The Great Freezer Cleanout | Week 3
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 Use It Up list
Let's talk about last week's stuff first!
beef ravioli(Sonia and Zoe ate this for dinner one night)- shredded mozzarella (Nope, still have it)
bread heel(used to make bread crumbs; used bread crumbs in crab cake)
panko(used almost all of these crumbs up on the chicken katsu)
2.5 bags of cranberries
I made two loaves of cranberry bread, a pan of cranberry bars, and a small batch of cranberry sauce. Go, me!
I'm so happy that my cranberries are all used up.
- mystery tomato product
This was a fail. I thawed it and then it got shoved to the back of the fridge where I forgot about it for a week. So I'm going to dump that out.
This week's Use It Up list
Let's go from left to right.
- two bags of frozen quinoa
Lisey loves quinoa, so I think she'll use this up if I remind her that it's there.
- a small container of frosting
The frosting is Sonia's, from her cupcake decorating, so maybe I need to tell her to make more cupcakes.
- almond flour
Not sure what I want to do with this. I think maybe Sonia uses this for macarons?
(Conclusion I am drawing here: Sonia needs to bake this week.)
- butternut squash soup
It's hot weather for soup. I wonder if this is good cold. Hmm. I might try that.
- chicken broth
I have some sausage in the freezer too, so perhaps I should make the orzo/sausage dish and kill two birds with one stone (it requires chicken broth).
(next row)
- two bags of flank steak
I don't really feel too pressed about using this up. Flank steak is easy to use, it hasn't been there that long, and since it's kind of expensive, I want to stretch it out and eat it no more than once a week.
- sauce for Aussie chicken
Well, I could make Aussie chicken!
- a jar of cardamom
This can stay in here. I rarely use cardamom, and it keeps better in the freezer.
- coffee creamer
I only use this to make hot chocolate mix. Which I am totally not going to make at the end of June. I don't feel like coffee creamer is exactly a healthy food, so I'm loathe to come up with ways to use it!
- tortillas
These will be easy. Tacos! Quesadillas! Scrambled egg burritos!
- more butternut squash soup
Whee. Again, I'm going to see how I feel about cold soup.
Alllrighty! I have my assignments for this week now. Wish me luck.
If you've been cleaning out your freezer with me, I'd love to hear how it's going.
I'm still working on getting through stuff in my freezer. We've never defrosted it so I'm a little scared! I think we've had it for four years. Yikes!
Yeah, I'm going to do a thorough defrost once I finish going through compartment by compartment. I figured that the defrosting job would be a whole lot easier with less clutter in the freezer.
You don't really have to eat everything now, do you? I mean, can't the squash soup wait until fall? (Because I'm not really thinking squash soup sound that yummy right now either.) OR we bought some pasta sauce that was butternut squash sauce. The kids were not thrilled with it, so I ended up mixing it with tomato sauce or whatever tomato product we had on hand to make more "normal" spaghetti sauce. So if it's not too gingery or other-flavory that wouldn't suit spaghetti, maybe that's an option.
I mean, technically it could. But I'm sure I'll be getting more squash from Hungry Harvest in the fall, and I'd rather not still have a stash in the freezer! lol
I don't mind leaving the coffee creamer in there until hot chocolate weather, but I'm kind of determined to use up the squash soup. Stubborn! 😉
Substitute the coffee creamer for milk in waffles/pancakes/French toast. Works well. You can also make smoothies out of it.
Ahh you frugal queen bee! I got to 3 things last week and they weren't hard. It was salmon and meatballs and tofu skins for inari tofu pouches. I have a pound of Gouda cheese in the freezer that I'm nervous about because cheese in freezers come out tasting a bit crumbly.
Your chicken katsu looks amazing!
Thank you! Joshua, who is pretty picky about his Asian foods being authentic, said it tasted good. Phew.
I always find that frozen cheese does better melted (then the texture problem isn't a problem).
Something like Gouda is imo best sliced into a sandwich, or my mouth. However, if the texture is strange it would still be yummy grated onto pasta, in a grilled cheese or other toasted sandwich or you could try melting it for cheese sauce.
Cold squash soup (with or without coconut or cream) is delicious! If it's thick, you can use it with pasta or ravioli as a sauce, too!
Maybe transform the butternut squash soup into a nice pasta sauce, like above commenters have said? Not really “summery” but still, perhaps better than cold soup. I’m not sure why but as a soup lover, cold soup sounds like sacrilege to me. Ha!
Here’s a recipe I found in a quick search: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/pasta_with_butternut_parmesan_sauce/
Why is it that hot pasta with a hot sauce somehow seems less anathema than soup? It's so weird!
What about cooked pasta with the butternut squash/soup/sauce, with some onions, celery, peppers, tomatoes, olives- hot with Parmesan cheese, hot- or a cold pasta salad with the same ingredients?
We haven't really bought any meat for 3 weeks! Our grocery and restaurant bill for this month is less than $300 so far since we're doing the freezer challenge. And that includes $150 we spent on a road trip to Raleigh. I'm SUPPER happy about it since we used to spend $800/mo on food when my MIL was living with us 😀
That is AMAZING. Yay!
*SUPPER* Freudian slip? Love it!
I am so impressed- I am trying to go through my freezer, but am finding things I would only use during cold weather, so find it all too easy to put off.... like chili and 6 bags of chicken bones for broth... we had one thing of soup on a cold night this week, but I am really not inspired to continue to eat it on 90*
I'm going to use my chicken broth in this: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2017/12/orzo-with-sausage-and-asparagus/
This could also use up some: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2014/11/swedish-meatballs/
Could you make the chicken broth in a crockpot (perhaps in the garage) so as not to heat up your house too badly?
My mouth watered when I read chili.....we love it as the usual soup, but we also love it over baked potatoes, stirred into mac and cheese, over hotdogs, etc. My husband might think I've lost it if he came home and saw me cooking up a batch of chili in June, but now it sound so yummy. 🙂
Butternut squash soup is amazing with broccoli in it. So you could use it as a sauce on top of broccoli if you have that. Plus that's more fiber in your diet.
Kristen - does Mr. FG like soup? I don't know about his office, but in mine it is ICY despite it being summer. Definitely still soup weather indoors in many over-airconditioned offices. Perhaps he could take some to heat up for lunch!
It IS really cold at his work year round, but unfortunately he hates butternut squash! So I'm on my own with this one.
When I saw the almond flour I thought of macarons too! Speaking of which...it's been a while since I made macarons. I should probably throw my almond flour in the freezer too!
I've been cleaning out both my refrigerator freezers. I am so sick of chicken and resisted buying some wings for $1.39 a pound over the weekend. I live in Florida and eat soup all year long- even chili when it is 95 degrees. I have air conditioning so it really doesn't matter. I eat ice cream in the winter too heehee.
Same here! We eat soup once a week, no matter the temperature. Its my absolute favorite thing to eat. We also eat ice cream year round....are there people that don't?
It's supposed to be in the high 90s where I live and I am totally planning to make homemade chicken & vegetable soup this week. It may be hot, but its a light meal which is what I want this time of year.
Another vote for soup and ice cream year round!
You could mix the butternut squash soup into mac n cheese! I’ve done pumpkin before and it’s tasty, especially with bacon 😉
My kids and I love these protein bites, which use almond flour:
https://iowagirleats.com/2016/10/19/no-bake-cranberry-chocolate-almond-energy-bites/
You don't have to bake them, and they are a favored snack around here.
I like hot soup anytime of the year... so that wouldn't be a problem for me.
Perhaps you could give it to a new mom or someone in need of a quick meal? Or trade it with a friend like me who likes soup in the summer and would gladly trade some garden veggies or fruits!
I just got back from my mission trip and I'm catching up on my blog reading.
I went through my freezer and ate up a number of things these last few weeks, which is good, because I got my half-pig the night before I left for my mission trip (had to leave the house at 3:10 a.m. to catch my flight) and I had an interesting hour packing the pork in the freezer like puzzle pieces. I now have only 1 package of ground beef and two packages of chicken gizzards as meat other than pork in the freezer. And did I mention that I have a lot of pork?
We ate most of what I had cleaned out, as I removed it. The only things I just threw out were an old package of poorly filleted fish that we were given (so bony!) and a very old container of plain yogurt that I had forgotten about.
Welcome back to the US!
Kristen, could you use the future (fall) butternut squash in quick bread recipes leaving the frozen soup in the freezer for now?
Ooh, can you use cooked squash just like pumpkin? That makes sense, but I've never tried it.
Absolutely you can! In pie, bread, muffins, cookies etc.
Yes, you can make cookies, bread, muffins, etc with pureed squash. I also like to freeze some cubes to add to vegetable soup or spaghetti sauce for the added health but the kids don't know. Yellow squash can be shredded and used like zucchini in breads.
I have added leftover jars of butternut squash soup to a baked macaroni and cheese recipe...it works really well. It makes it a little healthier I tell myself. Might be a way to use it up without eating it as soup!
I think you can sub squash for squash as long as one doesn't release more liquid than another. I've subbed yellow squash for zucchini when making a sweet bread loaf with no problem.
We almost have enough room in our (top of fridge) freezer to put the ice cream drum in for future ice cream... This is a priority with the kids.
My method is practically the opposite of yours: I inventory the freezers first, then plan meals that include the maximum freezer contents. If I did it compartment by compartment, I'd have 3-4 meals straight of fish fillets, followed by 2-3 meals straight of dumplings. Yuck.
I've been doing well so far.
- smoothies used: 2 separate containers of melon & berries (frozen to keep from going bad), old bananas.
- breakfast for dinner used: the home-cured bacon, the bacon bits (from home-cured bacon), some of the ham, the biscuits, some of the strawberry almost-jam, the last scraps of the Quebecquoise berry jam, smoothies.
- mock paella used: shrimp stock.
- snacks used: tube o' biscuits from the back of the fridge, more of the strawberry almost-jam.
- dinner used: shrimp, ham, smoothies.
- beans (for soup for lunch) used: smoked skin from the home-cured bacon, smoked ham hock, 1 parmesan rind.
- cider thawed and put into non-leaking carafe (the cider leak is why I need to scrub the freezer and not just defrost it).
- desserts used: 1 container of inadvertant apple cider caramel sauce.
- dog meals used: bits of liver and more smoked bacon skin, as part of his meals.
Still To Be Used:
– bits of stocks and fats: ham juices, turkducken drippings, smoked chicken stock, regular chicken stock, smoked chicken fat, smoked duck fat. I sense chicken soup in my future (drippings, regular stock, smoked chicken fat).
– Not sure what to do with 3-5 hunks of cheese. Neither roommate nor I am eating them. Maybe I'll treat the dog to something special.
– Roommate needs to eat the frozen potatoes he bought.
– Roommate needs to eat the ice cream pops he bought.
– Roommate needs to eat the spicy Italian sausage he bought.
– We'll share the Gorton's for a few meals.
– We'll share the dumplings a couple of times (life is rough).
– We'll have ham: sandwiches, eggs, as is, ...
– 1 lb ground pork is for a CI pork & noodles dish.
– I need to eat a pizza or two (life is still rough).
– I'll cook the Pilsbury cookie dough for the office Ice Cream Sundae Friday, so folks can make ice cream sandwiches.
Things Unlikely To Be Used Up (I keep finding more small things, tucked into corners and in the fridge freezer):
– 3 lbs lard (I still aspire to make soap someday)
– all the parmesan rinds (for soup)
– 10 lbs of deli turkey (rare deal too good to pass up)
– garlic cloves (too many to use up)
– the spice stash
– the butter stash
– the smoked pig parts stash (for soup)
– 2 jars of inadvertent apple cider caramel sauce
– Lean Pockets (rare deal too good to pass up)
– 2 frozen pie crusts
– opened jar of black bean sauce
– smoked duck fat
– tomato paste
Well, that was appallingly long. Sorry, readers!
Ha, I have that same thought on a regular basis when I get to the end of writing my blog posts. The words just keep on comin'!
Whoo-hoo! Found a recipe that roommate and houseguest will like, that uses 4 things from freezer: spinach, ricotta (lost under stuff it shouldn't be under), mozz, swiss. It's a spinach-ricotta pie, from Epicurious so I trust the recipe.
That feels kind of like discovering a diamond, doesn't it??
Recently heard about frozen hot chocolate....might be fun giving that a try. Mels kitchen cafe just recently posted about it!
I don’t have hot chocolate mix in my house so haven’t tried it but it sounded like a fun splurge kind of treat for summer!
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/easy-frozen-hot-chocolate/
Why don't you thicken the squash soup up with a little cream and cut up some veggies for dipping. I bet it would make a great dip (a little like hummus).
Thanks for doing this! I'm in the thick of meal-planning for July and need to make it a point to use up our (full!) freezer to use up what's on hand. Why is being aware of your pantry and freezer so hard???
Almond flour can be substituted for a portion of the regular flour in many baked goods: https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2017/03/20/baking-with-almond-flour/
I'm trying to empty my deep freezer too so I can defrost it before peach and applesauce season (so end of summer/fall. My goal is to use up at least one thing from the freezer each day. This week I used up:
12 (yes 12!!) frozen overripe bananas by making muffins
Black Beans, 1lb smoked sausage, chicken stock in black beans, rice, and sausage for dinner
Assorted meats (chicken thighs and steaks) that we grilled
2 packages of ground beef, pinto beans, and chicken stock for tacos with homemade refried beans
1 Quart of sliced frozen peach and 1 Quart of applesauce
I have so many bags of strawberries I sliced and froze when they were on sale for $0.98 a quart. I bought them to make a years worth of jam but didn't have time to make it when the sale was happening. I need a good block of time to make about 6 batches of jam......well, and the motivation to do it too. I also have several chicken carcasses and a few ham bones I need to turn into stock.
Unrelated but I got my first Hungry Harvest box on Saturday and I LOVED it. Thank you so much for recommending it!
https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/low-carb-meatballs-alla-parmigiana/
This is maybe my favorite way to use almond flour. We are not eating low carb right now, but these meatballs are still delicious! I usually serve them with marinara and cheese melted on top along with roasted broccoli with garlic and olive oil.
They are also pretty versatile. I have pan fried them, baked them on a sheet pan, dropped them raw in sauce and baked them, or even cooked them in sauce in the crockpot. Crockpot option is great for hot summer night.