Chest Freezer Challenge | in which I spill broth
In case you're just joining us: I'm not necessarily trying to empty my chest freezer entirely by doing this challenge.
But I am trying to use up odds and ends...those things you throw in the freezer so you don't let them go bad.
That's a good strategy, but unless you actually eat those things, the freezer just ends up being a pit stop on the way to the trash can.
So. I'm eating down odds and ends and I'm also trying to eat up things that have been in there for a while. Chest freezers are good for storing things on a long-term basis, but long-term does not equal forever. 😉
Since I don't like my freezer challenges to be miserable or overwhelming, I do them by pulling out just a few things to use up each week. And I give myself permission to buy other ingredients as necessary, to help me use up what's in my freezer.
SO!
Let's see how I did with the stuff I pulled out last week.
Frozen peaches
These are peaches I'd sliced and frozen from those boxes of bruised peaches I buy from my local produce stand, so they were pretty inexpensively obtained.
Here's a YouTube video I made about how I freeze peaches, in case you wanna see me talk about it!
I made a smoothie with some of my peaches (after I banged the bag on the floor a few times to loosen the peaches, which had somehow gathered together into one large lump.)
I also added some of the OJ concentrate from my previous challenge.
Also in the smoothie: homemade yogurt, and some pineapple chunks that I'd frozen from an overly ripe Hungry Harvest pineapple.
So, I felt pretty good about the frugality of this smoothie! 🙂
After my first one, I made several more peach/orange/pineapple smoothies, and my peach bag is now down to 1 pound, 12 ounces.
Chicken
Once I thawed my two packages of chicken, I realized that one package was chicken tenders and one was boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
This is why we should always label things.
But, I don't always do everything that I should. 😉
I decided to forge ahead and use both types of chicken to make a batch of chipotle chicken kebabs; I prepped the chicken as usual, and then I just made sure to thread the breast pieces on separate skewers from the thigh pieces.
Thigh meat generally takes longer to cook, so I didn't want to mix the two on a single skewer.
And I'm happy to report that chicken thighs work just fine in this recipe; in fact, I might actually prefer them.
Good to know for the future!
Chicken Bones
I had three rotisserie chicken carcasses to use and I opted to pull out my slow-cooker for the broth-making process.
I started it out on the stovetop so that I could brown an onion and the chicken bits.
And then I transferred it all to the slow-cooker, which I parked out in my carport.
(July is not the time of year to have a pot of simmering liquid on your stove all day. In January, it's delightful. In July, it's torture.)
When I was pouring the broth into the containers last night, I noticed a growing puddle underneath one.
And then I realized why!
Whoops.
Regardless, now my bones have been transformed into chicken broth, which was my end goal. Chicken broth is in a usable form, and I know that I will always use it up over time.
I'm probably not going to make a big dent in my broth stash until the seasons change, though. Most broth-centric recipes are for cold weather!
Here's my method for making chicken broth that tastes really good.
Mozzarella
I opted to leave the sealed bag of mozzarella in the freezer for some future use. But I thawed the bag with just a bit of cheese in it, and I'll add it to my scrambled eggs this morning.
Next Week's Freezer Items
Well, of course, I will continue to work on my bag of peaches.
And I have another batch of freezer goodies (baddies?) that are up this week.
This is a bag of pineapple chunks, and I seriously had no idea it was in there. But this is perfect because pineapple is a great addition to a peach smoothie.
And we know I'm gonna be making more of those.
I could use these banana slices in smoothies, or maybe I will make the strawberry-banana "ice cream" I posted about some years ago.
These bread cubes are destined for a French toast casserole, I think.
And lastly, this is a bag of butternut squash rolls. I'm not sure what I plan to do with them...heat and serve with dinner? Toast and make egg sandwiches for breakfast?
Stay tuned to find out. 🙂
I made chicken broth this weekend too (and a mess too). It was a by-product of reorganizing and cleaning out my fridge freezer. I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I realized I had to fit those containers of broth back in the freezer!
One way we use up chicken broth is to substitute it for the water when making rice. It gives it a nice flavor. We will freeze it in the quantities we need for the amount of rice we usually make so we only defrost what we need each time.
I think we will be checking our freezer this weekend. I am not 100% sure of what we have in there right now and I'm sure some of it needs to be used up soon.
@AnnieH, Great minds! I should read comments before I write them . . .
@AnnieH, what a great idea! Thank you!
Inspired by your freezer challenge, I am currently doing the same with my fridge freezer & refrigerator contents. I want to use up as much as possible before vacation. The upright freezer will get a workout afterwards.
I am always tossing things into the freezer without labeling them. As a result I find myself wondering is the enchilada sauce or spaghetti sauce. Turkey broth or chicken broth? Mango or butternut squash?
@Bee, me too. I often have to do a scratch-and-taste test to know if it is sweet or savory.
@Bee, yes, I one time made mango muffins instead of butternut squash ones. There were not terrible, but mango is wasted on baking because the flavor doesn’t really come through.
@Heather,
Butternut squash smoothies are tolerable, but mango is much better.
@Central Calif. Artist,
Sometimes I just wait until for the mystery food defrosts, then I make a plan for it.
When I have a bunch of chicken stock hanging around that I want to use up quickly, I use it to make rice, in place of the water. Definitely better than rice made with just water.
When I saw your bread cubes, though, I thought "Stale bread+stock=dressing." I don't know why I don't make dressing (by which I mean like turkey stuffing, except not, um, stuffed into anything) more frequently, because everyone in my family loves it and it's not like it's hard. I guess it's one of those things like pumpkin pie that is just so firmly classified as Thanksgiving that it just never enters my head until November. 🙂
@kristin @ going country,
My mother used to prepare a pan of dressing but would make it a bit on the dryer side then top it with a single layer of seasoned pork chops and bake it all together, first covered in foil, then removing the foil near the end so it would brown. It was one of her cold-weather comfort food dishes she liked to make.
@JD, what a good idea! I need another way to do pork chops. I do something similar with bone-in chicken thighs…place an even mound of stuffing down the center of a 9x13 pan, sauté the seasoned thighs briefly on both sides, place them perched against the side of the stuffing, and cover all with warmed cream of mushroom soup mixed with milk before baking.
@Shirley,
That sounds good, too!
@kristin @ going country, Yum! I love dressing too. True, that it's usually associated with Thanksgiving, but I could eat it anytime! It's also a good way to use up turkey stock.
@JD, You and Shirley are making me hungry, and I just ate lunch!
@JD, chopped spinach mixed in with the dressing is additional nutrition especially for non veggie lovers
Just to share...I use silicone muffin pans to freeze my broth. Each cup turns out to be about 1/4 cup of broth and once hardened they just pop out of the solicone easily and freeze together really well, without sticking to each other, in a large zip lock. I just keep the large zip lock and reuse, of course.
@Martha in Kansas, brilliant! I often freeze things in ice-cube trays, but muffin pans make more sense.
@Martha in Kansas,
This might save my muffin tins which were about ready to be de-cluttered due to not ever being used.
@Martha in Kansas,
I do this too! I also do the same with spaghetti sauce, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice and lemon juice, and also plop leftover rotisserie chicken into the silicon compartments, press down slightly, and the chicken freezes into handy little "pucks" easy to take out for use atop a salad or to make a sandwich. The silicon pans work the best, I've found, though the metals ones can work too.
I have become quite the labeler with my frozen foods, after one too many oopsies of thawing out something that wasn't what I thought it was. I use plain old masking tape on a carton, jar or reusable bag, or if I'm using a disposable bag, I'll write on the bag itself. The masking tape actually stays on the containers in the freezer. Then I write down the item and how many containers on my handy dandy chalk board hanging on the side of my upright freezer. Oh, yes, I bought some storage baskets and divided things into baskets then labeled the baskets themselves (pork, poultry, broth/stock, fruits, vegetables, etc.) I may be a bit overboard (you think?), but let me tell you, I spend very, very little time hunting things in my freezer and no time trying to figure out mystery packages. Plus, as I've said before, I love just looking at my board to see what I have before I go shopping.
Those smoothies sound like heaven on earth, by the way!
@JD, labeling is super helpful. I use a permanent black marker on blue painter’s tape.
@JD, I am curious if a dry-erase marker would work directly on the freezer.
@Vickymac,
Painter's tape works well, but masking tape was cheaper :).
@Central Calif. Artist,
I've never tried that! I did try a grease pencil, which worked well, but was almost impossible to get off afterwards.
@Central Calif. Artist, Dry erase markers tend to get rubbed off by other objects in the freezer.
@Jan, I mean write a list on the outside of the freezer. With a chest freezer, I'd rub it off by leaning over to see what's inside.
I love your creativity and resourcefulness. Thanks for sharing your life with us. The ups and downs and finding the silver lining in every situation. Love to the girls and kitties.
I love making homemade broth in my crockpot. And I use the broth to make a nice pot of rice sometimes - very flavorful! Next week is my own mini freezer challenge. I am trying to get my grocery bill down a bit.
Kristen,
Thank you for the tips about celery storage and refreshing it too. Do I leave the celery in the plastic bag it comes in and wrap it with aluminum foil? And, thank you for the link to making broth. I usually give away my rotisserie chicken carcass on my Buy Nothing group. Now I believe I will attempt to make broth with your recipe.
Awesome job! Regarding the frozen peaches, I use them to infuse flavor into teas so I won't be tempted to use sugar.
Cute black dress, a bargain!
Anything and everything freezes into a lump in my freezer. Things need to be separated right at the beginning.
Kristen, could you instruct us about celery in foil? I knew about the water thing because of some "science experiment" in grade school where we put red dye in water to watch it turn the celery reddish. And of course there is that old Tupperware celery keeper. . . but foil??
@Central Calif. Artist, I twist the top of the celery bag closed and secure it with a twist-tie, and then wrap it fairly tightly in a plastic grocery bag. That way, I don't have to use foil, but it serves the same purpose.
@Central Calif. Artist,
I wish I could find one of those celery keepers! My mom used to have one, and it was just the best thing for keeping celery fresh.
@Liz B., try eBay. There are a lot, starting around $10 (inc. shipping)
My entire little chest freezer is full of use-it-ups at this point due to my husband going through one of his phases of being peculiar about what he'll eat. It's gonna be quite a challenge.
Going to have to try a freezer/fridge challenge soon...someone's grocery order got delivered to my house mistakenly yesterday and when I tried to call and figure out who it was supposed to go to, they said to keep it because they wouldn't be able to take it back! Thankfully most everything we will be able to eat and I will pass along a few things to people that can use them, but I shouldn't have to buy frozen veggies for probably 6 months or more!
Your freezer challenge also inspired me to start working through whatever is living in the depths of my freezer (plus going grocery shopping right now is a lesson in tedious, painful torture, so I am doing literally everything possible to avoid the stores). I am only working on the kitchen freezer since my husband has forbidden me to enter the garage where the deep chest lives while I am on crutches. But so far I have used multiple Costco fish portions, a bag of precooked shrimp, frozen berries for protein muffins and many, many popsicles.
I use painters tape to label freezer containers. Easy to write on with a sharpie and easy to remove when thawed.
Love to see how you are using things up. I need to make another run through our freezer, and make some progress. I did pull out a several dinner portion of meatloaf, and some taco meat. But, the random (non dinner/full meal) options are harder to use up & need to be a priority.
I highly recommend investing in some silicone "ice cube" molds. They come in different sizes, we have 1/3 cup size and 1/2 cup size. They are sturdy and easy to clean by popping them inside out. We freeze broth (and other things) in these molds and then store them in freezer bags. Broth isn't just for soup--it can be the base of a sauce, or added to other meat or grain dishes for extra moisture, cook veggies in broth, etc. And when a friend is ill, I take a bag of cubes over to them for soothing, healing broth to help them feel better.
The beauty of these cubes is if you just want a little, then the 1/3 or 1/2 cup cubes can be quickly thawed. If you are making a pot of soup, several cubes melt faster than a single block of broth because there's more surface area. Other things I freeze in the molds are homemade soups, sauces when we have too much sauce. We use an electric pressure cooker to make the broth and other things, and we can pop in a frozen cube in many recipes, it will melt before the pressure comes up with no effort on our part. When you make chicken dishes in electric pressure cookers, they give off a lot of liquid that doesn't evaporate in the pressure cooker, and that liquid is gold for other recipes, so we freeze that liquid, too. I have a recipe for butter chicken, and there's always enough sauce left over for 3 or 4 more meals where all we have to do is cut up chicken and cook it in the sauce. Another thing we do is sauté a mixture of onion, carrots, garlic and celery until soft and golden brown (soffritto) and freeze that in the cubes so we have the start of many dishes without spending time cooking down these aromatic veggies.
@Jan, "invest" is the operative word for those molds. Just looked them up on Amazon and found a set of 4 (each a different size) for $69!!!
I wonder if eBay might have some.
My freezer challenge is over: kitchen packed today, moving tomorrow. Whatever is in the freezer, will continue to be in the freezer. The last thing I cooked in this house is onion oyakodonburi, for which I had to find a last minute substitute for chix stock because I freezer-challenged the last mine a couple of weeks ago. Looks like I'll be having yogurt, cottage cheese, and cherries (separately) for dinner.
Love a freezer/pantry challenge. I will follow your lead and go east on myself. So far I pulled a pizza dough out that will be topped with veggies that are starting to wilt in the crisper drawer. I have the bottom drawer freezer compartment and it can be too easy to lose track of things! I’m thinking once I pare things down I will make a spreadsheet to improve my freezer use