How I move food out of my Freezer with Ease

Recently, I ran into a neighbor who mentioned he must have thrown out $100 worth of meat away that was tucked into his freezer.  Believe it or not, some of it was from 2009!  I’m certain there is a large part of the population that can relate to losing items in the depths of their freezer never to be seen again. 

When we have the storage, it is a natural human tendency to fill it up.  We chase after bargains, stock our freezer for a rainy day and continue this cycle over and over.  Life gets busy and we become out of touch with what we have while we continue chasing the current bargains of the day.  I have found three ways of preventing this from happening.

1.  I inventory my freezers about four times a year.  Yes, I have two of them, although, both are very small.  I make a list of items on hand and menu plan.  I also know what meats I need to refrain from buying unless they are giving it away. 

2.  Most importantly, when I buy meat in bulk, I always put it in the freezer with a purpose.  I cut meat prior to freezing it for stir fry, shish ka bobs, soup or whatever and I label it.  I put together meat loafs and label ground beef for hamburgers, tacos or chili.  It seems daunting at first but it really helps me cycle the food out of the depths of the freezer and onto our table.  I find that I have less of a block of “what to make” when packages are labeled with ideas in mind.  This is especially helpful if I have spotted a new recipe that looks great but I don’t have time to make it.  I keep the recipe in a binder to be made at the appropriate time.  I do have a few packages of meat unlabeled other than the contents and weight.  I also pack various sizes of meat to accommodate when we are cooking for a smaller bunch.  

3.  About twice a year, I move meat out of the freezer by taking a day and smoking the meat on hand.  Long ago, a good friend gifted me with a meat smoker.  I am able to smoke 20 – 40 pounds of meat in a day. It makes a great gift, freezes well and is always a favorite meal.  Smoked meat at home is out of the ordinary for most.  We always feel like we are fine dining when we pull out a smoked chicken to eat a few months after we prepared it. 

The key to having a freezer and filling it is to have a plan.  Hopefully this will inspire you to never experience the unpleasant discovery of “freezer burn” and trashing once valuable meat gone bad.

The Time is Right, The Time is Now

Every year I vow I’m going to start a vegetable garden.  If the truth be known, my past victories have been quite limited.  My large pots on the porch seem to flourish with herbs and flowers, however, anything I have planted in the ground never seems to do very well.   You see, to have a successful garden I have discovered it takes planning. Of course I always come to this discovery when my neighbors are harvesting various vegetables on a daily basis and I can barely produce 5 or 6 a year!   This year I’m determined to change history.  It’s March, and my future flourishing garden is in progress. 

I’m on top of cloud nine because this year I have actually started plants on my windowsill to transplant into my garden when the time is optimal according to the seed packets and I am envisioning a garden that Martha Stewart would be proud of.   I have already learned that I probably should have planted the seeds at staggered times so I can enjoy my harvest on an ongoing basis instead of all at one time.  No one wants to 8 heads of broccoli on the same day.  If I hadn’t started the seeds, I probably wouldn’t have figured this out.  The good news is I still have plenty of time to implement this new discovery.   

People who have vegetable gardens make it seem so easy.  I on the other hand realize there is more to it than meets the eye.

It's All How You Look at It

When I started weaning myself away from convenience foods, I spent a whole lot of time cooking and planning meals.  It seemed that I never had exactly the right ingredients for a dish.  Last minute grocery store trips were quite common.  In my quest to eat fresh, I was actually paralyzing myself. 

Cooking is an art.  People who don’t cook a lot will tell you a recipe is critical when preparing anything.  Following it religiously is the key to a successful dish.  After searching the web for recipes it dawned on me that I was making cooking much harder and time consuming than it really is.  Thanks to the comment section of the various recipes on line, I learned how others thought outside the box and created success after success preparing new dishes. 

Myth #1 – Everything needs to be fresh.

Mythbuster – minced garlic in a jar.  I couldn’t live without it.  It saves me oodles of time, tastes great and encourages me to cook more often.  Sure I use fresh garlic sometimes but the jar allows me to throw things together quickly.

Myth #2 – I’m out of an ingredient.  I need to run to the store.

Mythbuster –Out of Cajun spice.  Google it.  You probably have all the spices to make it.  Out of dry mustard.  Google the substitute.  Recipe calls for cans of northern beans?  Substitute any can of white beans or used dried beans in its place.

Myth #3 – My recipe won’t turn out if I don’t follow it exactly as written.

Mythbuster – Be open to making it without an ingredient and see what happens.  You may not even notice!

Myth #4 – My recipe requires heavy cream to be successful.

Mythbuster – I make plenty of soups and dishes without heavy cream. Try a dairy creamer substitute or half in half.  Experiment with other choices than heavy cream.   Fewer calories, less costly and super yummy.  It may not fit the bill 100% of the time but do try substituting this ingredient on many recipes and I’ll bet you’ll be surprised. 

Lessons learned:

•  It’s ok to substitute canned tomatoes for fresh and visa versa in many recipes.  

• Don’t get hung up on labels.  True there is a difference between potatoes if you are a purest but if not, feel free to substitute.  In general, a potato is a potato and the flavor will be there.  If you want to learn about the differences and which variety is best in certain situations, check this book out from your library.  The Great Potato Cookbook: 250 sensational recipes for the worlds favorite vegetable. 

• It’s possible to use ½ egg if you need to when cutting down recipes.  Beat up one and use half! 

Once I learned to be creative when cooking, it was much easier to deal with cooking fresh.  I have become a lot more adventurous when throwing my meals together and have evolved into a family that eats so much better with a lot less worry about the end result.  Please feel free to share any of your previous myths and mythbusters with me.  I’m all ears. 

The Results of the Challenge

In general, because of my instinct to always plan ahead, perhaps this challenge wasn’t exactly that challenging.  Our biggest issue was bread.  I found that the family adapted by either buying lunch out, using tortillas or took items for lunch that did not require bread.  I did uncover some wheat sandwich thins in the basement freezer but discovered that no one really likes them which is why they were forgotten in the freezer to begin with. 

I managed to bake some specialty breads with items on hand.  I found that my beer bread was used for turkey sandwiches one day and quickly forgotten.  My greek bread is to die for, however, due to the lack of preservatives, it had a very short shelf life.  (5 days).  I suppose I need to keep it in the fridge next time. 

The biggest inconvenience was to our son who regularly packs PBJ’s when he has to eat on the run due to his sports schedule.  Many times during the week he put off eating until he came home which was quite late. 

The things we missed at the end of the week were bananas.  We normally go through 3 bunches a week and ran out.  We did have fresh apples, grapes and oranges though. I managed to get through the week with only buying a gallon of milk for us but had to break down and buy snacks as our contribution to a Super Bowl party and some items to donate during a wrestling tournament.  Not too bad. I would have loved this challenge to continue however, an unexpected trip out of town occurred and it was unrealistic to think that my family would embrace this challenge during my absence. 

Life happens.  The downside of continuing this challenge is that it takes a lot of planning and creativity to pull it off. 

Victories were:

•  Rice Krispie Treats
• Puppy Chow
• Jello (didn’t know we had)
• 3 gooey butter cakes for a wrestling tournament
• Turkey tetrazzini.

Where I broke down and needed to shop.

• Providing Super Bowl Snacks
• Providing cups, sugar, creamer, coffee for the wrestling tournament

What I learned.

• Everyone was a good sport about the week.
• I had to shred cheese slices for the pizza but we had enough. 
• Pizza doesn’t need a lot of sauce to be good! 

Meals this week included:

• Shrimp Alfredo
• New Bride Chicken
• Turkey Tetrazzini
• Homemade Pizza
• Taco’s
• Salad
• Fresh Fruit