Help with Freezing & Refridgerating Leftovers?

[Candiceena]

Hi everyone,

I'm a single-person household and have recently been getting into cooking more of my meals from scratch.

I've been using some "cooking for one" cookbooks although I must admit they are not the MOST healthy food options although they are better than processed/fast foods.

I'd like to start cooking even healthier choices but I find most cookbooks offer meals for 4+.

How do you handle this? I know I could just quarter the recipes but I personally don't mind eating the same thing for 3-4 days in a row. Leftovers don't bother me. Plus this option seems more economical and more time-saving.

Specifically I'm thinking of cooking more meat & veggies based foods with less grains/sugars. I have a bunch of paleo cookbooks (both Well Feds, 21DSD, all the Primal Blueprint cookbooks) and I also have 2 Williams Sonoma cookbooks - Cooking From the Farmers Market and Weeknight Fresh & Fast. Both of these have tons of recipes that are grain/added-sugar free.

Any tips? What does and does not freeze? How about just refridgerating leftovers? What do you put the food in to freeze it?

 

[maddiesmum]

Candice:

I only ever cook in bulk. I cook about 5 dishes once every two weeks, and everything goes in the fridge so people can microwave themselves a portion and have lunch and dinner when they want without bothering me. It stops me being a slave to my kitchen.

Most foods keep this whole time in the fridge, no trouble. We are vegetarian, so nothing I cook contain meat. I do cook salmon frequently, and keep it in a tupperware and it is gone but stays fresh for about 4 days. I cool the fish as soon as possible after buying it.

I cooks all foods in their dishes and they go in the fridge in the dish. After a couple of days, as quantities start to diminish, I move the remains to tupperware to help stop foods from drying out and to maximize space.

Rarely does any dish I make go off and have to be thrown away.

I also coon in bulk, once per month, making 3 large casserole dishes / pans full of different stews and sauces. As soon as they are cooled after cooking, I transfer quantities into freezer bags and freeze. It will take us a couple of months to get through these sauces which I defrost simply by taking a bag out of the freezer and letting it defrost naturally in the kitchen temps in a large pan. I then decant to a tupperware and place in the fridge.

I recommend you cook the dishes that interest you and do as I do: keep one portion for immediate eating, place another in a tupperware for eating later in the week, place the rest in freezer bags and freeze as soon as cool.

Most meats and fish will still keep just fine in the freezer for up to 6 months I believe. Fruit keeps for about a year.

Most things freeze very well, except some fruits with high water content, i.e., tomatoes, strawberries too, I think. When these defrost, they lose their organic structure and turn to mush. However, cooked tomatoes freeze and defrost just fine.

Anything else I can tell you?

If you go to your supermarket, look for the aisle that sells cling film, foil, freezer bags, etc. That's where you'll find containers you can buy to store food in your fridge. Glad makes loads of them. They are intended to be disposable, but since they are long-lasting plastic, I disagree that they are disposable. I use mine for about a year, washing them constantly, until they suffer from wear and tear and have to be recycled. They have these containers in ALL SIZES, truly, so you can store one portion sizes of your dinners, or the whole lot, for eating later in the week.

By cooking and eating in this fashion, we have banished the concept of "leftovers" in this house: we eat nothing but leftovers, so the term has no meaning anymore!!!!

Clare

 

[desertambrosia]

My husband and I are empty nesters now. My husband travels quite a bit for work, so I am alone with the dogs often. I spend Sunday afternoon cooking for the week. I have a Food Saver sealer. Everything I cook is sealed in bags and placed in the freezer. The bags can be dropped in water, or opened and placed in the microwave or oven to heat. Saves so much time for me. I work ten hour days. After ten hours, the last thing I want to do is cook. Besides cooking cuts into your workout time, right?

 

[Candiceena]

Thanks for the tips ladies!

I am going to look into a food saver and also the tupper ware/glad ware. I will report back on how it goes. I really like the idea of cooking multiple meals at once. I had never thought of doing that!!

 

[maddiesmum]

Candice:

one of the reasons I cook multiple dishes at once is because being in the kitchen (any housework at all really) is brain death for me.

So, I do it all on one day, takes about 6 hours, but I listen to a fabulous book on CD while I'm doing it and the time flies and my brain is entertained and it gets the job done. So I keep up with my reading while I fill the fridge. Check!

Clare

 

[BeFitIn2012]

I am single, but I cook a lot. Almost weekly, I will put a whole chicken in a crockpot with salt, pepper, rosemary and onion at the bottom. I place the chicken on the onion and cook it over night. In the morning I remove the chicken, let it cool and take the meat off and put it in its own container. I also strain the broth to be used for soup, liquid for rice or pasta. If I don't use the broth then I will put it in a baggie and freeze to use another time. The broth normally will get used within two weeks so no worry about freezer burn.

I will use this meat for sandwiches, small pot of soup (use some of the broth), salads, etc. If I cook another meat source then I will freeze the chicken I know I will not eat early on-meaning early in the week. I put it in a quart size plastic baggie for less air and place in a larger baggie.

Chicken, meatloaf, soup, meat sauce all freeze well. I've not frozen egg dishes.

Cookbooks are good for getting ideas. Also look at youtube. I've found so many helpful ideas on there.

 

[melagras]

Almost weekly, I will put a whole chicken in a crockpot with salt, pepper, rosemary and onion at the bottom. I place the chicken on the onion and cook it over night. In the morning I remove the chicken, let it cool and take the meat off and put it in its own container. I also strain the broth to be used for soup, liquid for rice or pasta. If I don't use the broth then I will put it in a baggie and freeze to use another time. The broth normally will get used within two weeks so no worry about freezer burn.

I will use this meat for sandwiches, small pot of soup (use some of the broth), salads, etc. If I cook another meat source then I will freeze the chicken I know I will not eat early on-meaning early in the week. I put it in a quart size plastic baggie for less air and place in a larger baggie.

Great idea to cook the chicken in the crockpot and use for sandwiches. I don't like eating deli chicken and turkey (way too much sodium).

 

[BeFitIn2012]

Thanks! And it tastes better too.