Freezer Tips & Tricks! plus FREE Printables

It’s time for another informative dose of Tuesday Tips! I hope everyone’s day is going exceptionally well today. Over the last few weeks, we have been focusing on Menu Planning, Freezer cooking and Living on a Budget. This week we are taking a good hard look into your freezer. What you have, how long it’s been in there and how well you packaged it when you came home from the store. One of the biggest food waste problems is freezer burn. If you take an extra 30 minutes to properly wrap and package your freezer items, they will last twice as long. So today we are going to give you a few of our best tips and tricks for proper food storage in the freezer, as well as some helpful FREE printables to make it a little easier. What are your best Freezer Tips for storage?

Tuesday Tips - Freezer Tips & Tricks plus FREE Printables! Daily DIY Life.com

The first thing you should really do once you have finished your shopping and you have all of your freezer items home, is to prep them for your meals. If you are not doing any FREEZER COOKING, at least trim the fat off the meat and separate it into portions. This will take just minutes, and it will save so much time when it is actually time to prepare your meals. Freezing reduces enzyme activity in your meat and poultry and also stops the growth of bacteria and mold. It does not tenderize or sterilize the meat.

Your main goal for preparing freezer items and packaging them correctly is to keep the air out. The more air that can get to your meat/frozen items the faster it will develop freezer burn.

Experts say the best way to wrap your meat for the freezer is by using a layer of good quality freezer paper and then a layer of aluminum foil. Plastic wrap will work just as well if you don’t have freezer paper on hand. Be sure to wrap your freezer items as tight as possible to avoid any air getting in. Using a vacuum seal is another great tool as well if you have one of these handy kitchen appliances. You can get a Food Saver Brandfor a pretty reasonable price on Amazon.com

Never leave your meat in its original packaging paper or tray. It is not air tight and can develop bacteria.

The best way to thaw your freezer items is by placing them in your refrigerator and letting them thaw gradually. This usually takes no longer than 24 hours.

Never cook frozen meat. Your cooking temperatures will be uneven and the outside of your meat will be cooked, and the inside will still be raw. For safety reasons, you should avoid this method to prevent bacteria and food poisoning.

I have created some very useful FREE printables to help you prepare, package and use your frozen items in a timely manner. To print these items, be sure that you are UNCHECKING the “fit to window” box if it appears on your printing menu. For the food labels, they can be printed perfectly on Avery Labels # 5162 (Large labels) You can find them Here at Amazon.com

Cold Food Storage Chart FREE Printable

Here is a handy FREE Printable Food Storage Chart to use so you know roughly how long you should keep something safely in the freezer. I use this chart along with my Menu Planning Printables in my Home Binder. Just click the image above to download the file. If you have any trouble opening the FREE printable, please send me a message and I will Email it directly to you.

Freezer Food Labels FREE Printable

Label each package clearly with what it is and the date it was frozen.  You can print these FREE Printable food labels to properly label your freezer items. They even match the FREE Printable Storage Chart too! they can be printed perfectly on Avery Labels # 5162 (Large labels) You can find them Here at Amazon.com Just click the image above to download the file. If you have any trouble opening the FREE printable, please send me a message and I will Email it directly to you.


 

I do hope you found this Tuesday Tip to be useful. If you would like to see all our past Tuesday Tips, please click HERE. Be sure to sign up for our NEWSLETTER to get all our Tuesday Tips, Recipes, and Projects right to your in box!

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You may also like:

Menu Planning-How to Create a Weekly Menu Plan

Freezer Cooking-How to get Started

20 of the BEST Crockpot Soup Recipes

3 thoughts on “Freezer Tips & Tricks! plus FREE Printables”

  1. You’re really a great resource about food prep and meal prep now and I love you weekly tips now too. I know I am suppossed to prepare the meat when I get home, I just don’t do it often enough. Thanks for the push.

    Reply

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