Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (part 1)

[Okanagancook]

TFTC, my heart goes out to you. Your conclusion that 'life is too short' is exactly the way to think.  Please do not beat yourself up.  From your posts you are doing the best you can in a difficult situation.  I so glad you found an accessible shopping market.

[Porthos]

Pulled out the last 2 large chicken breasts from a package. Sweated down some micro-diced onion and a bit of garlic, added white wine, water, bullion, salt, marjoram and parsley. SVed the breasts in the liquid for 2 /14 hours at 147 F, made a sauce from the bag juices and added sour cream. Cut the chicken into small bites (DW's standing request) and put those in the sauce. Served the chicken in white wine and sour cream sauce over fettuccine with steamed carrots on the side.  I went to take a picture and realized that it was pretty boring to look at.

 

 

Edited March 4, 2017 by Porthos (log)

[ninagluck]

yesterday I pulled out a bag with oxtail. half of it turned into a soup, that will go to the freezer the other half i will show you tomorrow ;-) and btw, I bought a  fridge for my basement with 3 freezer drawers today, so lots of new space ;-)

[Dejah]

Back on track: Half a bag of purchased beef meatballs, warmed up in a bag of arrabbiata sauce, both from the freezer. Eaten with tofu shirtaki noodles and salad.

                                      

[Anna N]

 I confess to putting things in rather than taking things out of my freezer but last night I did use about a half a bag of frozen chopped leeks. As I did I wondered why I didn't automatically clean, chop and freeze any leeks that I buy.  They did not seem to have suffered from their time in the freezer and I have never in my life eaten raw leeks.  Be that as it may....

Oven-baked sweet potato topped with leeks sauteed with some bacon and then a few slices of cambozola layered over that and the whole given a bit of a tan under the broiler. 

 

[ninagluck]

the other half from my oxtail I cooked into a ragout, und layered it lasagne like with celeriac, and spinach. on top a quenelle whipped cream with some fresh grated horseradish. one portion left, so freezer again :-(

[Anna N]

@ninagluck

 What an imagination you have! Did you slice the celeriac by hand?  Did you steam it?

I have given up on that particular vegetable due to its (often unmentioned) tendency to act synergistically with a diuretic .  But I see potential for using other vegetables in a similar way. Not sure if I would ever be up for the task but it is intriguing.  

[ninagluck]

@Anna N I sliced the celeriac with my meatslicer and boiled it a few minutes in salted water. 

[Anna N]

25 minutes ago, ninagluck said:

@Anna N I sliced the celeriac with my meatslicer and boiled it a few minutes in salted water. 

Thank you. 

[HungryChris]

On 3/3/2017 at 10:14 AM, kayb said:

Tonight's freezer cleanout is an ahi tuna steak from some I caught on sale at Aldi t'other day. My child has expressed a wish for tuna poke with Asian cucumber salad, so that's what we'll have.

I was just looking at that Ahi Tuna in the Aldi flyer and think I will get some tomorrow. How was it?

HC

[kayb]

2 hours ago, HungryChris said:

I was just looking at that Ahi Tuna in the Aldi flyer and think I will get some tomorrow. How was it?

HC

Good. Individually vacuum sealed steaks. About four ounces each.

[Dejah]

.Very late lunch of Chinese BBQ duck - mainly bones - from the freezer. Added to chicken broth with baby bok choy and shirataki noodles. Crunch and spice from pickled Sechuan radish strips.

 

                                    +

Using up a package of  frozen pickerel fillets, purchased from Lake Winnipeg fisherman in October.
Took liberties and used a Lemon Chicken Piccata recipe. Had to subsitute kalamata olives for the capers it called for.

Enjoyed the lighter taste of the lemon pan sauce as opposed to the slurry thickened lemon sauce.
                                    
|Both broccoli and cauliflower were languishing in the fridge. Both were devoured with the pickerel.

[ElsieD]

Chicken thighs and drumsticks came out of the freezer and into the Instant Pot for Dakdoritang aka Korean spicy chicken stew.  I believe that is the last of the drumsticks although there are still more thighs but of the skinless boneless variety.  This topic has been really great for forcing me to use up what is in the freezer rather than buying new stuff although I am still a little bit guilty of that.  However, there is actually some space in there now.

[Anna N]

@ElsieD

EXACTLY.   I still didn't reach my goal of having room to do some IQF freezing but my freezer is much easier to manage now. I am still working on using up stuff in there.  And I am finding it convenient to refer to my freezer inventory to plan my meals.

[rotuts]

Ill be taking a TimeOut from the FCO for a few days

 

certain opportunities have presented themselves that cannon be ignored :

 

CornedBeef is on deep discount   % 70  off

 

and some higher end butter went on sale for $1.75   ( Challenge )   

 

I got only 4 lbs as  I have some generic  frozen    

 

I bag and vacuum seal the butter  and freeze.   I cut the top off and take one out , and the extra room created allows me to re-seal that same bag

 

 

but W/O this thread appearing in a timely fashion , pre-St.P's Day  i would not have had much room for the CB

 

I can't see any other additions coming up soon though

 

so Thanks Thread !

[ElsieD]

Here is my little system, such as it is.  It does not contain a full inventory.  Rather, it is a mix of new stuff going in such as the pork back ribs and chicken wings and Stuff That Is Part Of The Freezer Clear Out Challenge.  As I come across FCO items, I add them to the list.  I have tried keeping paper lists before and that worked for about a week.  These little white boards are stuck to the freezer so I try to enter the ins and outs as they happen.  They have been up for about a month and so far so good.  For you fellow Canadians, I bought these at Lee Valley and I bought a magnetic plastic cup sort of thing that is on the side of the freezer and contains my three little pens and an eraser.  That I got at Staples.

Edited March 6, 2017 by ElsieD
Added picture (log)

[Okanagancook]

Nice that the lists are on the door with a pen handy.

I have an upright with door drawers and 6 shelves and downstairs is a chest with 7 compartments.  To find anything on my list I really need to know where in which appliance it is located.  So, I have a spreadsheet that lists the items with quantities, when they went into the freezer and where they are in the upright or chest.  Especially good when you are looking for that 4 oz container of beef jus.

[Beebs]

Was on a bit of a cooking hiatus the last couple weeks, but last night I took out Chicken thighs marinated with Curry powder, and baked it.  Had Cauliflower with Cheese sauce on the side, roast new potatoes, couple sad leaves of butter lettuce.

 

I need to follow the examples of others here and do a freezer purge.  I suspect there are a quite a few freezer-burnt items and other weird things I don't recall why I bought.  

[kayb]

I will have you people know that last night I dreamed about having an empty freezer.

 

It's nowhere NEAR happening, but I did dream about it. That's SOMETHING, right?

 

[scubadoo97]

Right!

[liuzhou]

Got home very late last night (flight delays) and utterly starving. Thank heavens for freezers and nuclear devices. Pulled out a bag of chicken legs and defrosted 3 of them in the nuclear box.

 

Cooked them with shallots, capers, olives, a bird's eye chili and white wine, finishing them off with some garlic chives, a tickle of butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. Most unusually, I served it (to myself) over rice - something I almost never do.

 

 

also posted in the Dinner! topic

[Dejah]

I've been laid low by a gimpy leg since the weekend. It started on Saturday and got gradually worse as the weekend progressed. Had to leave work early afternoon on Monday due to pain and have been home with muscle relaxants since. Teachers on staff have been filling for me.

Luckily, I had pulled a prime roast out of the freezer on Sunday and it got cooked with hubby's help on Monday. We've had some leftover meatballs and cheesy broccoli on Saturday, roast beef for Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday a rotisserie chicken from Safeway came to the rescue along with spaghetti squash. No pictures were taken.

Last night, I pulled a corned beef from the fridge freezer. Got it on sale at 50% way back when. It got cooked tonight along with asparagus and rice. 

                                                 

                                                   I'll have to dig around the fridge freezer to see what's available for tomorrow

 

[suzilightning]

Pulled a frozen turkey breast from the freezer.  Roasted and served with some halved plum tomatoes and sweet potatoes and yellow beets.

Now that it is snowing the carcass has gone into a pot with some carrots, tarragon, thyme and onion.  The strained broth is in the outside refrigerator..............

[ninagluck]

shame on me! I had to get fish, (see the preserving thread) so I went to the wholesale market and bought a poussin which went to the freezer :-( From the fishbones I cooked fishstocks which will also be frozen. For tonight I pulled a bag with chicken wings. not enough for what will go in............

[chromedome]

My project of transforming my mother's freezer from ingredients to finished meals is slowly making headway. The bit of ham is now portioned ham and scalloped potatoes, there are two kinds of soup portioned out (Mom loves soup) and I have a couple of venison shanks becoming soup in the slow cooker today while we're at the hospital. 

 

Deer roam the property all year long and loiter at the apple trees though late summer and autumn, so my father never had to go far once hunting season rolled around. He built a blind in a large tree overlooking one of the apples...usually has a specific one picked out by mid-summer, so he sits in his blind and waits for "his" deer to come for a nibble. Hunting season for him typically lasts just a few hours.