I'd love to hear more about how you keep track of what's in your freezer - I have adhd and struggle with things disappearing in the freezer unless they're right at the front (and even then sometimes...)
I'd also love to replace the gallon freezer bags I freeze summer fruit in with something else. Blueberries are easy as they'll fit in jars quite nicely, but what's your go to for freezing larger items that may not fit as nicely into a jar?
I get so many questions about my freezer. I have four sections in my freezer so I (sort of) arrange the food among them. I freeze loads of tomatoes (roasted, puréed, paste) and keep all of them in one large section. The upper, smaller section contains small amounts of food like lemon zest, lemon juice, leftover egg whites, pesto... I group together things like soup and spaghetti sauce and other leftover meals that freeze well. I can grab these to thaw out when I don't feel like cooking (or need to make space in there). Breads are sort of in there willy nilly but they should have their own section too really. I don't mark the food (and egg whites and lemon juice look very similar frozen...) but that would help keep the freezer organized. A list on the outside of the refrigerator would also help.
Oh and I don't stuff the freezer with food (people often ask me if I have a huge freezer...I just have a standard size one...standard by North American standards, which is roomy...). Except for the tomatoes that I hope last for many months, most of the food doesn't stay in there for that long, especially anything like sourdough bread or quick bread or cookies. So I constantly rotate food in and out of there. As for fruit, I cut it up into bite-size pieces, spread it on a cookie sheet, freeze it and then store it in jars. I think if people have plastic tubs already, they may as well use those, which would work for fruit. Any I had left after I decided to stop using plastic broke down a long time ago. I hope this helps! I should probably write a newsletter about this. The freezer seems like a bit of an overlooked tool in the battle against waste.
I should write a newsletter about this. People ask lots of questions about my freezer. Please see my response to the original commenter. And thanks for asking!
Having a list on the freezer does help, but remembering to cross off and add things can be a bit challenging...
I just helped a friend reorganize her 2!! chest freezers and we put categories of things into plastic and cardboard boxes, which helped. Now I need to do that in my regular and chest freezer...
When I cut up whole chickens that I've bought, I stuff the pieces in jars and freeze it that way, but some things don't fit nicely in jars.
I'd love to hear more about how you keep track of what's in your freezer - I have adhd and struggle with things disappearing in the freezer unless they're right at the front (and even then sometimes...)
I'd also love to replace the gallon freezer bags I freeze summer fruit in with something else. Blueberries are easy as they'll fit in jars quite nicely, but what's your go to for freezing larger items that may not fit as nicely into a jar?
I get so many questions about my freezer. I have four sections in my freezer so I (sort of) arrange the food among them. I freeze loads of tomatoes (roasted, puréed, paste) and keep all of them in one large section. The upper, smaller section contains small amounts of food like lemon zest, lemon juice, leftover egg whites, pesto... I group together things like soup and spaghetti sauce and other leftover meals that freeze well. I can grab these to thaw out when I don't feel like cooking (or need to make space in there). Breads are sort of in there willy nilly but they should have their own section too really. I don't mark the food (and egg whites and lemon juice look very similar frozen...) but that would help keep the freezer organized. A list on the outside of the refrigerator would also help.
Oh and I don't stuff the freezer with food (people often ask me if I have a huge freezer...I just have a standard size one...standard by North American standards, which is roomy...). Except for the tomatoes that I hope last for many months, most of the food doesn't stay in there for that long, especially anything like sourdough bread or quick bread or cookies. So I constantly rotate food in and out of there. As for fruit, I cut it up into bite-size pieces, spread it on a cookie sheet, freeze it and then store it in jars. I think if people have plastic tubs already, they may as well use those, which would work for fruit. Any I had left after I decided to stop using plastic broke down a long time ago. I hope this helps! I should probably write a newsletter about this. The freezer seems like a bit of an overlooked tool in the battle against waste.
These are great questions! I would like to know too.
I should write a newsletter about this. People ask lots of questions about my freezer. Please see my response to the original commenter. And thanks for asking!
Having a list on the freezer does help, but remembering to cross off and add things can be a bit challenging...
I just helped a friend reorganize her 2!! chest freezers and we put categories of things into plastic and cardboard boxes, which helped. Now I need to do that in my regular and chest freezer...
When I cut up whole chickens that I've bought, I stuff the pieces in jars and freeze it that way, but some things don't fit nicely in jars.