What I Keep in My Freezer
Freezing food is something I take advantage of whenever I can. Our first 7 years of marriage, we did not have a chest freezer. What were we thinking, I don’t know. Our refrigerator/freezer, well, the freezer part was a problem. Anytime someone would want to get something out of our freezer, they would have to ask me to help them for fear of getting clobbered by everything but the food they wanted. Too many times, containers fell out, cracking and causing a terrific mess because I had our freezer so packed. So, when we moved and there was a chest freezer in the home we are currently renting, I did a little ditty dance!
What do I keep in our freezer? That is a good question. I have to admit, I have quite a wide variety of foods in our freezer, but all for a purpose. Freezing food allows for QUICK and EASY meals, with less prep time because many of the items are either cut up or made and just need to be heated up. I am all about efficiency and this is where our freezer is a key component!
Here is a sample list of what we keep on our freezer:
Meat
- Beef – hamburger (cook with taco seasoning for tacos), steaks, roasts
- Chicken – mainly chicken breasts. If there is a sale on fresh chicken parts, I will buy a whole package of chicken and freeze each part in individual freezer bags, for easy cooking. Chicken is another item you can cook ahead of time and freeze.
- Pork – we buy from a local butcher (cheaper) and have a wide variety of pork options. Ground pork sausage is our favorite for pig-in-the-blankets
- Fish – rarely do we buy fish, but we are into fishing, so anything we will not eat within the next day or two, we freeze. We mainly have crappie and walleye in our freezer, which makes for a summery meal in the dead of winter!
- Sale on cheese? This girl definitely stocks up! I am known to buy 5 packages of each at a time, knowing full well, a sale like that might not occur again for a few months.
- Hamburger/Hot dog buns – if frozen when they are still fresh, they will taste just as fresh taken out of the freezer, as the day you bought them.
- Rolls – company is over and you bought one too many packages; freeze the other and heat in the microwave for a warm roll
- Sliced bread – if a sale is calling my name, I just throw the extra into the freezer
- Pizza dough – my homemade pizza dough recipe makes 2 lbs., so I use one and freeze the other. When we have a hankering for pizza, all I do is pull out the dough that week and thaw in the fridge.
- Corn – creamed corn (for chicken corn chowder), whole kernel corn, and corn on the cob (haven’t perfected this yet)
- Green beans – our garden in 2013 was filled to overflowing with beans, so instead of canning them all, I froze many of them, which we are still enjoying today
- Black beans – making black beans in the crockpot was the way to go; if I need them for soup or beans and rice, all I need to do is pull out a container and then I don’t have to worry about all of the preservatives
- Zucchini – our town had an abundance of zucchini, so I took advantage of that and shredded numerous zucchini into 2 cup portions for zucchini bread
- Strawberries/blueberries – pureeing, slicing, and freezing whole strawberries in specific portions is a must for smoothies, pies, and desserts. Freeze blueberries whole, for the same reasons!
- Bananas – overripe bananas causing an eye sore and fruit flies? Freeze them (even though they will turn brown) and use them for banana bread, muffins, and smoothies
- Cookies – cookie dough AND already-made cookies are a must in our freezer. If company is company over and you want fresh-baked cookies, just take out your pre-made cookie dough and you will enjoy a bakery-style feeling right in your home. Don’t even have time to bake them? Keep baked cookies in a container and take out as needed.
- Bars – freeze by the pan or cut into individual servings and freeze in containers.
Since freezers are supposed to work better when they are full, I freeze all my kinds of flour for bread. There are nuts and many other dry goods that won't be harmed by freezing. Even store-bought cake mixes, if you use them, can be stored in a Ziploc bag. Always nice to keep extra bags of ice in Ziplocs, too. If you get an influx of meat or other things that fill up the freezer, you can just take out those other items until there is room for them again.
Thanks for these tips! You are so right that flour and nuts freeze well! I am glad you mentioned those. I like your idea of cake mixes – I hadn't heard of that one before, but it makes sense! Wonderful tips and thanks for sharing!