My Abundant Life: How I Freeze Food

A couple of weeks ago I showed you what was in my freezers and gave you the list.

This week I thought I'd explain how I store the food to avoid spoilage and waste.

Here's what I use -

* Plastic containers of all sizes.

* Takeaway food containers

* Cling wrap

* Foil

* Freezer bags, large and small

* Cereal packets cut up into squares are used as go between to stop cut of meat or soup sticking together.

* Masking tape and permanent markers for labels

* Recycled plastic fruit and veg bags

* Recycled bread bags

When I make soup, I always make a big pot to save time and energy. As yummy as it is, we can't eat it quick enough. So I always make sure I freeze some. I have small flat containers that I use for this purpose. They are the Starmaid brand but I don't think they are sold any more. I fill up each container as this represents one single serve. Once cooled in the fridge, the lids are put on and frozen in a stack. Once frozen, I pop the soup out of the container. I slip a piece of cereal packet on top of the soup and pop another soup serve on top. Then they are double wrapped in freezer bags and placed back in the freezer. If I have multiple types of soup in the freezer, I label the soups and date them.

I pop the soups out of their containers because even though I have lots of containers, I very quickly run out.

Lamb chops are taken off their trays and portioned into meal sizes which is usually one chop per person. Once again I slip a piece of cereal packet between each chop then double wrap in freezer bags.

Mince is portioned into 300 gram and 400 gram serves. 300 grams is for chop suey and spag bol, 3 x 300 gram does lasagne. $00 grams is used for meat pie, meatloaf and cassroles. Each portion is wrapped in cling wrap. Then a few portions are put into large freezer bags and labelled and dated.

Diced beef is portioned into 500 gram lots for stew. I pack it into a snap lock bag, flatten and label.

Roast beef and silverside is always cut in half as it's way to big for the four of us. I wrap it in cling warp, label and date then wrap in a freezer bag.

Sausages are portioned into meal sizes which is six for us. I wrap in cling wrap then multiple portions are put into a large freezer bag.

Single serves of leftovers are put into the flat takeaway food containers. They are dated and labelled.

For chicken fillets, I take the skin off, trim the sinues off and place individually into frezer bags. Multiple fillets are then placed into a larger freezer bag. It's easy to grab the amount of fillets needed when they are single.

Hamburger patties are stacked on top of each other with the cereal bag squares put inbetween. We only have one atty per person and they are double wrapped.

Lemon ice cubes are placed either in snaplock bags or takeaway food containers. Same with tomato paste.

Any baking is double wrapped. Cakes are dated and labelled so I know what the flavour is.

Final notes -

* Bread bags are used for the outer wrapping for many items
* I always rotate all meat, baking and meals to avoid food being frozen for too long.
* I delegate one shelf for each type of meat where possible. All beef mince and hamburgers on one shelf, all chicken on one shelf, all roasts on one shelf, all soup on one shelf, leftovers in one drawaer etc etc,
*. I label meat with masking tape on the first layer of plastic then wrap again. It prevents the label falling off.
* I don't have glass containers in my freezer because they are too expensive and I'd need so many.
* It sounds like I use a lot of plastic bags and wrap but I try to recycle where I can. I bought a big roll of large freezer bags from Tasman Meats a couple of years ago. This has saved a lot of money and I reuse them..
* I use everything within one year.

I think that's explained most of the ways I freeze things. I guess the most important things to do is to double wrap, rotate and label.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.