How do you store your left overs?

Edward Norton wrote:Excellent suggestions. I did a little more reading last night and discovered you can put glass jars in the freezer so long as you leave room for expansion. I was a little wary, so tried one jar last night, wrapped in newspaper incase it exploded. Worked a treat. I didn’t think about using canning / masonry jars for left overs. They sound like a great solution. I have some nice widemouth ones that I use for fermenting. I know what you mean Melonie about plastic lids and I have many because the two part metal ones are great for preserving but not so good for daily use.

Yes, you can freeze mason jars. Just remember never to fill it past the shoulder aka the narrowing place between the top rim and the biggest part of the jar. The reason is that the jar can break after freezing if you fill it too high. 2” is a minimum headspace for freezing. The shoulder are smaller for wide mouth jars, so for this reason I only use wide mouth jars when I freeze in mason jars.
I make a lot of pickles, but we don’t like them too strong (the vinegar ratio), so I make some with less vinegar and freeze them. These are the best pickles we have. I also store lemon juice, lemon/orange zest, garlic, garlic confit, ground fresh herbs like dill, chives and parsley. When we get a lot of oranges I will also store that in the freezer in mason jars. I find that we like fresh pressed frozen juice the best.
Leftovers, I fill into small silicone containers, and freeze. When I have enough meals, I take them out of the silicone container and freeze dry them. They make for easy grab and go meals.

We just bought used silicone bags and I'm using them to store veggie scraps (for stock) in the freezer. We got tired of the paper bags we were using because they'd rip. So far, so good.

Almost anything can be found used on ebay and you avoid consuming new and especially the evil Amazon.

If your glass containers have a sharp chip, just file with a fine metal file, or you can use sandpaper so you don't get cut.

I've frozen semi-liquids and liquids not past the shoulder in quart Mason jars, and they've cracked.

I have been steadily transitioning my leftover containers from the classic Tupperware style to glass from brands such as Anchor Hocking and Pyrex. Glassware does have a bit of a monetary cost to it, so it has been a gradual transition for me. I really like the square dishes the most as the organize nicely.

I have learned how to utilize mason jarware to help store leftovers and staples as well. I found several style of screw on lids that make short term storage a breeze.