I wanted to share some of the basic goodies that I like to keep on hand in my freezer with all of you, as part of The Well Stocked Freezer series.
Broth
Whenever we have a whole chicken for dinner, I cook broth in my crockpot overnight. The next day, I either use it in a pot of soup (or for drinking!) or I freeze it. I pour it into wide mouth glass canning jars, only about 2/3 full. I first refrigerate it for a while, so that it cools down (and so that the jar does not break), and then I stick it in the freezer. Some handy tools for freezing broth are: a funnel and a strainer. After emptying my crockpot of all of the broth, I add more water to the pot and keep it going another night. I repeat this process again the next day, so that I get about 3 days worth of broth out of 1 dinner.
Minced Garlic
I peel garlic and mince it in my food processor. Then I put it in ice cube trays with a little olive oil or water and freeze. I pop these out into a big plastic bag and keep them handy in the freezer for cooking with!
Chopped Onions
I also chop onions finely and freeze them in glass jars or plastic bags. My family especially loves sweet onions, but they have a very short season and they are not “keeper” onions. I freeze them when they’re in season and we have them all year! (Note: sweet onions are one of the foods that got me through my sugar cravings when we were new to GAPS! Sweet onions, carrots and apples!).
Shredded Cheese
I buy raw cheddar cheese in 5 lb blocks through Azure Standard. Most of the recipes I use cheese in call for shredded cheese. I refuse to buy pre-shredded cheese from the grocery store, because it contains ingredients that don’t need to be in cheese (like sawdust and potato starch!). Instead, I make my own baggies of shredded cheese! I use the shredding attachment on my food processor and I freeze 1-2 cups of cheese in quart sized plastic bags.
Sliced Cheese
I like sliced provolone cheese on burgers and on some turkey sandwiches that we make (on coconut flour bread, of course!). There are large, inexpensive packs of sliced provolone at a local restaurant supply store, but we cannot go through that much sliced cheese before it molds. I buy those packs of sliced cheese and freeze 6 to 8 slices together in small plastic bags. I pull out a bag the night before I want to use it and pop it into the fridge. This way, I spend less on provolone (if I bought small packs every time I was going to use it, I’d spend a fortune!).
Next time, I’ll be sharing about how to freeze veggies!
What staples do you keep in your freezer?
