On one of my husbands podcast that he listens to, the guy described his recent trip to the grocery store as entering the thunderdome. Ok, so my trip to the grocery store yesterday wasn’t quite that bad, but it was very interesting to say the least. I expected to see a lot of bare shelves for sure, but some items that were depleted was very surprising….. like the whole section of cooking oils….. every kind of oil and spray that you can think of, gone. I know I live in the south and we like to fry a lot of things, but really? All of it?
I did find most things that I was looking for, for instance, the last item on my list….. a bag of frozen corn. I knew I couldn’t be choosy about the brand or the price for that matter. But It was there….. one lonely little bag on the bottom shelf of the freezer, stuck behind the big bags of cauliflower. Snatching up my sweet prize and doing a mental victory dance, I was ready to move on to the next phase….. checkout……the looong line of checkout. I really think there should be margarita trucks….. like food trucks…. in the grocery store parking lots. We would be the happiest, most relaxed and carefree shoppers around.
I know what you are thinking. Really Christy? Is this the point of your post? I do have a point to this post. One of the items I was able to find during my shopping adventure was milk. Hubby and I don’t drink milk, but I like to cook with it. The only milk that I could find was a small, one serving size that was about to expire soon. No big deal, I knew I could freeze it. When I mentioned this to my long time best friend, she never knew you could do this. So this got me to thinking that during these unforeseen times of just trying to find staples at the store, some may not realize what you can freeze now to use for a later time. So this was my point of this post.
These are a few things that I have on hand in my freezer.
Milk
I freeze milk a lot. As I stated before, hubby and I don’t care to drink milk….. unless it’s in the form of a shake with lots of ice cream and goodies…. so I freeze it for when I do need it. I usually buy a half gallon size and pour into several containers. These Chinese take out soup containers work perfect.
We tend to do Chinese take out often, so I have a lot of these containers.(Yes, Chinese food is a weakness.)When you pour in the milk leave a little space, because it will expand when frozen.
On the lid make sure you label and date each one .
Another plus to using these containers is that they stack great in the freezer.
Shredded Cheese
This is another staple that I find freezes really well. This comes in handy during the holidays when I get a little too happy with shredding cheese to go into my many holiday dishes.
If you are freezing pre bagged cheese, just slip that into a zip top freezer bag. If you have some cheese that you shredded yourself, place desired amounts into the freezer bags, then label and date.
I have found that only shredded cheese works well with freezing. Sliced cheese becomes very crumbly once thawed.
Butter
I have several kinds of stick butter in my freezer, salted, unsalted, store bought and also homemade Amish butter. Not to mention, when these go on sale it’s a nice thing to grab while you can. These I leave in it’s original box and just pull out a stick from the box when I need to.
If I have butter that I cut into portions, I put into freezer bags.
Bread
Freezing my bread has been a great thing for me during this time. I’m sure your grocery store has been like mine has been of late….no bread in site. The only way I was able to get some (and it should be laced in gold mind you) is my mom, bless her. She is retired so she can go at any time during the day to find what we need. She went to 4 stores to find bread and hit the jack pot at the last store. I think she was experiencing her own thunderdome. Anyway, she got me and hubby a loaf and herself one. Anyway, I figured this was a great time to freeze it so we will have it for when we need it. Bread is kind of tricky, because it doesn’t fit in a ziplock freezer bag. I keep it in the original bag, then double wrap with aluminum foil.
again, make sure you label and date it.
So, those are a few items besides meats that I like to keep frozen. I hope this helps. I hope during these times you and your loves ones are well. I hope that you are able to find ways to stay strong and maybe even reconnect with the things that you have not gotten to do in a while that makes you smile.
A Foodie In The South 