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.

Annual eating down the freezer challenge

It's come to that time of year once again. Our freezer is still full, yet we need to make a lot of room for this year's garden and foraging produce. 

We have two choices. One, we could buy another freezer. Or two, we could eat down what we currently have. I won't lie. I did have a moment where I thought buying another freezer might be a good idea. But my common sense kicked in, and we will once again try to eat up (or down) the freezers' (yes, multiple freezers) contents.

The first thing I need to do is take an inventory of the frozen vegetables in the chest freezer. Partially used opened bags of frozen vegetables have a way of drifting to the bottom of the freezer. I'm sure there are several open bags of peas in there. So, once I know what frozen veggies we have currently, I will limit what I buy in the way of frozen vegetables. I may use a small white board to track what vegetables still remain as we work toward eating down the freezer.

I should do the same with the frozen fruits, syrups, and fruit juices. I came across some dried figs and dried prunes in the freezer the other day. I am also aware that we have some remaining crab applesauce, crabapple juice, and blackberry juice. Do you have any suggestions for using crab apple juice or blackberry juice in summer? We also have some frozen cherries for pies, too. I need to start making plans to use these fruits, especially as this year's cherries are almost ready for harvesting. But first I need to gather all of the containers into one space, perhaps using another whiteboard to help motivate me to use these produce items in a timely manner.

Next I need to corral all of the bread products into one bag and make plans to do a bread pudding, some croutons, bread stuffing, and/or a strata. We accumulate lots of lone slices of bread, squares of cornbread, and muffins. Finding them and keeping them in one spot will help me use them.

After the vegetables and bread products I think I should gather all of the containers of stock, drippings, and fat to keep in one spot and make plans to use it. Since I've been roasting whole chickens again (instead of using b/s breasts), I've made several batches of chicken stock. It's time I start using it up. Do you have any suggestions for using stock besides as the broth for soup?

That will leave frozen desserts (ice cream, sorbet) and individual servings of various meals. My husband is the only one in the family who will eat everything served to him. The rest of us tend to freeze our leftovers, which is great as we're technically not wasting that food. But it does accumulate. So, I need to get my daughters to help me identify those oddball containers of leftovers.

The one food category that I'm not at all concerned about is meat. I keep all of the meat together in the tiny freezer and sort through it every other week. I roughly know what beef, chicken, and pork we have on hand and am making plans for how to use the older cuts of meat soon.

Am I missing anything? Do you have a method of attack for cleaning out your freezer and eating down all of the contents? You can guess what I'll be doing this weekend.

Have a great weekend, friends!