Packaging Food for the Freezer

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One of the challenges of freezer cooking is to make sure that you are packaging meals or components for meals properly. Here are some of the items I use and how I put them to use...

 Ball Jar 8-Ounce Plastic Freezer Jars are great for freezer smoothies (stay tuned later in the month when I will post about freezer smoothies) and for sauces that go with certain meals.  I tend to use them for the sauce that I make for baked sweet and sour chicken.  They are also good for packaging marinades.

I use Ziploc bags for meals that aren't in casserole form.  Like crockpot macaroni and cheese, soups, meat in a marinade, etc. The baggies are also good for packaging calzones, burritos, pizza rolls, etc.

I tend to limit meals that need specific dishes (lasagna, quiche, etc.) as I only have a set amount of dishes around.  Whenever I do a meal in a dish I cover it with plastic wrap and then with foil.  If you can put the plastic wrap against the actually food that further prevents freezer burn.  It tends to protect it better from freezer burn.  I have found that the following wraps are the BEST for wrapping up freezer meals. In my humble opinion all the others are useless. 
Stretch Tite Plastic Food Wrap

Freeze-tite Plastic Freezer Wrap

And finally, the MOST IMPORTANT part of freezer cooking...labeling your food!

 If a meal is in a dish then I use masking tape and Sharpies to label it.  If the meal is in a Ziploc then a Sharpie will suffice.  Basically, I hold the belief that you can't freezer cook without a Sharpie! Actually, I take that back.  You can do freezer meals without them it is just that you will be having "freezer mystery meals"! Ha! This is my favorite set of Sharpies that I use for labeling.

So how do you package your meals?