What fresh food items can be frozen (New to monthly shopping!!??)

PRINCESSX87

My partner & I are looking to start doing monthly grocery shop instead of weekly. However, Being new to monthly we’re not sure which fresh items can be safe to freeze.

I’ve managed to note a few items that ive seen whilst browsing these threads, But not a big enough list to make sure I’m not wasting good food or hard earned cash.

Any help? xx

pollyskettle

I shop monthly but OH travels a lot with his job so tends to pick up any fresh bits and pieces as and when we need them.

I do, however, freeze bread, rolls, muffins, crumpets, 1% milk, sliced leeks (I love leeks and buy loads when on offer and slice and freeze, no need to blanch them), chickens, chicken breasts/pieces, lamb/beef/pork mince (I buy the fresh stuff and freeze it as I find it nicer than the frozen stuff, if that makes sense!), leftovers galore go in the freezer in individual portions, leftover bits of lemon so in a bag...can't think of anything else off the top of my head, but I'm sure there is plenty!

ETA

Sometimes I bung a bit of mozzarella in the freezer if it's getting close to it's date.
Whipped double cream gets frozen.
Cakes.
Raw carrots do not freeze well without blanching - do not even try it, even the rabbit won't eat them so in soup they go (they may not even be any good for that)!

joedenise

You can freeze most things although the texture may not be the same once defrosted, eg tomatoes, mushrooms, courgettes etc will be very mushy once defrosted but you can add them frozen into bolognaise sauce etc and they'll be fine but you wouldn't want them with your full English breakfast or your dinner. Other watery things like cucumber & lettuce also don't freeze.

The one thing you really can't freeze is eggs, although if you beat them you can (apparently) but it's not something I've ever tried.

Have a look in the freezers at your local SM and if they can freeze it you can give it a try.

Denise

Steve059

pollyskettle wrote: »

<snip> Raw carrots do not freeze well without blanching - do not even try it, even the rabbit won't eat them so in soup they go (they may not even be any good for that)!

Blanched and frozen carrots, and also celery, are perfect for soup. It's all going to be blended.

I find it cheapest to buy whole heads of celery, use what I need and then chop, blanch and freeze the rest for later. Blanching destroys the enzyme that causes spoilage. Then freeze them in the water that they were blanched in, so that there are ice crystals both inside and out of the cells, so that they don't turn to mush when defrosted. I find that about 100g of chopped celery and 200ml of water fit in a 500ml plastic freezer tub. I then put the whole lot (either frozen or defrosted) in the pan and adjust the total amount of water.

pumpkinlife

It might be worth going into a charity shop and picking up a home freezing book from the seventies/eighties. Our local always seems to have loads. They usually have a how to guide in the first half followed by half a book of recipes using your frozen bounty. We only have a tiny freezer but when (one day) my forever chest freezer comes, I'll be buying one. I don't think anyone writes books like that anymore.