Going Away For Vacation Is The Perfect Opportunity To Do This With Your Food

You've grabbed your passport and organized your carry-on, but before you head to the airport, there are a few tasks you should do to prep your kitchen before vacation. And one of the most important is to take some extra time to prepare and freeze any food leftover in your fridge. While it might be annoying, this chore provides the perfect opportunity to do a quick inventory of your chilled food and assess what can be discarded, saved for later, or prepped into an entire freezer meal.

First, scan the shelves and crisper drawers for any items that need to be discarded, such as moldy cheeses, rotten vegetables, or a limp bag of salad leaves that have no hope of recovery. Then you can get to grips with prepping and freezing what's left. For example, cheese that hasn't passed its expiry date can be shredded, packed into an airtight container, labelled, and frozen.

Leftover milk can also be frozen in ice cube trays and simply thawed when you return home. Alternatively, any milk in a plastic carton that hasn't been opened can be frozen as long as there's room inside for it to expand. Bear in mind that there is a textural difference in thawed versus fresh milk, but the taste is indistinguishable, making it perfect for use in smoothies and sauces. Fresh juice is perfect for freezing too, and can last between 12-16 months in the freezer as long as you store it in a clean container. Similarly, deli meats can be stuffed into leftover bread rolls and turned into freezer sammies.

While you might be tempted to discard any eggs that are nearing their expiry date, you can crack them into a freezer-safe container, give them a quick mix, and freeze. Better yet, turn them into freezer-friendly breakfast burritos by scrambling them up with any vegetables or cheeses, stuffing them into a tortilla, and wrapping them in foil. Vegetables, like carrots, celery, and onions, can be whizzed up in a food processor and frozen to create a ready-made mirepoix or soffritto that you can pop into pasta sauces and stews. Fruit can be chopped into chunks and frozen to make smoothies or the base for cobblers and slumps.

Got any cuts of meat that will go bad before you arrive home from your trip? Consider making a slow cooker dump bag for the freezer. All you need to do is place your meat and vegetables into a freezer bag with an accompanying sauce and label. When you get back, thaw one of the bags in the fridge and pop the contents into the slow cooker to create a delicious homemade meal. This crockpot chicken sesame recipe makes an awesome dump bag if you have several chicken breasts in your fridge that are at risk of spoiling. You can, however, combine almost any protein, vegetables, and sauce to make a personalized slow-cooked meal with food that would otherwise be discarded.