How to Freeze Leftovers

Holidays, special occasions, and family get-togethers usually mean one thing--food, and lots of it. But what to do once the feasting is over, and there's still quite a lot of food left on the table? Never fear, you don't have to stuff yourself or your garbage disposal. Most leftovers freeze quite nicely, so you can keep them for when you're once again in the mood for Aunt Hannah's ham biscuits or Mom's special pineapple cake. Mmmmmm, I'm in the mood right now! Too bad I don't have an Aunt Hannah. Mind if I borrow yours?

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Leftover food
• Room in your freezer
• Sealable plastic containers, baggies, and foil wrap

1. Freeze cooked meats for up to 5 days after you've laced them in the refrigerator. Most meats will freeze just fine, although meats with a high water content (such as deli-type meats) may get a bit limp when thawed. No problem whatsoever if you plan to use them in sandwiches, though.

2. Leave at least an inch of space at the top when filling containers with anything liquid such as soups, stews, or any type of food in a sauce. This room is necessary to account for the liquid expanding as it freezes.

3. Save space when freezing large quantities of soup or sauce by filling pint-sized resealable bags about halfway, then pressing the air out and freezing flat. Once they have frozen, they can be stacked vertically, and each bag will make about one cup of soup or sauce when thawed. Thawing couldn't be simpler, too--you can do this by dropping the bag into a pot of boiling water for a minute or two.

4. Freeze any type of sandwich except for one with a salad-type filling (egg salad, tuna salad, chicken salad, etc.). Mayonnaise-based fillings just don't do well in the freezer. If you want the bread to re-crisp when you are thawing a frozen sandwich, remove the filling and heat the thawed bread in the oven.

5. Use frozen vegetables to make soups or stews if you do not care for the slightly soggy texture they may have upon thawing. Frozen fruits may also go limp, but they can be used for fruit fillings, smoothies, and even daiquiris.

6. Choose the more solid-types of dessert to freeze--the more solid they are, like brownies and cookies, the better they freeze. Frostings made with egg white tend to get runny when they are thawed and pies with creamy fillings can get pretty soggy, but buttercream frostings and fruit-filled or dense nut pies do pretty well.

7. Eat fried foods and salads the day you make them if you can manage to do so. Salads and certain types of fried foods (like french fries) do not refrigerate well, and they really do not stand up to the freezer.

Tips & Warnings

• Use containers that are the proper size for your frozen food-ideally you want to fill all containers about 3/4 full.
• Single-serving containers are best as you don't want to thaw more food than you need.