What foods do you freeze?

Originally Posted by Cloud

Tiki--I got mine at Macy's in the Martha Stewart section. They have little inserts to make two-color popsicles.

Totally cool! I wish I could find mine, but if I can't I'll go see if they still have those. The kids would dig the two-toned thing.

Originally Posted by Juniper

But apparently the other three people in my house feel like Tiki. If it isn't freshly prepared, or doesn't come in a disposable tray and plastic wrap, they don't seem to believe it is edible food.

For the record, that's not actually me at all. As long as I eat part of something when it's fresh, I will then happily proceed to eat the leftovers all week.

As for plastic disposable tray food...

[jinx]

I'm going to freeze strawberries as soon as the stands open, but usually I only freeze stuff that I've bought frozen... edamame, chicken fingers, popcicles...
I don't think freezing improves the flavor of anything, and I'm a minute from the market so why bother?
Leftovers get eaten quickly here.

[Beestie]

I freeze grapes and kumquats in the summer. Good snacks for cooling off.

And at least one bottle of vodka, rum or grain.

[Juniper]

Sorry for misinterpreting your post, Tiki.

I totally understand the single gal's perspective. For years I tried to encourage my mom to cook and eat better by doing the "planned-over" thing, but she was really picky and not a very good cook.

As for me, if I were single I'd have no problem making a bunch of something I love and eating it for every meal. I'm weird like that. Chili for dinner, breakfast, lunch, late night snack, repeat. I made this ramen noodle salad stuff that nobody liked but me, and I ate it all myself over two days. Sometimes variety is just too much work.

That's exactly what I used to do when I was single... make a pot of soup or a big casserole, and then eat it for lunch and dinner all week. Didn't phase me at all.

My ex hated eating the same thing more than twice a week, so I started doing a menu plan so that I was cooking something new every night five nights a week, and we would do take-out once a week and go out to dinner once a week. It was a pretty good system.

Now that it's just me and the kids, I'm sort of doing the "big pot of food" thing again, only I try not to mix it up a bit on the days that I have them, and only have one "pot O' leftovers" in the fridge at a time.

I often buy whole salmon or roasts, cut them up, and freeze them. It's a lot cheaper and it's nice during the lean times to have food on hand.

I also do a lot of drying and canning, but it being Spring, all I really have left in the pantry is applesauce.

[monster]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

When you talk about a freeze flat system, does that mean you put wet items in freezer bags and then freeze them? .

yes, but we use gallon bags (more than a "single portion") and fill them to a "snappable' depth -sometimes beest "scores' them as they freeze to make it easier- then we can defrost just as much as we need -portion size with us depends on who's eating, which meal it is and how hungry they all are

[monster]

Originally Posted by DanaC

When I was little my Gran and one of the Aunties had ice cube trays in the shape of little pink elephants. I used to love them!

are different colored elephants different shapes, then?

[DanaC]

*blinks* har. took me a moment :P What I meant was they were little plastic sleeves with the pockets shaped as elephants, and they were pink. Pink elephants for going in the G&T.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Beestie

I freeze grapes and kumquats in the summer. Good snacks for cooling off.

And at least one bottle of vodka, rum or grain.

Cut a round hole in a watermelon and drain as much juice as you can. Replace the juice with vodka. Replace the cut patch for the hole, and freeze the melon.

No, *chomp* I haven't drunk a drop all day.

[busterb]

Poke the eyes out of a fresh cocunut , drain, fill with vodka, leave in fridge a few days.

[Aliantha]

I hadn't thought about doing fish cakes, so that's a good one that'll go down a treat here. In fact, I have some salmon in the freezer that I could use to do that with next week. (I know you can use canned and most do, but I don't have any canned fish. Just frozen fresh fish)

Thanks monster. I figured it was something like that.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by Tiki

It's homemade leftovers that suffer. Also I have this neurosis about leftovers; if I don't eat something when it's freshly made, it's not food. I can't bring myself to eat it. . . Completely ridiculous, and it leads to a lot of food going bad. I know it's related to OCD but I just can't see going on medication for something that trivial.

Ya shoulda had something happen to you like what happened to a maternal ancestor of mine. George Austin Corey of Massachusetts fought in the Civil War, got captured by the Confederates at Cold Harbor, I think, and did six months in Andersonville.

He survived, though down to skin and bone. Let's just say the experience thoroughly affected Grandpa Corey's attitude about leftovers. It's family lore that he never allowed food to be thrown out for the rest of his days: "Leave it there, I'll eat it for breakfast," he'd insist. And he would.

Originally Posted by Urbane Guerrilla

Ya shoulda had something happen to you like what happened to a maternal ancestor of mine. George Austin Corey of Massachusetts fought in the Civil War, got captured by the Confederates at Cold Harbor, I think, and did six months in Andersonville.

He survived, though down to skin and bone. Let's just say the experience thoroughly affected Grandpa Corey's attitude about leftovers. It's family lore that he never allowed food to be thrown out for the rest of his days: "Leave it there, I'll eat it for breakfast," he'd insist. And he would.

I actually wouldn't wish that experience on my worst enemy.

However, a fun fact; when I was young my mother left my teenage sisters behind and took me to another state to avoid custody issues with my father. She was an alcoholic, absent much of the time, and didn't do much to provide me with food; I went hungry a lot and as a result became quite underweight and malnourished. My body still shows the scars of malnutrition if you know what to look for, and I was very ashamed of them for a long time.

Needless to say, during that time I was completely happy to eat whatever I could get, including half-eaten leftovers from strangers' plates, which my mother would bring home sometimes after the bar closed at the restaurant where she worked. I also learned to garden and forage quite successfully, and sometimes weeks would go by when I ate only what I grew, picked, or fished for, or what the charity of neighbors provided. I'm far from a picky eater.

Now, I do pretty well and can feed myself and my kids, but I'm a little weird about food, which is at times exacerbated by my OCD.

[Pooka]

Originally Posted by busterb

Poke the eyes out of a fresh cocunut , drain, fill with vodka, leave in fridge a few days.

OR some Sailor Jerry RUM.... YUM...


I'm still in awe of the flat sheet method... I froze some demi glace last night with that method... lovin' it.