Flat-freeze your meals - the mince hack that does triple duty

Before any big trip, we batch-cook a few family favourites - spag bol mince, curry,
chilli, taco meat - then squeeze each meal flat into a labelled ziplock bag, push all
the air out and freeze them lying flat on a tray. Once they're solid you stand them
up like files in the freezer. It's the single best thing we do for the camp kitchen,
and it's not just about saving space.

Saves a heap of freezer space. Flat bags with the air squeezed out stack like books -
no awkward containers, no wasted air pockets. You'll fit two or three times as many
meals in the same caravan freezer.

Defrosts fast. Because it's thin and flat, a meal thaws in a fraction of the time of a
chunky container - handy when you didn't plan dinner until mid-afternoon.

It doubles as an ice brick. This is the big one most people miss: a stack of frozen flat
meals keeps your fridge or esky cold like ice bricks would - except when they thaw,
they're dinner, not a puddle of melted ice. Two jobs, zero waste.

It freezes faster and keeps better. Thin portions freeze quickly, which means smaller
ice crystals and better texture when you reheat - and with the air pushed out, far less
freezer burn than a half-empty container.

Less cooking, gas and washing up at camp. The hard work's done at home, so dinner is
just "drop the bag in a pot of simmering water (or tip it into one pan) and heat through."
Less gas, less precious water, one pot to wash - and a hot meal on the table before the
kids melt down.

Built-in portion control. We freeze meal-sized portions, so there's no half-used packs
or leftovers going off in the van fridge.

A couple of safety notes: cool the cooked food quickly before bagging, get it into the
freezer promptly, and always reheat until it's piping hot the whole way through. Write
the meal and date on every bag with a marker — frozen mince all looks the same at 6pm
in a dark camp kitchen.