I thought freezing leftover rice was a lazy hack until I tried it for a month of dinners
Last month I started cooking a big pot of rice on Sunday and freezing it in zip bags flat, and I was sure it would turn out mushy or weird. Turns out it reheats in about 90 seconds with a splash of water and honestly tastes fine, way better than the $4 microwave pouches I used to grab at Giant. I did the math and I am saving around $15 a week just on that one swap, which adds up fast when you eat rice 3 or 4 nights. The trick is spreading it out to cool before it goes in the bag, otherwise you get clumps that never break apart. Now I keep a bag of frozen rice next to a bag of frozen peas and dinner is basically done once I fry an egg on top. What is the one freezer trick you swore was dumb and then ended up using every single week?
I get the appeal but frozen rice has never worked for me the way people say it does. Every time I thaw a bag it comes out kinda dry and separate in a bad way, like little pellets, and no amount of water brings it back to that fresh sticky texture. Maybe my freezer runs cold or I'm not sealing the bags right, but I've tried the flat bag thing twice now and ended up tossing most of it. The pouches at the store are a ripoff for sure, but I'd rather just make a fresh small batch in the rice cooker since it's only 20 minutes and I'm home anyway. Freezing cooked pasta though? That one I laughed at and now I do it every week, so maybe I just picked the wrong grain to mess with.