Help me learn to freeze (adult) food

[babymama]

Feeling time crunched and can't make dinner every night. So I want to freeze both actual full meals and/or ingredients so they're ready to go into meals and cooking goes faster. I'm clueless when it comes to freezing and defrosting.

What things can you think of that I shouldn't freeze (don't freeze well)? What things freeze well, and can you give me instructions on defrosting.

Here are some recent experiences and things I wonder if I can freeze...

I peeled and chopped up lots of potatoes one day. Made 1/2 and froe the other 1/2. Problem: they turned brown when I defrosted them. What did I do wrong? I put them in the frig to defrost. What should I have done different.

I did have 2 good experiences, though. I made a batch of waffles one Sunday and froze them, so I had homeade toaster waffles (ala Eggos) for a week! Also bought a ton of bagels at costco and sliced them and froze them - so convenient and I didn't have to worry about them going bad.

Examples of things I am considering freezing for recipes:
chopped raw onions? (so I can drop them into dishes as I need them)
plain lentils? (RASHMI!!! Help. Is this possible?)
raw zucchini?
fresh basil? (I have way too much in my garden)
cucumbers? (another garden item)

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks for any input you can offer.

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03
http://lilypie.com/baby1/041116/0/6/1/-6/.png

[brigmaman]

I'm glad you asked this question. I keep meaning to find out how to freeze. I'm interested in freezing meat as well as whole meals. I'd like to have a few meals frozen when I have the baby.

[pritchettzoo]

Chopped raw onions, yes--in fact, you can purchase them that way. It makes them milder and mushier when they thaw, but still okay.
Fresh basil--yes, chop it (julienned or however) and put it by whatever measure you want in ice cube trays; top with water and freeze. The small amount of water in the cube won't affect your dish later. You can also dry it if you have a dehydrator, or check for an Alton Brown Good Eats episode where he does it with a box fan, air filters, and a bungee cord.
I don't think cucumbers would be good. You can can them though (pickles!).
Potatoes brown because of oxidation. You can add Fruit Fresh or whatnot to them (in a water bath maybe?) and it might cut down on browning.

This website is the National Center for Home Food Preservation, run by an extension service at UGA. It has lots of instructions, how tos, etc.: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

These websites are ones I've bookmarked on freezer cooking:
http://snider.mardox.com/plans.htm
http://geocities.com/decemberbabies2002/Recipes.html
http://pages.ivillage.com/cl-fancy_nancy/makeaheadmeals/index.html

HTH!

Anna

[s_gosney]

There is a ton of info out there with lots of recipes or ideas for what freezes well, so you can adapt your own meals. There's a line of books called Frozen Assets and they also have a yahoo group under that name. You could google "Once a month cooking" and you should get some good hits.
HTH!

[Saartje]

Potatoes don't freeze well, in general; they tend to become mushy, or to absorb any liquid they're packaged with. If you cook a dish with potatoes and freeze it, only cook it 2/3 done before freezing and finish cooking it after it thaws.

Vegetables cannot be frozen raw; freezing slows but does not stop the enzymes that cause vegetables to first ripen and then go bad. If you want to preserve your zucchini or other veggies in your freezer, you'll have to blanch it first (lightly cook it to kill the enzymes -- look up instructions). After that, you can take it out of the freezer and use it in cooking pretty much as if it were raw.

Baked goods, as you've already discovered, are easy to freeze. :) I also freeze bread, since the kind we buy has no preservatives; 50 seconds in my microwave on power 40 is perfect for thawing 1-2 slices of bread.

Cooked beans (such as lentils) can be frozen, as can cooked rice. You can freeze the beans in a broth, or drain them. You'll want to flash freeze rice or drained beans -- this refers to spreading a food out on a cookie sheet and freezing it before you package it. Flash freezing keeps foods from sticking together (which makes it more difficult to defrost, and means you have to use the whole portion at once instead of just taking out the portion you need). I also suggest freezing rice in one-cup portions (in muffin tins); this makes it very easy to take out the one cup you need for a recipe. (If you're using the rice in a soup, you don't even have to thaw it first -- just drop it in the broth.) [NOTE: Do NOT forget to transfer the flash-frozen foods from your baking sheets to a proper freezer container!]

Flash freezing is also useful for meats. Never freeze meats in the cellophane-wrapped styrofoam containers they come in at the store; this is a quick route to freezer burn.

Cucumbers probably won't freeze well due to their high water content. Tomatoes have a high water content as well, but they work well after freezing for use in anything that will be cooked (soups, casseroles, and the like) -- just don't try to eat a thawed tomato raw.

Pasta should be treated much like potatoes -- if you cook a soup with noodles in it, don't let the noodles get done before freezing, or they'll absorb all the broth. Either freeze when the pasta is 2/3 cooked, or wait until you thaw the soup to add noodles just to that portion and cook the noodles while the soup heats.

Always use containers that are specifically safe for use in freezers. Others may be cheaper, but they'll cost you money in ruined food. Ziploc freezer bags are wonderful, IMO; you can freeze almost anything in them, and it's much cheaper than buying an assortment of Tupperware-type containers.

Can you tell I do this a lot? ;) If there's any other information you'd like on this topic, let me know -- I can even give some advice on choosing a stand-alone freezer. For now, hope this helps.

[babymama]

Thanks for all these resources and for your really helpful info!
Will clear out some freezer space tomorrow! Thanks for helping me ease into the wonderful world of freezing.

Yay!

Lydia
Mama to Santiago, born 11/16/03
http://lilypie.com/baby1/041116/0/6/1/-6/.png

[jubilee]

<<<check for an Alton Brown Good Eats episode where he does it with a box fan, air filters, and a bungee cord.>>>

What?! That sounds like McGyver. I like Alton Brown, but he is over the top sometimes!

[urquie]

i would love some advice on choosing a stand alone freezer. i'm in the market for a new one and consumer reports hasn't rated them for over two years! do you have any brands or models you would recommend?