Update 19/1/16: I've had a comment from a reader with regards to food safety and the quick-cooling of foods and I want to make it clear that hot foods need to be cooled as quickly as possible before freezing. The best way to cool hot liquids is through use of an ice bath, while solid foods can be cooled in shallow containers (place in the fridge once they have stopped steaming). Click here to read the guidelines on cooling and reheating foods by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and click here for a very helpful article on food safety and storage.
This post is geared more towards kitchen newbies, whether you have just moved out of home for the first time, or are simply new to cooking from scratch. The following are my top five tips for making the most of your freezer to save both time and money.
This post is geared more towards kitchen newbies, whether you have just moved out of home for the first time, or are simply new to cooking from scratch. The following are my top five tips for making the most of your freezer to save both time and money.
5. Cook in Bulk
This is the most obvious one. This is even easier if, like me, you are cooking for one most of the time; following a mantra of “eat one, freeze one” will save up time and effort at a later date. Having pre-cooked meals ready to go can also be a life-saver at the end of pay-week or if an unexpected expense creeps up.
While the first things that spring to mind when I think of typical freezer foods are casseroles, soups, and stews, almost anything you cook can be frozen – I regularly freeze meals like stir-fries and risottos. You can think bigger with batch-cooking too. Some foods are considerably cheaper when bought in larger portions, think whole frozen chickens or large halves of pumpkin, and these can be roasted or baked all at once and then separated up and stored to make a variety of meals at a later time. I find doing this great to add variety if I’m getting bored: eating seasonally sometimes means one or two cheap vegetables take up too much space in my diet for months at a time!
This is the most obvious one. This is even easier if, like me, you are cooking for one most of the time; following a mantra of “eat one, freeze one” will save up time and effort at a later date. Having pre-cooked meals ready to go can also be a life-saver at the end of pay-week or if an unexpected expense creeps up.
While the first things that spring to mind when I think of typical freezer foods are casseroles, soups, and stews, almost anything you cook can be frozen – I regularly freeze meals like stir-fries and risottos. You can think bigger with batch-cooking too. Some foods are considerably cheaper when bought in larger portions, think whole frozen chickens or large halves of pumpkin, and these can be roasted or baked all at once and then separated up and stored to make a variety of meals at a later time. I find doing this great to add variety if I’m getting bored: eating seasonally sometimes means one or two cheap vegetables take up too much space in my diet for months at a time!
