Freezing Prepared Foods

These handy tips can increase the value of leisure time.

Plan carefully, to get the most from your home freezer. Use it for storing meats, fruits and vegetables. Prepare dishes and party foods and freeze them for busy days, emergencies, company, and parties.

Because of our faster pace and changing life-styles, meal preparation has become more demanding. The home freezer offers a creative way to meet these demands.

When you prepare regular meals for your family, cook with the freezer in mind. Make double batches so you can serve one and freeze the other. This practice will save preparation time, fuel and dish washing.

When you're choosing foods for freezing…

• Choose foods that are plentiful or seasonal.
• Prepare these seasonal or plentiful foods in ways that your family likes them.
• Foods that require a variety of ingredients or special seasonings and those that take a long time to prepare are good choices for the freezer.
• Select recipes that require little attention from freezer to table, too.
• Freeze only foods that will maintain high quality for a reasonable length of time.
• Remember, freezing doesn't improve quality or flavor, freeze only high quality foods
• Most frozen cooked foods have a relatively short storage period because of color, texture and flavor changes or because combined foods may not freeze as well as individual ingredients do.
• Freezing doesn't kill all bacteria; it only slows the growth.
• Food poisoning bacteria can grow easily in high protein foods such as meat, fish and poultry dishes, stuffings and dressings
• Other foods, in which bacteria grow readily, are milk and egg dishes such as custards and cream pies. Keep these foods either very hot or very cold.

For more information on freezing prepared foods; contact your local county Extension office.