My Freezer, My Friend
by Leanne Ely
Where would
I be without my faithful companion, my freezer? Inside of its chilly little
body, contains fixin's for meals, desserts for good boys and girls, and
on occasion, some ice for a boo-boo.
Freezers are
one of those appliances that has made my life easy and bargain hunting
doable. Crockpots are another, but that's another article! Everytime the
market has a buy one, get one sale on something worth while, where does
it go? The freezer. (of course, I don't do that with non-perishables and
cleaning products!)
I have made
some great discoveries about the freezer, too. Like milk freezes well!
No kidding. If you have found milk marked down at the market, don't worry
about the soon-to-be cheese date on the jug. Buy it! Take it home, open
it and pour off a glass, reseal it and freeze it. If you don't pour some
out and freeze it like it is, the expansion of the milk will cause the
container to pop (don't ask me how I know).
When you need
some milk to thaw, put your frozen milk container in a sink full of water
to thaw overnight. The next morning, shake vigorously and serve. In about
three days, add a pinch of salt to extend the life of the milk. Salt is
preservative and this little trick works very well. I once bought 15 gallons
of milk this way and was drinking milk with an expiration date of March
15 in July!
But I would be remiss to forget to
mention that the freezer can also hold an already prepared dinner or
two and the beauty of a chilly dinner is the ease of accomplishment--a
definite boon to payroll SHE's. Next time you're making something your
family loves, double or even triple the recipe and freeze the bounty.
Double freezer bag it for long term storage (I use a name brand because
the zippers on the bags are more dependable) and mark the contents and
date with a Sharpie pen--a trick Debi Hough, author of the book, Frozen
Assets taught me (I keep the pen in the Ziplock box to avoid it being
absconded by roving bands of children). There is almost no extra work
in making three meatloaves vs. one--all you need are the ingredients.
And the nifty thing is, if you pull out the meatloaf to thaw in the
fridge the morning before you go to work, it'll be a quick warm up in
the evening when you get home. By the time the potatoes are done and
the salad is tossed, you'll have a delicious dinner ready to roll.
While my freezer might be my friend,
I now realize that we can be so much more than friends--my freezer
saves me the most precious commodity I treasure--time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Leanne Ely, C.N.C. is a nutritionist and
author of the book, Healthy Foods an irreverent guide to understanding nutrition
and feeding your family well (Champion Press). In addition, she is the editor
of Healthy-Foods (join-healthy-foods@ds.xc.org),
a free, weekly ezine on eating healthy--recipes included.
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