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

[Okanagancook]

Is the wine Chardonnay?

[Anna N]

9 hours ago, Okanagancook said:

Is the wine Chardonnay?

No but it was cask wine.

[robirdstx]

I pulled the last little bit of Marinara Sauce from the freezer and used it to make English Muffin Pizzas for lunch today.

 

 

 

[robirdstx]

Today I updated my Freezer Inventory.

 

 

I think my freezer is pretty much under control now. Almost everything is a staples item and none of the proteins, except my stash of duck breasts, has been in there much more than a month or two. Duck Breast coming up soon! 

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2017 by robirdstx (log)

[Anna N]

@robirdstx

Looking good. Both your inventory and your freezer. I have found this time around that my inventory list has been much more helpful than in the past. Being part of a group doing the same thing keeps me in line (sort of). 

[Jacksoup]

Used frozen Pesto with Pasta.  Chicken breasts with Citrus.  Started eating in front of the TV before I remembered to take a lousy picture

[Dejah]

Catching up - three meals with protein from the freezer:

The last whole Chicken - stuffed with kafir lime leaves under the skin and roasted. Sides - mashed Cauliflower, stir-fried mixed veg. and spicy pickled green beans (Safeway)

                                

 

Hubby prefers the breast and Chinese cheese (Fuyu)
                               

 

Pork loin chops with roasted cauliflower and steamed green beans - no alliteration was harmed in the process.
                               
Second last bag of boneless chicken thighs were cooked up as Brown Butter Chicken with Sage and Proscuitto. Made a Keto-friendly Afredo sauce for the Tofu-Shirataki Fettuccini noodles, annnndddddd...green beans!
                              
Another couple of weeks and my freezer will be emptied enough for a defrosting. Hope to get this done before we head off to China for the month of April. Won't have to worry about losing much meat if the freezer quits.

Edited February 28, 2017 by Dejah (log)

[Anna N]

@Dejah,

 Your meals always make me hungry no matter what time of the day it is. Even if I've just eaten!  

[Dejah]

@Anna N for starting me on this journey!
For the last few weeks, I have not been excited when the flyers come out on Thursday because I am not allowed to buy meat! I do go to the store, but it's mainly for the produce or bacon.

Looking forward to THAT day again.

 

[chromedome]

I have been quietly playing along in a limited fashion, whittling away at both my fridge freezer and my upright. 

 

Now I have a new challenge. My father, who has cooked for my mother for most of their marriage (once he got out of the navy and wasn't away at sea, of course) is now in palliative care. They have two freezers full of produce from their garden, this year's deer, cod from my relatives in Newfoundland, and so on. Over the next few weeks I'll be turning most of that into ready-to-eat meals she can put into the freezer and use up when I'm not here to cook for her. 

[FauxPas]

14 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I have been quietly playing along in a limited fashion, whittling away at both my fridge freezer and my upright. 

 

Now I have a new challenge. My father, who has cooked for my mother for most of their marriage (once he got out of the navy and wasn't away at sea, of course) is now in palliative care. They have two freezers full of produce from their garden, this year's deer, cod from my relatives in Newfoundland, and so on. Over the next few weeks I'll be turning most of that into ready-to-eat meals she can put into the freezer and use up when I'm not here to cook for her. 

 

I hope you will share some of the details of this labour of love, @chromedome. It sounds like it will be quite a challenge. And I'm sorry to hear about your father. I hope your mom is coping OK. 

[chromedome]

She's doing okay, so far. Lots of family have arrived already, my sisters get here on Sunday, and I'm leaving momentarily to collect my son from the airport. The ratio of cloud to silver lining is not especially good, but you embrace whatever positives you can. 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Ok this was a combination freezer/fridge pull.  Salmon from the freezer, cauliflower from the fridge but really needed to be cooked.  Crossed posted on the what's for dinner thread 

 

 

 

[Dejah]

@chromedome: Sorry to hear about your father, but you are doing something constructive as you work through this difficult time. You parents will appreciate this act of love.

 

[Dejah]

Pulled a chunk of top sirloin roast from the freezer 2 days ago. It has been hiding since late spring 2016. The freezer contents must be getting lower for me to have found this fella. It came bound in a string mesh bag and cryovac, and no sign of freezer burn.

Thawed in the fridge and cut into chunks. I also had a bag of celery in the freezer - stalks that were not in the best of crispiness, so I had frozen them for such an occasion - stew!
A colleague's wife is working in Kuwait for the next few weeks. Altho' she has stocked their freezer and fridge, he is not one to get it ready to bring to work. Yesterday, he picked up a sugar-loaded muffin, and he is diabetic!
Another colleague and I have decided we will take lunch for him each day so he will at least have one balanced meal. I will take some of the stew for him today with a bun. The other colleague who is also diabetic said it would be fine in terms of his dietary needs.

One bonus - no leftovers for us! Reducing my freezer content will be even faster!

                                  

                                                          Eaten with pea shoots and konjac noodles.

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 Lunch yesterday was the last of the frozen chicken vegetable soup. You should never allow yourself to become  so hungry that while your soup is defrosting in the microwave you are studying the take-out menu for your local Chinese joint!

 

 

 A few of the meatballs that I froze from a dish I made for the meatball cook-off. I steamed some cauliflower in the Thermomix but chose not to mash it or rice it. 

 

[kayb]

@chromedome -- my sympathies on your father's condition. I did a similar cook-and-freeze project for my father after my mother died. One of his favorites was sausage and biscuits; I fried up three pounds of sausage patties, made a BIG batch of biscuits, individually wrapped them and froze them. Kept him in breakfasts.

 

As I previously mentioned to @Thanks for the Crepes, if you have a Dollar Tree store up there, they carry three-packs of 4 x 6 tins with foiled cardboard lids that serve nicely for freezing dinners. Lids lend themselves to writing on with a Sharpie; I usually just include date and what's in it, but have included directions when I was giving them to someone.

 

 

[Jacksoup]

pulled out a hunk of pork shoulder and made carnitas in the IP.  My new freezer part of the new counter depth fridge is so small compared to the old freezer space, I'm considering getting a stand alone freezer as soon as I make space in the garage.

[kayb]

Pulled out a top sirloin steak from the freezer, along with a bag of cooked rice frozen t'other night and three small broccoli crowns from the fridge that were about to have been there too long. 

 

Beef and broccoli. I had mushrooms I intended to put in there, but I forgot 'em.

[ElsieD]

Tuesday we had chicken wings that had been frozen since last summer.  Last night we had perogies and sausage.  We have one meal's worth of perogies left and I'll be glad to see the end of them, at least for a while.

[Dejah]

Using up the 1.5 lb container of ground pork from the freezer.. Last night we had Mapo Tofu with eggplant. Had some fresh mint leaves and they went nicely with the spicy toban sauce.

                                                       

When we were in the city a couple of weeks ago, I discovered bags of tofu skin, thin and pliable. Been wanting to make tofu rolls dim sum style, so it was a good way to use up the remaining lb. of the ground pork. Added chopped shrimp, bamboo shoots,  re-hydrated Chinese mushrooms, oyster sauce seasoning, and cornstarch to make the filling. The skins were huge 18" rounds. Cut them into 8 triangles, soaked them in water, and made up cigars. The rolls were pan-fried last night.

Tonight, I decided to deep fry them instead of steaming them in a sauce. I did make a dipping sauce with chicken stock, oyster sauce, and chili oil. Cooked up the few leftover mushrooms with gai lan and slivered ginger and supper was complete.
This was the first time I made these rolls, but it won't be the last as I still have ALOT of the tofu skin left!
                                                                     

                                                             

                                                      

                                                      

                                                      
                                                                        Apologies for the Abysmal Absence of Alliteration 

 

Edited March 3, 2017 by Dejah (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I have been tackling my overstuffed freezers, but was getting a little depressed about it, and decided not to share that.

 

Case in point: I had a family sized package of Stouffer's "Meat Lovers" lasagna in one of the freezers that was bought at my husband's insistence before his stroke. I was dreading it, but I knew it's quality wasn't improving by extra time in my crappy freezer.

 

So I cooked it the other day. I choked down a small serving and wrapped up the remainder and put it in the fridge. Today, half the leftovers went to the coons. Tomorrow, the little bandits will be happy again. Life is too short, and I'm not quite desperate enough yet to have to choke down something I don't enjoy five days in a row. The stupid thing is that I wasted about half a pound of very good whole milk mozzarella to top this inedible dreck.

 

Some of the stuff in my freezers is too old and "freezer tasting" for my spoiled snowflake self, some of it is packaged in too large quantities for me to be able to finish comfortably. I refuse to keep beating myself up over the waste, which I abhor. I comfort myself that this situation was beyond my anticipation or control, when I was storing things for my husbands appetite, and also that nothing is really completely wasted because my little masked friends eat almost anything. They don't seem to like salad, but other than that, about anything is appreciated.

 

On the way forward, I will buy only things that can be frozen in small one serving quantities that I really like, keep them under three months, due to the limitations of my freezers, and maybe fill the extra space with empty seltzer bottles filled with frozen water to mitigate the bad effects of the "frostless" heat and freeze cycles.

 

On the very much upside, I learned that I can walk to a supermarket, Food Lion, where I can get almost everything I need. It is actually easier than going to the Asian market. The Asian market is a little closer, but the route is much hillier, and their selection is interesting, and appreciated, but they don't have basic stuff like bread, milk, cheese, steaks, ground chuck, Romaine, plastic wrap ...

 

I am conquering some of the things I have been cowering from, and I am pulling through to a brighter tomorrow. Things are looking way up!

[liuzhou]

I have come to the conclusion that there are secret panels at the back of my freezers and my neighbours somehow have access to those. Every time I take something out and cook it (or bin it) they shove three more things in when I'm not looking! Bustards!

[Thanks for the Crepes]

15 minutes ago, liuzhou said:

I have come to the conclusion that there are secret panels at the back of my freezers and my neighbours somehow have access to those. Every time I take something out and cook it (or bin it) they shove three more things in when I'm not looking! Bustards!

 

Yeah!

 

When I take out a large package of something, make something with it, and freeze the leftovers, it always takes up more space than the original package. 

 

As a new singleton, no more big packages for me. I bought a package of only 6 chicken wings when I walked to the supermarket on Monday. I had to pay 40 cents more a pound, and it killed my thrifty soul, but it is a manageable quantity for my situation now. Economics are different now that I'm on my own, and I'm slowly adjusting. I'll eat three the first time and I won't be sick of them with the next three.

 

Also, when you dig something out of an overfilled freezer, that you know is in there, you can never get stuff back in there as compactly as before. I suppose this is due to raw stuff freezing in curves that conform to other stuff, and now they don't because you can't fit that puzzle back together.

 

I will get my freezers under control, but a lot of that will involve my little furry and cute scavengers always with the offerings placed in daylight before they become active.

 

 

[kayb]

Glad to hear you're making the adjustment. I've resigned myself that I can't cook for just one, or at the most, two people, so I'm GOING to have leftovers. My focus now is to just go ahead and toss the stuff if I'm reasonably certain I will never eat it, instead of having it cluttering up the fridge or freezer for days or weeks or....

 

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.