Some great tips...thanks for posting!

You can also freeze ginger root.

Thanks for this!

For marinara, I've actually found a different way around the muffin cup/tin method. I was making a bunch of marinara and didn't have enough cups, nor did I want to experiment with getting the frozen marinara out of a muffin tin.

I found that if I let the marinara cool completely and then let sit in the fridge for several hours or a day, it thickens very nicely. I take a sheet pan and put a silicone mat on it, then drop spoonfuls of sauce on it. The sauce isn't super thick, but it has enough surface tension to not run all over the mat. I put the whole thing in the freezer, then peel off the frozen hunks of marinara when I'm done and put them in a freezer bag.

53katein is right: I freeze ginger all the time. I'm tired of finding fresh ginger either wizened or moldy in my fridge, so I routinely throw it into the freezer now.

The texture does suffer, but I use this to my advantage for stir-fries and dressings. I put a thawed chunk of ginger into my garlic press and squeeeeeeeze. All the juice streams out beautifully and the net of fibers stays in the garlic press, so the dish gets a good jolt of ginger flavor without mincing, mincing, mincing.

Two more things to freeze: shredded zucchini for zucchini bread or cake, and berries/fruit for making jelly. Freezing ruptures the cell walls and allows the juices to escape; sometimes you want to use the juice and sometimes you want the pulp. The shredded zucchini has too much water and makes the bread soggy if used fresh. Freeze it, then thaw in a colander in the sink. The excess moisture drains away and you end up with lighter zucchini bread. For the berries or other fruit, freeze, then drain in a jelly bag or cheesecloth in a strainer over a bowl. The juice comes out of berries easily without the need to cook them.

Veggies aren't the only thing you can save for stock. We keep bones and trimmings from steaks, roasts, chicken, etc., in labeled tubs until there's enough for a pot of stock. My favorite is stock from Huli-huli barbequed chicken.

i think i want to buy a bigger freezer JUST SO I can store all this food!

@elsa macbekin

you can also grate frozen ginger, I find that works pretty well

I also love to freeze individual (and larger) portions of unbanked casseroles, soups, etc. That way when I don't feel like cooking, I have something healthy around. Oh, and pesto in ice cube trays!

You can freeze bananas too. They get brown and mushy - perfect for banana bread.

@ HRRI - agreed! Just make sure you take the peel off the banana before freezing...

I make breadcrumbs with herbs and grated parmesean and freeze that in baggies - perfect for making a tasty chicken milanese when I want it.

And if you make more chicken than you can eat, just freeze those for use later.

I peel fresh ginger, slice it into chunks, and throw it into a jar of sherry that I keep in the fridge. It keeps forever, and you can use the gingered sherry to add flavor to other dishes.

I've always had a freezer filled to the hilt with homemade goodies and exotic ingredients, but then this summer, we had a power failure that lasted almost a week (DC area). There went all my hard work! (But at least my fridge/freezer is cleaned out.)

Who ever has orphan cookie dough?

I freeze the extra tomato paste in ice cube trays, baggies of granola, cubed leftover baked ham for pizzas and casseroles, bags of fresh cranberries at Thanksgiving for muffins later, zucchini or banana pancakes for my toddler daughter so I always have a 'meal' on hand, homemade chicken nuggets (see weelicious), unbaked cinnamon buns, unbaked rolls of cookie dough (slice and bake - they take up less room this way)...

I love having a stocked freezer!

EXACTLY! LOL