Make it a Double, or a Triple
Whenever I make something that freezes well I double or triple the recipe. Then I freeze single portions in wide mouth pint jars. I find this really helps when I don’t have time to come up with a healthy meal or when I’m just too tired to cook. They also come in quite handy when my pantry gets a little bare.
Last week I tried this recipe for Curried Broccoli Soup and we LOVED it. I got more broccoli at the co-op this week and made up a double batch to throw in the freezer. This soup is good for any meal, even breakfast. This weekend I have had it every single morning. I’m happy to have a few meals worth tucked away in the freezer. (for tips on freezing in glass jars check out my post on that topic).
Do you double or triple recipes so you have extra to freeze for later?
Filed under Cooking | Comments (12)
Very ocassionally, I’ll have enough raw meat to make extra meatballs or a meatloaf, but generally, my family eats everything I make all at once. Six people eat a lot. Also, I’m pretty picky about what I’ll freeze. Raw meat that can be cooked when it’s thawed is okay, as is stuff like chili or pasta sauce with meat. But any frozen chicken or mashed potatoes just does not do it for me.
One of the best frozen ahead things I discovered is half-cooked roasted potatoes. I roast them on parchment paper with the fat and all until they’re at the tender but not yet brown stage, cool them, then put the whole pan in the freezer. The frozen potatoes come right off the parchment and into a freezer bag. When I want to eat them, I put them frozen into a hot oven and finish the roasting till they’re crispy.
Though once again, I rarely have the time when I’m trying to get dinner made to peel a double batch of potatoes to do this. But when I do, it’s AWESOME.
P.S. Cooked rice freezes really well, too.
to kristin @ going country's comment
Since at our time of life, it’s just me and my husband here, and I still make many of the foods that we ate when our 6 children lived with us… well, some of them are hard to cut down in size, so, yes, I freeze the extra sometimes, and I think your pint jar idea is brilliant!
to Yolanda's comment
Do you have a link to the recipe? Would love to try it!
to Katie's comment
I do this exact thing (a type of broccoli soup is my favorite, as I can make quite a large pot of it at a time) with these exact jars. I fill them a bit less full. I cap them with the plastic Ball lids. Every once in awhile I’ll find one in the freezer that I’ve missed on previous explorations and feel like I’ve found a true treasure. Hmm, today would make an excellent soup day. Hope I have broccoli.
to Brenda's comment
Susy, I do not have freezer space other than a side by side refrigerator so it’s at a premium. Most of my make ahead meals are short term meals. They go into glass canning jars right from the stove and seal up great. In the fridge they go for future use. These are sterilized jars and used sterilized lids. Cooling in the fridge makes them seal up extra tight. I wouldn’t keep any thing preserved this way for more than a couple weeks. The food keeps really well and I usually use it for soups or casseroles. Most of what I seal up this way is used up in a couple weeks but some have stretched to three without an issue.
I must admit that freezing in glass jars would be much better than a boiling canner on the stove during the hottest part of the year. However, the power is not a reliable source of energy in my part of the city and it is become increasingly less so. I would have to buy a generator to keep the freezer from thawing out if freezing became my main preservation method.
Have a great double/triple batch freezing day.
to Nebraska Dave's comment
I’ve frozen soups before but the taste just isn’t the same. I’ve stopped doing that nearly as much. That said, we have a ton of bone broth and other stuff in our freezers and they are currently stuffed to the gills!
to Misti's comment
I do this frequently, but am becoming increasing wary of it. The quality of jars must be tanking, because the last few batches of beans or spaghetti I’ve made have all gone to the trash because once the jar has thawed, it has shattered into pieces. I wait for the food to cool before I place it in the jars, I overnight it in the fridge, and freeze the next day. When i thaw them, they sit on the counter or in the fridge overnight. Often, there is more than 2 inches of head room, so I simply don’t understand what could be the matter. It’s been really frustrating to pick up the jar only to find the bottom has fractured out of it and dinner is running all over the place. Maybe it’s the Kerr jars? Is Ball a better quality for freezing?
to whit's comment
Not sure, all my jars are Ball jars and most of them are 10 years old or so. I’ve only ever had one jar crack.
to Susy's comment
For what it’s worth, I’ve had luck freezing (and then thawing) things in old peanut butter jars.Other jars may work just as well, but I mentioned the peanut butter jars because they usually have a wide mouth and seem especially thick. I have a half dozen or so that I’ve been freezing things in successfully for a year or two now and not had one break yet.
to Becky's comment
I too use the natural peanut butter jars and love them for freezing. They do have a slight shoulder, so food needs to thawed much more than with a wide mouth canning jar to get it out. But they work very well. I often use them when giving food away.
to Susy's comment
Yes, please post your recipe for that soup…it sounds delicious! Curry makes everything better! :)
to Chris's comment
I’ve gotten much better this winter about freezing things in usable amounts to make meal prep easier on tough nights. Last night, I I thawed a pint jar of stock, got it to simmer, and threw in a handful of frozen homemade pork wontons. It was a real meal in under 10 minutes. I’ve learned that the way to circumvent the going-out-to-eat solution on nights like that are to have damn easy solutions in the freezer.
to Kyle's comment