Cooking your meals from scratch generates a lot of ingredients. Nuts, seeds, and gluten-free grains should be stored in the freezer to help maximize their shelf life. I thought it may help to see what’s inside my freezer. Over time this is how a Recipes for Repair freezer may evolve.

Note the following:

• I buy and store my baking ingredients in labeled jars on the freezer door (see image). I find that some of the bags that the flours and grains come in are brittle and can make a mess. So this method helps prevent potential spills.
• I like to cook bulk so that on the days we get home late or one that I just am not in the mood to cook from scratch I can pull out a frozen homemade meal. I store them in large glass tupperware or even better, in vacuum sealed bags using my Foodsaver. You’ll see a number of vacuum sealed bags containing muffins, veggies, Sloppy Joe mix, to name a few.
• I also shop in bulk and when there is a big sale I stock up on ingredients that I know I will use, thus the large supply of frozen fruit!
• The ice cream bowl that attaches to my Kitchen Aid stand mixer is always frozen in case I crave ice cream. I can simply just pull it out and make one of the recipes from the book.
• Whenever we have a chicken dinner I am sure to make stock with the carcass so that I always have a supply of chicken stock in the freezer. I store it in freezer-safe jars. If I need some stock I take out a jar and run it under hot water until the frozen liquid thaws enough to put it in a pot. I thaw as much as I need and then put the remainder back in the jar and in the freezer.
• A good habit to get into is to label your jars, bags and containers so that you can easily identify the contents of each. I also date mine so I am sure to use the oldest first. It’s also helpful to leave a list hanging on the side of the fridge that notes what you are storing in there and when it was made. This helps eliminate the need to pull everything out of the freezer to see if you have something.