Friday, March 23, 2012

Tips For Freezing Leftovers

Leftover foods can easily be reinvented into a whole new meal. Your family will never guess they are eating food prepared yesterday or even days before if you get into the habit of freezing leftovers. It's such a waste to throw the food away. More often than not, when leftover food is stored in the fridge it gets forgotten and eventually it is tossed out. The trick is to freeze the leftovers and then use them to prepare a different meal altogether. Keep this in mind when you are cooking and have a plan for those leftovers.

One great example is having a roast chicken for a weekend meal. Shred the leftover chicken and freeze it in ziplock bags. Be sure to squeeze the air out of the bags for best results. You can use the frozen chicken during the week for a stir-fry or a chicken salad.

Another idea is when you are preparing chili, fry up a large batch of ground beef and onions and combine it with a can of tomato puree. Freeze it in meal-sized portions and when you defrost it add your choice of seasonings and heat it up for an instant meat filling for tacos or the beginnings of a beef noodle casserole!

Roast beef dinners provide another opportunity for freezing leftovers. Chop up any leftover roast and freeze it. It can later be turned into barbeque beef (just defrost the meat and add some bottled barbeque sauce and simmer). Other ideas include filling for fajitas, or a quick beef stroganoff. Having frozen meat prepared ahead of time cuts down your cooking and preparation time significantly.

Leftover vegetables are great for freezing too. You can keep a container in your freezer just for this purpose. Just put any leftover veggies the container and when it's full you have the beginnings of a vegetable soup! Just use canned broth to make it super quick.

Next time you finish a meal take a second look at your leftovers. There are many more meals that can be prepared with your them. Even though you'll still be doing some cooking, it's generally much less, and quicker, if you start with cooked meat or vegetables from the freezer. You can reuse your leftovers to create new meals and save substantial time and money. Having homecooked foods frozen and ready to reheat is much healthier than the frozen store bought variety. Keep this in mind after your next meal and don't toss out that food, freeze it!

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