The $17 Meal-Prep Essential That Our Food Editor Swears By

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If learning the basics of meal prepping has taught me anything, its that the freezer is your best friend. Many big-batch meals like soups and stews can retain best quality for up to three months in the freezer , so even if youre only cooking for one, making that big batch is almost always a good idea to save time in the kitchen later on. But whats the best way to store your bounty of leftovers? Enter: silicone freezer molds.

You may have heard about Souper Cubes , the silicone freezer molds that allow you to separate your batch into portion-sized blocks. With these molds, all you have to do is pop out the individual servings every time youre ready to eat. At $34.99 for a two-pack on Amazon , however, you might be hesitant to shell out that much money for this innovative kitchen tool. But what if I told you you could buy silicone freezer molds at a fraction of the price?

Listed on Amazon at just $16.99 for a two-pack, this freezing tray from Aichoof  offers a similar functionality for half the price. The brand name may sound random, but HuffPosts Editorial Director (and culinary school graduate) Kristen Aiken personally owns it and has bought it for everyone in her life its that good.

My mom is elderly and lives alone, so every Sunday I cook her a weeks worth of food (mostly soup) that I hope will get her through the week while Im away, Aiken said. Shes a stickler for food safety and knows she should throw out leftovers after three days in the refrigerator, so being able to freeze individual portions makes her meals last SO much longer. Ive never tried to expensive version, but I cant imagine anything working better than these and theyre BPA-free, which is important to me.

You can choose between blue, green, orange, purple, red, or yellow to add a fun pop of color to your kitchen and reviewers have used these molds to store everything from soups and mashed potatoes to meatloaf, lasagna and even homemade dog food.

Each of the trays has four separated 1-cup compartments and a tight-fitting lid simply push up from the bottom when youre ready to unmold, and the flexible silicone material will help release your food. (One tip: Many reviewers said they like to pop the bricks out as soon as theyre frozen and store them in freezer bags, so you always have molds available for whatever you cook next.)

The molds also come with multiple fill lines in both cups and milliliters, so even if youre only planning on storing a half-cup of leftover sauce or salad dressing in one compartment, youll know exactly how much you have in the freezer. The tight-fitting lid prevents spillage, and their flat design makes stacking these trays in the freezer that much easier. And if, like me, you find cleanup to be the most arduous part of cooking, these molds being dishwasher-safe will come in handy.

Amazon reviewers have also found much to love about these cubes, and have awarded them a 4.7-star rating on the site. Multiple people pointed out the ease of removal and reheating, the cubes assistance with portion control, and the thickness of the silicone. After you read some of these testimonials, youll be hard-pressed to find a reason not to add these to your cart.

I live alone and was finding myself wasting food - opening jars of pasta sauce and not finishing them, throwing away chili and soup because who wants to eat chili and soup every night for a week!? Anyway, I freeze food in these and pop them into ziploc bags. My freezer is now full of perfectly portioned soups, pasta sauces, marinades, and more.

I was worried about buying off-brand from Souper Cubes but have found the quality to be excellent.  Lauren Frager

These molds are fantastic! I love to make large batches of soup and sauces. Finding a good freezing solution has been difficult until now. Containers have cracked, bags have ripped, and traditional cube trays are too small. These molds not only make easy to store frozen cubes, the fact that theyre pre-measured to a cup is a huge bonus! The frame on top of the mold make them easy to fill and move to the freezer and cleaning is super easy by turning the molds inside out. Thats also the easy way to get the cubes out. Ive made marinara sauce, Italian Wedding soup, chicken noodle, and even chili ( that one doesnt photograph as well as the others if you know what I mean). Highly recommend these!  Lizzie B.

I like that I can freeze individual servings of homemade soup since Im the only one eating it. I also freeze leftover broth. Its easy to pop food out when frozen and store in baggies. Its a good quality product and I think it will serve me well for awhile.  MEC

These are the perfect portion size for my (bottomless pit) toddler. Eight frozen cubes fit snugly in a gallon size ziplock bag as pictured but you can store these in your freezer filled. They can be stored nested to save space. You do not need to defrost these to get the cubes out which is a great time saver. Just push from the bottom with both thumbs and the pockets flip completely inside out. I mostly use them to freeze meals for my toddler like pasta or quinoa dishes, for this they are perfect. I will reccomend these to my friends with kids.  Jennifer C.

I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of these molds! The rim and cover are very solid and the silicone is thick enough that they are easy to handle, stack and hold their shape well. Im freezing blocks of homemade soup and then chamber sealing them into air tight portions for easy storage. Great tools to have! Highly recommended!  Wishfuldreamz