I promised myself no more food budget posts! But I can’t help it; my shopping experience has been revolutionized by owning a deep freezer and I have to share some of the stuff I’ve discovered!

Last week I went to the grocery store and, to my amazement, seemingly everything in our tiny natural and organic section was on deep discount! I snapped this picture with my phone so you could see everything I got, and most of it was half off its original price!


Unfortunately, all this stuff is on clearance because it is close to its expiration date and about to spoil! And a lot of it was the type of stuff you don’t typically freeze, but instead eat while it is fresh. Still, I bought it and decided I’d figure out how to freeze it when I got home.

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Since then I’ve become obsessed with freezing difficult-to-store foods! Here’s what I’ve learned so far about freezing unusual food items:

Dairy/Yogurt: You can freeze most dairy items, but you won’t be able to get a consistent texture out of the items once they thaw. So it is best to freeze items  that don’t require their fresh texture. I got a giant tub of organic yogurt and knew there was no way I’d use it up before the expiration date. Fortunately, I had also just bought two giant tubs of organic supergreens. So I decided to blend them together and freeze them into cubes I can use later to make smoothies. If I had attempted to thaw the yogurt it would probably separate, so instead I’ll just eat it frozen!

Washing and drying greens to freeze with spinach

Eggs: Yes, you can freeze eggs! Just not in the shells! I looked here for tips on how to freeze them. Instead of freezing them in cubes, I stored them in four egg batches so that I can use them for quiches or scrambled eggs later on and know that I have the perfect amount.

Eggs ready to go in the freezer; I labeled each with the date so I know how long they’ve been frozen! A funny story: when I looked up “how to freeze eggs” on Google, I got some unintentionally hilarious results! I’m sure the hive can imagine!

Tomatoes: I started freezing tomatoes a few years back when I had a really bumper crop of homegrown ones.  I simply diced them fresh and put them in a freezer bag. Since they were diced, they were best used in sauces and soups. But today I got an amazing deal on organic cherry tomatoes. So I flash froze them and stored them in leftover yogurt containers. Flash freezing means laying the individual food items (berries, tomatoes, etc.) on a flat surface, not touching each other. I use the lid to a glass casserole dish because it is easy to fit into the freezer and that way I don’t have to dirty a cookie sheet. Then, a few hours later, you can transfer your individually frozen items into a container (I reuse yogurt containers– just make sure the recycling stamp on the bottom is number five or two). This is a great way to ensure that your tomatoes stay separated so you can grab a few out at a time. I think these would be great on pizza or tossed into a pasta.  Another alternative is to roast the tomatoes before freezing them. Roasted tomatoes taste like candy to me!

Mushrooms: Mushrooms are hard to freeze because they have such a high water content; they generally turn to mush upon defrosting.  A solution to this is to saute them in oil, then freeze them.  Cooking mushrooms allows them to leach out their moisture content. To use, just defrost or add frozen to soups or sauces.

Herbs: I see on Pinterest a lot where people freeze fresh herbs in ice cube trays filled with water. This has worked for me in the past, but if I am using the herbs in a pan sauce, the melted ice does make the end result more watery, which sometimes I do not want. So I think freezing herbs in olive oil is the best course of action, since a little extra oil never hurt anything, right? I once accidentally froze a whole bunch of cilantro (I put it in the freezer when I intended to put it in the fridge). I found it a few days later, whirred it in a blender with some tomatoes, and made the most delicious salsa I’d ever had. Based off that experience, I would say that hardy herbs that you plan to muddle, mince, or grind can probably be frozen in their natural state if you take care to wrap them up to prevent freezer burn.

Cheese: We don’t buy a lot of cheese these days, so we use it up quickly. But back in my college days, a company I worked for had a luncheon that featured a taco bar. After the luncheon was over, there was a whole aluminum pan of grated Pepper Jack cheese left over. I “volunteered” to take it off their hands and froze it in individual portions. I used this cheese to top casseroles and pizzas and it worked great! Again, you can usually freeze dairy items if you don’t mind a change in texture or are planning to eat it cooked; I think thawed cheese would not work as a room-temperature topping, but it will work if you want the cheese to melt. I have not experimented with freezing soft cheeses, only hard varieties like Cheddar and Jack.

Have you had any success with freezing oddball ingredients? Please share with me!