What foods should be frozen and what should be refrigerated?

Question

Looking to really step up my cooking game to go from unhealthy prepackaged food to fresh nutritional meals. Only question is when I’m planning out meals, what can I by that can be refrigerated and what can I by that can be frozen? I know the basics, don’t freeze fish, fruits, or vegetables, but other than that what can I do to guarantee freshness without shipping every day?

Gammy · Answer

Great that you want to move away from prepared foods to home cooked meals!   Do your research as Nancy suggests. A lot also depends upon on how long you expect to keep foods in the refrigerator or freezer.  I freeze berries. If you need to keep bread longer than a day or two, freeze, rather than put in the refrigerator, it will keep for a month and if sliced, you can remove only the number of pieces you need. With only 2 in our household, I will make a recipe that serves 4-6 and will portion out, label and freeze for a busy night's dinner.

Nancy · Answer

Congrats on your new cooking and eating program.
Your question needs a big answer.
Rather than reinvent the wheel here, suggest you look on line and in basic cookbooks (Joy of cooking, how to cook everything by bittman, greens and other books for vegetarian, child bertholle and beck for French, hazan for Italian) for directions on what keep at room temp, to chill, what to freeze and for how long.
Huffpost and others have lists of what NOT to freeze...e.g., milk, fried food, crumb toppings.
If you don't want to buy cookbook(s) at the outset, use local library or internet sources for a start.
Good luck! :)

What foods should be frozen and what should be refrigerated?

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