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

[Smithy]

10 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

The other thing I have been doing is not going into the 'meat' section of the grocery store....stuff will always come on sale..no real need to stock at the moment.

 

I find that's key for us as well, and the "stuff will always come on sale" comment is one I need to take more to heart. In our case we add things that we can't get just anywhere, as we pass through an area...but hoarding them is still no good!

 

I went back to the beginning of this topic and noted it's been going for over 2 years now! Those of you losing hope might want to look back at the initial premise: reach in and grab something. Anything. Then cook it. For those whose freezers resemble mine, that might mean making a meal of puff pastry or of frozen mole sauce, but it would be progress.

 

Hmm. How would nachos made with seasoned burger and molé (the sauce, not the animal) come out, do you think? 

[BeeZee]

I would think mole nachos would be delicious. Drizzle some crema, queso fresco on top...mmm

[kayb]

My problem is that pulling something out of the freezer to cook results in putting something back in. Pulled out that big smoked Boston Butt for Christmas dinner, and back into the freezer went three one-pound bags of pulled pork, as well as a quart of Brunswick stew. Pulled out a pork roast, and a quart of beef stew went back in. The last chicken I cooked resulted in six pints of broth back in the freezer. I have half a dozen homemade freezer meals that have been in there entirely too long that just need to be tossed. I guess what I need to do is go through and purge and organize. My freezers are both small chest freezers, about which the best I can say is they aren't as hard to deal with as big chest freezers.

[ElsieD]

I solved the "broth taking up too much space in the freezer" problem by concentrating the broth as much as possible, putting the result in ice cube trays and freezing the cubes.

[Okanagancook]

1 hour ago, kayb said:

My problem is that pulling something out of the freezer to cook results in putting something back in. Pulled out that big smoked Boston Butt for Christmas dinner, and back into the freezer went three one-pound bags of pulled pork, as well as a quart of Brunswick stew. Pulled out a pork roast, and a quart of beef stew went back in. The last chicken I cooked resulted in six pints of broth back in the freezer. I have half a dozen homemade freezer meals that have been in there entirely too long that just need to be tossed. I guess what I need to do is go through and purge and organize. My freezers are both small chest freezers, about which the best I can say is they aren't as hard to deal with as big chest freezers.

If the freezers are organized and inventoried it makes it so much easier...highly recommended to take, what, 1/2 hour to do it?

[liamsaunt]

My commercial freezer finally died. Well, not completely, it was at a perfect refrigerator temp, but that is of no use to me. The prior (And original) owners of my home installed the freezer in the basement before construction was finished, and it is too large to remove without cutting it in half. So now it sits in my boiler room with the door off  (which is fine because we updated the heat system from a big honking scary boiler to a small high efficiency unit so thare’s a ton of space in there).

 

Here are pictures of my new freezer’s contents:

 

 

 

Not too bad. The top shelf is a vast quantity of soft pretzels that my husband ordered from a local bakery. I need to make more stock. 

 

[robirdstx]

Yeah, keeping an inventory has really helped me. I have the list on my iPad, try to update it every week or so, and print out a copy that I hang in the kitchen to refer to when meal planning.
 

 

Edited to add: The pork butt roast is out and thawing. Going into the instant pot later for carnitas tonight!

Corn tortilla tacos with crispy carnitas, onion, cilantro and salsa verde!

Edited January 13, 2020 by robirdstx (log)

[SLB]

My freezer is about full:  quarter-beer; side of pig; side of lamb.  A small amount of flotsam and jetsam, including service meats; marrow bones; about one and a half chickens worth of parts; and several vegetables that I don't like that much.  

 

When I went to defrost it to get it ready for this meat to come in, I discovered that I am in possession of ten smoked hamhocks.  I have no idea how that happened.  

[JoNorvelleWalker]

11 hours ago, SLB said:

My freezer is about full:  quarter-beer; side of pig; side of lamb.  A small amount of flotsam and jetsam, including service meats; marrow bones; about one and a half chickens worth of parts; and several vegetables that I don't like that much.  

 

When I went to defrost it to get it ready for this meat to come in, I discovered that I am in possession of ten smoked hamhocks.  I have no idea how that happened.  

 

I wish my refrigerator were quarter-beer.

 

[SLB]

Clearly, I was wishing that, too!  

 

In seriousness, I remember when there was room for the gin and vodka in the freezer . . . 

Edited January 16, 2020 by SLB (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I cleaned out my freezer.  I didn't cook anything but I threw a lot away.

 

[Anna N]

59 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I cleaned out my freezer.  I didn't cook anything but I threw a lot away.

 

Me too!

[Shelby]

Braggers

[lindag]

I went looking for some sliced beef in the big garage freezer.  Found quite a few items that needed to be tossed.  
Made a small dent.  The freezer side of my kitchen fridge is stuffed to the point of frustration.

I need some Italian sausage that’s in there; sure hope I can find it,

‘It’s not unusual for me to give up looking and then buying more.  Then it turns up.

 

[ElsieD]

49 minutes ago, lindag said:

 

 

49 minutes ago, lindag said:

I need some Italian sausage that’s in there; sure hope I can find it,

‘It’s not unusual for me to give up looking and then buying more.  Then it turns up.

 

 

I thought I was the only one who did that.

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

 

 

I thought I was the only one who did that.

 

Nope. A kindred spirit here!

[chromedome]

12 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 

 

I thought I was the only one who did that.

No, I think it's a pretty universal last-resort method to find what you're looking for.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

https://forums.egullet.org/topic/160121-dinner-2020/?do=findComment&comment=2234506

 

I am proud of myself.

 

[lindag]

I've started  cleaning out some of my kitchen cabinets in anticipation of the big move coming.

Although it's four months away but I'll need all that time to reduce my collection of stuff.

The big thing is my freezers...I have two uprights plus my side by side.  

I haven't started working on those yet though I've set a moratorium on any new proteins and am trying to use up what I have.  I was astounded yesterday when I began purging the pantry of canned goods, beans, pastas, extracts, etc.

Good God, some of that stuff came here when we moved from Oregon in 2006 add many were duplicated!  I'm not making that mistake again, we moved items that cost more to move than they were worth.  

Anyway, I figure if I sort through one cabinet or one closet each day from now til the first of July I may have accomplished almost all of what I need to get through.

 

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, lindag said:

I've started  cleaning out some of my kitchen cabinets in anticipation of the big move coming.

Although it's four months away but I'll need all that time to reduce my collection of stuff.

 

BT:DT.

If you're able to do it in just four months, I applaud your infinitely superior organizational skills.

Since folding my restaurants and farmer's market business I have outfitted various daughters and daughters' friends with tolerably complete collections of kitchen gear, as well as donating and selling a bunch. I still have about three times more than I can conveniently fit into my current apartment. Yet another round of trimming down is under way at the moment, so I can consolidate three storage units down to two.

[jedovaty]

On 1/13/2020 at 8:58 AM, ElsieD said:

I solved the "broth taking up too much space in the freezer" problem by concentrating the broth as much as possible, putting the result in ice cube trays and freezing the cubes.

If it's a gelatinous stock, you can go even further and reduce down to a "fruit-leather" like stage, which freezes well and becomes a sort of homemade bouillon.  Trouble is that it's kind of tough to work with initially.. helps to use a non-stick pan.

[Paul Bacino]

On 1/13/2020 at 12:39 PM, robirdstx said:

Yeah, keeping an inventory has really helped me. I have the list on my iPad, try to update it every week or so, and print out a copy that I hang in the kitchen to refer to when meal planning.
 

 

Edited to add: The pork butt roast is out and thawing. Going into the instant pot later for carnitas tonight!

Corn tortilla tacos with crispy carnitas, onion, cilantro and salsa verde!

 

 

I need this..   AWESOME

[robirdstx]

Maybe not the time to cook through our freezers, but definitely time to do an inventory! We have more than 3 weeks of main meal items on hand; the hard part is going to be getting the fresh products to go with them.

[Okanagancook]

Frozen vegetables are really quite good when given some love.  For example, bagged frozen, chopped spinach at our local small chain grocery is fabulous..very hard to tell it's frozen.  We also like the 'vegetable medley'  which has green bean, mini carrots, peas, corn and lima beans.  Just say'n.

[chromedome]

I buy the compressed "brick" of frozen, chopped spinach, which is something of a staple at our house. There are two small blocks in each package, each of which is roughly the equivalent of a bag of fresh spinach and suitable for a meal for the two of us.

They sell for $2 at Superstore or $1 at No Frills, so I usually keep 3 or 4 in my freezer.

 

I buy other frozen veg as circumstances suggest (I won't say "dictate"). I like some better than others, but regardless...they're good backup for when the fresh stuff is in short supply or when external factors mean I can't reliably use up fresh stuff in a timely fashion.