Josh Elledge - Chief Executive Angel
Frozen Food Month and preparing your freezer
The National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association, Inc's 33rd Annual National Frozen Food Month is this March, and this year looks to be an especially good one! Every March yields some of the best sales and coupons to stock up, so it's time to get ready to coupon and to time to get the freezer ready.
Why does this year look especially good? Because of two new partners in Frozen Food Month:
– CBS Media will be helping spread the message of frozen food goodness through recipes, special content, and stories released on radio, digital sources, and social media.
– Coupons.com will be distributing coupons for frozen food brands via both print at home coupons and digital coupons. Because they are so huge – getting coupons for frozen goods during March will be easier than ever.
In addition to Coupons.com printable and digital coupons, every year a special frozen foods coupon insert is released in the newspapers, usually the first Sunday of the month of March.
What brands are slated to participate? Acme, Atkins, Bob Evans, Bridgford, Dole, Eggo, El Monterey, Jimmy Dean, Jose Ole, Michael Angelo's, Pepperidge Farm, Rosina, Sandwich Bros., Totino's, and Tyson.Of course, there will be deals abounding on store brands as well.
In many ways, the brand doesn't matter as much as the processing. You can find healthy meats, dinners, fruits, vegetables, snacks, vegan and vegetarian choices, and much more, from numerous frozen food brands. Just check the labels for high levels of sodium or other additives such as breading, sauces, or too much sugar.
When it comes to healthy frozen foods, fruits and veggies are, by far, some of the surest bets, especially this time of year. This is because frozen produce is usually packaged at optimum ripeness, as opposed to fresh produce, which has to be picked before it ripens. Accommodation for shipping and store shelf time has to be made, which can result in produce that hasn’t reached its full health and nutrition levels before consumption.
You're now in the know, and ready to clip a lot of coupons and land a bunch of great deals, but before you can, you have to get the freezer ready. Otherwise, you may not even have room to accommodate all the bargains.
Getting your freezer ready
To tackle this task, you'll need: a temperature-safe place to set items, some white vinegar, baking soda, cleaning rags, and rubber gloves to keep your hands from getting too cold.
Step 1 – Completely empty your freezer. Set the contents in coolers, or even in boxes outside in areas where it’s cold enough. As you go, sort through the items to see what is still good, what needs to get used up, what items might just need to be tossed, and what you can condense or combine.
Step 2 – Clean and deodorize the freezer.
– Wipe down the walls with regular white vinegar.
– Follow with fresh warm water.
– Go over everything once more with a paste made of 3 parts baking soda to one part water. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes.
– Very gently wash the walls again with warm water; taking care not to scratch the freezer surfaces.
Step 3 – Put things back. As you go, jot down everything you want to use up, and place it all back in one section, so they don’t end up buried again.
Step 4– Search online to locate ideas and recipes to use up frozen goods. Inputting specific ingredients into a search will bring up recipes for various cooking methods and cuisine styles, including using your slow cooker, the oven, and sometimes even just the microwave.
Now that the freezer is ready, and meals are planned to use up older ingredients, you're ready for the March Frozen Food Month bargains!
