I have a VERY small freezer, and I don’t mean the typical fridge freezer. I think that my apartment complex went out of their way to find the smallest freezer possible. However, my freezer is a bank. I never realized how expensive food was until I started buying it for myself. I realized further how high food costs were when I started throwing it away… I can’t begin to fathom just how wasteful Americans are. So, I vowed to put an end to wasting food in my home and I want to help you to do the same. Here’s some tips/tricks to get you going!
- Meat-The first thing I do with all of my meat when I get home is FREEZE it. Unless you know you will be using it that night or the next, just freeze it. There’s a lot of hoopla regarding frozen meat and how disgusting it is…I don’t think these people are right in the head. I will say, if you’re buying low quality meat, it going to be sub-par. But that’s because of the quality…not how you store it. My mom started purchasing meat from the meat market and would store frozen beef for weeks, then make a burger, and they were the best burgers I’ve eaten. Another reason this habit is smart is because life happens! One week I’ve purchased $40 worth of meat, intending to make meals, and then some crisis came up and I didn’t cook almost all week. If I wouldn’t have frozen the meat, that would be $40 from my pocket to the trash.
- Casseroles/Leftovers-Usually casserole recipes are designed to feed armies. And that’s fine! But be weary of this when cooking for two. I’ve cut casserole recipes in half and STILL had leftovers. What did I do? Freeze them. After two days having leftovers and no one eating them, I simply threw the remainders in serving sized Ziploc bags and there’s a frozen meal on a busy night. On the flip side, we’ve made recipes that have declared it serves 2 when really it serves 27, one recipe being a chimichanga recipe. We froze the filling and thawed it in the microwave one night to make quick tacos!
- Fruits/veggies-Bananas are the biggest culprit here. My mom and I would always buy bananas thinking “We’ll eat this as a snack!” Then they sit on the counter and rot. When the bananas are brown and you know no one will eat them, peel the banana, put it in a freezer bag and start a banana collection. Once you have 6, you can make banana bread! **PLEASE NOTE: Always peel the banana first!*** I have also bought 12-15 bananas at a time and added them to freezer bags for smoothies. When you use frozen fruit, you don’t need to add ice to your smoothies. Onions are next up–my mom would buy an entire bag of onions for ONE onion. It drove me nuts! They sprouted and took up counter space, etc. So, one day I did the same thing, bought a bag of onions for one onion because they don’t sell organic onions individually. Great. Now what am I gonna do? I remember how annoying it was to chop onions, but most recipes call for chopped onions. So, I chopped up the bag of onions, some I bagged as half an onion, some as a whole onion and now I have ready made bags of onions for recipes, you got it, in the freezer! I have also frozen spinach, which you wouldn’t be able to use for salad, but it’s great for pastas!
- Other-Leftover pasta sauce, chicken and beef broth, pizza sauce, ricotta, black beans, it can all be frozen! We all have smart phones. If you’re unsure of something, all you have to do is google “Can you freeze sriracha?” It will give you detailed instructions on how to freeze the product and how long it will last. I recommend always measuring and labeling the product before freezing. For example, when I made a recipe that called for 6 oz. of beef broth, I knew I wouldn’t be making anything with beef broth soon, so I measured the remaining broth and put it in a bag “3 cups beef broth 4/2/16”.
I think that $200 is a low estimate when I say how much my freezer has saved me. However, even with this great tool, I’m still not where I want to be. I still throw things out and it KILLS me, but I’ll get there. And if you start now, you’ll be keeping pace with me in no time 🙂