Why I like lots of Freezer Space...

lornaschinske · 10-10-2012, 05:25 PM

I've noticed that many folks don't think too much of putting a good sized freezer in their bus. I like having a large freezer (12 cf) with a little refrigerator. I can buy larger packages of food and freeze it. I can make fewer trips to the grocery store (I never get out of there for less than $60). It basically saves me a fair amount of money. I can also cook up several batches of food and freeze it for "fast food" meals later. For example:

We went grocery shopping on Monday morning. I cooked up 4 nice sized pot roasts (cut in half first to make 8 smaller "pot roast for two") and we had one for supper Monday night (with instant mashed taters). The other 7 ended up in the freezer (divied up the gravy) in ziplock freezer bags. Now we have thaw, heat & eat pot roast without having to cook for hours. Instead I popped everything into a few steam table pans (we have a pile of those things) and cooked them for 3 hours. I had to heat up the big oven just to cook one, so why not cook several? Saves on LP! Saves on my time too!

Tuesday.... froze the sliced pork steaks (we like the flavour) without cooking them (4 meals). We like to cook Rice-a-roni and toss a couple pork chops/steaks or chicken in when we add the water to the rice. Cook for the length of time on the package and the meat is cooked thru and very tender. Also baked 12 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs along with a 2pound bag of brown rice (about 19 to 20 cups cooked rice all total) at the same time. Had part of the rice for supper with part of the baked chicken. Ended up with 8 packages of chicken in the freezer and 8 pkgs of cooked brown rice too.

Tonight (Wednesday), I divy up the 10lb pkg of 90/10 ground beef. I'll make 4 smallish meatloaves (2lbs ground beef), double batch of my enchiladas (2 pounds ground beef) and freeze the rest raw for hamburgers, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, etc.

By having a freezer, I can cook multiple meals, eat one, freeze the rest. Saves us fuel since I only run the oven once for two or more meals (we thaw and heat the pre-cooked stuff in the microwave). Saves us time as making a double (or more) recipe takes very little more work than putting together a single batch. Oven cooked rice comes out perfect every time. Nukes in just a few minutes in the microwave. Saves us money on LP and keeps us out of making fast/expensive trips to Wal-Mart/Sam's Clubs/restaurants for a fast meal. We eat a little better. On the weeks when I work a full day, I often don't feel like cooking. Sometimes we are busy and forget to take something out for supper. This way we just pull something already cooked out of the freezer.

Three nights of cooking that I had to do anyway yielded:
7 cooked Pot Roasts w/gravy
8 pkgs cooked chicken thighs
8 (2 cup) pkgs oven cooked brown rice
4 meatloaves
several pkgs of enchiladas (2 per single serving pkg... neat for lunches and quick suppers)

Happiness is a full freezer! Saves time & money if you use it right. As working fulltimers (on a budget), the larger freezer is a very important appliance. It's one of the things that I insisted we incorporate in the bus... along with a 30" residential style gas range. I've cooked with an RV range from 2006 thru 2011. The oven sucked and used more LP than the 30" range does.

bansil · 10-10-2012, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

I've noticed that many folks don't think too much of putting a good sized freezer in their bus. I like having a large freezer (12 cf) with a little refrigerator. I can buy larger packages of food and freeze it. I can make fewer trips to the grocery store (I never get out of there for less than $60). It basically saves me a fair amount of money. I can also cook up several batches of food and freeze it for "fast food" meals later. For example:

We went grocery shopping on Monday morning. I cooked up 4 nice sized pot roasts (cut in half first to make 8 smaller "pot roast for two") and we had one for supper Monday night (with instant mashed taters). The other 7 ended up in the freezer (divied up the gravy) in ziplock freezer bags. Now we have thaw, heat & eat pot roast without having to cook for hours. Instead I popped everything into a few steam table pans (we have a pile of those things) and cooked them for 3 hours. I had to heat up the big oven just to cook one, so why not cook several? Saves on LP! Saves on my time too!

Tuesday.... froze the sliced pork steaks (we like the flavour) without cooking them (4 meals). We like to cook Rice-a-roni and toss a couple pork chops/steaks or chicken in when we add the water to the rice. Cook for the length of time on the package and the meat is cooked thru and very tender. Also baked 12 pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs along with a 2pound bag of brown rice (about 19 to 20 cups cooked rice all total) at the same time. Had part of the rice for supper with part of the baked chicken. Ended up with 8 packages of chicken in the freezer and 8 pkgs of cooked brown rice too.

Tonight (Wednesday), I divy up the 10lb pkg of 90/10 ground beef. I'll make 4 smallish meatloaves (2lbs ground beef), double batch of my enchiladas (2 pounds ground beef) and freeze the rest raw for hamburgers, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, etc.

By having a freezer, I can cook multiple meals, eat one, freeze the rest. Saves us fuel since I only run the oven once for two or more meals (we thaw and heat the pre-cooked stuff in the microwave). Saves us time as making a double (or more) recipe takes very little more work than putting together a single batch. Oven cooked rice comes out perfect every time. Nukes in just a few minutes in the microwave. Saves us money on LP and keeps us out of making fast/expensive trips to Wal-Mart/Sam's Clubs/restaurants for a fast meal. We eat a little better. On the weeks when I work a full day, I often don't feel like cooking. Sometimes we are busy and forget to take something out for supper. This way we just pull something already cooked out of the freezer.

Three nights of cooking that I had to do anyway yielded:
7 cooked Pot Roasts w/gravy
8 pkgs cooked chicken thighs
8 (2 cup) pkgs oven cooked brown rice
4 meatloaves
several pkgs of enchiladas (2 per single serving pkg... neat for lunches and quick suppers)

Happiness is a full freezer! Saves time & money if you use it right. As working fulltimers (on a budget), the larger freezer is a very importwant appliance. It's one of the things that I insisted we incorporate in the bus... along with a 30" resnidential style gas range. I've cooked with an RV range from 2006 thru 2011. The oven sucked and used more LP than the 30" range does.

And I thought it was only for ice cream sandwhiches and shwans tamalies

We do the same beef tenderloin on sale is still $$ but when you cut it up and freeze it in 2" thick steaks its cheaper than other cuts we don't like.
And corn,cabbage okra everything from the garden gets canned or frozen.
We don't have time to precook meals tho...we talk about it all the time...but work 2 sets of parents to take care of etc...no time

lornaschinske · 10-10-2012, 08:15 PM

I spent very little "extra" time cooking the "extra" food. The enchiladas took a ridiculous amount of time to make (all that dipping, scooping and rolling... I don't fry up the tortillas to soften). It's also why I don't make enchiladas very often. What I have ended up with is over 30 days of meals (suppers & lunches) for two at a total cost of $200. If it weren't for the freezer, we could not have done that since we eat a lot of meat. I also rank grocery shopping right down there with washing dishes, doing laundry and cleaning the "house". Only good thing about cooking is I like the results.

It's not for everyone. But if you are interested in keeping your costs down once you move into your bus, you need to build in some things while in the construction phase. It's kind of like the folks who want to add PV panels at some point... they build in that ability now. Hard to save $$ on groceries by buying in bulk when you have no place to store the food.

We also planned space for a washer and LP dryer. While it doesn't save that much $$, it does save time. Coin laundry eats $3.50 per load to wash & dry. Even buying used machines (which we will) at roughly $350 per set it will take 100 loads to break even. Worth it to me. Also this is one of the cheapest places to do laundry we have found so far. I've paid as high as $2.50 for a single load washer.... we won't discuss the lousy dryers. FINDING a laundromat has proved to be a challenge in some places. I never realized that they are scarce in some towns.

Now I have to go get the meatloaves out of the oven. Enchiladas for supper... they are cooked, cooled a little and ready to eat.

lornaschinske · 11-13-2012, 02:05 PM

Picked up this link for Friday Food Storage Not-Quite-So Quickie – $5 Week Beginner Food Storage from one of the freebie ebooks on Amazon (I have freebie Kindle for PCs for freebie and 99¢ books) the book is The Modern Kitchen Pantry: How to Design, Create and Use Your Pantry it was free but isn't now.

The Friday Night Food Storage is a good tip for stocking a pantry on a tight budget.

BTW, I use the free e-books to peruse cookbooks looking for recipes. I have a problem with most cookbooks. They have only a few recipes that are easy, fast and cheap enough for me to make. So buying a cookbook isn't a great idea for me. Plus they take up too much space.

lornaschinske · 11-13-2012, 02:25 PM

A side note: Please do not eat an undercooked or raw kidney bean. At best you will spend many hours getting rid of the bean from both ends. At worst, after making yourself so sick that you wish you were dead, you will be.

gbstewart · 11-13-2012, 05:22 PM

I think Ill pass on the whole freezer thing, Im just going to go to Lornas and Daves bus to eat!

gbstewart

bansil · 11-13-2012, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbstewart

I think Ill pass on the whole freezer thing, Im just going to go to Lornas and Daves bus to eat!

gbstewart

X2

lornaschinske · 11-13-2012, 06:25 PM

Oh darn, being out here in NM, we're just so far from everyone! Guess you'll have to eat at someone else's house!

gbstewart · 11-13-2012, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

Oh darn, being out here in NM, we're just so far from everyone! Guess you'll have to eat at someone else's house!

your not that far out your only 1712 miles (30.5 hours) from me , just around the corner

gbstewart

lornaschinske · 11-14-2012, 10:25 AM

Yet it took us 11 days on the road to get out here! That doesn't count the time we stayed resting in the campground. But we also weren't in a hurry to get anywhere except in an air conditioned place.

Viola Sororia · 03-03-2017, 11:22 AM

I'm sort of broke so I was thinking about building a dehydrator (and possibly buying a cold smoker) and making extra room for dehydrated and smoked foods. But how does the freezer work for you? Is there a lot of mantenience involved and does it use a lot of power, and how much did it cost up front?

DreamWeaverBus · 06-25-2017, 12:33 AM

It may not be very big, but I'm planning space to be used for a small chest freezer, and a small fridge. The space above them will be pantry. Having a good amount of food stored is important to me too.

As for dehydrators, I have a good old one, and plan to use it often. Cannot WAIT to have my own kitchen again, cook and eat exactly the way best for me, oh that'll be nice lol

As for washer and dryer, my washer will be the small tub I'll have and my dryer will be a drying rack and a fan. I have a lot of clothes and I prolly won't get rid of much of it, so the space taken up by such large appliances, as well as the water and electricity it will cost, isn't worth it to me. I might get a laundry pod though. Could also hang a line. We all have different wattage priorities if we're going solar, mine are cooking, entertainment systems, and hot water.

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