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The Great Freezer Expedition
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Take the Great Freezer Expedition, uncover myths and tips to discover ways to make you a freezer expert.
What's the value of the food in your freezer?
Did you know there's £860 million worth of good food sitting in all of our freezers?
So make one night a week eat from the freezer night – make a meal out of the foods you have in the freezer. This will save you time and money and another trip to the shops!
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
Buying large quantities of meat or fish can often be economical, just divide up the big packs into smaller portions and freeze.
Unidentified Frozen Objects!
1 in 3 of us find forgotten foods or unidentified frozen objects in our freezers, (foods which are in our freezers and we have no idea what they are!) So next time you put containers or bags in your freezer, label them with its contents and the date you put it in there.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
There are lots of ways to save space in your freezer. Use the smallest possible containers, freeze liquids in bags (freeze them flat first) and remove any unnecessary packaging (cut out cooking instructions).
How long can you survive from the food in your freezer?
Get familiar with what's in your freezer... did you know the average freezer contains enough food to feed you for 11 days? Even though we claim to know what's in our freezers, a third of us are still finding foods in them we didn't know we had or can't identify! So take a look in your freezer and see how many meals you can make.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
Keep a freezer list - note down items as you put them in the freezer and cross them off as you take them out.
You can re-freeze meat?
Did you know that if you defrost raw meat and then cook it thoroughly, you can freeze it again? Just take care to defrost thoroughly and re-heat until piping hot. 64% of us are expecting to have leftovers this Christmas but didn't know we can freeze them. So once you have cooked your frozen Christmas turkey, freeze the leftovers to have in the New Year.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
For a quick supper, cut raw meat into thin strips or chunks before freezing, it will defrost in no time and is great for stir-frys and curries.
You can freeze on the use-by date?
You can eat or freeze foods right up to the end of the use-by date. So keep an eye on the foods in your fridge, and check whether fresh foods can be frozen when shopping. Place any foods which you won't get round to eating in time in the freezer to use later.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
If you find yourself with too much milk, or are going on holiday, freeze it and defrost when needed.
Most foods can be frozen?
There are so many foods which you can freeze, here's a few of our favourites...
- Hard Cheese – grate before freezing, then use from frozen on pasta bakes and cheese on toast
- Potatoes – parboil and freeze potatoes before roasting, freeze for up to one month and cook from frozen to save you time
- Cakes – freeze leftover slices of cake, defrost for a tasty treat at lunchtime
- Tomatoes –freeze any soft ones whole and add straight from the freezer to pasta sauces
Take a look at the Arctic Aunts myth busting freezer tips
Freezer essentials
Keeping your freezer stocked with essentials will mean you'll always have something at hand to transform foods that need using up into a tasty meal.
Our freezer essentials will give you lots of ideas.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
Organise your freezer into sections such as Bread, Meat and Fish, Veg, Ready Meals and Desserts. Label the draws so you can quickly find something when you need it.
Double up and freeze for later
When cooking double up on family favourites such as lasagne, Bolognese sauce and curries. Eat one for dinner and freeze one for later, this will save you time when you are busy.
For inspiration take a look at our great for freezing recipes.
Arctic Aunt's Top Tip
Take foods out of the freezer the night before you're going to use them and place in the fridge to defrost. They'll defrost gradually and keep cool until you are ready to cook.
