Since March is Nationwide Frozen Meals Month, it’s almost pretty much as good a time as any to sing the praises of my freezer. Constructive, I like my fridge, nevertheless I like-like my freezer. It is a magical subject that stops time and retains naturally decaying meals in a state of delicious suspended animation. Whereas some devices don’t profit from the course of—say, salad greens and delicate sauces—most meals take pretty kindly to life at zero ranges. Listed below are people who I freeze in all probability probably the most.
1. Bananas
Usually we eat the entire bananas; usually, we don’t. As soon as we don’t, I peel and thickly slice them and put them inside the freezer. As soon as we do eat all of them, usually I buy additional just for freezing. Frozen sliced bananas grow to be the miracle establishing blocks of one-ingredient ice cream and smoothies. If any bananas by chance grow to be perilously mushy inside the fruit bowl, I mash them and freeze them as such—they then go on to be included in any number of baked objects.
2. Berries
Modern berries have a reasonably fast life sooner than going rogue. If they start getting mushy and seem to be mildew is near, into the freezer they go. Freezing bursts their cells, and thus they lose their building, nevertheless they’re nonetheless good for smoothies, baked objects, oatmeal, et cetera.
3. Bread
I as quickly as labored at a French restaurant, and to my youthful foodie horror was shocked to see the chef put beautiful baguettes inside the freezer. Quelle horreur! Nevertheless what did I do know? Nothing, because of sticking bread inside the freezer retains it as latest as a result of it was when it went in. I protect all our bread inside the freezer, well-wrapped, and guaranteeing to pre-slice any that can be utilized for sandwiches. For thawing loaves, take away one from the freezer and let it sit in its wrapper until it’s room temperature—a trick for all baked objects; it lets them reabsorb their moisture. After unwrapping, loaves could also be popped inside the oven at 350 ranges Fahrenheit for 10 minutes to get that delicious crust-to-center relationship going. For explicit individual slices with a future as toast, they’re going to go straight from the freezer to the toaster.
4. Cake
If there happens to ever be any leftover cake—espresso cake, birthday cake, cupcakes, frequently cake, et cetera—it does utterly successfully being frozen, frosting and all. Truffles with delicate whipped lotions and up to date fruit may get just a little bit wonky, nevertheless they’ll nonetheless type good. I freeze cake in slices (wrapped in foil, which I re-use), which could then be taken out in elements that prohibit Cookie-Monster-style cake devouring.
5. Coconut Milk
In case you occur to open a can of coconut milk for the cream, you might need a number of the milk left over afterward—that’s what happens at our house, at least. I put the rest in an ice cube tray and freeze it, then put the coco cubes in a freezer jar. They are going to go in smoothies, be the ice in iced espresso, be utilized in baked objects, or could also be blended and used the following time I am making a coconut soup or curry.
6. Cookie Dough
Many cookie recipes make too massive of a batch for smaller households. You could halve the recipe, I suppose, nevertheless cookie dough is an effective freezer resident—so freeze some in its place. (Or if you’re so inclined, make a double batch in the event you want to save labor subsequent time spherical.) It could be frozen in an entire log, in slices, in dropped spoonfuls or scoops; rolled dough could also be frozen in a pre-rolled ball or rolled out and frozen in sheets, which makes cookie-cutting them a dream
7. Fundamental Leftovers
The freezer is the right method to cope with massive batch meals that don’t get eaten after a day or two; points like casseroles and lasagna. Nevertheless I moreover freeze parts of dinners, like rice or polenta, that will then merely develop right into a headstart on one different dinner down the road.
8. Ginger
In case you occur to like latest ginger nevertheless uncover that you don’t get by the use of a root sooner than it begins to whither, then freeze away. I protect the peel on to help protect it a bit, and cut back it in hunks that may match proper right into a small freezer jar. I on a regular basis use a ceramic ginger grater for prepping ginger for recipes, and uncover that I can perform the idea, grate it whereas nonetheless frozen, after which return it to the jar.
9. Soup and Chili
I’ve a soup and chili disadvantage. I love making them—there’s is treatment of their establishing and stirring, they usually’re the right receptacle for fridge odds and ends that don’t must go to waste. Nevertheless every time I make a pot, I protect together with and together with and together with, and end up with adequate soup or chili to feed a small village. So we eat it for only a few days, after which the rest goes inside the freezer. The soup I usually freeze in a single huge container, nevertheless chili will get frozen in muffin tins after which transferred to a distinct container for small potions that may be utilized for lunches or included into points like burritos.
10. Tomato Sauce
Whether or not or not you make your private do-it-yourself tomato sauce or have half a jar lingering inside the fridge; stick the extras inside the freezer. Like chili, that’s one different good candidate for muffin tins to have the ability to take away explicit individual elements, if that matches your family members’s desires.
11. Tomato Paste
In case you occur to solely use tomato paste by the occasional spoonful, do not let that almost-full can die an ignominious demise behind your fridge. Put it in a small freezer-safe jar inside the freezer.
12. Tortillas
Much like bread, tortillas maintain fresher when having been saved inside the freezer and might be utilized as wished. I uncover that usually my do-it-yourself spelt tortillas stick collectively if I freeze them in a stack (a future that happens to others, nevertheless not all, types of tortillas). I make the most of a small piece of parchment between them which makes eradicating individually so much less complicated. I protect the used parchment objects inside the bag with the tortillas so that I can use them batch after batch.
13. Wine
In case you occur to ever end up with leftover wine, or wine you didn’t love, freeze it in ice cube trays and stick the cubes in a freeze container. Wine cubes could also be added to punch or sangria—nevertheless I significantly like to make use of them in sauces and to deglaze pans.
14. Vegetable Scraps
Every single half that comes off a vegetable goes proper right into a lined bowl in my freezer, as does any odd or end that finds itself languishing inside the fridge. When the bowl is full, I make vegetable stock, and it’s one among my favorite points: It is free meals!
15. Vegetable Stock
Since I’ve an numerous present of do-it-yourself vegetable stock (see above), I sometimes end up with just a few of it inside the freezer. I used to freeze all of it in massive jars, nevertheless now I moreover freeze it in smaller elements so that I can use it additional randomly, like when cooking grains, making risotto or using it in several recipes.