Freezer Challenge Update! Smoothies, pizza, fish cakes, and more
I and lots of other Frugal Girl readers have been busy working on eating the odds and ends in our freezers. We've been chatting about that all week on the FG Facebook group, but I didn't share all of my freezer adventures there.
The whole rundown is here!
For a refresher, here's what I started with.
And here's what I did with my food.
Bananas and spinach = smoothie.
Well, bananas, spinach, yogurt, and mango, to be more precise.
The Vitamix does a great job of blending up greens; no small green bits like with my old cheap blender.
(I bought my Vitamix myself. Here's my unsponsored review, written a year after purchase.)
I made two smoothies, and the spinach and the bananas are now all gone.
Woohoo!
Also related: a post about the differences between a Vitamix and a Ninja.
Mozzarella + flatbread + small bit of tomato sauce = pizza
The flatbread and tomato sauce were unpictured, but they were indeed in my freezer.
So, Zoe's lunchtime creation was a win on multiple fronts.
Bread cubes = French toast casserole
I use Pioneer Woman's recipe, which is simple and delicious and very not good for you.
It IS a very good way to use up dry bread, though!
Chicken thighs = chicken lettuce wraps
I had just a pound of thighs, so I poked around the ATK/Cook's Country/CI website to find something that
- used a pound of thighs
- didn't call for anything not already in my pantry/fridge
And a chicken lettuce wrap recipe fit the bill. Yay!
Waffles: toasted and eaten
That was easy!
Bacon + OJ = breakfast for dinner
We ate the bacon along with buttermilk pancakes (which used up the last of the buttermilk.)
And I had some partial containers of OJ concentrate in there too, so I made a batch of Orange Julius.
Burger buns = fish cake sandwiches
These were slightly worse for the wear due to being in the freezer for a while, but I buttered and toasted them in the pan before assembling the sandwiches, and they were great.
Heating tortillas, buns, croissants, and any other dinner breadstuff really makes such a huge difference!
(Here's how I make my fish cakes. Easy and delicious!)
Mozzarella = homemade pizza
I made two homemade pizzas on Friday night to use up the rest of the mozzarella.
This is the recipe I use to make regular pizza.
The dough recipe in that post is really good, but the baking tips in that post are what will really elevate your homemade pizza.
We've tried a few non-dairy cheese alternatives for Sonia, but all of them have been pretty bad.
So, this time I made half of one pizza with just pepperoni, sauce, and a little bit of Parmesan (which doesn't seem to bother Sonia), and she was very pleased with the results.
Whew. Now we don't have to skip pizza night anymore.
What do I have left?
I didn't get through everything, but I'm happy with my progress. I have just 5 items still to go!
Here's what I have left, along with the plan for using it.
- roasted orange pepper (maybe a batch of this mayo)
- two partial banana bread loaves (we'll thaw and snack on them)
- pork tenderloin (a pork quinoa bowl is on the menu)
- five chicken sausages (we'll eat these for lunch)
- half bag of peas (these will go in pork tinga)
My fav dairy-free mozza is Sheese. Daiya makes an ok option.
You can also used shaved artichoke hearts instead. Adds the salty & creamy that cheese does.
We've tried the Daiya, but Sonia didn't like the way it felt on her teeth. Is the Sheese better in that regard?
Not sure if you can get it in the US but I use Violife Greek Style cheese loads for my dairy free son. It’s a bit like feta but melts nicely too!
No, unless the soy-based one is better (I’m soy AND dairy allergic, so...). Daiya is the best dairy free cheese I’ve found, though you need to add it much later to the pizza (get the pizza almost cooked, then add the Daiya for the last couple of minutes), or use much less of it - just a light sprinkle for a bit of melty texture rather than the amount you’d use for properly cheesy pizza. An Italian company makes one called Mozzarisella from brown rice which I like best and has a lovely texture melted, but it can be very hard to find. Alternatively, hummus makes a lovely substitute (use in place of the tomato sauce and skip the cheese entirely).
I have a dairy and nut and seed allergies too. I can eat goats milk and sheep’s milk products. Cow’s milk has a different protein than goat/sheep milk. Trader Joe’s has very nice goat’s milk yogurt and kefir. There’s also goat or sheep milk cheese. They really are quite good.
Sheese gets very soft (almost saucy) when it melts. I can’t remember what the Daiya shreds texture is when it melts.
Once you go off of dairy for a while, your taste buds change. My SIL has to give up dairy when breastfeeding and some of my favourites got an absolute NO from my brother. So in time she may change her mind if she tries them again.
I’ve been. a reader of yours from almost the beginning. How did I not know you had a Facebook group?! I just requested to join. Thanks for all you do!
Well, yay! The Facebook group is new in the last year or so, while the Facebook page has been there for lots of years.
The group is better, though, because all of you can make posts, instead of just me making posts.
I'm lucky and had stocked the freezer and pantry over the past month, I will run out of fresh veggies but I have planted tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and spinach in pots so hope for some salad veggies on a regular basis but I am not known for growing veggies well so we will see I will probably have to go weekly to the store but trying to do that as little as possible
I use my freezer quite a bit especially now. I bought and froze some meat after the social distancing order came. But I do have some odds and ends to eat up.
I made a pot of “leftover soup” this week for lunches. I used a single serving of spaghetti sauce and a quart of beef broth from the freezer as a base. Thus, it was minestrone style. I added some frozen veggies and added some leftover roast beef.
I used two frozen bananas to make a large batch of banana nut waffles.
I had some lingering veggie burgers for lunch over salad greens.
We are trying to use all our resources wisely during this difficult time. Wishing everyone continued good health.
I made the 3 things on my list from last week: strawberry syrup from frozen strawberries, blueberry cobbler from frozen blueberries, and soup using odds and ends. Yay!!
Woohoo for you!
Just filled mine up after a clean out like yours. Felt so good!
Hi! How did you make the fish cakes for the fish cake sandwiches? They look delicious!
Oh, nuts, I thought I linked to them in the post. I'll go add the link, but here it is for you too: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/homemade-fish-cakes/
I love hearing how you use up your freezer items. Please continue. Gives me ideas.
I wasn’t planning on participating in this. The grocery stores had finally restocked, so I was able to buy meat and milk. Then, my fridge-freezer started dying. I was able to move some food to our big freezer, mini-fridge and a plug-in cooler, but am trying to use up everything else before the fridge is completely dead. I’m using a thermometer to keep track. Anyway, we’ve had ...
Scrambled tofu, kale and onions, plus roasted potatoes.
Ground turkey, homemade tortillas and guacamole, with sweet pepper slices on the side.
Strawberries and grapes for snacks.
My daughter also had yogurt and cheese, and has been drinking her soy milk rather than juice, since it will spoil faster.
My son has been working on his chocolate muffins that were in the freezer, for snacks and breakfast. I also gave him the last of some pre-cooked frozen ground beef, and the last of some gf chicken nuggets with lunch and snack yesterday.
I’ve been working on scrambled eggs with shredded cheese, salad, and used up the makings for a single serving pizza.
New fridge comes Wednesday!
When all of this craziness started, we did a THOROUGH pantry, refrigerator, and freezer inventory... and I have to say, I was a little surprised at just how much we had! (Which I realize is a ridiculously fortunate place to be in.) For just the two of us at home, we're thinking we can make it to mid-April without needing to go in to the grocery store for much at all! If we did what my husband calls "submarine fare" (where we have no fresh fruit or veggies - only canned and frozen), we could probably go a touch longer.
We've been slowly working on planning meals around the meats and other goodies in our freezers and adding in some fun stuff every now and then - like your recipe for homemade French bread! (My husband said, "This is damn good bread!")
We've enjoyed meal planning before, but now this novel coronavirus/shelter-in-place is leading us to keep better track of EVERYTHING we have, instead of just a general idea!
'Submarine fare' . . . love it!
We're trying to delay a trip to the grocery, luckily we were pretty well stocked.
Monday-Chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls
Tuesday-Bean Tostadas with avacado slices
Wednesday-Sausage Breakfast casserole, biscuits
Thursday-Chicken Tikka Masala over rice. (used up most of my leftover veggies)
Friday-Salad and Shepherds Pie
Stay well!
I'm making bread pudding for dessert tonight to use up some white bread that's been hanging out in the freezer for far too long. I think I'll avoid your Pioneer Woman recipe, though, and pick one that's a little easier on the waistline! (In my world, French toast casserole and bread pudding are essentially the same thing!)
I had pretty well already emptied my upright freezer, but my refrigerator freezer still has random half bags of frozen vegetables which I'm trying to use up. I haven't done anything clever with them, just served them as vegetable sides. I plan to make cauliflower and cheese casserole later this week, though, which is a tiny bit fancier than just plain veggies.
My big challenge this last couple of weeks was to tackle the laundry room. We had to put in new flooring a while back but the rest of the room looked bad with the new floor. I took out some mis-matched, 10-year old "temporary" storage cabinets, added a new and newly painted shelving unit, sorted through everything on the existing wall-hung shelves and out of the old cabinets, got rid of stuff that should be dumped or belonged elsewhere, set up neat bins by category on all shelves, got stuff off the floor and onto the shelves, cleared the junk off of tops of appliances, and painted over all nicks, marks and scratches on the walls so that the room looks freshly painted even though most of it wasn't touched. I just have to paint the back side of the door, where I removed a rusty hanging organizer and puttied the holes. My only problem now is that I keep finding myself just standing there gazing at the laundry room. 🙂
This is wonderful! Hope you post a photo!
I don't blame you for standing and gazing. I did that with my bathroom and all I did was paint it.
I always do that whenever I organize or declutter something. 🙂
We love Chao non dairy cheese from Costco. It is reminiscent of old time American Cheese with a slight tang. It melts very well. NO risk because Costco accepts all returns. (( May be not during the epidemic tho)
My family really likes Lisanatti Brand Almond Mozzarella style it come in a block you shred yourself and melts really well for pizza and melts. We buy it at Fresh Thyme. I don't know if that's a store you have available near you.
Unfortunately, Sonia is allergic to nuts! That makes her dairy issues so much more challenging because there are a lot of dairy alternatives that use cashews or almonds.
On the dairy-free front - VioLife mozzarella is pretty good. I haven't had it, but if you kind find Miyoko's mozzarella, I hear it's great (a little expensive though). And another alternative would be to make cashew cheese - there's a ton of recipes on the internet. It won't fool you into thinking it's actual cheese, but it's good in its own right!
*can find
Sorry for so many comments! Just saw below Sonia is allergic to nuts! You can also make nut-free cheese alternatives with pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds. There's a recipe here - https://www.exceedinglyvegan.com/vegan-recipes/mains/veggie-pizza-sunflower-seed-cheese. It calls for nutritional yeast, which you may not have, but you can buy small quantities from the bulk section. However, it's great for those of us that are dairy free - you can use it in place of parmesan, sprinkle it on popcorn, make "cheese" sauces with it - tons of uses!
Yes, I've been meaning to get some nutritional yeast for her! That seems promising.
Unfortunately, Sonia is allergic to seeds as well as nuts, so the sunflower cheese won't work. (sad face)
It's so frustrating, because peanut butter alternatives, such as sun butter, are off the table. And store-bought hummus almost always has tahini in it. It feels like I run into roadblocks everywhere when I am trying to find good protein alternatives for her.
Chao Cheese at Costco is made from pea protein, but I don't know what else. We like it.
"Store-bought hummus almost always has tahini in it." Not good for Sonia but not surprising, as it's not hummus if it doesn't have tahini. You might have better luck with falafel; many have tahini but it's not required.
If you want to try your own, CI's recent recipe for hummus was amazingly good; maybe even worth the labor of removing the chickpeas' skins.
How does she feel about refried beans?
We did find some chocolate hummus that had no tahini in it...but that's probably not technically hummus!
I have made falafel for Sonia before and she did like that.
I don't know if she's ever had refried beans. I'm gonna have to ask her.
Kristen, homemade hummus is super easy, even w/o the tahini (we have avoid sesame along with lots of other foods). Chickpeas, with a little of either the soaking water or water from can, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic (or garlic powder if you’re out of fresh), salt, pepper, parsley. Blitz it in a food processor, blender, bullet, Vitamix... til smooth. Make sure you drizzle in the olive oil so it doesn’t get too thin.
Yes, I've seen so many good looking cashew ricotta recipes but alas, Sonia is more allergic to nuts than she is to dairy.
Multiple allergies to multiple groups of foods makes life so much harder!
Mykonos cheese is the only dairy free cheeseI love. The rest taste like depression and dust.
Great photos. : )
Oops. She's allergic to nuts. I know the Minimalist Baker has great "cheese" recipes. Most can be adapted to nut free.
Thanks for sharing the Pioneer Woman link.
I get fresh eggs in exchange for my dog walking service. The flock of chickens was recently attacked, leaving only two girls to lay.
I have bread in the freezer that needs to be used up. The French Toast Recipe looks like a great way to get rid of the bread but I only have 4 fresh eggs left. The grocery store has been OUT for weeks (at least the times I 3 stopped) so that will have to wait.
Its beginning to look like Corona 19 may be around as long as it takes the new chicks to start laying. Those 4 eggs have become extreemly precious.
I was last at the grocery store over a week ago, and eggs were completely gone when I went out. I don't know what things are like right now, but I am lucky enough to have some in my fridge still.
We continue trudging through the many small containers of various leftover soups, but the end is near. Two more suppers this week and we should have it licked. Then on to moose and salmon parts that we are thankful for, but also get very sick of and then feel ashamed at complaining when others have no food. We seldom go out to eat but during this time have decided that we can afford to support desperate local restaurants, so once a week my husband will go to a restaurant with drive through or curbside service for a meal to bring home and we will tip very well. The only other thing he has left the house for this past week was to pick up supplies to make face masks. He is a very accomplished seamster, as our curtains and various dresses I own will attest; he has to be the only man in town with not one but two fancy sewing machines! Anyway, the evaluations he does for the court system have shut down or postponed for now, and he decided he could use his new free time to sew masks. Ironing on the backing is about all I am good for doing but it feels like we are doing something. Many of the Alaskan villages have shut down all travel in or out except for food cargo flights; if you leave the village, you are not allowed back in for now. The rest of the state is under shelter in place orders.
thanks to your seamster for making masks.
So am I the only one having a "fill the freezer challenge" ? I'm stress baking and with no coworkers, friends or even relatives to share with, our two person household is getting overwhelmed with goodies and I can't stop baking! So far since my layoff, I've baked pecan pie squares, cinnamon rolls, peanut butter pastries, chocolate pie, whoopee pies, fudge, cookies, pound cake, donuts and muffins. Then I went savory and did buttermilk biscuits, whole wheat cheddar biscuits, bread sticks, English muffins, pitas and I'm planning to try naan which I've never made. It's getting hard to find space in my freezer! At least I don't have to worry about the yeast shortage or shopping. I have enough carbs for at least three months. 😉
Oh wow! That's quite a freezer cull of deliciousness.
I'm trying to resist the urge but it's not easy. I have good reason: I made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, and two of us ate all the dough in 3 days.
Yes! I’m doing likewise 🙂
We used up a ham that we had gotten very cheap from Aldi's. We glazed it with pineapple juice we had frozen and the juices from fruit cups (the kids only eat the fruit). It was delicious! We served it with mashed potatoes because we bought a huge bag of potatoes from the Public Market. We also made ham sandwiches using homemade wheat bread.
With the ham bits, we made BBQ baked beans. We served this over baked potatoes to stretch it out. We buy huge bags of dried beans from the Public Market for less than $1 per lb.
I also used up some bread from the freezer to make french toast, for my kids, for breakfast. I plan to cook down my bag of random pieces of frozen fruit into a compote some time this week. It's great over oatmeal.
I love this challenge!
Good! I've got meals planned about 10 days out right now (things won't stay in that order but we know how we'll use the food at least). Freezer will be mostly empty by that time and no additional shopping should be needed before then!
Our freezer supply is dwindling. There are some items that don't even get looked at. For example, we were given bags of pretzels with, it looks like, some kinda cheese topping... The youngest said that nobody eats them and that's not cheese. :/
This freezer shopping has been more like an Easter Egg Hunt as I don't know what I will find. But here's some ideas for the week:
- scalloped potatoes and ham (from leftover ham)
- deconstructed lasagna using crumbled Italian sausage links and hamburger patties w/mozz
- chicken & pepper skillet on tortillas
- beef noodle soup (there's a wrapped item in freezer that looks like beef bones? ribs? it has the word "cooked" on it...No idea)
- mixed grill w/fries (hamburgers, kielbasa, marinated shrimp)
Hi! I don't eat cheese on my pizza either. If your sauce is really great you don't need it. But...if Sonia would like another substitute option olive oil and a little nutritional yeast is pretty good.
I see a few people have recommended VioLife but it really is the best cheese alternative. It is nut free, soy free, dairy and gluten free as well. I think it must be made with magic. I posted in the link where you can find it. They have mozz shreds, a feta-like one, and two types of sliced cheese. Way better than Daiya. Chao is good if you want a non-melted slice but it does contain soy. Tastes close to American cheese.