Freezer Staples

[GreySweater]

I'm getting a new fridge freezer next week. I am beyond excited. I have had the old one for many years and it is small so always a squeeze to store food. In anticipation of the big arrival, I'm keen to know if anyone has any 'freezer staples' that they couldn't live without? Basically freezer items that free up time - I'm thinking chopped onions / pre-prepared veg / etc. Thank you for any recommendations x

We always have a bag of peas, one of sweetcorn, and ice cubes in the freezer. That's about it for what you've described as freezer staples.

The rest of the space - we have a full height standalone one in the garage as well as the three-drawer thing in the kitchen fridge-freezer - is used for two things: surplus in the form of leftovers or portions of batch cooking; and stuff that has been bought on special or seasonal offer and is waiting to be cooked.

Lidl sell frozen whole sea bass once or twice a year for about £8 a kilo, which is brilliant when the stuff in fillets at Tesco is over £21 a kilo. So I'll buy 15 packs. Last year they had whole sardines which almost nobody around here sells - 9 kg in the freezer. Similarly, after Christmas I could have had a dozen or so whole chickens at 30% off with an orange sticker, so three of those went in. We almost never buy full price meat or fish - what we save being able to buy and freeze heavily discounted stuff is worth far more than saving five minutes on chopping onions.

Peas
Maybe mixed veg
Ice cream
Fish fingers
Pizza
Ice cubes

I like your thinking - thanks for this tip! Agree, money saving as well as time saving ideas are always welcome!

Peas
Sweetcorn
Spinach
Garlic
Ginger
Chopped coriander
Edamame beans
Mixed green veg (Morrisons & M&S both do a good one)
Sweet potato or butternut squash
Summer fruits / black forest fruits
Ice cubes
Fish goujons
Hash browns, breakfast patties & muffins for the odd fake Mcmuffin 🐷
Some form of cooked chicken to shove in a salad / sandwich

We have 3 drawers in the kitchen and another 3 in the shed outside; the one outside basically holds meat / fish / bread / bargain yellow sticker buys. Always tend have the basics above as means we can rustle up something vaguely nutritious (with other store cupboard stuff) if for whatever reason we are out of fresh F&V / can't get to the shop / just CBA.

Oh and we usually have fish in too - white fish fillets and I usually buy a whole salmon when Morrisons have them on offer and chop into smaller fillets for the freezer.

Absolutely loving these ideas! Thank you sooo much (& my kids will thank you for the version of McDonalds I will be serving them!!)

Although I don’t actually buy much for the freezer it always seems pretty full!
I buy frozen
Petit Pois
Butternut squash
Oven Chips
Ice Cream
Ice cubes
Ice Lollies
Cod fillets
Tuna steaks

But to that I add
A sliced loaf (we don’t eat that much sliced bread so goes off quickly)
Other bread products usually pitas and bagels
Breadcrumbs (I blitz a load and then just take out what I need)
Then it’s stuff I’ve made or used of half of like
garlic butter
Pizza dough
Pasta sauces (always make a load of a basic tomato sauce that I can just add different things to.)
Bolognaise
Curries
Casseroles
Soups
Fish cakes (easier to make a big batch every now and then
Falafel (as above)

Bread, milk, mash, cooked rice, scones, bags of veg, stew, breadcrumbs, lasagne, curry, chicken fillets.

Sainsbury's do baby leaf spinach that's nice and also petit pois.
McCain French fries
Fresh chillis freeze really well.
Dark cherries.
Baby broad beans.

Frozen chopped onions - amazing time saver. Mushrooms too

I fill it up with batch cooking frozen in portions.

Sorry, pressed post. I always buy cheap nice bread for the freezer. Pitta bread are particularly useful going straight in the toaster. We’ve always got a small loaf for lunch sandwiches and a small carton of milk in there for emergencies.

Every freezer needs a bag of peas. Frozen spinach is great to add straight to curries.

We like packs of onion bhajis, samosas, spring rolls etc to make cake away night more exciting.

If I make pancakes, I always do extras for the freezer. Also savoury muffins and sweetcorn fritters.

In our freezer we always have
Peas
Steam fresh veg bags
Smoked haddock
Salmon - I buy large packs of salmon and haddock at Costco , split them into portions and freeze
Mince
Oven chips
Gf birdseye chicken nuggets

Frozen garlic and garlic & ginger cubes (Cocteau fromTesco)

I make sandwiches and freeze, as well as breakfast muffins which can be defrosted overnight. If we have pancakes mix over once everyone has eaten we make the spares up and freeze them too; 30 seconds in the micro next day and they’re a quick breakfast

Always keep milk in the freezer, in all size containers; takes a while to defrost so I have small ones so I’m not more than an hour away from a cuppa in an emergency, but also 4 pinters for defrosting overnight

Peas
Fish fingers
Various breads (naan, pitta, wraps)
berries
herbs (bought fresh and chopped, particularly coriander and parsley)
Whole chillis
Stock

Leftover wine, for use in sauces.
Frozen cranberry sauce.
Bulk cooked (by me) quantities of tomato sauce, saved in usable portions.
Bolognese sauce.
Cheese sauce
Leftover proper gravy, in small pots, for meals for one or two
Frozen fruit of various sorts
Sometimes grated cheeses, in usable quantities (they defrost quickly)
Cake and slices of leftover cake and birthday cake etc
Leftover meat and chicken which I dont have immediate plans for
A bulk order from the butcher, of lean minced beef, chicken portions etc
Legs of lamb when cheap in Tesco
Half or whole salmon, halved, when half price in Tesco.

I have two freezers, one in the kitchen and an old chest freezer in a shed. I live remotely and shop monthly. I keep
Chicken: breasts, thighs, diced, whole, and cooked sliced for fajitas
Beef: mince, diced, stir fry packs, steaks, rolled joints and cooked chopped for sandwiches
Lamb: same as beef
Venison: same as beef
Game: pheasant breasts and whole, pigeon breasts and whole, duck legs and breasts
Pork: same as beef
Veg: peas, corn, beans, sliced peppers, spinach, cauliflower, carrots, diced sweet potato, diced butternut squash, diced swede, ready to roast parsnips
Hth
Potatoes: roasties, mash, hash browns, precooked jackets
Miscellaneous: chillies, herbs, ground coffee, vodka, emergency bread, milk, cheese for cooking

That reminds me, spares loaves of bread and small easily defrosted containers of milk

There's 2 of us, so I use mine for things like h/m tomato sauce, onion gravy etc that I cook in large quantities & freeze in portions.
Also, ingredients like pesto, yellow bean sauce, etc that won't last for very long in the fridge once opened. Packs of 4-6 tiny plastic tubs are in £ shops.

Just thought of a few more having read your other replies: breadcrumbs (I blitz the end of the loaf if we’ve bought fresh unsliced), grated mozzarella, pastry (ready rolled puff pastry slices, sometimes filo), sliced lemon & lime, fresh ginger if any leftover, just grate from frozen.

Thank you so much for all these ideas. So many of them stop waste too - love the theme of freezing leftover wine / gravy / pesto / other sauces. And also looking for special offers on fish / meat and portioning it up. Really smart. X

I always have a supply of beige food for the kids for when I can't be arsed -

Chips
Hash browns
Quorn nuggets
Fish fingers
Waffles
Scampi
Burgers
Sausages

And always have

Peas
Edamame beans
Chopped garlic, ginger, chilli
Mediterranean vegetables

If I spot reduced items that can be frozen I'll always buy them.

There's also always something that I've batch cooked - at the moment a LOT of soup.

As well as many of the other things suggested, we always have a couple of pizzas, a couple of Cook meals and some of those cook from frozen pastries

Bread - both bog-standard sliced loaves and when I go mad and buy a spenny sourdough I slice half of it and stick it in the freezer for toast. Also naan bread.

Berries, peas, sweet corn (SO much nicer than tinned) and spinach. Chopped garlic, ginger, onion and coriander.

Milk! We're a mile from a shop so it's really nippy to have to nip out for just a pint of milk, I get a milk delivery now but before that I always had a couple of litres in the freezer. In plastic bottles, obvs.

The rest is batch cooking/freezing bargain meat and fish. Oh and I occasionally get a box of curries from a place in Manchester that I freeze and have instead of takeaways. Before I discovered them, I pretty much always had an M & S or Waitrose full Indian in the freezer - I find them nicer/cheaper/healthier than a takeaway and no more work.

These are my essentials.
Peas, sweetcorn, green beans, mixed veg, spinach.
Chicken breasts and boneless thighs (buy fresh and split into individual portions).
Good quality sausages (again, I split packs into individual portions)
Frozen breaded haddock and salmon fillets for OH.
Batch cooked curries, mince, casseroles, etc - there's only 2 of us so I often make a 4 portion recipe and freeze 2 portions in recycled takeaway boxes.
Coriander - I buy a massive bunch, wash it and spin in the salad spinner then chop and freeze loose in a bag. I can then add to curries straight from frozen.
Fresh ginger. Peel and cut into appropriate sized chunks then freeze loose in a bag. Can be grated and chucked into the pan straight from frozen.
Ice cream. I need a small tub of ice cream in there, just in case (has to be Mackies vanilla).