A few items to keep handy that make life lots easier.
I try to keep my indoor freezer, full of quick items that make my life easier. Don’t you? I just ordered some new fabulous containers for the freezer so I can use some of my glass jars in dry storage where I need them. The new containers are fabulous because they are square and BPA free plastic, so they will fit my space so much better! Never-the-less I thought we should start talking about organization as we approach the winter months! It’s important because we will all be spending so much more time inside, and we really need to do things to make our lives better and more pleasant; treat ourselves like we’re on vacation!
Let me go ahead & explain what your seeing here and how it works for us…
Breakfast Cups – Tupperware single serve portions for a morning scramble for our daughter. She wakes up earlier than the chickens, so she needs every easy step she can get! Each one is a mystery to her and are filled with a variety of things like ham or sausage, banana or bell peppers in all colors, corn, carrot bits, a pinch of sweet onions etc. Just enough to go with 1 egg in a 4″ skillet and give a boring morning egg a little fun & variety without slicing dicing or making a mess.
Pre-cooked 4 oz Sausage – I use these for pizzas & pastas mostly, and the occasional breakfast meal too. It was like an epiphany to me one day when I realized I could freeze my sausage cooked already and instead of waiting overnight for it to defrost, and then have to make a sausage skillet mess when I really didn’t have time! Already cooked drained & from the freezer to my plate in 10 minutes! Since ground pork sausage is one of the few items we can buy that is preservative free & healthy, we eat a fair share of it, approximately 4-5lbs monthly.
Pesto Pints – Again, dinner in a flash helper but not just that. I pull these out for a themed week, and we have Pesto & Angel Hair Pasta one day, a spoonful or two on our pizza crust plus sauce, on another day I’ll toss a little of it with a vegetable potato mixture and finally if there is anything left, I’ll use it to marinade a piece of chicken before baking in a foil pouch!
Soups – self explanatory I should think. These were not suitable for pressure canning for one reason or another and so they are in the freezer for a quick-ish meal. DH can take one out the night before and take it to work, reheat in the jar. Or I can anticipate the same for myself and take that meal to go!
Tomato Puree – This batch is from low acid yellow roma tomatoes and I’m not sure yet if they are safe to can. So after pureeing & cooking down my garden goods, I just jarred them up. I can take them out when I intend to make sauce, they are usable within a couple of hours and perfect for a last minute pasta sauce! I also have puree in cans on the pantry shelf from traditional red tomatoes.
Berries – this batch is for tossing into everything, yogurt, smoothies, or for turning into sauces & jelly. Sometimes there are Strawberries, or Blueberries, and right now there are Blackberries. Super handy and I even toss a few out to the chickens on a really hot day; they appreciate a nice cold frozen berry when it’s sluggish hot.
Alright, so those are just a few of the ways my freezer door helps me out every day. Your turn! Take a pic and let me see. It’s ok if you want to clean & organize it first, heck, I just gave you a good excuse to get that done. Take your time, I’ll be here, but I DO want to see those doors! You can post pics on my Facebook page easily or link to them in your comments below.
Cheers!