Casa Petrie

One of the ways we save money in the kitchen is by freezing cooked food.  I use my frozen prepared food as a convenience, but everything is homemade!  The cycle we generally follow is to prepare a big meal, eat it for dinner that night, eat it for lunch the next day and freeze the leftovers into portions for one family meal.  I particularly get sick of leftovers after two meals, so freezing has been a great way to make the most out of meals we have made.  This method also saves me lots of time.

Foods that freeze well include

• baked goods such as muffins and bread,
• egg dishes such as quiche,
• beans and lentils,
• soups and stews,
• rice,
• pasta,
• meat- cooked and raw,
• cooked vegetables,
• and anything cooked in the Crockpot.

This freezer batch included minestrone soup, rice pudding and posole:

If you have a busy day ahead of you, pull a bag of frozen stew out of the freezer.  Rinse it in warm water to loosen it from the Ziploc bag and place it in the Crockpot, on low, with a cup of water.  Within a few hours, your stew will be hot and ready to eat.

When you find you have too much food to eat within a few days, consider freezing it.  Use an airtight container and remove as much air as possible to avoid freezer burn.  Portion out food to make it easy to use in the future.

In future posts I will write about how freezing food saves money and how to save small amounts of food by making them into homemade tv dinners.

Have a great day.