Let’s begin with bread. If you love your mom’s rolls, so you take a stash and keep them in your freezer, just know that they can’t stay in there forever. If

it’s already baked, it can last for about three months. Unbaked bread? One month.

Meats run the gamut. Baked chicken nuggets, sausage and bacon? Give it a month. Cooked meat, ground turkey, beef and chicken, somewhere between three and four months. Pork chops and roasts have

a shelf life of anywhere between five and 12 months. Steaks and whole turkeys and chickens can also last for a year.

If you like oysters and shellfish, it will keep in the freezer for two to three months. Cooked and lean fish will hold for four to six months. Crab can be in

the freezer for a whopping 10 months, and lobster can stay a year easily.

If you like to buy in bulk, stock up on butter. It can stay in your freezer for six to nine months (margarine can stay for 12 months). While we’re on

the topic of dairy, cheese will stay fresh for six months. A mistake that a lot of people make is keeping ice cream in the freezer for too long. It’s time

to get some more after about two months of having some sitting in your freezer.

You can freeze fruit. Citrus fruit can handle about three months of being in the freezer. What you’ll really love to hear is that any other fruit can stay in there

for up to a year (good to know if you like to buy fruits in season and eat them out of season).

As far as veggies go, all of them can stay fresh and delicious in the freezer for eight to 12 months. Homemade vegetable soup can’t do much more than two to

three months, though.

Your favorite casseroles? Give them about three months. That is unless they have eggs in them. Then it’s two months, tops. Cooked rice and pastas should be OK for about three months. Fresh

herbs for your casseroles (or anything else), 12 months.

Is anything more delicious than homemade desserts? In the cookie department, baked ones can last in the freezer much longer than the dough does. Cookies can handle between six and

eight months. Dough can take around three. A baked unfrosted cake? Give it three months. If there is frosting on it, one  month. Baked pumpkin or pecan pies, one to two months. Baked fruit

pies, six to eight months. Baked muffins, six to 12 months.

It’s important to keep in mind that all of this is contingent upon how you prep your food before you freeze it and the condition that your freezer is in

too. Typically, your freezer should be around -18 C and your food needs to be sealed tightly (get tips for that here). To save time on the defrosting

process, don’t forget to properly label everything too.

Sure you can freeze a lot of foods, but some things are best left in the refrigerator. Cereals, custards, lettuce, apples, melons, mayonnaise, creamed cheese, UNCOOKED pasta and rice, puddings

and deli products---they don’t hold well in the freezer, so try and only buy as much as you can eat by the expiration date.