Freezing Foods for Later Use and Convenience

One thing that I haven’t shared yet, is that I have fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I won’t get into all the details in this post, but will just say that due to the fibromyalgia and CFS, I get tired easily. Some days are better than others, but especially when I’m working, I’m often exhausted before dinner time rolls around. I love to cook, but find myself buying several quick-fix frozen foods through the week specifically for the nights when I am just too tired to cook. The thing is, some frozen foods have a lot of preservatives in them, which I try to stay away from as I feel better when I avoid them. But nonetheless, they’re easy. I believe in making good home-made foods for myself and my family, as I believe they are better for you. So, being a frozen food queen 2 or 3 nights out of the week is even against my principles!

Recently, I had the thought that maybe I could pick a few days out of the month to make meals ahead of time and freeze them. However, I’ll admit that I’m not very knowledgeable about which foods can be frozen and which ones can’t, or how to go about preparing them after they’re frozen. I started looking for online resources, and though it took me forever, I finally found some good information on freezing foods. I thought these resources might come in handy to other people as well. Here they are:

The University of Georgia’s National Center for Home Food Preservation: offers a list of foods with information on how to freeze them for later use. Their section on Prepared Foods is especially helpful. It has a very good chart that details how to freeze prepared foods and how to thaw them, as well as reheating methods. (in Adobe PDF)

Freezing Primer, found on fabulousfoods.com, offers some freezing suggestions and tips.

Freezing Basics, by the University of Missouri Extension, offers a sample “freezer inventory chart” as well as safety tips.

The Recipe Link, offers some good make-ahead recipes.