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Freezer Prepping Tips
Posted on February 14, 2020 by Becca
I can’t say this was an accidental discovery, but let’s call it an accidental test of an idea…
I got some Hello Fresh meal boxes for a while last year when i was working more hours. They came with huge ice packs. I layered those ice packs in my deep freeze. My thought was, if the power goes out, either due to Stuff Hitting The Fan (SHTF) or just a regular power outage, the huge ice packs would help preserve the stuff in the freezer a while longer.
Didn’t figure I’d ever get the chance to actually find out.
Unintentional Freezer Prep Testing
Last week, I opened the freezer to get something and immediately knew something wasn’t right. This is the freezer that contains what’s left of the pronghorn hubs harvested last year on his first hunt. And probably easily several hundred dollars of other meat and foods. Stuff was cold, still partially frozen, actually. But it wasn’t as cold as expected.
I did an instant rewind in my mind and realized I’d been out there cutting boards for a closet remodel almost exactly a week prior, where I’d plugged the chop saw into the same power strip. At some point I’d heard something fall, looked around and couldn’t pinpoint it, thought I better check the power strip when I got done, and then promptly forgot.
Yep, I’d knocked the freezer plug out of the outlet and hadn’t even realized it. That would have been a horrible waste of food and money if I hadn’t had the ice packs in there and if I hadn’t opened the freezer when i had. A week later and the meat was still frozen. Thawing, but frozen. It blows my mind that it lasted that long!
Five Ice Pack Ideas
Now, i don’t expect y’all want to order Hello Fresh just to get the ice packs so here are some other ideas…
-You could freeze water in freezer ziplock bags.
-I make homemade yogurt, strain it and put the strained off whey in gallon freezer bags and freeze – it can be used to make bread or to add protein to other foods.
-you could make broth using chicken, turkey, beef bones, and put it in freezer bags.
– you can fill gallon ice cream buckets or other storage containers with water and freeze them.
– rinse out milk jugs and fill with water, leave some headroom for expansion, and freeze.
I went through and rearranged both freezers today and as I did, I started re-layering the ice packs among the food so that there would be a more even distribution of cold to help protect stuff. Thought it was a worthwhile tip to share!
Freezing Stuff Prepping For Isolation
And another #freezertip. With the corona virus stuff going on, I’ve been trying to keep us stocked up on everyday stuff that we would normally run to the store for.
I know I can make coffee with the long term storage coffee and some powdered milk but I’d rather not resort to that just yet so I’ve been getting extra kcups and bottles of coffee creamer and keeping about a month supply of everyday things like that on hand.
I hadn’t really ever thought about some of the things you can freeze but that we don’t normally think to…so I’d been researching various things to see what freezes well.
So far I’ve frozen:
And all thawed just fine with no taste or texture changes.
- Coffee creamer
- Orange juice
- Milk
- Sour cream
- Cheese of almost every variety (I knew you could freeze this but I’m freezing a lot more now.)
- Sliced sandwich meat
Half N Half is the only thing that I have found doesn’t freeze so well. It still comes out fine but doesn’t really reincorporate as well. Works fine for soups and stuff but not so well as a coffee creamer.