Once you become a mum, the freezer really comes into its own. Whether you want to defrost purees, keep batches of home-made stews on standby for healthy-but-quick suppers or have a supply of expressed breastmilk in reserve for your baby, it

been running since 1978 but has grown recently and now has three industrial freezers for storing milk. “We used to have about 40 babies a year getting the milk. Now it's double that and the number of donors has increased from about 10 a year to 50

-for-one' or special offers unless it's something you actually need or can usefully stock in the freezer. When you don't have a list you're far more likely to visit every aisle in case you miss something you needed. And if you do find you end up browsing the aisles

hoursSingle door refrigerator with freezer Up to 2 weeks insection the freezer sectionTwo door refrigerator / freezer 3-4 months inthe freezer sectionDeep freeze at a constant 0ºF (-18ºC) 6 monthsIf you have any concern about stored milk, discard

your fridge is cold enough Neglected freezers and fridges can be potential breeding grounds for bacteria, especially if food isn't cold enough. Your fridge should be between 0–5 deg C and your freezer lower than -18 deg C. Keep thermometers in both

in the fridge for one to two days, or pop it in the freezer. To save you time when you're defrosting decant the puree into the separate squares of a clean ice cube tray and then freeze. Once frozen, pop the cubes out into a labelled plastic bag, seal and put

to produce more than you need! Planning ahead, you will be able to express plenty of milk to store (up to 24 hours in the fridge, three months in the freezer) so you don't need to express a day's worth of milk in one sitting.Unless you are loyal to one brand

that's at least 60% cocoa. Ginger and liquorice can both help with nausea, though they're not everyone's cup of tea. Find out more about healthy snacks here.Use your freezer - Of course the fresher the food you eat, the better. But there will probably

and party food, as well as batch cooking for things which are always handy to have in the freezer or fridge.Recipes are clearly laid out and are not over-wordy. The ingredients are not obscure and the photographs are so lovely you'll be inspired to take up

to freeze food you have cooked, make sure you freeze it as soon as it is cool. Even things like cream need to be chilled and not allowed to warm up on the kitchen counter.The big thawIf you are using something from the freezer which needs to be defrosted, do