How-To: Put Soup In Ziploc Baggies

In the last two months of pregnancy I took quite a bit of time to make up extra meals to stick in our deep freeze for after the baby was born. While this wasn't hard to do, putting food into baggies without it spilling was quite challenging… mainly because I usually only had my two hands to hold the bag and scoop the soup. About halfway through the process I had the brilliant idea to use one of my saved large yogurt containers to help support the bag so I could put the food inside it easier. This was a genius idea and though I mostly used it for putting soup in baggies it also worked great to help support the bag while putting other things like pasta or casserole into bags.

Please keep in mind I was using quart size baggies. For a gallon bag you would have to use a bigger support container, but I’m sure the process would be the same and work just as well.

What You Do

1. Label the bag(s) you are going to be storing food in and don’t forget to add a date!

2. Open one bag up and insert it into a clean, empty 32oz. yogurt container.

3. Scoop the food out of the pot or dish and place in the baggie. Repeat until you reach the top of the yogurt container (this will keep the bags from being overfull and will help them have plenty of room to expand).

4. Zip the bag mostly closed, leaving a small space to squeeze out excess air.

5. Remove the bag from the yogurt container.

6. Gently squeeze the bag until the excess air has been removed.

7. Lay the bag flat on the counter. If all or most of the air is gone there should not be any bubbles (this happens in soup, but not in pastas or casseroles).

8. Repeat steps 1-7 as needed for remaining food.

Freezing Bags Flat

Lay the bags on a cookie sheet and stick them in the freezer. Once they are frozen you can take them off the cookie sheet and they will still be mostly flat which makes for easier stacking and storing. You can have stacks of two or three bags on top of each other on the cookie sheet for freezing larger amounts of food at one time, just make sure they don’t slide off of each other when you put them in the freezer.

Notes

-When putting food in a bag to store in the freezer make sure it has cooled off almost all the way or completely.

-Always use Freezer ziploc bags for storing food in the freezer. Don’t use regular bags as they are not as thick and durable and can cause the food to get frosty a lot quicker.