Favorite Freezer Containers

[ekortering]

Glad?
Ziploc?
Rubbermaid?
Dollar Store kind?

I have been using freezer bags, but they aren't working very well for me. I am trying to cut my grocery budget a bit and am batch cooking more so I need cheap and durable containers.

[Hollysmom]

I use either Glad or Ziploc containers or old margerine, sour cream or yogurt tubs. I label them with the name of the item and the date on a piece of masking tape so I know what is in there and what I should use first. I find they stack up nicely in the freezer.

hth

[TwinMom]

Well, they're not cheap, but I LOVE real Tupperware. In fact, I even became a consultant, not because I want to sell Tupperware (ugh!), but because I wanted a discount for ordering stuff for myself!

[Cinnamon]

I use Tupperware. And I will tell you why...

I was thinking that I don't need to mess with freezer containers until I cooked a big pot of stew and portioned it off in freezer bags. I asked dh to please put them in the freezer.

Weeks later I looked for the stew and I couldn't believe my eyes. He had thrown the bags on the only wire shelf in the whole freezer instead of on the glass shelfs. The bags slipped through the rack and expanded around the wire as they froze. It took force and hot water to pry those bags out of the freezer without having to defrost the whole thing.

That was the day I ordered a whole set of Tupperware freezer containers :LOL

Cinnamon

[VikingKvinna]

One thing I like to do is to freeze the casserole or soup or whatever in the Gladware container (you can also do this right in, say, your loaf pan or glass lasagna dish or casserole dish) and then pop it out and into a freezer bag once it's frozen solid. That way, the food still is in stackable blocks and good-sized portions, but you free up the plastic container to use again for freezer cooking or for everyday storage. If you are doing this with the glass baking dish, then you take the lasagna (for example) and pop it right back into the glass dish for baking, but in the meantime the dish isn't tied up in the freezer.

The only kinds of containers I really shy away from are the no-name, Dollar-store variety. IME they just don't seal as well, or the lids are impossible to get off once on, or they warp in the microwave (yuck!).

HTH!
~Nick