I’m headed out today to join a couple of generous friends that want to help fill our freezer with meals for when baby arrives.  By the way, I can’t describe how happy and blessed I feel to have friends that offer up their time in this way to provide us with nourishing meals!  It means a lot, so if you have the opportunity to help someone out in this way, do it!

Since I’m driving to a friends house (who has a great kitchen for this sort of thing), it got me thinking about everything I have to bring along to freeze the food properly.  So, the following post will be a bit of an ultimate guide to storing food in the freezer.  Hope you enjoy!

Freezer Cooking Supplies:

• Freezer bags – I prefer using the Ziploc brand as they’re thicker and seem to keep frozen foods “fresher” longer.  I use bags for much of my cooking, including; sauces, soups, chiles, cooked meats (ground beef, chicken), cookies, muffins, granola bars.  I like a variety of sizes for different uses.
• Foil pans – These are good for casseroles
• Tin foil – A must have for covering foil pans and wrapping loaves
• Straw – For sucking out excess air from freezer bags
• Plastic containers – You could possibly use these in place of foil pans as they stack well
• Sharpie marker – for writing on labels
• Labels – Although I usually just write directly on the tin foil or freezer bags

How to Cover Freezer Food:

Wrapping foods well is a must for freezer cooking.  Especially if you know they might be in there for a while.

• Loaves:  Wrap tightly with tin foil.  You can double wrap or place a freezer bag over one layer
• Foil pans:  Double wrap the pans with tin foil.  You could add a layer of plastic wrap if you want (I don’t), just remember to remove it before you cook the meal.  I like to use a plastic grocery bag to go over each pan as well.
• Freezer bags:  I never double up on the freezer bags.  I find that if I suck out as much air as I can with a straw, the foods last quite a long time.

How to Label:

Two words: Label everything!  I’ve made the mistake of thinking I’ll remember what a particular thing is way too many times because I never labeled.   Here’s what you should include on each label:

• Name of the meal -  Ex: Chicken Parmesan
• Date – a must
• Instructions – include details such as:  if it needs to be thawed, uncovered/covered, baking temperature, how long it has to be baked for etc.  I’ve been as detailed as possible with the meals I’ve created so far to make it really easy for my husband to pull something out and know exactly what to do.

Foods that Freeze Well:

• Meat.  Either cooked or uncooked.
• Fruit/vegetables
• Casseroles
• Soups and sauces
• Muffins and breads
• Cookies
• Cakes, pies and brownies
• Burritos
• Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)

How Long Will Food Last in the Freezer:

Here’s a post I did about how long food will last in the freezer.

Other Tips:

• Make sure your food has cooled significantly before placing it in the freezer.  If you put food that’s still hot/warm in the freezer, the condensation will form ice crystals which will cause freezer burn.  Heat will also raise the temperature of the freezer, which will prevent the food from freezing uniformly.
• Keep an inventory.  It’s super helpful to have a list of all the meals you have in the freezer.  I have a printable freezer inventory checklist available if you’d like.
• Use this handy tip from reader Trish:  To freeze meals, I just line a casserole dish with foil, enough to cover the bottom and top, put in my food and freeze it. Once frozen, remove from casserole dish and put in a ziplock freezer bag, labled with what the dish is and sometimes cooking instructions. When I want to use it, I remove the foil and pop back in the casserole dish to cook. Saves buying foil pans and doesn’t tie up your casserole dishes in the freezer!
• Freeze as many items as you can flat.  This makes for more room in the freezer!

Have you got any tips for storing food in the freezer?   Share them in the comments!

image source.

I made these Freezer Mashed Potatoes during the freezer cooking marathon I did with my Mom last year.  They were so delicious I thought I’d give you all the link to the recipe!  I’ll be making more this week to start our freezer meal supply.

The picture above shows the potatoes in a 9×13 pan, but my Mom had the brilliant idea of creating two sections of potatoes (you can sort of see a dividing line in the middle) so we could pop one section out at a time. We figured that amount would be better manageable for two people.  Of course, you can make it in a smaller pan, but that’s all I had at the time!