Hi I'm Sharla with Freezer Meals 101. One of the questions that I get a lot is what freezes and
what doesn't um and how do I know what to do with some of these ingredients, so I have created this
super handy cheat sheet for you guys and also this is free so if you click down in the description
below the video you'll be able to get a link to grab your own cheat sheet for this print this
off and then you'll never have to wonder again what freezes and how to freeze it and all that
kind of stuff, so this is a great handy guide and you can get yours but I'm just gonna quickly
walk through this with you now I laminated mine because I referenced them pretty often but
if you don't want to do that just print yours out and have them print them again and again whatever
uh so what freezes butter and margarine yes now milk in a jug you can
freeze your milk in a jug you just want to pour like a quarter cup half a cup out
so that it doesn't expand too much and explode because that would be very bad for everyone
and then you can just go ahead and freeze that sucker so if you find a really good sale on milk
or whatever there you go now milk in a freezer meal recipe interestingly enough this does not
freeze very well get all kinds of texture issues and we have never had good success with this so
what we suggest is that you use evaporated milk instead you can also use heavy cream or sour cream
lots of dairy freezes beautifully but milk in the recipe for most recipes actually it will ruin it
once you saw it and try to make it so we suggest that you use evaporated milk in in its place just
substitute it right out same amounts and whatever recipes you've got that use milk if you do that
you can make them suitable for freezer cooking, so that's kind of handy to know um sour cream it does
change texture when it's frozen but it holds up really well in cooking or in baking, so if it's
actually in the recipe then there's no problem we use it in actually quite a few of our recipes and
our ground beef stroganoff which is one of our favorites um does have sour cream right in there
and no problems now yogurt changes texture quite a bit when it's frozen but it is fine for using in
smoothies so if you've got yogurt and it's getting ready to expire then what you do is you can freeze
it you can freeze it as is but what I like to do is freeze it in an ice cube tray because then I
can pop those all out and put them in a freezer bag and then you make sure that you take all the
air out of the freezer bag that you can before freezing it but then you can just take out as
many cubes as you want to put in your smoothie and it works super super well and i never have yogurt
that goes bad on me because I can always just pop it in the freezer before that expiry date, so
uh cheese you want to shred it first then it freezes now when we shred cheese to use it
in our meals and we shred large amounts we add a tiny little bit of cornstarch so that it doesn't
clump together I'm going to put a link right up here so that you can see exactly how we shred
large amounts of cheese when we're going to be doing it for freezer meal prep
and either way as long as you shred your cheese it does freeze now cream cheese changes texture when
it's frozen but when it is mixed into a recipe it is fine actually it's delicious we use it in
our buffalo chicken dip that we freeze um we use it in a couple of really lovely pastas like that
nice rich pasta sauce anyway um so that works in a recipe but not on its own cottage cheese also
freezes well within a recipe so if you've got a lasagna or uh those really amazing like sausage
stuffed shells with the cottage cheese freezes nicely um custards don't freeze well that is our
dairy section now for eggs and meat uh eggs will freeze raw if they're taken out of the shell first
and mixed with a bit of salt cooked eggs do freeze when they're scrambled but you don't want you
don't want to freeze hard-boiled eggs because those get rubbery and even your scrambled eggs
like I prefer to have it in something so I find it's okay and the texture holds up if it's in a
um like a breakfast burrito or something like that or breakfast quesadillas we do a fair bit and that
holds up well the other thing that we do for eggs is we have an amazing scrambled egg bites recipe
and those are just like those um you know the coffee chain I don't know if I'm allowed to say
the name of coffee chains on here but anyway that very famous coffee chain where you can go through
their drive-through and get egg bites well with these scrambled egg bites you can make your own
and you can microwave them on a paper towel in the morning before you get going somewhere and it's
pretty awesome because you can put whatever you want in there you can make them totally to your
liking and they work really well and a fraction of the price of course of those drive-through ones so
that's my thoughts on eggs okay for ground meats you want to package and seal them really well
to prevent freezer burn and of course again with absolutely everything you need to make sure that
there isn't as little air or no air because air really causes that freezer burn so that is
across the board with absolutely everything here you want to be really careful about the air
chicken again you want to package and seal it well to prevent freezer burn pork exact
same thing seafood same thing luncheon meats same thing did you know you could freeze lunch and meat
now there's another idea to save you some money for when you've got something that's getting
close to the expiry date or if you know schools get cancelled for a better whatever and you're
not needing to use them for a while you can just go ahead and package them in more than just the
the original packaging so you'd want to put them like in a resealable freezer bag get all the air
out and put them in your freezer but you can save them that way now any kind of citrus fruit
like well not any kind but uh melons lemons melons is not citrus sorry
but citrus like lemons limes and grapefruit and melons don't freeze well so you want to avoid that
now lemon juice and lime juice within a recipe freeze beautifully but the actual fruit itself
don't do that uh now all fruit juices freeze well and like I said with the lemon and lime
that's included in there now oranges don't freeze well, so they are like that other citrus but
the orange sections do freeze well within a recipe so we have a few recipes that call for
the mandarin orange sections and that works out just fine grapes um they can only be frozen if
you're planning to eat them frozen and I freeze grapes all the time I'll put a link here to one
of my freezer snack recipes where I show you how I freeze grapes for my kids to eat as snacks and
they love them but again you don't want to like grapes that are frozen and then sod yuck grapes
that are frozen and you eat them frozen amazing okay apples and pears you want to core peel and
slice them then place some lemon juice with them in a resealable freezer bag and that will keep
them from browning and then you can use them in baking now they're not going to have the right
texture if you're just wanting to like crunch down on an apple for that you just want to eat
your fresh apples peaches you're gonna peel pit and slice them and then place them in a resealable
freezer bag for baking for use in baking berries freeze really well I've got a video again I'll put
the link right there um that video is on freezing saskatoons which are my favorite berry but that
works that exact method works for freezing blueberries raspberries um strawberries whatever
whatever kind of berry you want to use you want to use that method and they freeze beautifully
now cucumbers lettuce sprouts and radishes do not freeze ever ever don't try any way shape or form
do not not in a recipe not out of a recipe not ever this is a bad idea so stay away from those
uh celery peppers and onions they don't freeze well on their own but they freeze beautifully
within a recipe and we use those all the time in recipes mushrooms you can saute them first
before freezing them on their own now if it's mushrooms within a recipe you can put them in
raw and they will work when you're reheating and all the things so mushrooms are are in general
pretty good but you don't want to take like a mushroom and freeze it by itself now potatoes
this is tricky because some people they still try to freeze the potatoes and um in my experience
our recommendation here at Freezer Meals 101 is that the only time you want to freeze potatoes
is when it's something that is already frozen or already cooked so frozen hash browns and tater
tots we use them all the time in our freezer meal recipes they're versatile and you'll
never have a problem now um as far as cooked potatoes go we do freeze mashed potatoes so
and you can also freeze mashed potatoes in something like a shepherd's pie or we've done like
a turkey casserole that has the mashed potatoes on top so you can freeze potatoes when they're cooked
but if you want to freeze potatoes raw you're going to end up with with issues they
they go brown the texture is because it's bad it's bad I know people do it but
then they wonder why the recipe failed so our recommendation is to never use potatoes unless
they're already frozen or cooked now with herbs you can now I have my beautiful herb garden,
so I grow my own herbs I love having the fresh herbs but if sometimes they get a little high
and I haven't used them, so then if I want to freeze them you can freeze them in an ice cube
tray with a little bit of water then once they're frozen you can take them out and just like you
did with the yogurt cubes you want to put them in their own resealable bag and leave that in
the freezer now with nuts those seal well in a resealable freezer bag okay now for baking items
baking chips like chocolate chips butterscotch chips you know all those things those seal well
in a resealable freezer bag it's a great way to keep them fresh like if you are one of those
people that only bakes at christmas time uh and then you're you didn't get quite as much baking
done as you thought you would and you know you're not gonna bake again for another year
this is a great way to keep those fresh is put them in your freezer and you don't have to think
about them again until the next time the holidays roll around now um bread freezes well but again
you want to make sure that it's sealed really well um loaves like banana loaf zucchini loaf
those kind of things those freeze really well with buns you want to put them in plastic wrap
before you put them in the freezer again to prevent freezer burn or you can do them in
plastic wrap and then in a freezer bag like you want to seal them really really well
cookies and brownies again just as long as you package them well those are going to feel great
I always do my holiday baking ahead and then put them in either plastic containers but I
layer parchment paper or wax paper in between the layers and make sure that I fill them pretty high
so there's not a lot of air in there or I do them in resealable freezer bags and get all the air
out now with cookie dough you want to place your cookie dough balls on a cookie sheet freeze that
and once it's completely frozen you transfer the balls into a large resealable freezer bag
put that in the freezer and this means you will have cookies ready to bake fresh
and you get that awesome smell of cookies baking in your house and all of those
things so when it's not holiday the holiday time I prefer actually to have cookie dough
rather than cookies in my freezer that way if you get unexpected guests you can easily just
you know it looks pretty impressive that you can like freshly bake cookies at the drop of a hat,
so I always have cookie dough balls in my freezer usually just like an oatmeal chocolate chip for me
something pretty standard but I always have a few bags in there ready to go pizza dough freezes well
again with all of these it's all about how you seal them pie dough same thing freeze as well
now waffles and pancakes you want to place them on a cookie sheet until they're frozen and then
transfer them to the bag this is to prevent them from sticking together and it is key we do this
all the time we also do this with french toast again we just lay it on in a single layer on the
cookie sheet and then when we go to make it or sorry and then we transfer it to the freezer bag
and then when we go to make it then we just take out as many as we need for us for waffles pancakes
and french toast we like to heat them in the toaster or if you have a toaster oven that works
really well we like them to have like that you know crunch on the outside if you don't mind them
being a little bit soggy then you can heat them in the microwave but we really like the texture
of heating them in the toaster waffles pancakes and muffin batter freezes well muffins freeze well
I have a video I will put it there on freezing muffins now of course it's not rocket science
you bake your muffins you put them in the freezer bag but the video shows a method where you can
freeze the muffins before they're baked and then bake them up fresh again, so that you get
like that smell through your house and so that you can have fresher muffins um then we've got
pasta now if you want to freeze dry pasta that's totally fine and we do that sometimes
we attach the we measure out the exact amount of pasta that we're going to need
for to add into a recipe like let's say we've got a minestrone soup or something we want to be able
to add those tiny little pasta shells on and so we put that in a medium freezer bag just the like
uncooked pasta shells and then we staple that to the soup bag that is all made and ready to
go because that way on the day of cooking we know that we're not going to have to run to the store
we have all the ingredients right there we can just you know obviously remove the staples first
and then when the soup is almost cooked we can add in the noodles it can finish cooking they're
already measured it's a lot less work so we do that with a lot of our recipes is measure that out
and freeze them like that if you want to freeze cooked pasta we do that within some of our recipes
but you want to cook the pasta to just a little bit under al dente because when you reheat
that meal the pasta is going to cook a little bit more and you don't want mushy pasta so the trick
to not end up with mushy pasta when your freezer cooking is to cook it to just below aldante
slightly undercooked okay now rice again you can cook it to slightly undercooked
rice freezes great even on its own like if you have leftover rice from a dinner that you've made
you can put it in a freezer bag freeze it and then the next time that you need a side of rice
you've got it already made I know rice is pretty easy to cook up you know fresh but if you ever
have leftovers or whatever that's a nice thing to know and as far as like within recipes we do it
all the time we we cook rice and then you've got your cooked chicken or cooked beef or whatever
and then it's everything is already cooked and all it needs to be done is reheating so we've
got quite a few recipes that are like that and they're so handy so rice works well um broths
and soups freeze well so sauces the general rule is that they freeze well but
if you've made a sauce that has a thickener in it like flour or cornstarch that will separate
when you thaw it so what we always do for our Freezer Meals is if the recipe calls for
you know cornstarch or flour to be added to the sauce towards the end of cooking or whatever
we just make a note on the bag to add that so that on the day of cooking we add it in
we never do it before and put it in the freezer because we don't want our sauces to separate
so that is our little sauce sauce freezing trick okay that was just a really quick rundown
but like I said you can get this cheat sheet for yourself so that you never have to second
guess what freezes and what doesn't um I will put the link down in the description box below
and you can find that if you are looking for freezer recipes that are awesome and amazing
and that you will love be sure to subscribe to us here and check out our other videos
I will put a link right there to a video of 150 Freezer Meals that my neighbor Christie
and I made and you can see how much variety and how much you can do with freezer cooking thank
you so much for joining me today for this quick little tips and tutorials thing and happy cooking.