The big chest freezer cleanout | Basket #1 & Compartment #2
I'm working on cleaning out my chest freezer this summer, one basket/compartment at a time so that I don't get overwhelmed and give up on it entirely.
Last week's basket
Here's how things went with my basket challenge from last week.
- shredded mozzarella (didn't use, but I'll def be making pizza again soon, so no biggie)
whole milk vanilla yogurt(used in banana chocolate chip muffins)
sweet potato soup(ate at lunch twice)pork butt(I made pulled pork)
two English muffins(Joshua ate one, we forgot about the other one until it was off-smelling)
butternut squash cubes(ate for lunch several times)
- a heel of bread (I think I might have a plan for using this tonight)
- panko (didn't use this, but I know I will in the not-too-distant future. Panko is easy to use!)
- yeast (wasn't planning to use all of this up this week)
- beef ravioli (Zoe ate half of this)
So, I didn't use everything up, but heaven knows I wouldn't have gotten around to a lot of that stuff if I hadn't told you all about it.
Thanks for being my virtual kick in the pants, guys. You are appreciated. 🙂
This week's compartment
This part is a lot emptier than I thought it was, so this is going to be pretty darn easy.
What we have here is a couple of forgotten bags of cranberries, plus a mystery container of a tomato product. Tomato sauce? Tomato puree?
Someone I should have labeled this. 😉
I think I'll probably make several loaves of cranberry bread, but I'm going to wait until later in the week for that. Today and tomorrow are awfully hot and I hate to turn on the oven for an hour on a hot day.
I might also make some pineapple cranberry bars.
I'll thaw the mystery tomato product, figure out what it is, and then possibly use it in something like sloppy joes.
And I also think I should clean out some of the snow that's in this compartment. I'll do a serious defrost once I finish this project, of course, but I can at least do a little ice removal here.
So, this week's official list:
- beef ravioli
- shredded mozzarella
- bread heel
- panko
- 2.5 bags of cranberries
- mystery tomato product
I'll report back next week!
I love this idea and am planning on doing this challenge this week with my freezer. I'm going to have to blog about it, too, or I'll never do it. Thanks for the great idea!
Yes! Blogging about it is like magic.
I'm having a freezer challenge at our house too. We're trying to finish up the meat which takes up most of the space in the freezer. We haven't really done grocery shopping for 2 weeks. I think it will save us hundreds of dollars in grocery shopping this month! 😀
A couple of years ago, I bought a bag of cranberries, and noticed it had directions on how to freeze them: "To Freeze: Place bag in Freezer." Sometimes, it really is that easy. I froze some blueberries I bought on a good sale recently, and can't wait to use them in pancakes and cobbler.
Haha, I love those directions!
We are still continuing our freezer challenge, but I ended up buying more fresh vegetables this weekend (tis the season afterall!). Luckily hubby would rather eat the frozen Aldi asparagus than fresh. And I roasted the fresh vegetables for me to eat.
I also found a container of tomato sauce in our freezer so I guess we’ll be having pasta at some point this week. That’s a great go to meal when you don’t feel like cooking.
PS. Did you get my instagram picture of all my Lucy's? LOL
I did! I love them.
Congrats on your progress. I'm thinking that the mystery tomato product, the moz, the panko, and the bread heel - turned into bread crumbs - might end up in a single dish.
I'm eating down my freezer also but your compartment method wouldn't work for me. My sections are organized like-with-like, so one bin is entirely Weird Pig Parts (such as smoked hock) for beans and soups. Another section is all the frozen pizza. Not the meal plan I have in mind.
Luckily for me, my freezer is much more of a mish-mash of things, so we will not be inundated with just one type of food each week.
OTOH, a mish mash freezer is hardly something to be proud of. (!)
Not throwing away your food is something to be proud of.
My mishmash is in the fridge freezer, which I also need to eat down. At least three containers of "3 oz of stock" , at least 2 containers of "Didn't get around to eating this this week" (at least 2 containers), and 2 large containers of "Must. Freeze. Fruit. Lest. It. Spoil, guess I'll make smoothies later." This doens't even count the frozen smoothie pops, which I made so as not to waste fruit smoothies, which I made from fruit I froze so as not to waste it.
Why yes, please, do have a laugh on (at) me.
Sounds pretty much like my freezer too, to be honest!
This past week, all of our dinner entrees began in the freezer.
Monday - salad with leftover salmon in it.
Tuesday - chicken leg/thigh frozen during a 49 cents a lb. sale. Oven baked with homemade shake n bake. Served frozen broccoli with it.
Wednesday - too hot....cereal 4 dinner
Thursday - hubs home - leftover chicken n tossed salad along with a zucchini from our garden.
Friday - Grilled chicken cutlets on George Foreman grill.
Saturday - salad with cut up grilled chicken in it as well as the 1st cuke from our garden.
Sunday - Hubby was off on the road again by dinner time. I had roasted sale asparagus, with left over rice and tacos.
It is great to be using things from the pantry and freezer.
I have a huge upright freezer that I am trying to get through. Not planning to defrost it, but trying to get through all the stuff that may be getting close to age in a freezer. I have a bunch of ham steaks that I found on sale for like $1 each so we are having a lot of ham/potato casserole, ham salad, ham fried rice, etc haha
If you don't get to the cranberries, make cranberry jelly and can it for Thanksgiving.
I make cranberry sauce every November when cranberries are fresh(very easy) and freeze it in small canning jars. When we are having chicken or pork or a roast of any sort, I can grab one jar, defrost and presto! The perfect amount for two people for dinner. Of course, this would add to your freezer in a different way!
I make it and can it....keep it on the shelf in my pantry.
My family makes cranberry ice which would taste great on a hot summer day. Traditionally we use it as a palate cleanser at Thanksgiving.
I’ve added cranberries to smoothies before. You definitely need some other sweeter fruits or honey to offset the tartness of them, but it sure helps use them up!
Thank you for the inspiration. I love this type of post 🙂
I am trying to work on using up my homemade tomato sauce before I am inundated with fresh tomatoes from the garden. We typically just have pasta with the sauce. I also have a variety of sale meats and homemade broth to use up. I need to come up with a plan!
While baking your cranberry breads you can make a lazy lasagne with the ravoli, mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and Panko bread crumb topping, only having to heat up the oven once.
We threw a going away party this weekend and in typical midwesterner fashion we have enough food leftover for another two parties. So... fridge and freezer are now stuffed. This is the opposite of eating down! On the plus side, I don't think we need to do any actual cooking this week, just reheating. And lunches are set.
We had a bunch of leftover cranberries we didn't use last Thanksgiving. My husband made some really amazing cranberry ice cream out of them. I was skeptical but it was delicious.
I am also trying to eat down/rotate the contents of the freezer. I have some orders from Zaycon coming and need the room! COme Summer, I prefer to make muffins over quick breads (although I can bake a loaf in my mini countertop/convection toaster oven). Less energy used (25 ish minutes vs an hour) so less heat build up, too!
My goal was to grind a large bag of coffee beans so that my husband will be more likely to use them (I don't make or drink coffee). They are ground, so I am confident that he will now use them. He had ground some of them a while back, but had lost the motivation.
Hi Kristen,
Thanks for the inspiration, from the freezer this week I cleared out-
Some home made pancakes and had them with bacon and maple syrup for Sunday breakfast
A container of finely chopped dill and added it to mashed potato and some breadcrumbs to crumb fish for fish burgers
Used up above mentioned breadcrumbs
2 containers of Carrot, Coriander and Red Lentil soup went for my lunches at work
I consolidated 3 packets of grated mozzarella, didn’t use any but it looks much tidier now
There is still a few random things in there which I will try and use up this week.
Have a lovely day,
Fi
This is something I need to do!
With summer fruit season upon us it's time to finish up what's frozen and make room for the new bounty!
As for your unmarked tomato something that you found, at least you can tell that it's tomato-something! I have a bad habit of freezing bags of things thinking that I'll surely be able to tell what it is once frozen. I'll tell ya, a frozen bag/container of who knows what is always harder to identify than I thought it would be.
You have inspired me! Today I cleaned out the fridge....had to throw away a few things that were growing penicillin 🙁 However, I have cleaning the refrigerator freezer and our other small freezer on my list for this week. It will be interesting to see what all's in there!
Everything is better when it is cooked in bacon fat.
I'm doing good! I don't have too much stuff in mine that are bits and pieces so mine is mostly just meat and veggies that I need to thaw and cook! I've been working on it so it's down to less than half full. I'd like to almost completely clean it out just because a lot of it has been in there a while and it will save on the grocery bill. Thanks for this challenge!
The remainder of the ravioli, dipped in egg wash and seasoned panko.. fried or baked until crispy and served with marinara dip!
Ooh, that does sound tasty. And such a smart way to use up a bunch of things.
Unfortunately, Sonia and Zoe ate the rest of the ravioli last night. Boo.
My issue with my freezer now that it is most of the way cleaned out is that I now have 4 ham bones and other than soup can't think of anything to do with them. I usually make split pea soup but it is just to hot to cook.
So you gave me the shove to defrost and clean out my upright freezer - nasty job, but I've been so happy for a whole week that I got it done. I had been eating down too, but also faced up to and got rid of the questionable or beyond-questionable items by dong it the day before trash day.
I found an embarrassing number of bags of cranberries too! Are you going to share your bread recipe?
This is really inspiring! As someone who doesn't own a separate freezer, my question is about that in general: In terms of living frugal how helpful is it to have a separate freezer, is it sort of "living frugal 101"? How do you use it (I'm assuming it's not just for leftovers)? Do you buy in bulk and freeze for future use? Do those savings make worthwhile the cost of buying and running the freezer?
I'd love to see a post on the pros to having a chest freezer!! Something like "5 ways a Chest Freezer saves my sanity (and wallet)" I've been trying to persuade my husband to get one since we live over 2 hours away from Costco and have a large family 😉 . Thanks for your blog!