Five ways to make your freezer work for you….

You don’t need to have a big freezer to make your freezer work for you – trust me, I know this from experience!  With a little bit of organisation, the smallest of freezers can help make life easier for you.

Batch cooking

This is a great one, especially if you use your slow cooker a lot.  I regularly make extra portions when I’m cooking things like chilli, mince and bolognaise and I pop a family sized portion in the freezer ready for another time.  It means that I have a homemade ‘ready meal’ sat waiting in the freezer when I need it which is a godsend when I finish work at half two and rush around ferrying the kids around their various activities. I’m going to be sharing some lots of batch cooking ideas with you over the next few months but for now, here’s my latest Pinterest board dedicated to it….

Follow Cass bailey’s board Batch Cooking – Recipes and Tips on Pinterest.

Make use of it to save your leftovers – even just the odd portion

I also store leftovers in 1 person portions (unless it’s family sized) so if I just have one of us to feed due to shifts or after school clubs then I can just grab one portion.

Make up veggie bags in advance

As you probably know, I’m a lover of frozen veg and ready chopped onion and almost always add them to any stews or casseroles I make in the slow cooker.  To make things even quicker for me on a morning when I’m usually rushing to get the kids and me ready as well as get the slow cooker on, I always have some bags in the freezer that are made up of a family sized portion of frozen veg and onion and have an Oxo or two already crumbled in to them.  I’m planning on taking this one step further soon by adding the meat to the bag as well but I need something better than sandwich bags for this I think.

Cooks sauces ahead of time

I often made  a huge batch of homemade tomato sauce and freeze that in individual portions as that goes with lots of things to make a meal – it’s a great pasta sauce on it’s own, add tuna and you’ve got tuna pasta bake, pour over chicken and top with cheese, even as a pizza topping.  I also make macaroni cheese sauce ahead of time and freeze in portions.

 Fill it with bargains

I often buy food that’s been reduced at the end of the day at our local supermarket and pop it straight in the freezer for when we’re ready to use it.

Check it before you do your meal plan

Always check your freezer before you write  your meal plan so you can base your meal plan on what’s in there rather than buying food in that you don’t need. No point buying all those reduced bargains if you don’t use them.

So, if you’re clever you can have a freezer filled with bargains to make your meal planning cheaper and be organised enough to save you time every day.

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