Freezer Tips

Vacation time is here. Before we pack our suitcases, most of us probably go through the refrigerator to clean out anything that could go bad before we get back home and begin cooking again. This was the case for me a few weeks ago, so in my planning for meals when we returned home, I took stock of what was in the pantry, freezer and the refrigerator. Of course, as we all know, not all food items can be frozen successfully, but a good many do just fine. When preparing food for the freezer, make sure that freezer-safe bags and containers are used. Also, when freezing liquids and food items that have liquids in them, make sure that there is at least 1/2-inch of space at the top of the container for expansion. Here's a few items that I discovered could survive the freezer very well. Blessings...

1. That one remaining glass of cranberry juice.
2. Crushed pineapple in juice tasted wonderful in our carrot salads the week we got home.
3. There was 1/4 cup of salsa left which froze beautifully in a small, air-tight freezer container. It was used in our Salsa Corn.
4. There was an onion in the vegetable crisper that I chopped up for our Southwest Tortilla Stack. The texture of an onion becomes limp during the freezing and thawing process, so use them in casseroles, soups, stews, etc.
5. I had a bit of a bean casserole leftover that I wanted to taste after freezing to see how the beans would fare. I thought they were just fine and would freeze beans in the future when I needed to.

One thing is for sure, we won't know until after something has been frozen and tasted, just how successful they freeze, or not.