Aaaaand here's how my freezer challenge ended.
As a reminder, here's what I started with last week.
And here's what I ended with:
So, I'd say this was pretty successful, and I'm pretty darn sure I can come up with uses for my last three items.
Here's what I did with all of the things that were hiding out in my freezer.
chicken bones(went into broth for ramen)
- tomato paste (still there.)
a bone-in chicken breast(stir-fried!)frozen grapes(smoothie)two waffles(eaten)a package of ground beef(I made burgers)
a jar of tomato sauce(used on pizza)
a jar of squash soup(I ate it for lunch two days)
- a package of corn tortillas (still there)
- a partial package of corn (still there)
some shrimp(used in the ramen)
half a pork loin(I cut this into chops, which I pan-sauteed and glazed)
two burgers(grilled and eaten!)
Now my freezer pretty much just has frozen fruit for smoothies.
Which I totally do not count as freezer clutter because I make a smoothie every morning. It's not like frozen fruit ever has time to age in my freezer.
(That cinnamon raisin bag is reused and is holding peaches which I froze this summer after buying a box of bruised peaches.)
And the top drawer has ice cubes, whole wheat flour, yeast, and a can of OJ concentrate (which I keep around to add to smoothies or to make orange julius.)
Incidentally, I'm sure some of you will wonder why I have ice cube trays AND an ice maker. We don't have a water line by our fridge, so our ice maker has never worked. Someone told me it's pretty easy to remove the ice maker, but I've never looked into it.
I suppose I should!
So.
My freezer challenge is officially wrapped up, and I'm glad I did it! I saved a bunch of food from going to waste and also saved money on my grocery bill this week.
Now, I do have a chest freezer that could use a little organization.
I mean, a lot of stuff is in there for longer-term storage (local beef, homemade applesauce, frozen local peaches, etc), but I think there are some odds and ends in there that should be used up.
Maybe I could do a one basket/one section at a time sort of challenge, because a whole freezer is way too overwhelming.
If you did a freezer challenge with me, how did it go?
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I'm waiting to clean out my freezer for a couple of weeks! I'm still getting too much produce from my garden, and we are focused on eating fresh from our backyard while we can! First frost will happen in the next 1-3 weeks and then the garden will mostly peter out. (The kale should hold out for a few weeks!)
Great job on using up what you have! After the frost, we will definitely be able to continue saving on groceries by eating down our freezer stockpile!
All riiiight! It sounds like a pretty successful freezer meal challenge to me. 🙂 Did you notice that your food costs were lower? We tend to save more if we focus on pantry or freezer items on hand. I need to be better about rummaging through our gigantic freezer before meal planning!
Yep! I spent only $90 on groceries this week, as opposed to my usual $150. Woohoo!
Wow $60 is such a nice saving in groceries! We have a lot of stuff in the pantry and freezer as well. I need to talk to my MIL and start our own pantry and freezer challenge soon!
I foresee a dinner with black beans and corn in a tomato paste based sauce, served on corn tortillas :).
That was a good job! It really does save money, doesn't it? Maybe you should keep a note in your planner at the quarter year marks -- Freezer Challenge Week. I tend to empty mine about twice a year, but I should do it more. I hate to throw out wasted food. And on a different note, I've decided to get some baskets for my upright freezer, which didn't come with any. The food in the front tends to fall out when I'm digging in the back, and my organizational system falls apart.
Oh - I need baskets too! I can't tell you how many times frozen ground beef has fallen on my toes as I'm rifling through our stand up freezer! Ouch!
Yes! Frozen meat HURTS when it hits toes!
Yes - Frozen bacon hits hard!
Are you just going to get something like plastic baskets for freezer storage?
Yes, the OCD in me is wanting to come over and make some kind of burrito thing with the corn, tortillas and tomato paste, so you can say you used it ALL! 🙂
I'm so envious of your clean freezer - I need to do a freezer challenge as well. I haven't grocery shopped this week, so I think that's what I'll do! We have a stand alone freezer in the basement that is full to the brim with 1/2 cow and whole hog from my family farm, deer from my husband's fruitful hunts, and two hams and two turkeys that we were gifted the last two years from my husband's employer. AND he just got another deer. We have zero room. We decided to donate some of the deer meat to a local hunter's organization that runs a food bank to get meat into family's hands that are at or below the poverty line. I think we may also do this with one of the turkeys and hams for the upcoming holidays as well.
I'm envious of your meat-stocked freezer. I just finished emptying my chest freezer and I'm waiting for sales to stock up. I don't have much in the way of proteins right now.
Hopefully you'll get some killer deals with the holidays coming up!
Wow, you did great! Thanks for adding that you also have a chest freezer because I was wondering about that.
I made a little progress but not like I had hoped so will keep plugging along.
I think I need to try this challenge! Haha- our freezer becomes the black hole where some abandoned leftovers are sent to die. I like the idea of doing a freezer clearing week!
Congrats on a successful freezer challenge! Our freezers (yes, we have 2!) will need a makeover/cleanup soon. It's packed with frozen fish, meat, and a bunch of odds and ends that were about to expire or that we couldn't finish. I also have almost a gallon of milk I froze since it was about to expire the next day.
Thanks for sharing your inspiring and successful freezer challenge!
I did a weekend fridge and freezer and pantry challenge. (: I made a boxed mac and cheese and added some sauteed sausages from the freezer with the last tablespoon or so of Ranch dressing - this was lunch in a bowl for two boys on Saturday. Before we headed out to our property for the weekend, I packed four chicken thighs from the freezer that I dumped some Italian dressing into, some potatoes that had tiny sprouts, the last four carrots from the crisper, a random slice of cheese, the last three eggs, two frozen strips of bacon, and two croissants from the freezer. Hubby and I had a great dinner on Saturday and bfast on Sunday! The boys had plenty of lunch meat in the fridge for sammies on Sunday afternoon. Sunday meal was a freezer casserole and some red cabbage that I have no idea why I bought, as well as leftover cake from our anniversary....Monday's grocery list was huge, but we were so out of food and I feel like I did so well at being frugal and using it all up!
I also have an ice maker that doesn't work. I didn't know removing it was even an option. I am going to look into this - thanks to you and your reader for the suggestion!
Nice progress! BTW-did you ever look into adding the water line to the ice maker? Not that difficult, a handyman/plumber could do it for you.
We did that (got a plumber to add a water line and hook it up) and are so glad we did. Not very expensive and such a luxury to have ice without "work" for the first time ever!
That's a quite successful end to the challenge!
Cleaned our freezers (small fridge and the large stand alone) this weekend. Reorganized items and took note of what we have and what we need. Found enough items for this weeks dinners! Thanks for the challenge! Will need to to this more often during the year.
I LOVE my ice maker, so kudos for cleaning out the freezer and for living without an ice maker! 😉
I see Corn Chowder in your future. And for the corn (I think?) tortillas, Chicken Tortilla Soup. The end of our week looks perfect for SOUP! 😉
I definitely am thinking tex-mex for this stuff...gonna do a taco salad tonight, with fried tortilla strips to top it!
What a coincidence. I sort of did this challenge w/out even knowing it. About two weeks ago I read an article somewhere online about food waste and how bad it is. That article led to another article and then another and then a few youtube vids and a couple of documentaries. I was going to try harder to not waste food. It's been bugging me for a long time how much this household wastes. Anyway, I just did a freezer clean out and use up. Fridge too. We also cut way back on eating out to about once per month.
Woohoo! Good for you!
I am impressed! You did really really well.
I only used up half a small roast, 1 chicken breast, 1 pork chop and a leftover single-serve portion of soup --all of which did not free up a ton of room but a little bit I guess. I mentioned that bread accounts for a huge chunk of the real estate in my freezer and I did buy sandwich stuff this week to use it up, but then I bought new bread, too, which defeats the purpose.
Good job!
I am also on a freezer challenge, but I have so much more food stored that you, so it feels like I'm never getting to the end, aha! I need to make another inventory of what is left because I have no idea.... My chest freezer is full. It makes me anxious when I seem to be "lacking" food, so when the freezer gets to about half-empty I tend to buy more to fill it. Bad habit... I'm working on it!
Isabelle, it took me a few months to empty my chest freezer. It was hard, sometimes, not to take advantage of a sale. And now it's a bit hard because I'm not seeing all the sales I want (where's the beef?) but I know that patience will pay off.
Yes, I guess this is my "fear": that I will empty that freezer and then I won't see good sales anymore and will have passed good ones. I *know* it's silly because sales rotate from one week to the other, but it still bugs me right now to not be able to stock on good deals!!
Our ice maker went bad last year and hubby installed a new one we ordered from Amazon. The original water line was pretty cheap, may even be a DIY job, but I love my ice maker. We bag ice for events and trips, once you get one, you'll wonder how you lived without it.
Great job on the challenge! When I have leftover tortillas, I just cut them up with kitchen shears and make chips. (Crisp in the oven, seasonings to taste.) There's no such thing as too many chips around here. 🙂
Now that is impressive -- I see corn and something else tacos in your future (maybe refried beans and cheese? ground meat with taco seasonings?
Well, i was out of town til yesterday but my husband ate a couple marked down frozen meals out of the freezer while I was gone, so it's looking a bit leaner -- but nowhere near as clear as yours. Kudos!
Wow, well done. You have inspired me afresh for both my freezer and pantry. I made some progress a little while ago but am not really sure what is in either at the moment. I have only recently discovered the myriad of youtube videos on home hints and have tried a couple with great success but the next one I want to try is fine slicing spring/green onions and freezing in a bottle to sprinkle out when needed - has anyone tried this? You always have to buy a bunch which I never use and I always feel guilty throwing most of it out.
My chest freezer is seasonal. Right now I am filling it with local veg, tomato sauce, and apple sauce. Then we will eat our way through it during the winter and early spring. By late spring there generally isn't much left, so we'll make a concerted effort to eat the last of it, clean it out, and turn it off, until mid-summer when I start freezing local veg and fruit again.
Look at you go!
I'm sad to say that there are things that expire in a freezer. I left some stuff for my roommate a year ago, and I had to throw them out because she never used them. I tried to use ground turkey once, and it was so freezer burnt and curled it was just inedible. Becoming more mindful of what I have and what I buy has really helped! I've got just enough in my freezer to carry me into the next three weeks 🙂
Oh, that is totally true, especially if it's a self-defrosting freezer, like the kind attached to fridges.
My chest freezer will keep things fresh much longer, but in my kitchen freezer, freezer burn happens all too quickly.
Used up last week:
2 bins of cooked hamburger (taco night!)
last quarter of an angel food cake
2 bins of blueberries
Last one or two of two batches of muffins
Gingersnap dough (yum, cookies!)
Sourdough bread (made croutons)
To be used up this week:
2 bins of cooked quinoa
Chicken bones
Key lime rum cake
Leftover turkey slices
Pumpkin bread
Thanks for the inspiration!
Hello Kristen,
I admire how you save money on groceries, but I have one question. Does your dollar amount that you spend include breakfast and lunch?
Yep, it sure does!
I didn't but I probably should, your results are inspiring!
Well done indeed! I did a two week pantry challenge that helped use what we had. I then needed to do a huge grocery shopping and a double online order for staples as we had used them all up! (Yeast, flour, baking powder, sugar, and various vinegars and condiments). Despite not really saving any money I feel good knowing I used items that may have otherwise gone to waste had they not been given some attention. Like many, our chest freezers (yup 2) are filled with garden produce. I also purchased a dozen locally raised chickens recently.