Ideas to use your freezer to conserve food…
If you’re a bit like me, the vegetable bins in the fridge have been renamed the ‘rotter drawers’. Can’t really deny it. Things that go in those drawers are out of sight and out of mind. I’ve pretty much solved that problem by putting only things that keep well in the drawers — like cheese and pepperoni and other hearty survivors. The veggies? Well they now go on the shelves where I can see them.
But the things that get moved to the back of the bottom two shelves still have a tendency to rot. I’ve got a bad back and to really get into those shelves I need to drag a chair out to the kitchen and sit to look. We intend to solve that issue with a ‘freezer on the bottom’ fridge but that’s going to be a bit down the lists of things to do for the house because the current one (which came with the house) works fine except for my inability to bend over and dig into the hidden areas. So, wait I must, until we get some other needed issues taken care of.
But, I always thought that I used the freezer fairly well. I mean a bit of freezer burn here and there and a series of compensatory cooking to take care of it and not lose food — so, I thought I was doing good. But then I saw this article in the NY Times, “The Minimalist: Freeze that Thought” (free to read but you must make an account and login). This article had lots of ideas on how to use the freezer more efficiently to save leftovers or overabundances, to plan ahead for later meals, and how to avoid freezer burn.
My freezer is tiny so I won’t be able to do much with these ideas just now (waiting for the dream fridge) but some of them will be applicable immediately. I hope that some of you reading this blog will find these ideas helpful. Or if you have other ideas for economical and efficient use of freezers (particularly small ones) feel free to leave a comment.