So yeah. I'm doing a freezer challenge.
The freezer below my refrigerator was getting a little...full.
So, I took everything out, thoroughly wiped the freezer down, and took stock of what I had.
I found a lot of bread odds and ends:
And several partially-fully tortilla bags.
What else?
-a few slices of uncooked bacon
-a small bag of cooked bacon bits
-a jar of homemade marinara sauce
-one pizza crust's worth of pizza dough
-some random fruits
Plus there's a big bag of strawberries and blueberries, but I'm not too worried about using those up. Those are regular smoothie additions, and I go through those lickety-split.
Here's my plan-
I'll use the pizza dough, marinara, and bacon to make a pizza.
I'll use the fruits in smoothies this week.
I'm making tacos for dinner this week, and we'll use the random assortment of tortillas for those.
As far as the bread goes? I made paninis for dinner last night to use some of the bread up, and I also made a pan of The Pioneer Woman's overnight french toast, which we will eat this morning.
That does still leave me with a fair number of odds and ends, and I'm thinking I might make some bread crumbs (which I'll freeze for future use in things like Fish Cakes) and some croutons.
So, things are looking good for me getting my freezer whipped into shape before week's end.
I'll update you on how things went when I do my Friday grocery/menu post. And I'll probably be posting small updates on Instagram throughout the week as well.
(I'm thefrugalgirl over there.)
Wish me luck!
I also need to do a freezer challenge soon. Or at least take stock of what's in there. What good is freezing things, if they then become out of sight, out of mind.
I'm a bit over budget on groceries, so I need to do this too. I meal planned looking through what I have in the freezer, but I might go your route and clean it all out and organize it so that I'm sure to use it.
I accept this challenge, which could not have come at a better time. The kitchen freezer in my fridge has gotten out of hand, and while I like to fool myself into thinking I know what all is in there.... I do not. I also have two freezers in the garage. One is in great shape, it's where I flash-freeze things, and it has to be fairly empty to fit cookie sheets in there, even temporarily. The other...oy. It's time.
Good luck! In our house, we have just the little freezer with the fridge (and just the two of us). But as the new fruit season approaches, we need to finish up all the fruit in there. I'm seeing fruit pies, blueberry and applesauce muffins, and maybe some interesting fruit salsas in our future -- the latter to stretch my Mexican food-loving husband into new territory. (Peach salsa for sure!)
You will do a stellar job, I'm sure!
One of my favorite uses for bread odds and ends is French toast casserole; many recipes available online. Basically smallish bread chunks poured over with egg, milk, cinnamon, and sugar. I bet it would be great with your strawberry syrup!
I need to do one of these as I have a lot of large cuts or whole animals (e.g. hams, turkeys etc.) that just don't seem to get cooked when you only have two people in the house on solid foods. I guess we just need to invite more people over or plan on eating ham for weeks. 😛
Battra, have you considered grinding the meat? Maybe not the ham :-} but some of the other large cuts. Ground meat is sooo flexible. For the ham, you could slice or chop one of them, freeze as pieces (rather than one ham-sized lump of slices) and use them as parts of other meals: scrambled eggs, overnight French toast, chopped as part of a gratin topping,...
Grind the ham and make ham salad.
I love ham cubed in potato soup ... or bean soup ... or pea soup ... I made ham tetrazzini for dinner tonight ... it's good in stromboli ...
I have the same issue. When I get a bunch of odd and end bread I will grind it all up to use as bread crumbs for breading on, well, anything. If you freeze it ground it takes up less room. I frequently use freezer odd and end bread in meatloaf. If I have a lot of old bread I will make 2 meatloaves and freeze one. I made black eyed pea patties this weekend and used a couple of old rolls in that. Last week, I made a fruit cobbler because I had so much fruit building up in the freezer and on the counter. I have 2 freezers plus the one in my refrigerator so things are a little out of hand at my place right now. The plus side is I really don't have to go to the grocery store unless I just want something.
Oh and hot dog bun pie is a good way to use those up. Also, works with hamburger buns too.
I just cleaned my deep freezer out to accommodate a major beef purchase. I did have to toss a few things, but most of it was still good and even fairly new, so I haven't done too badly, thank heaven.
I have a question: I have frozen whole Japanese persimmons in the freezer, and when thawed, they are soft, almost pourable once they are skinned. I've used some pulp mixed with whole cream as a sort-of ice cream (it was heavenly), but I want other ideas. I'm not finding a lot of persimmon recipes -- anyone have any ideas?
I hope someone else does! I've never used a persimmon before in my life.
But anything mixed with heavy cream is bound to be fabulous, so I believe you when you say it was heavenly. 😉
Yummy for mixing with plain Greek yogurt!
EASY PERSIMMON PUDDING
Ingredients:
2 cups persimmon pulp (Use either type, they just have to be soft enough to mash into pulp)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup white sugar
1 ¼ cup flour (if you like flax meal, substitute up to one fourth cup of that for white flour)
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup melted butter
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat all ingredients together until combined. Pour into a greased 9 X 13 baking dish and bake for about 35 minutes; the cake will not rise much and a knife inserted into the center should come out with a few bits clinging to it. The final consistency will be someplace between a cake and a pudding, much like a rice pudding, and will need to be spooned rather than cut for serving. Serve with or without whip cream and dried persimmon garnish.
FALL PERSIMMON SALAD
Ingredients:
2 firm Fuyu persimmons, diced
2 apples, one green and one red, diced
25 to 30 grapes, sliced in half
¼ cup walnuts or pistachios
1/8 cup of your favorite fruit pancakes syrup (If I serve this at Thanksgiving, I substitute the same amount of cranberry relish that has been micro waved until liquid)
Preparation:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and serve
MIXED PERSIMMON SALAD
Ingredients:
2 cups mixed greens
4 Tablespoons red wine vinegar dressing
½ ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
4 Fuyu persimmons, peeled and chunked
1 cup jicama, chopped
1 Asian pear, sliced
Preparation:
Put lettuce in a serving bowl. Put the dressing into a bowl, and add avocado, persimmons, jicama and Asian pear pieces. Stir to coat. Pour the fruit and dressing on top of the lettuce. Toss to coat. Chill 20 minutes before serving.
PERSIMMON SORBET
Ingredients:
4 cups persimmon puree, either variety
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup water
Preparation:
Heat the water and sugar in a sauce pan until the sugar is dissolved. Blend the persimmon puree with the sugar water mixture. Place the mixture in a freezer safe container until firm, stirring once or twice during the freezing. Produces one quart of sorbet.
PERSIMMON YOGURT PARFAIT
Ingredients:
2 Fuyu persimmons
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 cups non-fat vanilla yogurt
1 cup berries of choice
1 cup low-fat granola
Preparation:
Cut the persimmon into four wedges, and each wedge into four more pieces; set aside. Combine brown sugar and yogurt in a small bowl, until well blended.
Spoon ¼ cup of the yogurt mixture into each of four dessert glasses; top with four persimmon pieces, 2 tablespoons of berries, and 2 tablespoons of granola. Repeat the layers, ending with granola. Serve immediately.
DRIED PERSIMMON
Ingredients:
Fuyu persimmons
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
Cut as many Fuyu persimmons into slices that are no more than a quarter inch thick, cutting the fruit width-wise (not end to end), so that each piece shows the eight-limbed star in the center.
Lay the slices on racks (I use the oven racks, well-washed), in single layers, and bake for about two to three hours. The pieces will caramelize and turn a deep brown in spots, and will be dry and perhaps curling. They end up chewy and sweet.
These can be used as an edible garnish for other dishes or can be eaten like any other dried fruit. If you plan to keep them over three or four days, freeze and thaw completely before eating.
Wow! You are so knowledgeable about persimmons.
They are my favorite fruit so when they are in season I tend to get carried away and buy so many I have to find ways to use them up. There are two types, the ones that look squat and the ones that have sort of a tear shape. The squat ones are great for eating out of hand.
I have hit the persimmon jackpot! Thanks!
I didn't plan it, but I just did a freezer clean out too. About an hour ago I discovered our freezer above our fridge is no longer keeping things frozen. Boo! I lost most things in there and everything else went to the outside freezer. I knew it was on the outs, but I guess it finally decided to quit.
We have had a few really horrible, no good, very bad, frugal weeks. My daughter was hospitalized for a week, home for a week, and back in for 5 days (with 2 brain surgeries to boot). This caused our eating out expenses to sky rocket, our Ting bill to be insane, and the loss of many perishables that were purchased between her two stays (my husband is awesome but cooking is not his thing).
On the positive side, she is home now and doing good and I am more determined then ever to step up my frugal measures!
So glad to hear your daughter is on the mend! Scary times.
Oh my goodness. What a rough few weeks for you guys. I'm so glad she's doing better now and that you guys are able to be home.
Havnt been great myself on the frugal front, could well do with a freezer clean out. Food shopping was expensive last week and over budget..
Got completely distracted as just found out I'm expecting identical twins!!
Soo really focused on that and anxious that all will be well..and that I'm eating enough to feed the 3 of us as healthy as possible 🙂
Congratulations!
Congrats! I have 10.5 month old fraternal twin girls (and their three year old sister). They are a blast! It's a lot of work, so accept all the help you can get. Oh, and schedule at least 20 extra minutes for any activity you do... Everyone loves to talk to you about twins. If I had a nickel for every time someone told me I have my hands full I be one rich lady! Good luck!
Oh wow! Congrats!!
Glad I'm not the only one with odds and ends of tortillas. Something I discovered this winter was to cut them in strips with a pizza cutter, sprinkle some olive oil and salt on them, and bake them. SO good and tasty on Mexican-style soups.
I also have to use up everything in the freezer as we are buying half a cow next month. I am so excited, but this does mean that I will not be buying a lot of food until then.
How about bread pudding? My mom used to make her own bread and save all of the odds and ends and would make a fabulous apple cinnamon bread pudding.