You should understand how your freezer is actually a productivity tool, meant to reduce decision fatigue and increase focus through your week.
Once you do, you’ll unlock hours every week, which can be re-applied to growing your business. I learned the hard way (so you don’t have to), by spending 1,000+ hours in my ship’s deep freezer when I was a Chef in the Military.
The recurring nightmare of almost being crushed by 400 lbs of frozen corn dogs taught me a few lessons I’ll share with you today.
Stop making EVERY meal fresh:
Spending your time making 21 meals for the week is a waste (and leads to burn out).
You’re going to make all these meals, but:
You’ll get sick of eating them halfway through the week
The meals get soggy sitting in the fridge
They stop tasting as fresh after day 3
These meals will not bring joy
Instead, you should freeze a few meals each week (by making extra portions). I guarantee they will taste 3x as fresh as a meal prep that has been sitting in your fridge for days.
Each week you make extra portions of whatever batch recipe you’re making, you’ll slowly build up a freezer inventory that will start to save you time. It takes a few weeks for this to happen, but once it does you’ll be praising your freezer. Think about those weeknights you come home with no bandwidth to figure out a fresh dinner (and you’re sick of takeout).
Boom, pop in a freezer portion and heat it up. Now:
You no longer deal with the decision fatigue of figuring out “what’s for dinner”
You don’t have to waste money on adhoc delivery food (or the calories)
Your freezer has an ROI on it that you probably haven’t fully tapped into yet.
Leverage your freezer the RIGHT way:
Spending hours in my deep freezer back in the day, I learned very fast how much food we could store AND how to organize it properly.
One framework we had drilled into us in culinary school was “FIFO”.
First
In
First
Out
“First in, first out” means whatever you put in the freezer last week, comes out before whatever you put in this week. The typical frozen meal can last for 3-6 months. But using the FIFO method you’ll ensure your frozen food cycles out properly and you don’t let anything expire.
You can of course take things out in a slightly different order, but generally focus on using your oldest meals first. If you want to change it up because you don’t want to eat the frozen lasagna two times in a row…then do so, just keep in mind you shouldn’t break this rule too often. Unless you want to toss out all your hard work once things begin to expire.
I recommend labeling your freezer meals with 3 non-negotiable details:
What the food is, keeping in mind if anyone has dietary restrictions in the house
Date the food was made in a simple Month/Day/Year format
Date the food expires (usually 3-6 months after it’s made)
Your freezer can reduce your decision fatigue:
Gone are the weeknights asking “what’s for dinner” once you put what you learned here into action. The freezer can be one of your most productive tools for your work week, if used wisely.
Start slowly with one extra portion of food per week that you can freeze, then by the end of the month you’ll have 4 frozen meals ready for those busy nights. Make sure to account for these meals during your 10-minute Sunday routine.
See ya next week.
Steven
P.S. What’s type of food do you usually store in your freezer?
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