At the end of the day I want simple but delicious. Fresh fare is my preference, but sometimes it’s not in the cards. Enter: the freezer.
There are a lot of negative associations with frozen food, but done right they can be your best friend.
Leftovers – any time you make a lasagnas or casseroles, make WAY more than you will eat and portion the extras into tupperware. By freezing 2/3 of the dish from the get-go you preserve the freshness of the dish and guarantee yourself a future home cooked meal.
Baked goods – we have a pretty decent stash of home-made quick breads, regular bread, tortillas, pitas, home-made bars, and cookies on reserve. The breads don’t last if I don’t freeze them and we buy 100 packs of corn tortillas at Costco, so I take them out as needed.
Fruit & veggies – Smoothies favorites are blueberries and strawberries, but I also have TONS of frozen bananas. Anytime a banana is nearing it’s deathbed I cut it into chunks and freeze it. As for vegetables, peas & corn are the hippie essentials, but I also have extra squash puree that I’ve made from my endless butternut supply as well as edamame for my random soy bean cravings. Lately I’ve been buying frozen kale, too.
Burgers – even thought I rarely eat them, I can’t think of a time when they weren’t in the freezer. Costco sells a few kinds, but I don’t eat them often enough to purchase 50 at once. I usually get whatever 4-pack is on sale at WF. Sunshine and Amy’s are favorites.
Seitan – I’m only adding this here because I know it does freeze and thaw well. I’ve only done it a couple of times before (namely when we go on vacation and I don’t want to throw anything out before we leave). Otherwise I plow through the stuff so quickly there’s no time to bother with the freezer.
The rest of the freezer has random stuff like coffee, vodka, Amy’s burritos, and whatever other fancy products I have recently impulse purchased. I can be such a sucker.
On that note, how about a quick and simple veg meal to make that intro relevant?
SOL cuisine veggie burgers made from brown rice and mushrooms.
I’m guessing they are a Canadian company based on the French and English info.
Nutritionally speaking, they are decent – low in fat with only 90 kcals per burger – I could have eaten the entire box in one sitting. Unfortunately, the soy protein concentrate (and other FODMAPs like mushrooms, garlic, and onions) were reason enough for me to save them for Kyle.
As the official taste tester, he [quote] “really liked them.” Clearly he takes his job very seriously. I had a Sunshine burger instead.
I thawed them in the microwave for a minute then fried them on the skillet so they got nice and crispy on the outside. On the side I made peas and brown rice. The peas took all of 3 minutes to thaw once the water was boiling. The brown rice was made in the rice cooker (just like a slow cooker you can set it up before you head to work in the AM and come home to perfect grains). See? A healthy freezer based dinner on the cheap and easy.
What’s one random/embarrassing/surprising thing in your freezer? We have two packs of cranberries because I’m a hoarder and stock up during the winter holidays when they are really cheap. We also have a VitaTop from the 90s that neither of us will probably ever eat.
Ugh. I wish I could have soy, as it seems all the decent “burgers” have that as an ingredient. But when the budget allows and I made the 25 mile trip to the only place that sells them, I don’t mind Sunshine burgers or Amy’s California burger in a pinch. My freezer has some Amy’s meals, Ezekiel bread, bags of frozen veggies and some almonds–nothing too embarrassing.
However, four years ago when I was traveling for work my 16-year-old bird died and my mom had to keep it in the freezer until I got back and we could have a funeral. I think that counts…
Frozen bananas? And what do you do? Thaw them? Make banana ice cream? both?
I have always been curious about veggie burgers, hopefully I will try them someday 🙂
I freeze food after I cook it, but I don’t buy much frozen food. I think Spain and The Netherlands are not the countries with the best assortment of frozen food anyway…
I love Trader Joe’s Veggie Masala burgers – I always have a pack of those on hand! But as for most embarrassing freezer item? Probably the leftover chili…that I made in September…spring cleaning anyone??
Want to trade freezers? lol. The only thing currently occupying mine is two bags of veggies and half a bag of wild blueberries.
The most embarrassing thing in my freezer is 5 bags that each have just the ends of a bread loaf in them. I don’t like the ends but I can’t bear to toss them, since it’s perfectly good food… Got any recipes I can borrow that call for the bread ends?!
i have a peanut butter chocolate bar that i got from the new seasons bakery one day on impulse and ended up forgetting about it for a few days. at that point i tossed it in a freezer bag and thought, hmm that’ll freeze and i’ll eat it. back in jan – just of thought of it now as i read your post.
what do you think of Quorn products? i’ve gotten their classic burger and i just noticed on their website they have vegan burgers too (i’m not vegan at this point, but i love trying new products).
http://www.quorn.us/Products/
Well, it wasn’t technically MY freezer. But when I was a kid, I found hamster in the family freezer months after it died (it was very tragic for me). A few days before the hamster died, it bit my brother (because he was poking at it) and my mom was afraid that it transmitted a disease to him. He was fine and I was scarred. My silly husband once did the same thing with a peach he bit into that was nasty because he was afraid it was contaminated. I found it in the freezer months after he bit it. LOL!
I have 3 bags of frozen cranberries from Thanksgiving (or after when they were on sale) too!
Question–what kind/brand of frozen kale do you get? I tried it once and wasn’t thrilled…is there a brand you can recommend?
Courtney
I bought the WF 365 brand. It’s far from fresh kale, but it’s nice to have emergency greens available at all times. They are chopped so finely though. Best for quiches and mixed into grains.
omg thats hilarious. super gross. but hilarious.
thats not bad! …better than a frozen hamster [see other comments]
id say so. although being the frugal person i am, id probably still try and salvage it. how much frostburn is involved?
oh my goodness, if you havent used frozen bananas to make a smoothie you MUST do so asap. youll thank me once you taste it. mmmm…
wow. thats a good mom…im not sure id have the stomach to eat out of that freezer ever again!! hahaha
That is what I didn’t like too–it is chopped SO finely you really can’t use it for much…sorry to hear that WF is like that too.
My sister-in-law told me about freezing bananas. I do it all the time now, and they can be used for so much. I use them regularly in smoothies, but another favorite time use in my family is for banana bread. Banana bread is much better with very ripe bananas.. when they get very ripe, I freeze them so I have them ready to go when my son asks for his favorite bread.
I have some otter pops in my freezer that have been in there since my son was about 2 years old…he is now almost 9! I refuse to give them to him anymore (too much sugar and artificial flavoring), yet, i can’t seem to part with them. I think we bought them at Costco because there are stacks of them in there!
On a healthier note, I have bags and bags of frozen bananas! I make so much banana bread and love them for smoothies. Last year, I bought a Yonanas machine (http://www.yonanas.com/) to make soft serve banana “ice cream”, although I think I may be able to get the same results with my new Vitamix…
We have two King Crab legs in our freezer from like 2 years ago when we first moved into our house and crab was really cheap. Now they’re like $30 a pound and I’m wishing I hadn’t let those poor little legs get all frost-burned. I just can’t bear to throw them out, though, knowing how much they would be worth fresh. Weird? Probably, but oh well.
Bread ends are great for making croutons!
Great post! I’ve been trying to peel/chop/dice extra veggies to keep in the freezer, because it’s ridiculously handy to have them on hand for easy roasting or stir-frying.
I recently found some REALLY OLD ginger root that I had too much of and decided to freeze…I’m a little apprehensive to open the ziploc to see how off it’s gone. Silly me.
I wish I had that assortment of goodies in my freezer! Right now I have a box of Dr. Praeger’s burgers, a bag of frozen berries, frozen bananas, and a pint of So Delicious Coconut Milk ice cream.
My fridge and freezer are seriously lacking right now- I desperately need to go grocery shopping.
I’ve been wondering about those burgers, actually! I’m glad Kyle liked them. Maybe I’ll pick up a box.
wow! I do smoothies with frozen blueberries, but that’s it!
I will try it for sure!!
thanks 😀
My freezer is embarassingly packed. We buy in bulk to save money and freeze most of it. I actually wrote a post about freezing bell peppers yesterday. http://sensibleskillet.blogspot.com/2012/03/saving-money-and-freezing-bell-peppers.html
i have those burgers in my freezer now too!
haha, i have one thats got grandma skin in my fruit basket right now…never thought to freeze it though!