Challenge: Cook your way through your freezer (part 2)

[Smithy]

A package of once-freshly-caught fish gone.  I will not admit to their age.  I was inspired to try beer-batter frying, and had the chance to do it without making a frightful mess.  

 

 

Success!  I'll have to try this again, even if I have to buy more fish to do it.  I'll just have to be sure not to put said fish into the freezer when I get it.  

[ninagluck]

today I can contribute again to this thread, pulled some meat out of the freezer, it was horse. so I made some rouladen with potato mash with grainy mustard and orange braised carrots. One bottle of red wine went into the sauce

[BeeZee]

Snow day and I had not been to the market since Saturday, so it was a freezer dive. Leftover grilled chicken breasts and grilled ratatouille. Birds Eye steam in bag lentil pasta w/tomato sauce, which wasn’t bad, it was similar to whole wheat pasta texture.

[Okanagancook]

I am determined to use what we have premade in the freezer.  I decided to make up a week’s worth of menus using stuff from the freezer except for salads and some other fresh veggies...but limited because I have frozen veggies too.  We are on our second week of this and I must say, I can see the back of the freezer on a number of shelves in the upright.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This evening I took two bacon strips from the freezer -- does that count?

 

[Anna N]

3 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

This evening I took two bacon strips from the freezer -- does that count?

 

Every little helps as the old lady said as she peed in the sea at Blackpool. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Every little helps as the old lady said as she peed in the sea at Blackpool. 

 

Do we have an emoticon for rolling on the floor laughing?  Crying even?

 

[CantCookStillTry]

And voilá! 

 

Severe storm, 72 hours with no power and 40c heat has managed what myself and my lack of will power could not. 

All 3 freezers are completely empty! 

[MelissaH]

On 1/5/2018 at 2:09 AM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Do we have an emoticon for rolling on the floor laughing?  Crying even?

 

Rolling on the floor and peeing my pants?

[BeeZee]

Considerable space freed up, cooked the 8 lb turkey breast which had been residing in the freezer since Thanksgiving, as one of my husband’s friends came for dinner. Forgot what an appetite he has, we probably ate half of the bird. Also did smashed potatoes, had some little yukon golds that I cooked a couple of weeks ago, they defrosted and re-roasted well. Having some of the turkey again tomorrow, then I’m sure there will be some left to freeze, along with the stock I plan to make.

[ElsieD]

10 hours ago, BeeZee said:

Considerable space freed up, cooked the 8 lb turkey breast which had been residing in the freezer since Thanksgiving, as one of my husband’s friends came for dinner. Forgot what an appetite he has, we probably ate half of the bird. Also did smashed potatoes, had some little yukon golds that I cooked a couple of weeks ago, they defrosted and re-roasted well. Having some of the turkey again tomorrow, then I’m sure there will be some left to freeze, along with the stock I plan to make.

 

@BeeZee  I didn't think potatoes froze very well.  Did you freeze roasted whole small potaoes then thaw, smash and re-roast them?  What was the texture like?

[BeeZee]

@ElsieD, I had always heard that also. I had roasted these little guys (whole, skin on) and just threw them in a freezer zip bag. Defrosted and crushed a bit with a fork, a bit of oil on the baking sheet. They came out perfectly fine, crispy edges, soft interior, no sense of being a "leftover". I'm wondering if the frozen potato texture thing is different with a russet type vs a waxy type. Or maybe because they were whole it helped.

[ElsieD]

10 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

@ElsieD, I had always heard that also. I had roasted these little guys (whole, skin on) and just threw them in a freezer zip bag. Defrosted and crushed a bit with a fork, a bit of oil on the baking sheet. They came out perfectly fine, crispy edges, soft interior, no sense of being a "leftover". I'm wondering if the frozen potato texture thing is different with a russet type vs a waxy type. Or maybe because they were whole it helped.

I'll have to try it.  Thanks!

[Smokeydoke]

I was the first excited poster and I failed to make even one dish. My apologies. But it's never too late, right?

 

Tonight I pulled out a random piece of steak. Would this go under steak or beef?

 

Some backstory: I know why I haven't used this, I usually cook two steaks at a time, but the valu-pack for this set of steaks came with 5 instead of 4 or 6. So this lone steak got left behind.

 

I'm going to pair this with broccoli (also from the freezer) and for extra points, I'll create a sauce.

[caroled]

2 hours ago, Smokeydoke said:

I was the first excited poster and I failed to make even one dish. My apologies. But it's never too late, right?

 

Tonight I pulled out a random piece of steak. Would this go under steak or beef?

 

Some backstory: I know why I haven't used this, I usually cook two steaks at a time, but the valu-pack for this set of steaks came with 5 instead of 4 or 6. So this lone steak got left behind.

 

I'm going to pair this with broccoli (also from the freezer) and for extra points, I'll create a sauce.

Bearnaise  anyone? 

[Smokeydoke]

^^ very clever! I will try a Bearnaise.

[Smokeydoke]

This was for dinner tonight.

 

Beef Steak with Broccoli and Bearnaise Sauce.

 

 

[robirdstx]

 

I updated my freezer list today, after taking the last two Pork loin chops and a small container of homemade Tonkatsu sauce out to use for dinner tonight. I will be making Sushi Rice and Roasted Asparagus to go with the Panko Crusted chops. Also coming out of the freezer will be a half dozen Pork Pot Stickers to enjoy as an appetizer with Dumpling sauce.

[Okanagancook]

Presuming the items with a pink dot are gone?

i have been on a tear and the pre-prepared food items from my freezers are mostly eaten.  A few packs of chili and spanakopita  are left.  Trying not to re-accumulate.’

[robirdstx]

47 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Presuming the items with a pink dot are gone?

i have been on a tear and the pre-prepared food items from my freezers are mostly eaten.  A few packs of chili and spanakopita  are left.  Trying not to re-accumulate.’

 

Items with dots are not gone. Instead of deleting item names from the spreadsheet when they were used up, I decided to just add “out.” Which caused me to mark the items that I still had with the dots, so as to make them easier to find on the list. Not a perfect method, but working for me.

[suzilightning]

Well if the power outage continues we won't be cooking with ANYTHING from the freezer....or fridge.  Right now I'm trying to rescue some chicken breasts from the upstairs fridge freezer and saute them up to snack on during tomorrow's storm.  IF we have to decamp to Pougheepsie I'm hoping to rescue some of the meats from the downstairs and farm them out to folks who have working ovens ...

 

[scubadoo97]

Wishing you well Suzi.  At least you will be eating well.  Reminds me of our brush with hurricane Irma.  We ate and drank well during that one

[suzilightning]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2018 at 4:07 PM, scubadoo97 said:

Wishing you well Suzi.  At least you will be eating well.  Reminds me of our brush with hurricane Irma.  We ate and drank well during that one

Thanks ...... didn't loose as much as I had feared.

Cooked a "back up" meal for when Johnnybird is out of town - Marie Callendar's Delights of spinach, potatoes and turkey meatloaf.  Not bad.

Baked off the lasagna I made for him and he will take it up to Poughkeepsie to eat on.

Have a pound and a half of 93% fat ground beef which I am going to finish thawing and make into taco meat tomorrow.

 

I did loose ALL and I do mean ALL of the upstairs food.  Well on the good side I am able to clean the appliance and then restock
 

[Okanagancook]

Let the bells ring!  OMG  

I EMPTIED MY FREEZER.  Finally

 

I bought a spare freezer awhile back to act as a back-up in case something happened to the one already downstairs..which is full of lamb, beef, chicken, sausage, bacon......all expensive and hard to replace stuff.

But, I managed to fill BOTH freezers once the garden vegetables were harvested and processed.

We have been working away at eating pre-made meals from the freezers...all three of them.

The upright freezer in the pantry was totally reorganized and items from downstairs brought up to fill in spaces and I managed to get all the rest of the stuff from the old freezer into the new.  Everything has been inventoried.  Took me all day since 8 am.

I deserve a glass of wine...soon, it's only 3 pm here.

Pictures of upstairs freezer, full downstairs freezer and empty downstairs freezer......maybe I will store my spices down there

[ElsieD]

32 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Let the bells ring!  OMG  

I EMPTIED MY FREEZER.  Finally

 

I bought a spare freezer awhile back to act as a back-up in case something happened to the one already downstairs..which is full of lamb, beef, chicken, sausage, bacon......all expensive and hard to replace stuff.

But, I managed to fill BOTH freezers once the garden vegetables were harvested and processed.

We have been working away at eating pre-made meals from the freezers...all three of them.

The upright freezer in the pantry was totally reorganized and items from downstairs brought up to fill in spaces and I managed to get all the rest of the stuff from the old freezer into the new.  Everything has been inventoried.  Took me all day since 8 am.

I deserve a glass of wine...soon, it's only 3 pm here.

Pictures of upstairs freezer, full downstairs freezer and empty downstairs freezer......maybe I will store my spices down there

 

Very, very impressive.