ZERO FOOD WASTE FREEZER HACKS TO SAVE MONEY NOW! FRUGAL LIVING!

foreign [Music] s to the channel Frugal Money Saver my name is Emmy my husband is Paul we're so happy you have joined us today we talk to you all the time about saving money on food we talk about buying those lost leaders when they're on sale those are those low priced items on the front of a flyer that draw you into the store we talk about zero food waste we talk about using up the food before it spoils and before it expires and today we're going to cover all those topics and show you how to use your freezer to accomplish a true zero food waste budget your freezer is running anyway and a well packed freezer definitely runs more efficiently so the more you put in the freezer the better off you're going to be and today we're going to show you how to prepare food for the freezer what can you freeze how do you freeze it what to do after it's frozen how to use these Foods we're going to start right away by getting into the kitchen and showing you a food that not many people know you can freeze and exactly how to freeze it to get the best results so we're going to turn this camera around and we're going to get into the kitchen to start the video first thing we're going to freeze today are some potatoes and yes you can absolutely freeze potatoes so the first thing we're going to do is peel them we prefer our potatoes peeled when we mash them and that's what we're freezing them for today if you're keeping the peel on just make sure you scrub them really well we just peeled and washed our potatoes and now we want to keep them all kind of the same size and some of them are a little smaller so we're going to cut some of the bigger ones in half they're all pretty uniform now while we were washing and peeling these we put a pot of water on to boil and I'm going to drop our potatoes carefully in we're just blanching them you cannot freeze potatoes raw they will turn black they have a very high water content and they'll discolor they'll lose their shape we're going to set the timer now for six minutes while they're cooking the last minute or so get an ice bath ready for them we covered them and we set the timer for six minutes so the timer just went off for six minutes it depends on the size of your potatoes how long you're going to blanch them for if they're little cubes then you know maybe you could do five minutes put them right in to the ice water bath carefully do this they're super hot and now we're going to let them cool in here completely so these cooled for about 10 minutes the ice is all melted and they're pretty cool to the touch I can touch them now what we need to do is dry them put them right on a nice clean cotton cloth let them dry you can Pat them dry as well with the clean cloth the potatoes are dried and now I'm just gonna freeze them put them right on a cookie sheet I'm using my baking mat but if you don't have a baking mat put them on a piece of parchment paper and now I'm going to stick this right in the freezer so here are our potatoes I just moved them around a little bit they are frozen solid notice they held the shape and there is no discoloration so we're going to take these I'm gonna put these in a freezer bag as well we're going to lay them flat just like this and you're going to be able to take out however many you need you can make mashed potatoes out of them you can make roasted potatoes out of these and these will last just about a month or so in the freezer so this is going right into the freezer and I'm going to show you what we're doing look at our potatoes can you hear that we have our pot of boiling water we're going to make some mashed potatoes you're going to want to carefully put them in because they're frozen and they will make a splash we're going to cover them bring them back to a boil and boil them for about 20 minutes so these cook for about 20 minutes remember they were frozen solid when they went in the boiling water so we're just going to mash them up now we're going to add some butter a pinch of salt and a splash of milk to taste and we're gonna go whip these up nice so here it is our frozen mashed potatoes I'm wondering that maybe before we blanch the potatoes you might want to cut them into quarters and then freeze them instead of whole like we did anyway they came out terrific they taste wonderful it's a great way to keep your potatoes fresh instead of letting them just grow in your closet I think Paul was a hundred percent right in saying I would cut those pieces just a little little while to cook and there was just a little bit of grain to them and I think if they had been cut a little bit smaller before we blanch them and then Frozen I think these would have been Top Notch they were perfect as is but I think this is a little bit better way to improve upon what we showed you now let's talk about other foods you can freeze there is a myriad of items we're going to turn this camera around and we're gonna get into the kitchen again and show you a bunch of other foods that you can freeze to save yourself a ton of money so let's flip this camera around when any kind of berry goes on sale like blackberries or blueberries what I do is just wash them dry them and then I lay them on a cookie sheet just like this you can see these are frozen solid this is such an important way to freeze like we showed you with the potatoes everything goes individual when you need some you take just what you need out of your bag or freezer safe container whereas if you would take a container of raspberries like these dump them into a bag they're going to all stick together this way you can pull out a handful of the frozen berries and just take what you need now we're just going to package these up in a freezer safe container I can't stress enough how freezing food individually will help so much this is my bag of citrus whenever Citrus goes on sale I buy them and I freeze them I lay them out just like I showed you with the berries and freeze them individually when I need a piece of citrus like lemon or limes I pull them out let them defrost in the refrigerator and they have a ton of juice left it works out perfectly this way and I just lay it flat like this any kind of chocolate chip if I've bought extra I just stick the package in the freezer they are individually Frozen now and they work perfectly this is frozen cranberries from the holidays I again freeze them individually on a cookie sheet look at them I can take out what I need for bread they're frozen solid perfect homemade applesauce I do it in individual portions once the applesauce is cooled you put it in a bag lay it flat again these all stack beautifully in your freezer to save lots of room you absolutely can freeze milk in its container when we go on vacation and there's a half a gallon of milk left you just take the container and we pop it in our freezer this way we come home we take it out put it in the refrigerator and we have milk for the next morning if you want to freeze like a gallon of milk if you buy it on sound you want to freeze it what you're going to want to do is take at least a cup of milk out and use it and then put the milk in the container in your freezer because milk will expand when it's frozen so it's best to do it that way but milk will defrost beautifully in the refrigerator just give it a little shake and it's ready to go I also keep frozen bananas they just break apart they're great Frozen in smoothies you can defrost them in the refrigerator and make banana bread so many options but when our bananas start to look like they need to be used up and we're not in the mood for a banana into this little bag don't be fooled by the color these are sweet super sweet matter of fact and ready to go you can freeze cheese and freeze it wonderfully if you have block cheese which we buy we just freeze it in portions like this now what is so great about freezing block cheese is it super crumbly when it comes out of the freezer you're going to put it in the refrigerator to defrost it and instead of shredding the cheese it's going to just crumble and it works perfectly just like shredded cheese so as you can see we have all different kinds we do date it and we put what kind it is blocks of mozzarella can be just Frozen just like this when you take it out you can grade it it will be a little bit drier and crumbly works wonderfully and you also can take the bags of pre-shredded cheese that you buy in the store if that's what you use just stick them in the freezer just like that cheese is another wonderful item that you can freeze and when it is on sale buy it and put it in the freezer you've made some delicious homemade whipped cream but you have way too much what do you do with it well you freeze it of course and I am using parchment paper now I am not using my cooking mat because whipped cream has such a delicate flavor I'm using a basic cookie scoop just take it put it right on the tray like that now if you want to get fancy you can pipe it out and that would be beautiful but I'm going to take the easy route and just do it this way the ingredients is just heavy cream and a little bit of powdered sugar that's how I make my whipped cream so now I'm going to just take these put them right into the freezer our little whipped cream puffs are Frozen please keep all kinds of containers for the freezer Deli containers food containers long as it's freezer safe you're fine and good to go they're perfectly Frozen just drop them in what are you going to do with these you're going to serve a cup of hot chocolate and you're going to put a dollop right on top how about some delicious specialty coffees a dollop on top it's a perfect way to keep leftover homemade whipped cream so that you can use it down the road remember our whole point of this video is to avoid food waste look at these you put that in a cup of hot chocolate anyone who gets that is going to be thrilled so we're going to cover these and put them back in the freezer for later use as you saw you can freeze a ton of dairy dairy is something that expires quickly and we don't want to waste it so putting it in our freezer is just a sure way that we can use it at a later date what about some other dairy products eggs absolutely you can freeze eggs what we do is we take a muffin tin and we break an egg in each individual non-stick muffin tin and we just give it a little mix just to mix the yolk with the white and then we stick them in the freezer and let them freeze we pop them out of the muffin tin put them in a freezer bag and they are perfect to use defrost how many you need in the refrigerator and then just scramble them like you would regular eggs or add them to a cake mix that's a great way to freeze eggs another question we get asked a lot is about soft cheeses like cream cheese now these can be frozen but it will change the texture so cream cheese you can freeze in the original package unopened sour cream you can freeze it but again it's going to separate become watery you're going to have to give it a good whip when you pull it out and it's best used in cooking at that point so you can freeze a lot of dairies for sure but the softer cheese sometimes the textures will change so now we're going to turn the camera around and we're going to show you even more freezer tips and hacks so let's get back into the kitchen we freeze our bacon in the original package because it just lays flat I know a lot of people when they come home from the store will separate the bacon in two and three slice packages and then freeze them that way just take out what they need and that works perfectly too one way to keep nuts fresh is to freeze them buy them when they go on sale I would advise taking them out of this container because this is big and bulky date them put them in a food safe bag and then just lay them flat this way you can take out nuts whenever you need them and they stay fresher longer when they're Frozen as I've told you before what we do when we get home from the supermarket is we open up bags of frozen vegetables that we have bought and we re-package them in our FoodSaver container those plastic bags that vegetables come in in the supermarket are not airtight you're going to get freezer burn and Ice build up all over those vegetables so I will link the video down below of how we food saver our vegetables pack them flat so they stack and you have fresh vegetables any time of the year and just so you know this is not freezer burn those are onions this is onions and carrots and broccoli and snow peas great medley for stir fry now let us show you how to freeze cooked rice I'm going to take it and put it on a tray to cool just spread this out let it cool for only about 10 minutes after the 10 minutes you're going to put it in the refrigerator to let it cool completely the rice is nice and cold it was in the refrigerator now what I'm going to do is take a Ziploc bag so we can lay it flat and I am just going to transfer this rice right into this bag I always lay it flat this way you can stack more get as much air as you can out there it is now it goes right into the freezer you can keep rice in the freezer just about a month and here we have the rice once it's frozen now all you do is if you don't want to use all this it breaks off and you can take what you need out put the rest away you can defrost it in the refrigerator what you need or you can even take it frozen like this and add it to soups add it to stews perfect it's done it's cooked it's ready to go I just want to show you this to show how we can look at a packaging like this and do it ourselves this was an Acme freebie you could get any Frozen spice that they had for free on our Saturday sampler look at what they did we could do this in small ice cube trays they literally crush the ginger and then put it in a little mold and they froze it and now I have got fresh ginger at my fingertips in just a small amount when I want to make a stir fry now what's great about looking at a package like this we look how they froze it it's Ginger water Citrus fibers and lemon concentrate and a great way to find out how to freeze something is check out the packages in the store and read them and see how these items are frozen and you can do it at home the same way and if you look it says keep frozen until ready to use so check the packages in a store what the ingredients are and how you can freeze it yourself remember as you're walking up and down the aisles in your frozen food section see what they're freezing like I just showed you read the boxes see how to reheat frozen food look at the ingredients see if you can make it simpler in your own home a few other things that you can definitely freeze is breads any kind of breads freeze beautifully if it's sliced bread just put the whole bag in the freezer take out what you need toast it up and it's ready to go butter butter in the original no package freezes beautifully take out what you need baked Good Cookies Cakes just wrap them well also don't forget about when you batch cook if you make a couple of trays of lasagna or maybe meatballs any kind of prepared food and then you reheat them in the oven perfect way again to have meals ready to go your freezer is your friend as I have said so many times we're looking again to save money on food food is so expensive right now so when you get into the store and you see those low priced items pick up extra when they're on sale prepare them for the freezer and then you have them and you don't have to pay high prices if you notice something is turning a little bit like our bananas stick them in the freezer right away please don't think that once food is truly spoiled by sticking it in the freezer you can eat it later no you never ever jeopardize your health with spoiled food that is food that needs to be thrown away but these tips are ways that you can avoid having your food spoil so we hope this was super helpful today's question of the day what do you freeze what do you consistently freeze and you know it freezes well please share that down below with us it will not only encourage us but it will encourage our viewers as well and we thank you so much we ask that you give this a big thumbs up we hope it was super encouraging and helpful to you we ask that you subscribe if you haven't come on in be part of our family we ask you to stay well we ask you to be safe and above all we wish you blessings until our next video may God greatly bless you

Channel: Frugal Money Saver

Views: 46,635

Keywords: Frugal Money Saver, Frugal Living, Budget Living, Save Money, debt free, budgeting, early retirment, Christian, Catholic, purposeful living, tightwad living, Recession, Homemaking, Christian homemaking, create a budget, Low Cost Food Haul, Inflation, FREEZER HACKS, financial goals, money saving tips and hints, contentment, food prep, zero food waste, inflation, grocery haul, Depression Era, Food Haul, Loss Leaders, money saving hacks, Inflation Fighting

Id: mzl6xLT2ftw

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023