The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn)

oceandreamer

Hello can I join back in please?  There's a ridiculous amount of food in the house again!  I've 'decluttered' the freezer of all the food we don't even like/eat or that was unrecognisable and it's still full!  I can't even face going through the tins and packets yet so going to focus on the fridge and freezer for now.  Made a curry with leftover roast and bottom of the fridge peppers today so that's a start.

Frugalistamama

Cherryfudge said:

Good to see you back, @Frugalistamama, how's life been treating you?

Thanks @Cherryfudge

Life's been busy, family drama, hubby's redundancy and massive pay cut. The ramifications of that is coming upon us hard this month so really need to have a lean few months. Hoping things get better soon. But.... These times remind you how generally lucky you are in life. I'm hoping he'll find something soon but it's a bit hard out there! 

Back to school coming up on us so need to buy a few things I need to get creative with that! 

Cherryfudge

Wow, that's a lot to cope with @Frugalistamama. Perhaps the seasonal jobs for over Christmas will be advertised soon (Argos, Post Office etc.): that might help bridge the gap. I don't know whether those might work for him or not, it's just a thought.

Back to school shopping - a necessary evil. Does the school help with second hand uniform?

Frugalistamama

@cheryfudge

Thankfully I don't have too much to get a couple of bits of uniform and stationary mainly. But yes I forgot about the second hand uniform sale. Good idea.

We decided to still go on our booked holiday and have a good time but whatever you do you still have to spend while away. So we have come back rather broke!

Cherryfudge

Frugalistamama said:

We decided to still go on our booked holiday and have a good time but whatever you do you still have to spend while away. So we have come back rather broke!

I think it will do you good having had the holiday - it should set you up for a while and you might have been a bit gloomy had you cancelled the booking.

My plan today is to make carrot and ginger soup and celery soup, so that lovely bit of space in the fridge won't last long, but some of it can freeze and it will give me a choice of lunches for a few days.

The massive lot of fruit I bought the other day is decreasing steadily but the lemon curd is yet to be made and the melon needs to be finished soon.

Frugalistamama

Yes I'm definitely in a better headspace after the holiday and ready to feed us all on a budget and get organised. 

But annoying I spent more than I wanted on food this week as we had nothing fresh in after the holiday and it was my daughter's birthday. 

In the last few days we've finished off the curry and last of that pack of brown rice (there's another one hiding somewhere), used up a couple of pizza bases for dinner that were in the freezer, with some air fryer chips and salad. I got some yellow sticker cooked chicken breasts so made a Chinese chicken noodle soup  and roast chicken for some lunch/dinner. the rest of their chicken I have diced and put in the freezer. Not great for clearing out but it will make a couple of cheap meals. I just couldn't leave it there at 50p a chicken breast. I got 8! I've used 3 already I defrosted a tuna steak. I need to remember to cook it and eat for my lunch!

Cherryfudge

I've made the soups and eaten some... the carrot and ginger has beans in, so is filling. It's also incredibly spicy! Ginger is the only spice and someone had mentioned in the comments that the ginger was overwhelming, but then someone else said they added other spices. I can only assume some people read 'tbsps' as 'tsps'.

The celery one is a bit too salty but okay.

That reduces the surplus veg nicely but not completely. I also bought root ginger and garlic for one of the soups (then found garlic in the fridge already), some ham trimmings which are divided into portions and mostly frozen, and a free bakery item (pizza) from L1dl (also frozen). 

Cherryfudge

I had one of the soups for lunch so that made three, then invented a soup that worked far better than expected, using up a lot of the oddments of veg (though half a cucumber went in the compost). I also turned the rest of a punnet of strawberries into a pot of jam: it was just strawberries and sugar, boiled at 'jamming point' for about 15 minutes and then I had to think about getting ready for work so I didn't bother testing for setting point. The result is a jar of sweetened strawberry juice; I must think to add pectin next time!

So I've decided the soup is to be called Tart Apple soup: half a large onion, a large carrot, half a butternut squash, a wizened swede (if your local shop doesn't sell these, don't be surprised), a sliced clove of garlic, half a teaspoon each of ground cumin and coriander, salt and pepper, 2 tsp sugar and six tiny windfallen apples. The apples were literally a roadside find and the tree must have been meant for a cooker as they disintegrated into fluff almost at once. I used about 2 tbsp oil from a jar of grilled peppers to sauté everything, then I just added water, simmered it for a bit and blended it.

I get to eat the lot as DH says it's too sweet...

So now, instead of a fridge half filled with oddments of veg, we have a fridge half filled with soups.

LotsOfTea

We've been away visiting family & friends and on holiday over the summer quite a lot so I've not made a great deal of progress emptying out the freezers. On the contrary, I've been adding extra stuff to them by cooking up any perishables and freezing them every time we've gone away. 

We're back now and I'm determined to make some more progress. I'm going to start by dragging a couple of random old cans from the zombie apocalypse cupboard under the stairs and putting them in my line of sight in the kitchen so I remember to do something with them. I had to chuck about 4 tins of chopped tomatoes recently as they had been stashed away so long they had gone all bulgy and they're no longer safe to eat if they get like that. I was annoyed I'd had to waste them so in determined to get it all under control!

YorksLass

I'm definitely going to have to empty the freezer - or at least run the contents down - as I need to make a "repair".  About once a year the freezer part of my frost free fridge/freezer needs a manual defrost when the drain hole gets blocked up and the melting ice can't run into the drip tray underneath.  Instead it runs into the freezer cabinet and freezes on the bottom shelf making the drawer stick and when it melts it drips out onto the floor.  Grrr. 

My plan of action is (a) ignore any bargains I come across while shopping (b) stop batch cooking for a while (c) use up as much as I can over the next couple of weeks then put what's left into the fridge while I do a defrost.  Could be some interesting meals! 

To be fair, it is 11 years old and works well apart from this one blip.  Since I know how to fix it, I can't justify buying a new one.  Today I've made a start by taking out half a loaf of bread, soup for tomorrow and will use up some cooked gammon slices, sliced green beans and mini Yorkies for Sunday dinner.