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

[robirdstx]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

This pertains to my fridge, not the freezer compartment but since it's the same appliance, I thought I'd post here in the hopes that publicly posting this list of fresh produce will make me accountable to use up as much as possible without having things go bad.   I'm going to print this out and track my inventory.

 

What sort of one person household needs to have this much produce on hand??? 

 

Fresh Produce Inventory as of 3/24
Refrig:
Scallions, 1 bag
Red onion, 1/2
Yellow onion, 1/2
Shallots, 2
Leeks, 1
Mushrooms, Shiitaki, 3 small
Carrots, multicolor, 2 lbs
Carrots, baby, 1/2 lb
Rutabaga, 1.5 lb
Turnips, white, 2 small
Beets, red, 4 small
Jerusalem artichokes - 3.5 lbs 
Parsley, flat leaf, 1 bunch
Cilantro, 1 bunch
Mint, 1 small packet
Dill, 3 sprigs
Arugula, 7 oz bag
Kale, ~ 10 oz
Brussels sprouts, 7 oz
Avocado, 1
Hot house cucumber, 1
Red bell pepper, 2
Green bell pepper, 1
Jalapeño peppers, 1 lb
Serrano peppers, 3
Habanero peppers, 5

Oranges, cara, cara, 2
Grapefruit, pink, 2
Tangerines, various, 4 lbs

Strawberries, 1/2 small basket
Cranberries, 12 oz
Apples, 3 med

 

Room temp
Tomatoes, 4 small
Tomatoes, cherry, mixed colors, 16 oz
Jicama, 1 med
Red onions, 3 large
Yellow onions, 3 large
Garlic, 2 heads
Butternut squash, 1 small
Sweet potatoes, white, 3 lbs

 

Wish me luck!

 

Luck! Looks like a nice variety to me.

[ninagluck]

@blue_dolphin, here is a one person household, and my list is similar ;-)

[Anna N]

Wow. Another one person household here and I love vegetables but I wouldn't know where or how to store that many vegetables and I certainly couldn't eat them before many started to go south. Kudos to both of you. 

[ElsieD]

This past week we have managed to eat another pork chop dinner, now down to 4 left.  Also finished the last of the square sausage from a place called McVicar's in Stoney Creek.  Since that place is a ways away and we don't get there often, we aren't in danger of stocking up on those any time soon.  I also took 2 cooked packages of buttercup squash and made an incredibly easy soup.  To the squash you add some chicken stock and heat through.  I did this in the Thermomix.  Add some salsa, salt and pepper, heat again and purée.  Press through a sieve to get rid of any gnarly bits and thin with some cream or milk, whichever you prefer.  Fast and delicious.  I took out a smoked picnic shoulder which I will be cooking up tomorrow.  That brings the number of those down to two.

 

Unfortunately, as old stuff is coming out, new stuff is going in.  I'm a sucker for the 50% off "enjoy it tonight" sales.  A package of marinated pork chops, 2 racks of lamb and 4 pounds of bacon has been added to the freezer,  My bad.

[Okanagancook]

ElsieD, there will always , always be sales so resist!

[chromedome]

I dunno...half price on racks of lamb is reason enough to backslide, IMO.

[suzilightning]

Pulled a small package of venison for stew, Alfresco garlic chicken sausages with onion and herbs and two IQF chicken breasts.

 

Currently there is a venison stew of the stove top - onion, shallot, juniper berries, garlic, oregano and parsley in a sachet and water.  Carrots and potatoes and peas and pearl onions to go in in about an hour then let sit overnight.

The sausages are going to be taken out of the casings and sautéed with some onion and red peppers then mixed with some gluten free pasta and some homemade marinara.

The chicken breasts are going to be sliced and sautéed then mixed with some blanched broccoli, onion, sautéed mushrooms and then folded into a sauce made with some concentrated chicken/turkey stock used to make a sauce for a take on chicken divan.

That should take care of lunch and dinner for the next two days

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh the smell is starting to get nice in here.............

[suzilightning]

On ‎3‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 4:31 PM, blue_dolphin said:

This pertains to my fridge, not the freezer compartment but since it's the same appliance, I thought I'd post here in the hopes that publicly posting this list of fresh produce will make me accountable to use up as much as possible without having things go bad.   I'm going to print this out and track my inventory.

 

What sort of one person household needs to have this much produce on hand??? 

 

Fresh Produce Inventory as of 3/24
Refrig:
Scallions, 1 bag
Red onion, 1/2
Yellow onion, 1/2
Shallots, 2
Leeks, 1
Mushrooms, Shiitaki, 3 small
Carrots, multicolor, 2 lbs
Carrots, baby, 1/2 lb
Rutabaga, 1.5 lb
Turnips, white, 2 small
Beets, red, 4 small
Jerusalem artichokes - 3.5 lbs 
Parsley, flat leaf, 1 bunch
Cilantro, 1 bunch
Mint, 1 small packet
Dill, 3 sprigs
Arugula, 7 oz bag
Kale, ~ 10 oz
Brussels sprouts, 7 oz
Avocado, 1
Hot house cucumber, 1
Red bell pepper, 2
Green bell pepper, 1
Jalapeño peppers, 1 lb
Serrano peppers, 3
Habanero peppers, 5

Oranges, cara, cara, 2
Grapefruit, pink, 2
Tangerines, various, 4 lbs

Strawberries, 1/2 small basket
Cranberries, 12 oz
Apples, 3 med

 

Room temp
Tomatoes, 4 small
Tomatoes, cherry, mixed colors, 16 oz
Jicama, 1 med
Red onions, 3 large
Yellow onions, 3 large
Garlic, 2 heads
Butternut squash, 1 small
Sweet potatoes, white, 3 lbs

 

Wish me luck!

I see a few possibilities:

 

FRUIT SALAD

jicama matchsticks, apple, orange supremes, strawberries, tangerine supremes, hot house cucumber, minced hot pepper topped with a cooked coleslaw dressing.

 

SQUASH AND CARROT SOUP

carrots(use those baby ones), butternut squash, leeks, shallots and then top with orange supremes and dill OR

 

PICO DE GALLO

dry roast the red onion, garlic, serrano and habanero

chop then mix in with chopped tomato, cilantro and parsley

 

I don't see any green beans otherwise I would suggest my family's favorite for this time of year:

POOR MAN'S STEW

new potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, green beans, garlic

cook with water or stock and then thicken with a tiny bit of  cornstarch(not much as the potatoes and other root veg break down)

top with minced parsley and dill

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubadoo97]

Just pulled a 13 oz slice of tuna from the freezer.  Hopefully some inspiration hits me soon

[Beebs]

Oh dear.  

 

So I went to T&T (Asian supermarket) last Friday.  

 

I came home with (amongst other non-frozen groceries): frozen oven bread, fish balls, whole milkfish, 2 bags of dumplings.  These all went into the freezer.  I'd also put in a bag of marinated chicken leg quarters and 2 boxes of strawberries.  Everything was on sale (except for the fish balls)!!  

 

Last week I had used up: partial bag of raspberries, remainder of ice cream, some tomato paste. Shuffled some stuff around and felt rather accomplished. Also polished off a half bag of dumplings - to be promptly replaced by the 2 bigger, brand new bags on the same damn day.....

 

On the other hand, I resisted buying frozen stinky tofu, pepper pork buns, Thai fish cakes, and whole parrot fish.  Hooray for me.

 

 

 

 

[ninagluck]

from the freezer I pulled a fillet of char, served it with a nettle risotto and crispy skin. 

[Smithy]

Someday, I'm going to try nettle. It isn't as though I've never seen it in the fields, but I've never worked with it!

[ninagluck]

@Smithy I only use the young ones in early spring, later on I pick the seeds. When carefully roasted they develop a nice nutty aroma.

[Dejah]

Working down the freezer a little more before we take off for China!
2 packages of rack of lamb - a 4 rib and a 3 rib. Simply seasoned and grilled on top of stove. Had half bag of frozen mixed vegetables - used up now. Basmati rice seasoned with brown mustard seeds and cumin seeds.

No mint sauce this time - just enjoyed the lovely taste of the lamb...

                              

                                                                   

[ninagluck]

with pork neck from the freezer I cooked a very traditional austrian dish today. simmered and served with root vegetables and fresh grated horseradish. two portions go now into the freezer with ready made meals :-(

[chromedome]

8 hours ago, Dejah said:

No mint sauce this time - just enjoyed the lovely taste of the lamb...

                                                                                          

As it should be. I like mint and I love lamb, but could never come to grips with the combination. To my mind, the mint simply obliterates the delicate flavor of the lamb. 

 

I seem to recall reading somewhere that it originated as a way of masking the muskiness of mature mutton, which makes perfect sense to me. 

[ElsieD]

Good news and bad news.  The good news is that the freezer no longer contains any TJ's cinnamon raisin bread.  The bad news is that we ate the last of the TJ's cinnamon raisin bread today.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/154537-what-are-you-cooking-sous-vide-today-part-3/?do=findComment&comment=2100986

 

Yum.  Liter of zinfandel.

 

[Dejah]

@chromedome: " I seem to recall reading somewhere that it originated as a way of masking the muskiness of mature mutton, which makes perfect sense to me.  "

 

Makes sense to me as well. But I sometimes crave that minty - tangy taste too. Think I will now have lamb by itself, and just use the mint for the taters. Can't give it up totally

Tonight, a last third of a boneless pork loin I picked up @1.77 / lb. Rubbed it with olive oil, chopped rosemary and roasted garlic granules. Left it to marinade while we went to an afternoon concert.

When we got home, I put the pan into a preheated 400F oven. Got busy with something else and over-cooked the pork. It was tender, but not as juicy as we'd like. Loins are too lean for my taste, but I couldn't pass up the price...

Tried jicama for the first time - cooked in the oven as "fries". It was ok. Might not have steamed it enough before I roasted them. Have had better luck with purple-top turnips and kohlrabi as "fries"

 

                                           

                  

[ElsieD]

The other side of this equation might be, "how did my freezer get so full"?  I offer this:

 

One of of our grocery stores had a really good price on boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but the last day of this special was today.  John went and picked up two packages this morning and each package contained 5 breasts.  He asked if I would like some more.  I said sure and he said how money?  I said 5.  He came home with 6 packages, the 5 he thought I wanted and an "extra  - just to be on the safe side".  He thought 5 meant 5 packages.  So that was 30 more chicken breasts in addition to this morning's 10.  And here they are - I took the tenders off them and packaged them separately.  We have just added 20 packages of chicken breasts and 6 packages of tenders to the freezer.

[kayb]

Well...you're good for chicken for a while.

 

[scubadoo97]

I have quite a few individual frozen breast in the freezer, not quite twenty.  I'll toss a few in the SV bath and then chill them down and use them for sandwiches over the next week or so.  Just so many uses and they thaw in no time when using the Immersion circulator in cold water 

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

I have quite a few individual frozen breast in the freezer, not quite twenty.  I'll toss a few in the SV bath and then chill them down and use them for sandwiches over the next week or so.  Just so many uses and they thaw in no time when using the Immersion circulator in cold water 

I sometimes think I make more use of the circulator for defrosting than for cooking.

[scubadoo97]

Me too

[ElsieD]

11 hours ago, scubadoo97 said:

I have quite a few individual frozen breast in the freezer, not quite twenty.  I'll toss a few in the SV bath and then chill them down and use them for sandwiches over the next week or so.  Just so many uses and they thaw in no time when using the Immersion circulator in cold water 

 

It has never occurred to me to use my circulator to thaw something.  What a great idea!