Anyone familiar with "Seal-a-Meal" or "Food Saver"?

[islesgirl]

Hello rawbies. I would like to buy one of these to vacuum seal & then freeze my own garden greens. Is anyone out there familiar with either of these two products and what is your experience with them? Many thanks for any help.

[GoingtoRAW]

Hello rawbies. I would like to buy one of these to vacuum seal & then freeze my own garden greens. Is anyone out there familiar with either of these two products and what is your experience with them? Many thanks for any help.

I bought a Seal a Meal many, many years ago and I LOVED IT! I don't have one now but the funny thing is yesterday I was thinking about getting another one. I don't know what happened to the one I had but...it was great. On Sunday evenings I would prepare my meals for the week and freeze them. When I would get home from work, I just grabbed them out of the freezer and heated them up. All of the meals tasted like they were prepared fresh that day! I haven't tried it with raw foods. Let us know how that goes. Good luck!

I recommend it.

[buffalogal]

I love my Food Saver. It's great especially at this time of year...I use it alot for freezing fruits and vegetables. For instance, I wash blueberries and let them dry. Then I spread them out on a cookie sheet and freeze them. (This way they don't get all squashed together.) Once they're frozen, I pop them into a Food Saver bag and vacuum seal them. Then back in the freezer they go. I use them in my smoothies all winter...saves a ton of money. With them vacuum sealed, there's no "freezer burn" to worry about. I do this with berries, cherries, melons, tomatoes, corn, oranges, apples, etc., etc., etc. Works for me!! Happy vacuum sealing!!

[islesgirl]

GoingtoRaw, thank you so much for taking time from your busy life to give me your experience with Seal-a-Meal. I'm glad you have found it so useful. But I opted for the "Food Saver" today, as it was reduced by $50 and was actually cheaper than the "Seal-a-Meal" If I don't like it I have 90 days in which to return it.

buffalogal I appreciate your listing all the foods you freeze by sealing them first with your "Food Saver" which I just bought as stated above. I hope it isn't too difficult to learn how to operate. I am feeling so overwhelmed these days with trying to "uncook" as well as get everything else done around my home. Yesterday I sure could have used this machine as I had tons of greens from my garden to wash, bag, suck the air out of as best I could with a straw, and then freeze. Now I have my "Food Saver" for my next batch of greens which should be ready in a week or two. Thanks so much, both of you rawbies, and have a great day.

Sue.

[GoingtoRAW]

[QUOTE=islesgirl;439467]GoingtoRaw, thank you so much for taking time from your busy life to give me your experience with Seal-a-Meal. I'm glad you have found it so useful. But I opted for the "Food Saver" today, as it was reduced by $50 and was actually cheaper than the "Seal-a-Meal" If I don't like it I have 90 days in which to return it.

Islegirl, I will be looking for the most economical machine believe me. When I bought the Seal-a-Meal that was wayyyyy back in the early '80's (don't mean to date myself-almost makes me want to cry), but that was a long time ago. I am not loyal to any machine - I just wanted you to know you can feel comfortable with the food savers. They are great time savers too!;)

[LotsaRaw]

I LOVE it! Everything in my freezer is vacuum packed! I'll be out of town for a few days, so am cleaning up my perishables (read - cut, freeze, vac pack) that will not go into smoothies in the next couple days. Also, I keep my nuts, cacao powder, nibs, almond flour, in the freezer packaged this way. I just cut off a corner, shake out what I need, then seal it back up. I have also used this for pesto when I had 5# of fresh basil to play with. The seal just does not let any weird flavor in, not to mention freezer burn free food!

Any recommendations on what should NOT be frozen?

[sewrev]

I have the food saver. I really love it.. To seal something with a lot of liquid I take a paper towel fold it to size and place it in the bag just under where I will be sealing the bag. When the machine starts sucking the air and liquid, the paper towel collects the liquid allowing the machine to seal the bag well. Works great .

[tvillemom]

I'm so glad someone told me how to foodsaver my avo's!! I never thought of freezing them first! NOW I will be doing this instead of letting them go bad!

I also use the foodsaver containers.....they are great for spinach and other salad greens, they keep for weeks, instead of days!!

Best of luck!