Freezer

I have been experimenting with using my freezer for new ways.  Fairly recently I bought a massive sack of potatoes which have been sitting in a cool place and proved to be a hugely economic way of buying potatoes. However, they were getting to the past their best, sprouting days and there was no way I was going to chuck them away. Now, I have always been sort of living under the illusion that potatoes were not great for freezing, but a few minutes on the internet has blown that out of the water. So armed with my new knowledge, I have been busy making frozen oven chips and mashed potato portions to freeze. I will let you know how they come out, but according to other frugal people out there, there is no problem at all. Just make the mashed potato as normal and then freeze in portions. For the oven chips I peeled and cut the potatoes into fat chips, bung them in boiling water and parboiled for 3 minutes when the water was boiling again. After this I added some oil and some cajun spices and then put the on a tray to cool. When cold the trays went into the freezer with the chip spread out and not touching (and that is how they are now). When they have frozen, in a couple of hours, I will bag them up into portions ready to use. Great way to save tired old potatoes, the whole thing taking about 20 minutes for mash and oven chips.
While I was at it, I was using some butter beans today and noticed that one 225gr can costs 44p while a bag of the dried ones is 77p but makes the equivalent of  5 cans. definitely a good saver, as it seems, once they are prepared the portions are freezable. So 5 portions are made and ready to use. Same can be done for most pulses (chickpeas, beans, etc) although it seems lentils doesn't work, not sure why.