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

Cherryfudge

I am defrosting the freezer today: it may be a slow process as I can't find the hairdryer to speed it up, but I used mushrooms and peppers from the freezer, cous cous and Worcestershire sauce from the cupboard and tuna, milk and butter from the fridge to make a sort of cous cous. It was so-so, but certainly not inedible and has created me the equivalent of one bowl of space in the kitchen.

Clearly, I have a way to go!

I also finished up a pastry the DH had forgotten about.

Last night I had a small treat of home made ice cream which has been in the freezer for ages. The rest has gone in a smaller container and created about another bowl's worth of space.

Cherryfudge

The freezer is defrosted and it's so, so nice to be able to open and shut the drawers easily!  

We finished up a pack of salmon and some sauce that I'd frozen, but I've also made several jars of greengage puree and still have greengages to harvest, so if I can freeze some, it will work out to the good. I'd hate to waste them, it's the harvest of a lifetime this year.

Cherryfudge

We are about to go away for a week so it's been a busy evening trying to sort out perishables, mostly greengages. I've bagged a load up to give away as there's no way we can use them and they go off quickly as they are so ripe. The bags are in the fridge to take out tomorrow. The bruised and less attractive fruit has been made into a half batch of puree and I'm going to risk putting some in the freezer despite it being in glass.

Sadly, I've had to throw quite a lot of the fresh fruit out as it was going mouldy despite being in the fridge. On a more positive note, I've started a batch of greengage gin - but it's expensive and doesn't use enough greengages!  

The rest of the fridge has been sorted: celery was trimmed of a manky stem then wrapped in foil - I read that it keeps well like that. Bacon has been portioned out and frozen. I had an inspiration and am turning leftover milk and yogurt into a fresh batch of yogurt. That will be fine till we get home and I can leave it to the Instant Pot to do the magic bits overnight.

We were going to have chicken and chorizo pasta again tomorrow to use bits up, but then I discovered I'd put fish in the bag labelled 'chicken', which was not one of my more sensible ideas. However, we have fishcakes we can use before we set off.

I think the only urgent 'use ups' for the morning are blackberries and defrosted blueberries to have with cereal. There are still eggs to use but I don't have a plan there. If necessary I can take them with us.

rtandon27

Have a lovely time away @Cherryfudge!

Nelliegrace

We have half price leg of lamb in the freezer still, @oceandreamer. To take less space I cut it off the bone into smaller roasting joints to pot roast, and some chunks for a casserole. 

LotsOfTea

I've made a start on finishing off the tins from the zombie apocalypse stores again and dug out a tin of rhubarb to have with my oats and yoghurt for breakfast. I have to say, it's a bit bland compared to the fresh stuff. I shall have to add a shake of ginger or mixed spice tomorrow to give it a lift as the tin was massive so it's going to take a good few days of breakfasts to see it off.

oceandreamer

That's a good idea @Nelliegrace - I only ever buy legs of lamb on offer but they are far to big and I end up with more leftovers that we have eaten!  Cherryfudge, I can only begin to imagine how many greengages you have!  I've been overrun with just what I rescued from the pigeons.  I have been away for a couple of days but did manage to  use up a chicken breast and some frozen peppers in a curry plus some curry paste and the last of the rice. I've made a   menu plan for next week based on what I found in the freezer and I'm going to see how many things I can eat during September.  I don't think I could empty the freezer in a month but I could maybe go for one or two shelves.  

Cherryfudge

We had fishcakes for our main meal with cous cous, and a home made ratatouille that used up some courgette, pepper and cherry tomatoes from the freezer. With the resulting space I've been able to freeze a lot of greengage puree and I've also discovered it's delicious in plain yogurt.

I picked up around 230g more greengages this morning - a real slow down in production!

oceandreamer

Found a packet of smoked salmon when I was doing my freezer inventory (reduced of course) so used it in a creamy lemon sauce with spinnach and pasta.  Found some chicken thighs so have taken them out for tomorrow, probably to make a traybake using up the bottom of the fridge veg.

Cherryfudge

We are officially on holiday, staying in a relative's house at the other end of the country, and there was a note from our hosts (themselves away on holiday) to say 'help yourselves from the fridge etc'. It was very kind of them and very practical, as they've not needed to do the finishing up dash before leaving, and we have planned for today around using up a pepper and some tomatoes. We did, however, brave our first ever trip to Waitrose: there's quite a decent-sized one in walking distance. Yes, it was more expensive but we didn't need to go over the top. We got oranges and ingredients for tuna pasta.

So here's my challenge to myself - and it's limited by DH being lactose-intolerant and disliking eggs, and us only being here till Friday:
2 bagels
2 Scots pancakes
11 eggs
lots of carrots
5 pints milk (4 go OOD on 4th)
2 Little Gem lettuces
Fresh coriander
Mixed salad leaves
Half a pepper
Half a cucumber
Couple of spring onions
Couple of new potatoes
2 bananas
2 limes
One and a half lemons (aha - lemon curd, lime curd, use up eggs...!)
1 pear
4 apples

To which we have already added 2 grapefruit, a bowl of tinned sweetcorn, a big handful of damsons (found on a walk this evening) and the greengages we brought with us.

I suspect I may be eating Spanish omelette with salad for lunch quite soon...