Here's how to freeze fruits, dairy like cheese and milk, vegetables and more in this list of foods you can freeze!
Give the current state of the world, grocery shopping has become more of a chore more than ever. And if you've been to a grocery store, or even ordered online, you know you can't always find the foods you're looking for.
If you're like our family, we are trying to stay put and only go to the store when absolutely necessary. I'd like to think I was freezing food before freezing food was cool!
You can cheese out my guide to freezer meals here if you want to freeze meals like breakfast or dinner.
And while there are many, many more foods you can freeze, I've got what I consider the most common foods to freeze here.
Foods you Can Freeze
Freezing foods is a great way to stock up on foods in your kitchen!
Let's start with the most important items....
Can I Freeze Dairy, Eggs or Cheese?
Can You Freeze Cheese? Yes, yes, yes!!!! And you should.
When cheese is on sale, or in our current state, at the store at all, I like to stock up.
Things like bagged shredded cheese, block cheese can join the freezer party right right in the package.
Block cheese will be somewhat crumbly after freezing but the taste will still be good and is good for shredding.
Whole blocks of cream cheese can be frozen, as well - just reserve this for cooking and baking and not for spreading on your morning bagel (which you can also freeze!)
Butter - The same goes for butter sticks. I've been freezing mine for years! Just pop it into the freezer and pull a stick or two as you need it.
Use cheese and butter within six months.
Can You Freeze Milk?
Yep, you sure can! Open up your refrigerator and look at your gallon of milk (the plastic quart or gallon, not the carton). See that circle on all the sides of the container? That is for freezing expansion.
I recommend removing just a bit of the milk before freezing so it doesn't erupt. Cap it and freeze.
To use, thaw. Give it a good shake before using to reincorporate the cream and water.
I will give it this caveat - it won't taste exactly the same, but it's good for cooking and baking and let's be real - nothing is "ideal" right now.
I also keep powdered milk on hand, just in case we get into a real milk crisis here.
Can You Freeze Eggs?
Clearly you can, or it wouldn't be here on my list of foods you can freeze, right?
I like to make oven baked eggs or whisk them up for scrambled eggs or crustless quiche store in a ziplock baggie.
You can also crack eggs into a silicone muffin tin and freeze individual eggs or egg whites for cooking later. They're great for baking.
Baked Goods
Loaves of bread, English muffins, bagels, burger buns, etc. can go right into the freezer in the package, as can baked muffins and the like.
Quick Breads - Cooked homemade breads like Hawaiian banana bread can be wrapped and placed into a freezer safe baggie for freezing.
Baked cookies, unfrosted cakes and brownies - wrap, place into a bag or airtight container.
Pancakes and waffles - yep! Pull them out as you need them.
Raw Cookie Dough. Though technically an "unbaked" good, drop cookies or slice style cookie dough can be frozen. Freeze drop cookies individually on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet, then drop into a freezer bag. Pull them as needed to bake.
How to Freeze Fruits
Bananas - to freeze banana, remove them from the peel and store whole or broken in half in ziplock or food storage containers.
To freeze banana slices, line a sheet pan with waxed paper. Add banana slices to the pan, laying flat to freeze. Once frozen, remove from the sheet pan and place into a freezer safe storage container.
Grapes - to freeze grapes, wash and air fry them before freezing. They're great as a frozen snack or they can chill a glass of wine!
Berries like raspberries and blueberries - wash, air dry and freeze on baking sheets covered with - you guessed it - waxed paper.
They're great for baking or for making smoothies.
You can read my post here about how to freeze blueberries!
Apples - peel, core and slice. Pop them into a freezer bag and give them a little shower of lemon juice. Smush them around in the bag a little so they mix with the juice to reduce browning. They're great in apple crisp, apple slab pies or slow cooker apple cinnamon oatmeal.
How to Freeze Vegetables
Of course, you can buy frozen vegetables at the grocery stores but these days, it's hit or miss. If you've stocked up on fresh vegetables at the store, here's how to freeze them.
Bell peppers and onions - chop or slice and freeze in baggies. You may want to double bag the onions so they don't smell up your freezer.
Cooked Mashed Potatoes can go into the freezer. Simply portion into a freezer bag, or freeze individual portions by using an ice cream scooper and freeze on a wax paper covered cookie sheet until solid. Then transfer to a freezer bag.
There are a million vegetables and they each have their own ways of prepping for the freezer. To see how to freeze a whole lotta veggies, check out this post here for everything you need.
How to Freeze Grains and Nuts
I love freezing cooked grains ahead of time.
Cooked rice and quinoa can be cooled and portioned into cup size servings. You can even make rice in the slow cooker!
Nuts and nut flours have a high fat content they can easily go rancid. Freezing is a great solution for nuts like walnuts, pecans, etc.
Also if you use almond flour, you may want to store it in the freezer for an extended shelf life.
Hemp seeds and chia seeds can shelter in place in the freezer. I keep mine in glass mason jars.
How to Freeze Sauces, Stocks and Soups
You can freeze these items in silicone muffin tins or ice cube trays.
- tomato products like tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce.
- pesto sauce
- lemon and lime juice
- lemon and lime zests frozen in water
- sauce, leftover tomato pasta ice cube trays or scoop by tablespoons until frozen
- leftover wine (is there such a thing?)
- herbs frozen in water
Broths and stocks can be frozen in two or four cup portions, as can cooked soups.
You can freeze soup portions in silicone muffin tins and place into a gallon sized freezer bag when solid. I like to freeze my cooked soup right inside a mason jar for easy thawing.
How to Freeze Breakfast and Lunch Sandwiches
Ready for more foods you can freeze? You'll be glad for these when we head back to school and start packing lunches again!
Individual sandwiches can be frozen in sandwich bags or in an air tight container.
Egg McMuffin Sandwiches are a great way to freeze your English muffin, cheese, meat and egg all in one!
Uncrustable Style Peanut Butter & Jelly. Our kids like these from the freezer case at the store, but you can make sandwiches by the loaf and it will cost you a fraction of the cost.
Lately, I've been making these, flash freezing them on a wax paper covered cookie sheet and putting them right back into the bread bag to freeze. Why, you ask? Because we can knock these out in a matter of days, so why use baggies?
Lunch Meat Sandwiches - Don't use ingredient like lettuce or tomato, but the basic meat, cheese, mayo or mustard combo will freeze just fine.
Quesadillas - cook, cool and freeze. Flour or corn tortillas can go into the freezer, too.
How to Freeze Meats
Again, this is a great way to take advantage of sales! Chicken, bacon, and ground meats can be purchased in bulk and frozen for later.
Family packs are a great way to stretch your dollars, too!
For chicken, I like to freeze the chicken into one or two pound portions. I've found that for regular chicken breasts, usually two pieces equals about a pound and a half.
Place them right into a freezer bag and you're set.
Raw Bacon can go into the freezer right in the package.
Cooked bacon can be frozen, too! Make a batch of oven baked bacon ahead of time and freeze individual slices for recipes that call for a few slices of bacon.
Cooked Ground Beef can be drained and frozen for use as taco meat, chili, etc. You can find more uses for cooked ground beef here.
Hot dogs, chicken sausages and even lunch meat can be frozen right in their packages.
Cooked rotisserie style chicken. I make a whole chicken and use the meat in a million ways. Sometimes I make a whole chicken and then freeze the cooked meat in quart sized freezer bags for casseroles, sandwich fillings and the like.
You can find lots of recipes using cooked chicken here.
Susan Bates
Thanks Deanne!