Optimising the freezer

Half the time our freezer is filled with cakes in various stages of preparation for a forthcoming Twilight fundraiser. I just did a quick inventory which revealed that at the moment not even a quarter of the tall, five-drawer appliance is in use. The contents comprised a princely total of one not-yet-assembled Victoria sponge cake, two half eaten boxes of supermarket ice-cream, half a bag of petit pois, two small bags of chillies from the potager, one burger bun, two containers of carrot and coriander soup, some ancient gluten-free bread, and a stick of parsley butter of indeterminate age.

A recent touch of a virus reduced my energy and motivation for cooking so we reverted back to our old habits of eating supermarket-bought stuffed pasta and pesto sauce two nights in a row. Hardly the healthy eating that would boost my immune system. If we are going to get through the winter without resorting to chocolate and croissants then we will need to utilise (and organise) the freezer and some batch cooking.

First, I turned to the internet to find some inspiration. There are lots of beautiful pictures on Pinterest of neatly ordered freezer drawers with carefully labelled baskets and zip-lock bags. I had to resist the urge to rush straight out to buy yet another collection of plastic containers. Yes, I’ll probably have to invest in some better quality zip-lock bags, but I must try to re-use some of the sea of plastic already floating around the house. The best pieces of advice I gained from this research was to use baskets or freezer organisers to keep similar ingredients together, freeze stuff flat and in portion sizes to reduce space and waste, and to label everything.

Freezer burn is always a concern, especially when I am baking for advance prep on a Twilight project. I learned that this is caused by excess air, so some good advice is to keep the freezer reasonably full and to package food up carefully. Double wrap in foil then store in a good quality zip-lock bag or use special air-tight plastic freezer containers, and remove as much air as possible before freezing.

 

I’ve made a list for the target optimisation of the freezer and will stock up with these off-the-shelf ingredients on my next shopping trip. For the remainder, I’m planning to incorporate some batch cooking and doubling-up when preparing main meals over the next couple of weeks. Coupled with a big pre-Christmas Twilight baking project this should fill the freezer to capacity.

• Basic stock of frozen vegetables: peas, green haricot beans, spinach, mixed vegetable ‘potage mix’, Mediterranean vegetables, sliced onions, garlic, coriander, oven chips or potato wedges

• Double-up meals: chilli, curry, veggie burgers, falafels, pizzas

• Treats: breakfast bars and power balls

• Sauces and soup: pesto, tomato sauce, soups