Wednesday 17 October 2018

Supermarket Freezer Food.


How often have you walked past the supermarket freezer section and been dazzled by it's contents ? I used to be like that as a newly wed about 18 - 19 years ago. My cooking skills were limited so those prepacked, pre prepared foods looked like heaven to me. 

I'll admit that I bought a frozen lasagne or two. I also bought frozen sticky date puddings, a cheese cake or two, a few pizzas, apple pies, a few frozen meals as well as the staples like frozen vegies, icecream and fish.

At the time, these frozen foods tasted very nice. Divine infact. Then I saw the light or should I say recipe books and the internet. These two sources of information opened up a whole new world to me. I found easy to follow recipes that used normal everyday ingredients. Suddenly that frozen sticky date pudding that I thought was " oh so yummy " didn't have the same appeal any more. I could make it better and cheaper.

I now freeze my own lasagne, leftovers ( my version of a freezer meal ), sticky date puddings in muffin sizes, pizza dough to make my own pizzas and stewed apple to make apple desserts. My grocery budget has shrunk as a result of making my own and I enjoy my own food far more than anything made in a factory.

These days, the only things I buy from the freezer section are bags of fish portions ( not crumbed ) , icecream ( plain vanilla ), pastry ( to make my own yummies ) and beans and corn kernels. Everything else we either grow, bake or cook ourselves. 


The next time you walk past the supermarket freezers, have a think about making these foods yourself. Your family will be thanking you for it and you'll notice a change in your grocery budget.








14 comments:

  1. Debby in Kansas, USA17 October 2018 at 09:37

    I'm not one for buying the actual prepared meals, though I have bought a party lasagna once or twice for a crowd. I do buy frozen vegetables, tho.
    I tried gardening for two years and really didn't enjoy it. Plus, we have loads of wild bunnies and it really turned into a salad bar for them.

    I can make plenty of my own things to freeze, aside from those. Now that the weather is cooling, our freezer stash has already started to grow.

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    1. Sometimes it's almost impossible to grow your own - or it takes a lot of hard work.

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  2. Snap...I only buy frozen corn kernels, peas and a small amount of icecream as I usually make my own. Yet my freezer is full- of meals I make myself.So much cheaper and tastier. I sometimes yen for something storebought or a takeaway but they are not to my taste or price.

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  3. Very timely! This morning I was given 10 round Asiago cheese focaccia breads! I cut them in half to make 2 round pieces that became the bases for 19 personal pizzas. I took chopped onions and bell peppers that I had previously frozen and home canned pineapple to use as toppings! Marinara sauce from my pantry too! I flash froze the personal pizzas and then packed then in recycled ziploc bags and loaded into my freezer for future use!
    I made broccoli cheddar soup for dinner last night using broccoli that I had frozen 3 months ago!
    I love the convenience and time and money savings that come from filling my freezer with “DIY” freezer meals and components! You definitely have the right idea, Wendy! Well done!!

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    Replies
    1. I love homemade pizzas too. So much better than a boxed one.

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  4. You are doing well, but you could also make your own pastry. I make my own short crust pastry always, but only buy puff pastry if I feel I need that (which I seldom do.) It's easy, just remember it's half fat to flour, so a cup of fat, would be two cups of flour, or 4 oz of fat would be 8 oz of flour. Rub the fat into the flour and bind with water or a with an egg and a little milk if necessary. Allow to rest in the fridge (wrapped in foil) for 1/2 hr and then roll out thinly. Job done and you know what's in it, no preservatives or anything. It doesn't take long once you get the hang of it.
    I feel very fortunate that I learned to cook at an early age, taught first by my mother and then at school in Domestic Science (as it was called in those days) lessons. I was married before such wonderful things as lasagnes were in the supermarket freezers. Freezers were something of a new thing in the early 1960s when I married and as we didn't have a freezer at home to put the things in, I didn't buy anything from them. Now I only buy frozen peas, frozen fruits-of-the-forest for crumbles (during the winter) and ice cream.
    My favourite things to make, though, are soups. Easy, tasty and nourishing!
    Margaret P
    www.margaretpowling.com

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Yes I could make my own pastry but I do make so many other things that most people wouldn't. Puff pastry is the only pastry I use and that is for the odd meat pie or if I make quiches / sausage rolls to sell.

      If I had more hours in the day ......

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  5. I agree. It is better to fill your freezer with home cooked treats.

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  6. A frozen pizza is nice now and then (like last night; I was trying to take it easy as per my physical therapist's instructions, so we went that route), but I prefer to make my own, along with just about everything else. I do buy frozen ice cream and frozen vegetables, but that's really all I can think of!

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  7. I buy very little frozen food and prefer to make my own. Actually I dislike processed food, to expensive, too much salt.

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  8. I actually don't like frozen things. I never have. I only buy frozen salmon from a cheap grocery chain and tin tuna from there and peas. I don't eat sweets. The vegetables that you get on the size is too small for me anyway. On the one occasion I bought a diet TV dinner. Now I shop what's on sale from already reduced store. Great Ideas Wendy. Sonia

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  9. At Costco I bought reusable, lidded,take-away containers that are very similar to the ones that frozen meals come in(30 for $6 US). I'm used to cooking for 7 but now we only have three so even if I cut the meals in half I often have one extra serving. Now we put it in one of the take-away containers, label it with blue tape and freeze for a quick lunch or a fast dinner for the three of us once we have enough. I know that you do something similar, Wendy. Since there is two sections in the container sometimes I will fill it later when I have an extra side dish serving.-Kathryn in Washington-US

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  10. So true Wendy. There's very little that we buy from the freezer these days, but we do like frozen crinkle cut chips ;-) Mimi xxx

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