Not every cooking experiment has to turn out awesome

I used several items from the freezer in tonight's dinner. 

I was down to just one can of tuna, and I wanted to make a tuna casserole for 4 adults. 

I remembered the fish sticks in the freezer and thought they might work mixed in with the canned tuna. 

I also had some frozen pinto beans leftover from making Saturday's dinner. I thought those would add to the protein in my experimental tuna casserole.

I made a cream soup using up another container of frozen chicken stock and some frozen celery leaves.

In addition to macaroni, tuna, broken fish sticks and cream soup, I used more of the surplus frozen peas.

To top the casserole, I used all of the crumbs at the bottom of the fish stick bag plus some shredded cheddar cheese.

The verdict? It was okay. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was okay. I think that's fine with family meals, if they're just okay and not spectacular. Everyone ate all of their portion, so it wasn't bad in any way. Many of our family meals are "okay," and that's fine with us. I don't shoot for Bon Appétit or Gourmet magazine level meals for everyday. As long as we eat it and it's nutritious, then I'm satisfied.

What I did determine is that it would not be a good use of our resources to use fish sticks in tuna casserole on a regular basis. Their flavor and texture was lost in the casserole. But as it was, there were only 3  1/2 fish sticks at the bottom of the bag, and no realistic way to divide those up between 4 adults. So they fit their purpose this time, using something up in my attempt to eat down the freezer.

Progress on organizing the freezers and how we've been using some of the random "found" foods

I should have gone through the freezers before my last grocery shopping. I would have saved several dollars this week by not buying more of what we have on hand, example -- frozen vegetables and fresh fruit. In fresh fruit, I bought a whole watermelon and a couple of bunches of bananas at WinCo on Friday morning. We could have used the frozen fruit we have in smoothies and as fruit servings for at least a week. I found a large bag of blackberries, 3 gallon-sized bags of apple chunks, and a bag each of raspberries and blueberries at the bottom of the freezer. I also found 10 bags of frozen peas and multiple open bags of various frozen vegetables, including 2 open bags of spinach and 2 open bags of corn.

a very disorganized chest freezer
The only way to reasonably guess where something might be
was to try to recall when the last time was the item was used.
That would give us an idea of how far down it was.

So, what I did

Friday afternoon was rainy and dark, a perfect afternoon for going through the garage chest freezer and apartment-sized upright freezer. 

We sorted on the garage floor.

I didn't thaw the chest freezer. We need to eat down some of the contents before I can thaw it, as I don't have other freezer space to hold foods while this freezer defrosts. But I did organize this freezer really well, I think, especially as I did it using basic items we have at home, mainly thick plastic grocery bags (bags work well as they will mold to each other and stack), a Sharpie, and duct tape. We sorted and bagged almost everything, labeling each bag as we went. Our rule was that bags have to be able to tie closed, so contents won't spill out and undo all of our sorting.

budget freezer sorting "containers" and "labels"

We divided this freezer into 3 columns. The left column is loaded with stacked bags of fruits and vegetables. I put the bag of opened packages of various vegetables on the top, so we will go to that bag first when looking for vegetables to use in lunches and dinners.

See how well the plastic bags can stack?

The center column contains all of my two daughters' foods. They often make lunches in advance for themselves, so they can grab something ready-made quickly. They also have more particular tastes for foods than either my husband or I have, and will buy specific items just for themselves. So their foods do take up a sizable amount of freezer space. The right column is only partially bagged. It also has the hanging freezer bin that contains primarily nuts and seeds. Stacked on the very right are containers of cherries packed in sugar for pies and 3 bags of different types of corn flour and meal. Corn meals and flours become buggy quickly in my experience.

finished sorting and organizing for the time being

I moved all of the butter to the small freezer. I did thaw this freezer before our last beef delivery. Here's that freezer. All of the beef is on the top shelf. That's most of a very recent 30-lb delivery of beef. The middle shelf has 3 whole chickens, a single chicken leg and single chicken thigh, plus some containers of stock. The bottom shelf has breakfast sausage and more stock, plus two partial boxes of heat and eat foods, fish sticks and egg rolls (egg rolls now gone). And the door compartment now holds about 10 pounds of butter.

small freezer -- beef on top, chickens middle, not shown bottom shelf

The big task now is to form a plan to use the odds and ends as well as the current surpluses of foods of which we anticipate accumulating new stock in the coming months, like fresh produce, pumpkin/squash seeds, meat and pumpkin broths.

How to manage our current fresh produce supply

I think I will hold off on cutting into the watermelon and force us to use the fresh strawberries that are ripening and frozen berries and apples that we need to eat down. I'll save that watermelon for the 4th of July. I'll also hold off on cutting into the newest head of cabbage and use frozen vegetables in its place for lunches and dinners the next few days, again until the 4th. I'll use that fresh cabbage on the 4th to make a curried pea and peanut slaw for our holiday cookout. By saving the watermelon and head of cabbage until Friday, I won't need to re-buy these foods for our 4th of July cookout. One good thing -- I didn't buy more apples or tangerines this week. I still have most of a bag of each, and we'll make those last throughout the next 2 weeks.

berry pancake topped with blackberry syrup

What I found that we used over the weekend and today

• chopped apples in spiced, sautéed apples both Friday and Monday night for dinners
• pumpkin seeds, lots of bags of them. I roasted up a baggie for a snack on Saturday
• 4 egg rolls, we had them with dinner on Saturday
• cooked pinto beans and 2 partially used bags of corn, mixed together, sautéed in beef fat with onions and spices for Saturday's dinner
• a container of whey, used in a batch of blueberry and blackberry pancakes for Sunday breakfast topped with blackberry syrup (berries and syrup from the freezer)
• some chicken stock used in making grits to go with meatloaf for Monday's dinner
• cornbread and whole wheat bread, small amount of beef gravy in meatloaf for Monday's dinner

Happy surprises 

• more butter than I had thought, enough to last through summer at least
• one container of yogurt starter. I'll have to make another batch of yogurt and freeze more starter.
• a single cupcake (to the victor go the spoils -- that cupcake is mine!)
• two frozen things of dough for croissants
• a half chocolate croissant

I'll continue using up odds and ends, particularly as I tackle the other two freezer spaces.  (More odds and ends in those two freezers.) Tomorrow night's dinner will be an interesting experiment. I'll let you know how that one goes. I'll sort and organize the kitchen freezer and spare fridge's freezer later this week.

Whew! What a job this is.