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The final freezer challenge update!

Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. Why do I do this? Because in March of 2008, I finally got fed up with the amount of food I was wasting, and I thought that showing my waste to other people would motivate me to use up my food instead of wasting it. Because this often embarrassing practice was so helpful for me, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.

The deadline I officially set for myself was Wednesday, but I thought Food Waste Friday would be a more appropriate place to wrap up the challenge.

(Here’s the start of my challenge and the rules I made up for myself.)

The original freezer

This is the before.

messy kitchen freezer

And here’s what it looks like this morning.

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The drawer is so delightfully empty.

IMG_3618

All that’s left is fruit for smoothies, some green chilies I froze this week, a container of bread crumbs (no worries…I will easily use those up) and a few corn tortillas.

And the top drawer   just has yeast, coffee, broth, a little more fruit, and some OJ concentrate, all of which are regularly used in this house.

What I had left (and what I did with it all!)

-corn tortillas (mostly used in enchiladas)
-bratwurst (grilled and eaten)
-two packages of breakfast sausage (one package is in the deep freeze, the other is thawing in the fridge)
-slow-cooked beef, which I think has some Mexican seasonings (used in enchiladas)
-a small amount of bacon (used in salad and on pizza bagels)
-a package of broccoli (unopened & moved to the deep freeze for future used in broccoli noodle soup)
-a package of peas (relegated to ice pack status)
-a partial package of Mexican cheese (used in enchiladas)

Last time I updated about the freezer challenge, several of you suggested enchiladas for the tortillas, cheese, and beef (thank you!), so I modified a Cook’s Illustrated enchilada recipe to use the beef.

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This was a great way to use up the slow-cooked beef!

I consider myself to be officially done with this freezer challenge, as all the remaining freezer inhabitants are easy-to-use foods, not forgotten-about odds and ends.

I’ve never done a freezer challenge before, and I’m really glad I took this on.   It turned out to be much more delicious than I’d anticipated, and I’m surprised at how much food I managed to rescue and use (I thought I’d end up throwing a lot away.)

I mean, seriously! Look at the ridiculous pile of food I started with.

messy freezer contents

On a not-so-cheerful note, my deep freezer holds all sorts of mystery items, and I really, really ought to do a freezer challenge there.

I’ll probably take a few weeks off before I tackle that monster, though, as that freezer holds much more in the way of Very Old Food and I’m a little scared to take it on.

(Also: I foresee that challenge involving more throwing away of food than this challenge.)

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How did you do on the food waste front this week?   And if you were participating with me in the freezer challenge, how did it go for you?

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Sara

Tuesday 7th of October 2014

What I do is buy in January thru August. Take the rest of the year to use things out of my freezer. I do notice a trend we use a lot of chicken. I try and focus on buying Christmas during these months. However I will purchase extremely good sale items

Sandra (Sam) Myers

Saturday 4th of October 2014

I need a major clean out and use up of all three food areas-fridge, freezer, and pantry. I am scared at how much food waste I will discover. Hopefully not too much, but know there will be enough to motivate me to better planning before another big shop.

jd

Friday 3rd of October 2014

I had last commented that I really needed to tackle my refrigerator freezer... and a few days later, my husband forgot that he chilled a can of drink in the freezer, so that it burst and sprayed everywhere. Yes, my freezer is now clean and much more orderly. The good news is that I found very little to toss. And I found that frozen ginger root I knew I had in there somewhere. I keep a whiteboard on my chest freezer, and it is a huge help. The only problem was when it got wiped accidentally one day as we were moving things around next to it. But most of the time, I just glance and see what I have. I write, for example, "Ground Beef, 1 lb- I I I I I", meaning I have five one pound packages. When I use one, I just wipe off an "I". Easy!

Clare

Friday 3rd of October 2014

I haven't done my freezer (yet), but I have had no food waste this week! Yipee! I have a pretty minimal freezer, but, being school holidays where I am, it is likely to be investigated this week!

Vee@VeesEasyVegan

Friday 3rd of October 2014

Great work on your freezer. I have gone in the other direction and filled mine up with slow cooked beans. I talked about changes of made to be more frugal and environmentally conscious this week at http://www.veeseasyvegan.com/chocolate-sesame-haystacks-five-changes-food-waste-friday/:

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