Storage for monthly batch cooking

maisie_cat

We have a F/F and garage chest freezer. I keep stock ingredients & overflow meals from batch cooking in the chest. I keep open veg bags, batch meals for dinners and a couple of chicken breasts, steaks, mince etc in the kitchen. I bought a couple of wire baskets from amazon a couple of years ago and stack vacuum bags like a filing cabinet. The wire baskets sit on top of each other. I use a combination of lidded glass containers and vacuum bags for meals. The chest works very well and uses a third of  the power of the F/F

-taff

@goldfinches great idea about the chalkboard paint, I may steal that in the very future....

LadyHarriet

elsien said:

I’d second the keeping a list thing. And labelling the items going in, including the date. Otherwise I find I’m using the first items I come to when I go rummaging, and the older identical ones sit at the back slowly getting freezer burn.
I just have a clipboard on a nearby shelf which I add to and cross off as things go in and out. 

Oh, totally agree about having a list  - as for labelling,  there is nothing worse than UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) unless it is labelling things like half a pig's head as 'Pork', having wrapped it up VERY carefully so its true nature isn't revealed until your mum defrosts it!

newlywed

LadyHarriet said:

elsien said:

I’d second the keeping a list thing. And labelling the items going in, including the date. Otherwise I find I’m using the first items I come to when I go rummaging, and the older identical ones sit at the back slowly getting freezer burn.
I just have a clipboard on a nearby shelf which I add to and cross off as things go in and out. 

Oh, totally agree about having a list  - as for labelling,  there is nothing worse than UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) unless it is labelling things like half a pig's head as 'Pork', having wrapped it up VERY carefully so its true nature isn't revealed until your mum defrosts it!

  

I can imagine how I would react! 

LadyHarriet

newlywed said:

LadyHarriet said:

elsien said:

I’d second the keeping a list thing. And labelling the items going in, including the date. Otherwise I find I’m using the first items I come to when I go rummaging, and the older identical ones sit at the back slowly getting freezer burn.
I just have a clipboard on a nearby shelf which I add to and cross off as things go in and out. 

Oh, totally agree about having a list  - as for labelling,  there is nothing worse than UFOs (unidentified frozen objects) unless it is labelling things like half a pig's head as 'Pork', having wrapped it up VERY carefully so its true nature isn't revealed until your mum defrosts it!

  

I can imagine how I would react! 

Yeah, we didn't have Roast Pork for dinner that Sunday. I do remember making a french rabbit casserole on numerous occasions - there was always at least one portion left, which I would dutifully freeze and label as BWWWP (bunny with white wine & prunes). My ex-partner thought it would be a good idea to sort out the freezer while I was on a residential training course. I came home to an immaculate freezer and something labelled NBBWWWP. When I quizzed him on this, he said 'I have no idea what it is, but it isn't bl**dy bunny with white wine and prunes' 🤣🤣🤣

Floss

My freezer list is in a poly pocket, held onto the freezer with 2 fridge magnets. It gets updated manually & reprinted once a month or so.

Happy_Sloth

i use a magnetic white board stuck to the front of my freezer with a list of whats in it.  It's a 750lt chest freezer and if i don't i can rummage for hours looking for something that doens't exist. 

JIL

I use plastic takeaway dishes, i think I have about 30. 
I also have some ceramic dishes that are about the same size. So if theres a portion of lasagne in a takeaway dish for example, I pop it out, whist frozen and defrost it in the dish, a quick blast in the microwave or if the ovens on I use that to heat it.
I tend to use the dishes as single portions, I also label them with a permanent marker pen. They always get washed in the dishwasher and the writing is washed off. 
I can easily get 20 dishes on a shelf.
I do things like pie filling (again using the porcelain dishes) just pop a pastry lid on top. Casserole, cottage pie filling, bolognese sauce and some veg such as ratatouille, red cabbage, cauliflower cheese.

I also find if I forget to take anything out of the freezer, it's easy to heat most things from frozen.

I am organised with my freezers, there are 4 drawers and two shelves, the shelves have the plastic dishes, two bottom drawers have bread, bought and sliced into individual portions, hot cross buns, crumpets  and rolls.
Middle drawers are veg and oven chips. In my other garage freezer I have vegetarian products, meat, and a fish drawer.