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

Watty1

Inspired by @Cherryfudge I have made a Christmas cake out of the cupboard many flours (mixed gram flour with ground almonds).  I was following instructions but went rogue as I didn't have a lot of the ingredients so it is substituted with what I have found in the cupboard.

I also noted I had a lot of seeds - sunflower and pumpkin so have made a mental note to start adding them to veggie and salads to use up.  No one can need 8 opened bags  

LotsOfTea

Ooh, that sounds interesting, let us know how the cake turns out! I'm not a very confident baker so I don't tend to mess with recipes in the same way as I do with normal cooking. 

I cleaned and tidied up the fridge today and made a batch of soup that turned out really well. It was made of a smallish squash, a small celeriac, onion, garlic, veg stock, a handful of red lentils and a can of cider. We had some with cheese toasties for lunch today and there's loads left which I might shove in the freezer for easy lunches when all the Christmas stuff is done and dusted. 

DH has started some of the meal prep for tomorrow and I've wrapped the presents so we're looking forward to a quiet evening with a Christmas film on telly and a couple of beers. I bought some cans of stout from local breweries as that always feels festive to me. Maybe we'll leave a glass out for Santa as well 🧑‍🎄

Nelliegrace

@Watty1 I sprinkle mixed seeds on my porridge and DH adds them to his basic muesli every day, with a bit of fresh fruit. It does help to get the recommended 30 different plants a week in our food. I suggested adding some to the bread too. 

Cherryfudge

I have some freezer space again! Pre-prepared Christmas veg and now eaten apart from a handful of sprouts. I also remembered there were a couple of  bags of cooked red cabbage, prepared in May from the last of last Christmas's red cabbage! They went down very well yesterday and no one but me knew how 'vintage' they were! I also grabbed the bags of bread crusts from the freezer and combined them with sage and onion to make the stuffing. One of several boxes of cherry tomatoes went into the roast veg but that wasn't as success as they flooded the pan for some reason, which hasn't happened when adding tomatoes in the past.

Christmas leftovers, however: most of a chicken (tonight we are making chicken and chorizo pasta), a couple of bags of parsnips, one or two portions of curried parsnip soup, carrots and potatoes, aforementioned sprouts, 2 bags of shallots, plenty of onions (but we use those anyway), bread sauce (I completely forgot it), soft drinks (which will get used anyway), at least three and a half Christmas puddings (long story), nearly three boxes of mince pies and various not-Christmassy-but-needing-used bits.

The great fridge and freezer battle recommences.

By the way, can anyone explain why freezer food wrappers often smell 'freezer-y'? I tend to blame DH for not shutting the freezer door in between quick forays, but I do that sometimes so I can't lay the blame there.  I tend to give the bag a rinse to decrease the smell, dry it and shove it back in, but it's not a smell of any one thing so I haven't managed to stop it.

Watty1

@LotsOfTea I'm not a confident baker at all.  In fact I only started to use stuff up but the cake is fabulous!  I'm trying to cut down on processed foods and sugar too and will carry that into the year.

I was thinking yesterday that one of my achievements this year has been cooking. Now I could always cook but the encouragement on here to be creative and use stuff up has led to some new favourite meals and also to discovering that some things are really not that hard to make.  

Watty1

Nelliegrace said:

. I suggested adding some to the bread too. 

When do you add to the bread please?   

I never have time for porridge in the morning but that is something I want to change.  I might make a granola and add to that too as I have a lot of oats (how can anyone have so many oats LOL)

Cherryfudge

Watty1 said:
(how can anyone have so many oats LOL)

Perhaps that person has horses? 

I bought commercial flapjacks the other day - quite nice but too sweet for my taste. Some are in the freezer, not because they need to be but because I then have to pause before eating them. However, some form of homemade cereal bar might use up a few oats, or they could be a thickener in stews.

Today I'm finishing up some roast veg for lunch and dinner will be a chicken pie using Christmas chicken and sundry veg.

YorksLass

Not a lot has come out lately - two pieces of fresh cod for tonight, the last few garden peas, two crumpets and half a loaf of wholemeal bread - but a heck of a lot has gone in!  As @Cherryfudge says, the great fridge and freezer battle begins again.      On the plus side, I'll not need to spend a lot in January.  

LotsOfTea

As @Cherryfudge has quite rightly said, the great fridge and freezer battle recommences! 

Yesterday I made a family favourite for lunch which is great for using up any veg hanging around. It's couscous with sautéed veg and halloumi mixed through it. I used onion, leek, swede, carrot, red pepper, broccoli, sweet potato, sprouts and cabbage. I also chucked in a handful of pumpkin seeds and pistachios for crunch and it was delicious. Our tea was a kind of sag paneer using paneer from the freezer which had been put in there in 2018 so probably needed to used up 😂 along with a bag of spinach and a bit more cabbage as we seem to have far too much cabbage in the fridge at the moment and a big bag of spinach wilts down to nothing anyway so extra greens are always a good plan.

I'm making it sound like I've been eating in some kind of super saintly way but I should also point out there has been plenty of decluttering of Xmas chocolate, biscuits, crisps and booze involved as well! 

I've been faffing around trying to empty the freezer for such a long time I've decided to set myself a hard target. The freezer part of the fridge freezer is already done but the small chest freezer we have in the cellar badly needs defrosting so I'm going to get it emptied by the end of March. No more messing about. 

LotsOfTea

I've made some progress in the freezer emptying over the last couple of days to the tune of 1 packet of fakey bacon, 2 tubs of curry and 2 naan breads. The latter were eaten together for our tea last night but since DH wasn't really paying attention when he grabbed them they turned out to be a Dal and a chickpea curry so we were really full up by the time we finished them. Still, we'll definitely have got our fibre quota for the day! 

I'm at work today so I'll take a cheese sarnie with me and let DH worry about what we're having for tea as he's not back until Monday. I might try and pick up some burger buns while I'm near a supermarket though as we've got a lot of burgers of various sorts lurking in the freezer.