Have you ever came across an awesome deal at the grocery store, but thought you wouldn’t be able to use the item before it expired? A lot of people pass up on rock bottom prices because of an expiration date or because the sale is on fresh produce. Next time you see one of these sales do not pass it up! Most foods you can store in the freezer, which can save you a lot of money! If you are new to stocking up on food and freezing it, don’t sweat it. Today’s post will get you ready to save and freeze.
How to Save Money By Freezing Food
Fruits and Vegetables
Whether you are stocking up on fruits and vegetables because of a great sale or from your garden, you will want to know how to freeze them. You will want to start off by blanching any vegetables. You do not need to blanch fruit. You will then want to lay out all your fruits and vegetables on a baking sheet and flash freeze. Once the produce is frozen you will want to store in an airtight bag, in the freezer. You can use your frozen produce in smoothies, for baking or in your day-to-day recipes.
Freezer Cooking
Selecting a day out of the month to do all your cooking for the whole month, will save you time and money. Freezer cooking is gaining in popularity because you literally spend one day doing all of the hard work. Once you have spent that day prepping, cooking and storing your meals you are set for the entire month. This means every single day of the month you have a meal already prepared. If you live a busy life I highly suggest looking into freezer cooking. Besides saving you time it also allows you to use up any great grocery deals you came across. {See My Freezer Cooking Day Experience}
Freezing Dairy Products
Dairy is one of the products we often pass up if it is expiring soon, no matter how great the sale is. Keep in mind that finding a great sale on dairy products or even coupons is hard to come by. When you do come across a great price on dairy items, I suggest stocking up and freezing.
Milk freezes very well, but remember to pour out a little before putting it in the freezer. This will allow room for expansion. Before you use the milk make sure it is has completely thawed out in the refrigerator and you have given it a good shake.
You can also freeze cheese but keep in mind that cheese can become crumbly once it has been frozen and de-thawed. However, if you are using the cheese in a recipe that will melt the cheese down you will not notice any crumbling.
Buttermilk is one of those things we buy when a recipe calls for it. Next time you buy buttermilk do not let it expire. Pour any left over buttermilk into ice-cube trays, let the buttermilk freeze all the way, then pop out the buttermilk ice cubes and freeze in an airtight bag.
Meat
Anytime you find a good deal on meat I highly suggest stocking up! Whether you find ground beef, chicken, pork, bacon, hot dogs or lunch meat – stock up! Coupons for meat are so hard to come by so we really do have to watch closely for store sales and meat that has been marked down for a clearance sale.
Make sure to prevent your meat from getting frost bite by freezing it in an airtight bag.
Check out these past Freezer Recipe Posts!