This is sort of embarrassing to admit: I am afraid of my freezer.
Not the kind of fear where I suspect my freezer will come to life and attack me in my sleep, but rather a fear of freezing home cooked meals. My current freezer skills lay somewhere around the ability to freeze ice.
As I am gaining more and more confidence in the kitchen I am reading cookbooks and cooking blogs for fun. Often I notice people saying things like: this freezes well.
Gulp.
Just the idea of freezing things makes me anxious.
Often my cooking anxieties lead back to events in my life and here they are:
1. Lasagna: My first attempt with freezing was on a lasagna that I had made and I wanted to save the leftovers. I cut the leftovers into single servings and froze them. About a week later I went to re-heat some lasagna for dinner and it just wasn't that good. It didn't have the same fresh taste that I was expecting.
2. Minestrone Soup: Thinking that my previous poor freezing experience was based on the type of dish I had chosen, I decided to give freezing soup a try. I made a minestrone soup with lots of vegetables and some pasta shells. Into the freezer it went. When it came time to re-heat the minestrone all the pasta shapes had dissolved and I was left with a vegetable soup with paste-like broth. It wasn't good.
But here I am all talk and excuses and no recent attempts. So today that changes. I am freezing the leftovers from the Sloppy Joes that I made and I am going to reheat them in one week. I chose a variety of freezing options. The first two are different amounts in my ziplock tuperware containers. The third option is a one cup serving in a bag flattened out. I can't remember where I heard the idea, but someone out there in the world suggested freezing 1 cup amounts in bags and then flattening them out so that they could be stacked in your freezer. If it works it will be brilliant.
So here they are, and since I made a blog post about it, I will have to test them all in one week. Until then if anyone has any ideas on freezing storage, how best to defrost these when the time comes, or other freezing knowledge- I am all ears.
9 comments:
Good for you! I love freezing leftovers, but I really hate them when I defrost them in the microwave! YUCK!! Everything turns soggy and tasteless, so I just use the stovetop or the oven instead. It seems to work better that way. Good luck with your freezing! :)
great job for trying again! i have def had those experiences myself....and i have yet to figure out a good method or things i can actually freeze that will still taste good. good luck though!
I use zip bags for homemade tomato sauces and seitan, canning jars for homemade spaghetti sauce, and tupperware for various soups, stews, and such. I have never had much luck with pasta so don't feel bad. Breads and baked good freeze really well as do veggie burgers and faux sausage. Keep trying it really is a great way to store leftovers and bulk cooking.
Ditto veg-a-nut and river. And always make sure you get the air out of the bags... that's what causes freezer burn.
Listen to Veg-a-nut. :-)
Breads and baked goods (muffins, pancakes, waffles_ are excellent for freezing.
I don't like reheating in the microwave either.
For soups, you sometimes have to add a little bit water when reheating, just check.
I don't freeze dishes containing pasta, because it gets soggy.
I mostly just freeze stock, soup, tofu, burgers and sausage. I've been known to freeze veggies as well, especially when I have bought a LOAD because they were on offer.
Just keep at it though. And leave things to defrost by themselves - don't use the microwave. Take them out of the freezer in the morning and by dinner time they are good to go.
Thank you for all your great freezer advice! I am eager to learn and soaking up all the information that I can.
I will let you know how things work out.
that's a smart test to do. and good job w/ not giving up. though it can be painful sometimes.
in the detox class i took, she said to let things cool all the way before putting them in plastic. also don't heat in plastic. it's the heat that releases more of the bad stuff in plastic than cold does. sort of interesting.
I'm too lazy to freeze many things and I hate making double batches. I like having leftovers in my fridge so I don't have to make dinner every night.
that said, I have pumpkin ravioli, oatmeal cookies, and something else I can't remember in my freezer. other than the usual junk.
gnocci freezes well. I also made empanadas from veganomicon and froze 1/2 of them (didn't bake them first) for months and they were great. probably because pastry loves to be chilled before baking.
I heard from Alton Brown on Good Eats that the best way to get things to freeze well is to get them to freeze quickly. So, things like having them cool before putting in the freezer (fridge for a bit then freezer) should help, as well as spreading out as much as possible (for increased surface area to volume ratio and therefore faster freezing time). I'm just trying to get good at freezing things myself!
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