Eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge - part two

maisie_cat

I've just found this thread having undertaken a stocktake of my freezers. My husband says I'm a food hoarder, although he didn't complain when things were short in the shops! We have 144 meals for 2 in the freezers, 32 of which are complete meals. I cook from scratch and tend to make 4 portion versions of recipes and eke to 6 portions. the rest is the main ingredient in a meal, chicken, lamb, beef etc 
We don't have meat every day,  we have non meat 2 or 3 days a week using the store cupboards, so that means we have 8 or 9 months of meals or meal components
That is clearly too much, but I need to have some, it's a growing up poor anxiety thing coupled with an intense dislike of supermarkets so I may find it challenging. 
tonight we are having meatballs with roasted home grown veg including my first ever aubergines, thanks polytunnel
thank you for reading, I feel better now.

joedenise

I think a lot of us have loads in freezers where we batch cook, cook meals for 4 when there are just 2 of us plus buying various meat, fish & veg plus all the YS things if we're lucky to find them.  I haven't actually counted how many meals I could make from what is in the freezer and to be honest I'm not going to!

What I do know is that when I menu plan (I do a month at a time) I try to make sure I use HM ready meals and various meats & fish from freezers for at least 50% of our evening meals.  A lot of the meals made with meats, eg a whole chicken will produce an additional 4-6 portions (2-3 meals for 2) for the freezer.

Probably about another 25-30% of our meals will be using tinned stuff like chickpeas and pulses from store cupboards.  Most of these meals will produce another 2-4 meals for the 2 of us for the freezer and so it continues.

So although you seem to have a lot of meals in your freezer I suspect when you cook from scratch you are actually adding even more meals!  How about challenging yourself to use up as much as possible from the freezer & cupboards over the next 2 or 3 months to bring the amounts down?

pamsdish

@maisie_cat, menu plan is the answer, try to incorporate at least 1 or 2 meals from the freezer, those nights when you want simple, Saturday for me. 

carinjo

In: in last few days, blanched veg from allotment. chard, runnerbeans.
Out: ice, for chilling the blanched veg.  sorry, sounded funny in my head

carinjo

@maisie_cat i agree with the menu planning and incorporating the freezer meals into it. I can also suggest, that if you have been sticking to your food budget, why not put the bit you save each week (or however often you shop) aside. Can be for a treat or even just to help make it easier to get your head around using up the freezer food, seeing a positive. Use a meal, stick £2 in a jar. You know what i mean! Good luck!

maisie_cat

joedenise said:

I think a lot of us have loads in freezers where we batch cook, cook meals for 4 when there are just 2 of us plus buying various meat, fish & veg plus all the YS things if we're lucky to find them.  I haven't actually counted how many meals I could make from what is in the freezer and to be honest I'm not going to!

What I do know is that when I menu plan (I do a month at a time) I try to make sure I use HM ready meals and various meats & fish from freezers for at least 50% of our evening meals.  A lot of the meals made with meats, eg a whole chicken will produce an additional 4-6 portions (2-3 meals for 2) for the freezer.

Probably about another 25-30% of our meals will be using tinned stuff like chickpeas and pulses from store cupboards.  Most of these meals will produce another 2-4 meals for the 2 of us for the freezer and so it continues.

So although you seem to have a lot of meals in your freezer I suspect when you cook from scratch you are actually adding even more meals!  How about challenging yourself to use up as much as possible from the freezer & cupboards over the next 2 or 3 months to bring the amounts down?

You have me to a T, because I cook from scratch I do make extra, and it tends to build up. I use my pressure/multi cooker for a lot of cooking and it needs a minimum wet quantity to work. My plan is to bring down meals in the freezer, I measure capacity by the number of clip lid containers available because they are all in the freezer. I can then have a few leftovers meals but rotate them and concentrate on the raw meat/veg etc.
We do have power cuts here and at some point I'm mindful that I may need to quickly conserve meat in jars for ambient storage if it defrosts. That won't be possible for much of the meals.
I'm rubbish at menu planning because we change our minds depending on the weather, which determines what we are doing, this morning I was wearing shorts and fixing guttering and now I'm in snuggled up by the fire.
What I do have is enough ingredients to make most things and that works most of the time, I also home pressure can meals so we have a store cupboard of tins & jars as well as dried foods in jars! Even the cat has her own food store of 1-2 months food.
I also tend to turn one thing into something else to use leftovers, the day before yesterday we had a potato & aubergine bake frozen in March. The leftovers were turned into a soup with added tomatoes and beef stock for yesterday lunch. The soup leftovers were added to the meatballs, roasted veg from the garden & pasta for last night.
So the only bought thing I used yesterday was a tin of tomatoes, tagliatelle and a beef stock cube. Because they were all similar ingredients it worked.
Tonight we have 2 curries, both frozen in May plus rice and naan bread if I can find the dough I froze.
My last supermarket visit was 15th and I am working back to a monthly shop. but with a proper stocktake first, last month I bought 5kg of chicken breasts only to find at least 3kg in the bottom of the the freezer, lucky we eat a lot of chicken!
Have a lovely evening all

joedenise

IN:  Nothing
OUT:  chicken - to make jerk chicken for dinner tomorrow

pamsdish

Sounds like you getting a plan together @maisie_cat, I swore at the beginning of lock down, Wales, it was my best opportunity to use my freezer stocks, did make good inroads but still too much for one person, I have made a menu plan up to next Sat, nothing shopping wise needed. 
IN: 0
OUT: Battered cod yesterday, sausage and ratatouille today, Lamb for tomorrow, 95% certain it is lamb.
Beans some ready for picking, been holding back as I like to pick and straight into the pan, excess into freezer, tomatoes are cropping well, I like to roast with oil and herbs, then freeze for sauces. 

MrsStepford

IN: (freezer) 2 packs of Hepburn's butcher-smoked back bacon, 1 of  Hepburn's butcher-smoked streaky bacon. Can't get them unless I have a delivery from Watts Farm as the butchery is in Essex. (stockpile) Mutti passata x2, tomato paste x2, pink salmon x12, anchovies x2, 
OUT: (freezer) organic beef mince for chilli, wild Alaskan keta salmon fillets, gluten-free tiger bloomer, butter, (cupboard) anchovies, sardines, tomato puree, stock cubes, gluten free cheese oat cakes, olives, beetroot, chilli piccalilli

Have removed all meat from pending supermarket, A&C and Riverford orders, with the exception of some oxtail, as been waiting weeks. 

carinjo

Out: chicken and veg stew
In: 0