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Freezer Cooking With Limited Space



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yonah




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 03 2014, 5:25 pm
As DH and I are both working people with tough jobs (I only work till 3 but come home exhausted). I love the concept of freezer cooking. Especially come winter time when Shabbat starts at 4 and I'll have no time to do anything on Fri, but also for during the week when I have no energy to cook fresh.

Problem is, I only have a refrigerator freezer that is usually stocked with raw ingredients like chicken, meat, and fish, and I feel that this is a good use of the space as we can't always get somewhere that has those things at good prices.

So how do I incorporate freezer cooking when we don't have a lot of space?

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner suggestions appreciated too. Thanks!
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 03 2014, 5:43 pm
Do you have any room for a stand alone freezer? They come in lots of sizes.

To maximize space, it's best to freeze what you can in ziplocks rather than in pans. My mother even does that with soup sometimes.

Do you have time to partially prep food ahead and freeze but cook fresh? Try cleaning raw chicken and freezing flat in a marinade. Then transfer to the fridge to defrost the night before you want it and pour into a pan and bake as soon as you get home the next day.

How big is your family? When I make a kugel, I split one recipe into a couple of loaf pans and freeze the ones we don't need for that week.
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myself




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 03 2014, 5:55 pm
As Rutabaga suggested, you can prepare the raw food items for cooking so that they are ready with minimal preparation. Prepare the chicken with spices in a roasting bag or tray or if you bread chicken cutlets then bread before freezing. I usually bread them and then quick freeze them flat on a tray so that they don't stick to one another. Once frozen transfer to a ziplock bag to save space. You can prepare fish in that way too.

Though, from experience as a full time working mom, I do suggest you purchase another freezer if at all possible. They come in many different sizes so perhaps something will fit your space. I find it almost impossible without a freezer especially when it comes to Yom Tov time.
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RachelEve14




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 04 2014, 10:08 am
As others have suggested, you can prep raw things so they go in ready or almost ready to be cooked. Another thing I have found very handy is zip lock freezer bags. You can put a (raw, cut) chicken in with the maranade, freeze flat, and put in the fridge the day before. You just need to dump in a pan and cook when you get home (google dump chicken recipes, there are tons). Meatballs I flash freeze on plates and then put in a gallon ziplock, same with snitzels (already cooked). I find the bags I can shove in easier than flat tupperwares. Also soup can be cooked, cooled, and then frozen flat with the air out. Once frozen you can line them up and label them (careful sometimes there are tiny holes in the ziplock, I defrost them in a pot just to be sure they don't leak all over when they start to melt).
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 04 2014, 12:36 pm
Another vote for prepared raw dishes. I happen to think many things taste better that way. We are a small family so I use 8x8s and 16 oz containers that take up less space. I have a standard over the fridge freezer and I find it holds a decent amount if organized properly.
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yonah




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 04 2014, 11:12 pm
Looks like prepped raw dishes will be the way to go.

And I should have mentioned it in the OP, but buying an additional freezer isn't an option unfortunately. Not budget wise (we can definitely afford one) but space wise. It's just me and DH and we live in a one bedroom, that, while spacious compared to some, is severely lacking in the kitchen department. Though yom tov isn't a concern as much because we're still in that stage of going to family.

I already freeze chicken soup for Shabbat, though we don't usually have soup in the summer. And homemade marinara when I make it.

mha, that's my main concern though - any tips for that organization? My freezer space doesn't have a lot of built in organization.
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mha3484




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 04 2014, 11:24 pm
I have small square pans of chicken/meat stacked on top of each other and 16oz containers of soup on the top shelf.

On the bottom shelf is bags of shredded cheese, frozen veggies and anything milchig I've made extras of.
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 05 2014, 12:11 am
No one ever said that an extra freezer had to go in the kitchen.

When I was first married we lived in a studio apartment in student housing. Space was at a premium, but we needed an extra freezer because there was no kosher supermarket nearby and we needed to freeze weeks worth of chicken and meat and cheese and whatever else we couldn't buy locally. We bought a freezer that was a decent size, but low enough that I could reach the top easily. That's where I lit candles for a couple of years because I had no other surface to use. It worked for us.

You could put a chest freezer in your living room and throw a long tablecloth over it and no one would ever know that it wasn't an end table.
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myself




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 05 2014, 5:38 am
Our extra freezer wasn't in the kitchen either. We purchased a small chest freezer and kept it covered with a nice little tablecloths so it didn't look out of place.
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busydev




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 05 2014, 1:06 pm
and we have our freezer in the bedroom. used to be in ours- now its in the kids- they have a small alcove where it fits and dh built shelving to go on top of it for further storage.
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cbg




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 05 2014, 1:20 pm
Buying a separate freezer was one of the BEST investments we made. Even though we couldn't spare the cash at the time. I bought mine at a scratch and dent sale for 1/2 the price. Brand new, but it had a dent on the side.
It's in my garage.
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Maybe




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 28 2018, 11:46 am
Invest in square containers, gain aprox 25% more space vs round ones.
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mom!




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 28 2018, 12:15 pm
Love this thread! I also only have one small freezer with no space for a bigger freezer. Invest in one of those freezer storage bins, all my ziplock bags with kneidlach, cleaned pieces of chicken, flanken for cholent ect go in there. This is placed in the corner of the top shelf. Near that is piled high packaged of raw chickens and meats. Boxes of fish sticks for kids squeezed on the side.
Bottom shelf is pans of food, raw or cooked, ices squeezed in between pans. The door is for containers of soup, garlic cubes, cheese, small containers of food (think sloppy joes, sauces ect) bags of fries ect.
Good luck!
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lfab




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 28 2018, 12:41 pm
As others have said, an extra freezer doesn't have to go in the kitchen. When we were still in an apartmentwe had an extra freezer first in the kid's room and then moved to our room when we needed more space in their room for another child. I've seen quite a few people who do this when living in small spaces. Getting an extra freezer was a life saver for me!
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