Which foods can you freeze? How long can you keep something in the freezer? Are frozen foods less nutritious?
Roughly a third of all food produced globally is wasted! Chill out and use your freezer to cut food waste and save money. The average family of four could be £730 a year better off by eating all the food they buy.
Check out this list of 15 easily frozen foods and maybe batch cook and freeze some meals for a later date.
Three top tips to get #FreezerSavvy and start saving
Make space, use what you have
Lurking in many freezers across the UK are unknown frozen foods (UFOs). These mystery food items have no labels and may have been pushed to the back of their icy shelves. Get friendly with your freezer and see what you can use up. Where to start?
Freezer forage
Pick a day (preferably before your next shop) to shop your freezer. Make sure it’s a day when most people are at home. Make it official by putting it on a shared calendar or as an event on your phone. Get creative, pull together meals by only using what’s in your freezer, fridge and cupboards. Then see how much freezer space you have and work out what you might need to buy from there.
Find out what you can freeze
Essentials like milk (oat or dairy), butter, bread, cheese and most fruit, veg and herbs can be frozen. In fact, it’s safe to freeze food right up to the use-by-date, and then defrost. You can freeze almost all foods. Get started with these 15 freezer friendly foods.
Take on the #Freezersavvy challenge
Frozen foods are great, explore swapping a few fresh food items for frozen by heading to the frozen food aisle on your next shop. You might be surprised by just how much you can swap frozen foods into your cooking – and by how much time and money it can save you! Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Frozen swaps? Freezy p-easy
Frozen veg is a great way to add more bulk and nutrition to meals. Cook them from frozen to save time on defrosting. Frozen peas work in pasta dishes, or classics like minted pea and potato cake, asparagus, pea and spinach risotto or a funky guacamole alternative – peacamole.
Don’t worry about fresh spinach, frozen spinach goes in practically any hot savoury recipe for extra healthiness. A pack of frozen carrots and mixed veg work great in Irish stew and if you can get your hands on them, frozen peppers work great in a sizzling fridge freezer forage stir fry. Frozen herbs are there for the flavour and are there ready to go every time.
Frozen fruit
Did you know, 81% of fruit we waste is wasted because we haven’t used it in time? Buying frozen means we only use what we need as and when we need it, meaning less waste. Frozen fruit works well in smoothies, a compote or when baking. Berry tasty.
Bread
20 million slices of bread go to waste every day in the UK. You can toast bread from frozen or transform it into all kinds of delicious meals and desserts, take a look at these tips on bread saving, by reading Use Your Loaf.
Frozen food saves money and food – so it’s a win, win!
