trouble with freezing food. It never looks like the same food when I take it out. Thank you so much for the tips!
I have another question. Rule of thumb is three months for freezing. Is that uncooked food only? If I cook spaghetti and sauce and mix it in the bag, can that also be frozen for three months or should that be used sooner? Meats as well…are those three months uncooked and cooked or just uncooked?
Thanks! 😀
Ok…stupid question, but I am new to freezing. The foil pans…do you reuse those too or are those freeze, thaw, and pitch?
Thanks for your freezing suggestions! Can’t wait to apply them.
I like the idea of the cheap pans from Target too. The foil pans have the larger rim and are sometimes a bit harder to stack so I think the others will work better. Great ideas Kathi, keep em coming. My husband like to cook too so we’ve been talking about which of our family recipes this will work best for.
I also love foil pans, but bought several of the exact same Target ones to be more environmentally friendly. I still use the foil pans for taking a meal to the park/pool for my family, or a meal to another family. The 8×8 size is perfect for our family, and I found an online store that sold them for $0.22 each, when we bought 500. Our meal swap group has put quite a dent in 500, and it comes out so much cheaper than buying the 8×8 pans at the grocery store. I just wish Costco carried the 8×8 size!
Oh and how excited am I to be quoted in your blog Kathi!!! If you could see me I would be blushing. 🙂
I am pretty sure I have not been this excited about shopping and cooking in a long while. My hubby thinks it will cost us more so I am also excited to show him how it will actually save us money! I am nervous though so I think I am going to start small… only doing about 4 meeals.
I do think I’ll have to get my old food group together to get back on track. We did what you did with your girlfriends – we each four to six main dishes,but we made six of each one. Then, we met together and swapped main dishes. It was FABULOUS! FAll is a great time to get a food group together to do bulk cooking.
I love your tips and ideas. I want to start a cooking group within our MOPS group, so this information is fantastic. Can’t wait for Monday’s blog.
Thanks so much for sharing.
Love the idea of reusing the bags – you can also recycle your aluminum foil.
I never knew the rules on freezing food! Thanks 4the tips. on another note…
PICK ME! PICK ME FOR THE “FROZEN GOURMET BOOKLET”! POR FAVOR 🙂 UGH..BEGGING DOES NOT BECOME ME. YOUR BLOGS ARE FUN. KEEP EM COMING! IT MAKES MY DAY.
How do you keep your casseroles from coming out soggy? Mine always form a layer of ice, which then adds extra water when it bakes, hence the soggy lasagna. I’m already cooking challenged as it is, so this problem might be unique to me.
Great tips. Keep them coming! While it is not exactly friendly to the environment, costco does sell a stack of 50 aluminum pans for 6.99. You can’t beat that. These are great for when I need to get a meal to a new mom in mops/moms group or a friend in need.
The list of things that are hard to freeze was great. I have always wonder what I could freeze and what I couldn’t.
Great tips. 🙂
Great tips Thanks!!!
I am so excited for this. I am trying to start my own freezer cooking group. I have few ladies together. We are all in need of ideas on how to begin and recipes that work well frozen.