The more you coupon, the more you will recognize bigger and better deals. It is such a shame to find a deal and be limited because the product expires in a couple weeks or days. If you decide to start building a freezer stockpile, the most important thing you can have is a Food Saver. This is a machine that has special bags where you can put your food, and then it seals the bag by sucking all the air out around the product you are freezing to prevent freezer burn. It prolongs the life of your food while it is in the freezer. If you don’t have a Food Saver, you can use plastic bags. When using plastic bags, squeeze as much of the air out as possible. There is an on going discussion in the FoodSaver Tips & Tricks thread. There is also an ongoing To freeze or not to freeze thread. You can find more tips and ideas on what you can and cannot freeze.
Eggs – You can freeze raw, cracked eggs. There are a couple of ways to do this. The first way is to crack them open into ice cube trays. Once frozen, pop them out, place into a plastic baggie or FoodSaver them, and place them in your freezer. You can also find a small mouth container, crack them open one by one in the container, and freeze. When you are ready to use the eggs, defrost them in the refrigerator and carefully let as many as you need slip through the small opening one by one. Eggs are good for up to 9 months frozen. There are pros and cons to both of these methods. The first method is to defrost as many eggs as you want at any given time. So, if you only need two eggs, just take out two egg cubes. The second method is good if you plan to make something that requires many eggs, like Quiche or multiple batches of chocolate chip cookies! MMMMM!
Milk – Milk is so expensive these days. Every once in a while you can find it on sale, and when you do, it would be so nice to be able to stock up on it at a good price. Well now, you can! You can easily freeze milk, if you have the room. If you are purchasing the plastic half gallon or gallon jugs, open them and pour out a little milk so there is about an inch from the top. This will allow the milk to expand and not bulge out as much. Place the lid back on the jug and place in freezer. You may need to start freezing them standing up right, but once frozen, you can place them however you want to maximize space. It’s as easy as pie! Frozen milk will last for three months.
Here is also a great web site with lots of information about freezing foods: http://www.fabulousfoods.com/school/cstech/freezing.html
Read Part 2 of this series here.