What do you keep in your freezer?

Defrost it in the microwave.

You don't freeze food???

Same for us, eld. We buy a few already frozen items at the store (like a few kinds of plain veggies), the odd thing here and there at Costco or TJs and (rarely) ice cream but we never freeze anything we've cooked or bought unfrozen. Fresh food always seems better.

I put the blocks (unwrapped) on the counter for 30-45 minutes, and then I make at 400 for 35-40 minutes. It's normally fully cooked by then.

Don't put in microwave in foil container! You can defrost it or put in oven frozen. It will take longer to cook frozen.

Defrost it overnight in the refrigerator. Then heat it up in the oven in the foil container.

Thanks!

Chloe, same as Elmer. I buy some frozen foods, but don't freeze anything I have made.

I used to freeze a lot of foods in lunch-sized portions to take to the office. Pull from freezer on way out of house, let sit on desk a couple hours until lunchtime, unwrap, heat in microwave til hot. Sturdy pasta dishes were great like that.

Eld6161, it was nice of your kids to save you the hassle of cooking so soon after vacation :-)

I hope you mean an aluminum pan and not foil. You will risk a major mess baking a block of ziti in foil.

I rarely freeze food either.

There's just two of us and I cook en mass all the time, freezing packets for two people. DH can go to the freezer at any given time and pull out a meal of his choice whenever he wants. It makes life so easy. I cook when I'm in the mood and go on vacation from cooking whenever I want.

It's funny, we do the opposite compared to some of you and for an intended opposite outcome. Perhaps intentionally, we allow days to come along when we have nothing planned and no alternatives to choose from in the fridge because it's a reason to go to a restaurant. We were just talking about that tonight - we have about 10 go-to places we like (when not trying someplace new). They're almost all ethnic. For each it's a visit from us every 4-6 weeks.

Elmer, there is one decent restaurant where I live and I've had every item on the limited menu several times. We make sure we dont have a reason to go out to eat.

Now, if we happen to be in the nearest town that does have options, we look forward to eating out. I think the reasons people do many of the things they do is often based on their personal situation which obviously varies widely here at the KT as well as in real life.

I buy pork and beef ribs in large packages. I cut them into individual ribs; and after properly wrapping them, they go in the freezer for whenever. The same goes for chicken breast on sale in 'family' packs; cut them to a proper meal portion and freeze. Everything thaws nicely and ready for the grill (or wherever).

I buy crushed tomatoes in large cans (great for pizzas ya know) and divide them into portions that are appropriate for two people and freeze them. Speaking of pizza, I make my own dough; too much for one meal, the dough ball goes into the freezer for another day. Many chain pizza joints have their dough come from a central commissary and it often arrives at the restaurant frozen.

How about that, I'd been thinking the reason we don't freeze so much food anymore was because we both retired and didn't need easy, grab & go, lunch-sized portions anymore. While that's true, it's also the case we've moved into town and now have dozens of interesting, non-chain, reasonably-price food places within walking distance. Yes, that's part of it too. Thanks for the insight, Elmer!

I can't imagine being without a freezer or not buying meat on special and freezing it!!!

I buy family packs of ground beef and portion into 1-lb portions, chicken parts, a large pork loin that I slice into chops and have the butt for a roast. Butter on sale, I buy more than one. Chicken broth, homemade soups and chilis and spaghetti sauces.......all in the freezer.

My reason for not freezing food is that the quality is not the same. Home freezers are not a "blast chiller" and therefore food freezes more slowly and quality deteriorates IMO. Even if you have a "deep freezer" instead of the refrigerator one. Commercial food freezes in seconds. It takes hours in a home freezer.

Freezing food in portions is very convenient for me. When I feel up to it, I cook extra so that I have healthy food to eat. If not for that, I would eat "not so healthy foods' or not at all some days.

Martha, I agree. In the past, I bought filet mignon from Costco. I tried freezing a few portions of the uncooked meat. It wasn't as tasty as the fresh cooked.

I think that cooked foods and sauces would fair better, it's just not something that I got into the habit of doing.

When I still had kids at home, I would something make extra to have leftovers a day or two after.

During recovery from surgery recently, it was so nice to have a freezer of food. Since I couldn't yet drive. But I could thaw and cook.

I also got a quarter of a pig last summer from a local meat share. The butcher froze it in packs - it is Still excellent!

Whenever the store has pork tenderloins on sale for buy one get one free I'll usually buy two and use one and put the other in the freezer. A couple of times I've found I had five or six of them in the freezer, and made a large batch of pulled pork for a party we were hosting. I similarly used to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale and individually wrap most of them and freeze them, but for the last couple of years the store has had an all-the-time sale price of $1.99 / lb for them at the meat counter. They do, in my opinion, taste better "fresh" rather than taken from the freezer.

I too like to freeze extra food for myself for times I don't want or feel like cooking from scratch for myself. I do not defrost anything, I thaw. :) I happen to have two large freezers, lots of fruits and vegetables in one of them that we raise. I would just put the pasta bake in the fridge and let it thaw overnight or put in oven and bake till done. I see no problem either way. Very handy. Like a lot of people no where good to go out and eat and then I would have to go by myself if I did not have the kids go. So either way, handy to have things ready to eat from the freezer.

Sue

"Elmer, there is one decent restaurant where I live and I've had every item on the limited menu several times. We make sure we dont have a reason to go out to eat."

A lack of restaurants is probably just one thing on a long list of things one forgoes to live in a small town or even outside of one. I'm sure you also have a long list of reasons why it works for you and I could come up with a long list of reasons why it wouldn't work for me. I wouldn't be happy away from a populous area and all the advantages and activities they all offer. We can each come to a different decision and be happy.

I think most were referring to freezing a cooked dish, not uncooked meats. I have a friend who would even freeze pizza slices...I'm in the camp of not freezing cooked food.

As many here know, I eat to live, not the reverse. I buy extra steaks, chops, chicken, etc. when the price is good. We have one meal fresh, and I portion and freeze the rest -- usually enough for another three or four meals for two of any of the proteins. I thaw overnight in the fridge or use the M/W 'defrost' cycle. I do not notice any difference in taste/texture, but I am not buying *exquisite* meat, and I am no foodie.

In the freezer of my fridge right now are steaks, lamb chops and 5 lb. bags of nice quality 'organic' green beans ($7.39) and broccoli/snow pea/red pepper/water chestnut 'Asian Blend' -- all from Costco. There are also some loaves of their garlic bread that I have thick-sliced. (Tired-looking 'fresh' green beans are $3.49/lb. at Safeway on Maui.)

I WILL freeze leftovers if for some reason, especially good ones, if I can't demolish a particular food within a few days. I haven't had to do this often, but it is a far superior idea to tossing perfectly good food out in the trash. Depending on the item, it may not taste entirely as well, but other items do..

(And, yes, there are things that do not handle freezing well at all.)

When called out of town a few years ago for a sudden family emergency, I froze lots of things before exiting. Things I'd have normally eaten at work lunch from the fridge that next week under happier conditions. I'd say all but one of those pre-cooked meals froze well.