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)
I browned the thawed squash cubes in a cast iron pan with bacon grease. Because that is how I roll.
- 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.
that’s a lotta cranberries!
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!
Sarah
Saturday 23rd of June 2018
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!
Carol
Wednesday 20th of June 2018
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?
Arlene
Tuesday 19th of June 2018
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?
Marianne
Tuesday 19th of June 2018
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.
Jessica S
Tuesday 19th of June 2018
The remainder of the ravioli, dipped in egg wash and seasoned panko.. fried or baked until crispy and served with marinara dip!
Kristen
Tuesday 19th of June 2018
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.