Is It Safe To Put Glass Containers In The Freezer?
Most people will tell you that meal prepping is one of the best ways to save time and stay organized throughout the week. Planning, preparing, and cooking meals in advance is great for when you're busy because you can have a healthy meal ready to go at any time, without the need for last-minute cooking or running through the drive-thru. It also helps with portion control and healthy eating, as well as helps you to reduce food waste. Of course, there's also the money-saving side to it.
Meal prepping can help you save money on food by allowing you to buy in bulk, using food before it goes bad, and reducing the need for takeout or pre-cooked meals. Of course, you will need a few things to meal prep properly, like storage containers, so you may be thinking you have to spend a ton of money on the perfect vessels to hold all of your meals, but that's not accurate. Most meals can be kept in freezer bags and plastic containers, but probably the best dish for storing pre-made meals is a glass dish with a lid.
The right containers make meal prepping easy
CBD Glass says that glass is stain resistant and it's dishwasher safe, which means that cleaning up is a cinch. They are also more environmentally friendly than using plastic, which will eventually break down. Plastic containers can also stain if food sits in it too long, which would be the case with prepped-ahead meals. Glass dishes, unlike plastic, are safe to microwave and safe in the oven, but one of the best parts of glass dishes is that they are safe to put in the freezer.
One reason glass containers are great for meal prepping is that you can cook the food in the container, then store it in the freezer in the same container. Then, you can thaw and reheat the meal without ever having to remove the food from the same dish. Of course, this won't work for all foods, but it's particularly effective with casseroles. To do this, though, you have to know how to properly use glass dishes in the freezer.
How to freeze glass containers
First, you should make note that not all glass storage containers are suitable for the freezer. If the glass container is not marked as freezer-safe, do not put it in the freezer. According to Reader's Digest, glass containers should not be filled to the very top before freezing. Liquids and moisture in the foods can expand when they freeze, so it's important to leave some headspace in the container to allow for this expansion. Otherwise, you risk your container cracking.
Any glassware should be cooled to room temperature before freezing. Putting hot liquids or food into a glass container and then immediately freezing it can cause the container to crack or break. To thaw the food when you're ready, use a microwave on the defrost setting, then dump the thawed food into a microwave-safe bowl and finish heating, according to Real Food Whole Life. You can also put the frozen container in the fridge overnight, where it will be thawed in about a day, or you can place it in lukewarm water for about an hour.