Quick Cooking Tips – 4 Easy Ways How Using Your Freezer Can Save You A Lot Of Time When Cooking
If you have a large freezer, consider yourself blessed and fortunate. It can do a really great job in shortening your cooking times. In fact, I would say that your freezer is one of your most powerful assets for quick cooking. When done correctly, freezing seems to be the method of preserving food that retains nutrients best.
Here are some ways how you can use your freezer:
- store frozen foods from the supermarket
- store foods you prepared yourself
- store meals you have cooked before hand
- store frozen herbs
Store frozen foods from the supermarket
Frozen foods from the supermarket are an excellent way to shorten cooking times as the only preparation they require is to open a packet. No peeling needed, no cutting. Just open and cook.
The market offers a wide variety of frozen fruits, cut vegetables and veggie mixtures and meat. Rather buy plain foods or ingredients instead of ready-made meals, as they are less likely to contain food additives. If you want to stock some ready-made meals for days with a very tight schedule, make sure they contain as little preservatives, colorants and sweeteners as possible.
As for chips, stick with the ones that are labelled “oven-baked”. They too do contain a certain amount fat but since you won’t need any additional fat for baking them they will be much healthier than chips fried in oil.
Store foods you have prepared yourself
Unfortunately, frozen foods can be quite pricy. You may find it a cheaper way to buy a bulk of fresh fruit, vegetables or meat at a special store and freeze them yourself. Do your shopping on a day where you don’t have much else to do, then cut your foods the way you will need them and freeze them in the portion sizes you will use. Freezer bags are much better for this as they take up less space than buckets. Check the links below for detailed information about preparing certain foods for freezing.
Most vegetables are suitable for freezing. It is worth it to go the extra step of blanching your veggies before freezing (place them in boiling water for a few minutes and then cool them off under ice-cold water). Blanching does not only kill a portion of bacteria and enzymes that would lead to a loss of quality in the freezer, it also retains the colour and taste of your food.
Except for corn, there is no need to thaw the veggies before cooking, you can use them just as they come out of the freezer. Cook them in boiling water until tender. This will take about half the amount of time as when these vegetables were fresh so you also score time here.
Store meals you have cooked before hand
Freezing your own home-made meals is a more time consuming but healthier option than buying ready-made frozen meals. Soups and stews are especially great for freezing. Take an afternoon off and prepare several servings of a certain meal. It’s usually less work to cook a bulk of soup than to stand three times to make a single serving. Then freeze each family dinner portion separately, and all you need to do when the time comes is to defrost and warm it – a quick job in the time of microwaves. You may also want to freeze single portions, for example for your child who is studying in another town and only comes home weekends.
Besides freezing bulk cooked meals, you can also freeze single foods that are already cooked, like the left-overs of your thanksgiving turkey. Buy kilo or two of minced meat and make a bulk of meat balls that you can use later on for soups, stews or pasta sauces. Sauces, be it for meat or pasta, can also be cooked in bulk and frozen in portion sizes.
Store frozen herbs
Again, you can either buy frozen herbs or herb mixtures or prepare your own. Wash only herbs with larger leaves, chop them and place them into small containers. When you need them, simply take out the right amount and put the rest back into the freezer.
The huge advantage of freezing food is that preparation time shrinks significantly when it comes to cooking your meal. Just imagine: If you have a mixture or frozen vegetables and some meatballs in the freezer, you can cook a great healthy soup in less than half an hour. And if your spaghetti sauce just needs to be defrosted and warmed in the microwave, you can perfectly cook your pasta meal in 15 to 20 minutes. So, if you do have a freezer, by all means, start using it. If you don’t have one yet, you might consider buying one.
Useful links
- Freezing Fruit and Vegetables, What Happens in Your Freezer and What to Consider
- How Do I Freeze?
- How & Why to Blanch Vegetables for Freezing
- Blanch Vegetables before Freezing
- How to Prepare Fruit for Freezing
- How to Freeze Fruit
- How to Prepare Vegetables for Freezing
- How to Freeze Meat
- Cook Ahead to Save Time and Money
- Cooking Food Nutritiously on a Tight Schedule
- Fast Cooking - 10 Top Tips How To Create A Delicious Healthy Meal In As Little As Half An Hour
- Reduce Your Cooking Time
- Super Moms Secrets For Quick, Healthy Recipes
- The Fastest Way Of Preparing A Healthy Oven-baked Dish
- Tips For Quick Cooking - Meal And Food Ideas For Times When You Have To Cook In A Hurry
