Food Waste Five: Using Your Freezer
In our last article, we introduced ReFED’s Food Waste Five, a helpful framework for preventing and reducing food waste at home. Today, we’re expanding on Tip 3: Using Your Freezer.
Extend the life of perishable foods:
- Freeze leftover ingredients like tomato paste, coconut milk, or pasta sauce into small portions if you aren’t using the whole can or jar (ice molds work great for this).
- Chop leftover fresh herbs, cover with olive oil, and freeze into ice molds for later use.
- Onions, garlic, and veggies can be diced and frozen to save a step in the cooking process.
- Bread can be frozen to prevent it from going stale.
- If you have leftover prepared meals like soup, burritos, casseroles, and more, you can freeze them in individual portions for an easy dinner later on.
- Freeze veggie scraps and chicken bones to make your own broth!
Tips:
- Label and date your foods so you can keep track of your inventory.
- Pre-portion ingredients first, as it can be hard to cut or measure them once frozen.
- Don’t think of your freezer as long-term storage; make plans to use things quickly to prevent freezer burn and maximize your freezer space.
Cooking instructions and food safety:
- Remember, for food safety, frozen vegetables should always be cooked before eating, but frozen fruit can be thawed at room temperature or microwaved for 30 seconds and eaten raw.
- Frozen bread and veggies can go directly into the skillet, oven, or toaster, but you can also defrost them first.
- Prepared meals can be defrosted overnight in the fridge.
- Ensure you are cooling food properly before freezing.
Below are two resources if you’d like to learn more: