Freezer challenge | Why do I have four bags of bread?
If you're new here: since we're all trying to minimize our grocery shopping, my readers and I are busy trying to take advantage of the food we've already got in our freezers.
Time for another freezer challenge update from me (and you can update us on yours in the comments!)
Here's the batch of things I started with last go-round.
And here's what I did with it all.
Banana bread
I thawed the banana bread and we just ate it as-is.
Very simple!
Pork tenderloin
I cooked up the pork tenderloin:
Then I shredded it and used it in quinoa bowls, made with a citrus dressing.
Roasted peppers
I used the roasted orange peppers in a batch of basil/roasted pepper mayo.
And I made sandwiches with chicken, croissants, and the mayo.
Sausages
I grilled the sausages and served them on toasted and buttered buns (which were from my chest freezer).
Peas
As of this moment, the peas are still there. But, I plan to make pork tinga tonight, and that calls for peas.
So, here's how things stand, and you can imagine the peas with a checkmark on them after tonight. 😉
This week's freezer items!
So, I've pretty much finished with my kitchen freezer, so I figured it's time to rummage through my chest freezer to find some neglected odds and ends.
A lot of bread odds and ends
Four bags, to be specific.
I think I've kinda let the bread pile up a bit too long.
So, I'm thinking some croutons and probably another French toast casserole are in order.
A jar of applesauce
We'll have this with dinner tonight.
A jar of butternut squash soup
At least, I think that's what it is. I'll find out once it thaws!
If I'm right, it's this recipe.
And if it is, I'll eat it for lunch.
Leftover rice
I'll probably make a small batch of rice pudding with this.
Cookies
I froze some at Christmas time, since a lot of times we end up with an overload of cookies at that time.
April seems like a good time to get them out. 🙂
Right now my freezer is stocked with things I can make whole meals out of - chicken breasts, veggies, and two complete meals that I will just thaw and heat up. Mostly its organized, but it is very small so I don't have room to lose things in there. And we don't own a chest freezer. However there are things I definitely need to clean out of the fridge so they don't go bad and I may scratch some of what I was planning to cook this week and focus on leftovers, dibs, and dabs!
I almost was thinking I should do a fridge challenge this week! Mine has some odds and ends that need to be used, I am sure.
We try to do a fridge challenge once a week or so at my place. A lot of times that ends up as a stir fry.
Hah. I call that “back of fridge night” on my menu plan and have had some real winners come out of that!
Stir fry! Great idea! We have a lot of asparagus right now and I used to be able to count on at least 1 kid LOVING asparagus, but this spring he doesn't. We have too much for my husband and I to eat alone. Putting it in stir fry sounds great!
In addition to stir fry, my go-to's for using up odds and ends are fritatta and soup. Pasta salad is another, for people who like pasta salad.
Asparagus is also great in quiche (assuming you have eggs).
I'm still filling my freezer, not necessarily because I want to, but just because these are crazy times. I was low on frozen veggies when C-19 first hit and for some reason, there's a serious lack of availability in my area. So, I started buying a little extra fresh produce (because apparently no one wanted fresh?) and blanching or roasting and stashing in the freezer. Which turned out to be a good decision because now I can't even find fresh broccoli and the freezer cases are still empty. I'm also still stress baking but I've slowed down a little, still the carb stash is large and I succumbed to an ice cream sale on my lone trip to a regular (non-discount) grocery store. On a related note, has anyone else tried Tillamook ice cream? It just showed up in my store and I think I'm in love. 😉
My husband and I just tried the Tillamook ice cream a couple of weeks back, mudslide flavor I think it was called? It was SO GOOD! I didn't know they made ice cream outside of cheese!
Ooh! I like your idea about the veggies. I hear that they are low in my area, too and they certainly come in handy once I get down to the end of my 2 weeks' worth of groceries. I'll have to plan to freeze some fresh ones when I go shopping in a week. I didn't plan well enough for veggies this time around, so that'll be important next time!
Tillamook for life! I’m originally from the Pacific Northwest (Tillamook dairy is based on the northern Oregon coast), so I grew up with Tillamook. When I moved to NC five years ago, I was so sad to leave it behind. But my grocery store started selling it recently, and I think we’ve been singlehandedly keeping it stocked. 😛
Steer clear of their Cookies & Cream flavor. We E-mailed to complain about having almost *no* dough bits in the entire carton.
Over a week later, Tillamook's rep responded w/an apology, said she'd fwd it to their Q. Control team, and send us a Q for a free carton.
That's been over 2 weeks ago...maybe they had to shut down? Who says an ice Cream manufacturer isnt "essential," esp during a shutdown?!
Tillamook everything is very good
I'm on fridge-and-fridge-freezer challenge for the next few days. I went away to a cabin for a few days so there are bits leftover from that, and many of my fridge contents froze while I was gone[1], and I stuffed some fridge foods into the fridge freezer so they wouldn't go bad while I was away.
I also need to use:
- 2 bunches of previously-frozen (sob) asparagus
- 2 leftover pork chops
- remainder of the roast chicken, which I simmered in the leftover pico de gallo
- a lot of 1-2% milk
- half pound bacon
- marinara sauce
[1] This happens when you don't open the fridge door for days. I have added "adjust fridge temp" to my packing list.
-We used up some mozzarella sticks that have been lingering since the Super Bowl. (Still have half a bag)
-We somehow managed to use up all of our frozen bananas (I mean, 30+ frozen bananas). Having the kids at home for a more leisurely breakfast means more fruit smoothies
-We also used up the last of the frozen pesto from a pesto session a few years ago (out of control basil plan).
Plans for this week for the freezer:
-Make hummus to use up the mini naan bread
-Get out the roti & serve with the tikka masala I made
-Use up that last chicken "snack" sandwich thing that no one liked. I'll deconstruct it, and have most of it in a salad
We cooked a large turkey out of the freezer, that we got on a huge discount around Thanksgiving, for Easter dinner. We made a pasta salad, as a side dish, to use up the decorated hard boiled eggs. We also made mashed potatoes, from a huge bag of potatoes, and roasted vegetables. We will use the turkey scraps to make deconstructed turkey pot pies this week too.
My freezer was in fairly good shape because I did a pantry challenge in Jan. It is surprising how quickly you can accumulate random items when you are trying to avoid food waste though. I challenged myself to make a 2-week menu plan and it was no problem! I do keep a fairly full freezer (a friend supplies us with venison so I always have that) and only want to use up things before they are too old as opposed to emptying it. But I am going to plan a third week of meals before I shop again to use up the food I have added to the freezer this year. One thing I learned from this pandemic is it doesn’t hurt to have a reasonable food supply on hand.
Are those glass jars? I never knew you could freeze glass jars without them breaking. Is there a trick to it?
We got hit pretty hard with a cold front and crazy storms/wind yesterday, so soup seemed in order yesterday. And we had some veggies that really needed to be used, so it worked out well. There's a fair amount of chicken in the freezer, so I think this week we'll be having a lot of chicken dishes. There's also a roast in there that I'm getting tired of moving every time I need something else, so it may be on the menu soon.
My chicken broth stash from the freezer is almost used up, so some of the chicken carcasses may come out this week to be turned into broth. I'm not really sure that counts as using anything up, though, since something else goes right back in to replace it.
Last week we used up some cubed steak, shredded cooked chicken, a slice of peanut butter pie, and bell peppers from the freezer.
Yep, you can freeze in glass jars! The trick is to leave a good amount of headspace at the top, so that your jar contents can have room to expand.
Official Mason jars work best for this, as they seem to be sturdy glass. If you use, say, an old pasta sauce jar, you will encounter accidental breakage more often.
I think making chicken broth totally counts, because you are getting those bones one step closer to an edible form. Put a check mark on there and call it progress, I say!
I was doing sooooo well in march, my freezers were getting pretty (reasonably) empty. Then this whole pandemic situation got serious and my food insecurity kicked-in a little, and the freezers are almost full again....So I need to stop buying again, and use what's there.
I'm filling, not emptying my freezer, but I'm trying to make sure I don't lose track of the stuff that I already had in there, like homemade broth. I like the ideas here for using up bits and pieces. I have several of those in my fridge, so yes, I think a fridge challenge is about to happen here.
Last night, we had a rack of lamb that had been at the bottom of the freezer since 2014! And it was delicious. I was also able to use some breadcrumbs for the top of a mac 'n cheese. We have a google doc that has all of our freezer inventory (we finally started it last summer) and it has been a real game-changer.
We also will buy a big bag of limes when there is a good sale and freeze them in ice cube trays so we always have lime juice when we need it, without the fear of them going bad in the fridge, which has been really useful in making creative meals.
Freezing lime juice = brilliant!
Oh, that is a good idea! And the ice cube trays would make the lime juice easy to use in small quantities.
Exactly!
I wish we had room for a chest freezer so we could really stock up on milk, bread, and frozen veggies to not have to shop for a looong while. (I'm in NYC and not keen on leaving the house unless we absolutely have to!) It's almost impossible to get delivery slots anywhere so my husband has had to go out a few times, (I'm recovering from a back injury and can't go out yet.). We did start using up some stuff from our freezer so we could make room for some milk and bread. Hopefully the next trip can wait for at least two weeks.
We had the following:
1. Leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving with our Easter ham.
2. The last of the shrimp with pasta and pesto sauce.
3. Used up the 5 bananas in banana nut bread and found some chocolate chips for it too!
4. Beef bones I roasted and made stock with to make mushroom barley soup for this week.
5. Did the same with chicken bones but will use the stock later.
6. The last of the cookies from our October trip to Stew Leonard's.
We made room for two half gallons of milk, two loaves of bread, and a few packs of frozen veggies. Pretty good I think!
I've been SLOWLY rearranging/clearing out the deep freeze. The top shelf is DONE. I found 2 4-cup containers of leftover turkey of indeterminate age (it was badly freezer burned), so I threw it out. I also found some chicken giblets - I'll probably make broth and can it. I found 3 4-cup containers of leftover ham, all designated on their labels as "For Soup," so I made a batch of bean soup and used up one container. Everything else is relatively new, mainly ice cream, frozen pot pies, and butter.
I've been kind of going through the other shelves as I look for specific items. I'm trying to group like items together - chicken, ground beef, been roasts, pork chops, pork loins, sausages, fo example.
I have found some forgotten orphans, so I'm trying to use them up! It's going pretty well, actually. I have a much better grip on what is in there!
I think this week I will be focusing on eating out of the fridge mainly to use up some Easter foods. For Easter I made a turkey djnner which we shared some with friends. Tonight I made shepherds pie using turkey, the remainder of the gravy and I added the rest of a container of chicken broth to stretch the gravy, the rest of the cooked carrots from yesterday, the remainder of a bag of mixed vegetables and most of the leftover mashed potatoes. It was really good. We have one serving of the pie for someone’s lunch tomorrow. We have bacon, sausage, and ham to use, stuffing, a small dish of mashed potatoes, a single salad, and then we should be pretty food on using up the food. I’m trying to be really vigilant in order to prevent food waste.
Great idea & self-control on the Christmas cookies!
I'll join in this challenge.
What I've been using:
-cherries in yogurt & muffins
-Chicken, broccoli, sugar snap peas & sweet peas for a stir-fry
-diced onions in a ham/bean soup
What I intend to use up next:
-parmesan cheese rinds in sauce
-raspberries in muffins
-Chicken for dinner with wild rice
So I’ve been just pulling out what we have in the freezer and seeing what I can make. So far the only flop was turkey stir fry. How do you keep on a budget? I do think I have enough fruits and vegetables to last until May so I don’t plan to go back to the store at all. I have milk delivery starting on the 21st so that keeps me out of the store. I went this past week and loaded up so I’m hoping to do well and not waste any. I’ve been following you since your kids were little and I just pray my kids turn out as well as yours. Regards Melissa