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

Cherryfudge

Yesterday I made two batches of fairy cakes - some of which went with DH to a meeting but we have others at home. That gets us close to the end of a box of eggs and finished with one of two tubs of spread. Rather guiltily, I had to throw out two lots of yogurt which had gone off.

Over the last couple of days we've had liver and bacon on one day and sausages on another, which used frozen stores - so why is the freezer still packed tight?

Today was chickpea tikka from stores and microwave rice, also from stores. The latter was meant to be for DH's use when I'm working, but came in very handy as we've run out of dry rice. I had mango chutney with mine but it tasted wrong so it's going to go. How can chutney go off? More bread crusts have gone in the freezer for bread pudding, which I will probably make tomorrow as there's milk and the remainder of the eggs to use. Very handy.

L1dl has sent me a £5 off £40 spend voucher. Normally I can't use things like that but as it's L1dl, which is very local, and we need a few replacements for the store cupboard, I'm making a list. I need to have a proper look at the cupboards, though, and work out what we need and can realistically use. There's no freezer space so fresh and dried goods only.

Some ginger has gone in the freezer and the remains of a bag of blueberries has come out, but that's minor in the scale of all the contents. I need a plan for some sausage meat so I've looked out a friend's wonderful sausage roll recipe: it has dried cranberries and stuffing mix, and I have two packets of stuffing mix that need to be eaten. No cranberries but they will sell them somewhere. Those will have to be made after the weekend so other things can be used up.

Cherryfudge

I'm glad I looked back at my post from a few days ago as it's reminded me to get the sausage meat out to defrost. The fairy cakes are mostly eaten now: no worries about those getting used up. Dinner tonight will be fishcakes from the freezer but the space will be used up again with any sausage rolls that I can fit in. DH doesn't like flavoured sausage rolls so these are for grab and go meals for me.

I made the bread pudding and we had the last of it yesterday. I've also finished the Stilton, which was lovely.

I've noticed there are chicken and mushrooms so chasseur may be on the menu soon, and there are parsnips to use up - more soup for the fridge or freezer, I think.

Meanwhile, I have a voucher for £5 off a £40 spend at L1dl so I'm making plans. The list so far includes rice, yogurt, cheese triangles, mango chutney, chocolate, tuna, tinned peaches, blueberries, mixed seeds, pine nuts and tomato puree. I will probably get DH some more cereal too. That won't come to £40 so I need to check 'emergency' stores and see what not to buy before adding more!

Cherryfudge

My £5 off £40 spend worked out very well: after the deduction I had spent £36.13, which included doubling up on some things I buy fairly often: tuna, dark chocolate, frozen blueberries, tomato puree, tinned peaches, cous cous and seeds to add to cereal, as well as one each of things like cereal, yogurt, rice and frozen peas and a few less usual buys like tinned pineapple, sardines, puff pastry and dried cranberries.

Today I had invited a couple of friends to tea but one was taken ill and had to cry off, and the other texted me to say not to put the pizzas on to cook as she had absent-mindedly eaten tea when she got hungry, then remembered she was eating with me later! We still had a good meet-up but I really didn't want to do a pizza buffet for just me, so I made cheese sandwiches (which were very good and helped reduce the amount of chutney in the cupboard). There was too much fresh stuff for me to get through in reasonable time and no freezer space to speak of, so DH had the steak and ale pie he'd treated himself to, then took the pizzas and some salad things round to DS and family.

I am she of the humungous coffee cupboard and had been making inroads into the backlog, but last week I had a Sains voucher for 350 points if I bought a certain coffee, which I then did (and the points haven't appeared on my account so I need to chase that up as it's been updated). Then today I realised I didn't have a decaff coffee for my friend so I've bought some of that, too.

greent

I chose not to go YS bargain hunting on Saturday morning and just bought a few needed things instead. I also ignored some good offers on my nectar card to try and force some other things to be used up.

There is a small bit of space in the kitchen freezer. I made marry me chicken this weekend, using up 2 packs of 2 corn fed breasts and a bag of mini potatoes that definitely needed using up - they were several months old.

My lunch today is a large veggie stir fry (using up some veggies) with part of a pack of microwave rice found in the freezer and a couple of eggs for protein and bananas to follow(breakfast is Greek yogurt with protein powder and berries and dinner is likely to be beef and broccoli, so there is a decent amount of protein throughout the day, just a bit low at lunch)

Made a fabulous fridge cake with the end of a bag of rice cri5pies (lots of dust) and crumbs from 2 biscuit jars and reduced cheap easter eggs - threw in chunks of the choc orange my boss bought me (I don't like them) and leftover mini fudge bars (don't like them)and topped it with chopped choc orange and crumbs of homemade honeycomb.

rtandon27

We did a freezer dive for dinner last night, using up a large smoked kielbasa sausage and russian style peirogis - also a head of sweetheart cabbage and a leek from the veg stores. I ambitiously bought the main ingredients after having expensive but delicious polish take away last autumn. More room in the freezer now that the ingredients are used upand won't be replaced.

Cherryfudge

Progress and regress here.

I had a clear out of the fridge and had to throw out most of the kale, all the spinach and most of the peppers. Probably something or other else too, but I am ashamed of myself for buying more than we would use when there wasn't freezer space.

Today was chicken chasseur which used chicken pieces from the freezer. I've also got out another small chunk of frozen cheese (not sure how much is still in there) and am finishing some tuna with cheese and baked potato for tea.

The parsnips made three portions of soup and I've had one of them. Then I got decisive: this afternoon I've made freezer veg soup which will probably be about four portions, and two pints of milk that went OOD yesterday but smelled okay are busy yogging.

Some of this soup will have to fill the resulting freezer space, along with the one portion of left over chicken chasseur.

I think cake making may be next: either a yogurt cake or lemon curd cake, as there's an excess of both and DH has stopped eating the short dated lemon curd. There are also about 10 eggs needing to be used!

greent

A yogurt cake with lemon curd? - uses up some of both excess things and sounds heavenly 😋

We've done far too much eating out in the past 10 days - although I have cut back on shopping for bargains. I've just eaten some marry me chicken leftovers from last week on a bed of mushrooms with a side of very sad mange tout. I'll eat some more for lunch later in the week - it's too rich to have 2 days on the trot!

I chopped some dodgy peppers up yesterday and froze them (I probably lost about half a large pepper to sogginess). I used some of the Easter garlic with a load of tomatoes from the freezer and a punnet of YS tomatoes to make soup today. One portion left, which DH will have.

Easter veg wise, I think I have most of a bag of potatoes, 3 bags of onions (I've not been doing any real cooking) and couple of bags of shallots (I've been using these ahead of onions) and 3.5 heads of garlic. All of that is still ok and will get used up 😊

I have no idea what to eat for lunch tomorrow - I need to sort that tonight, as I want to dash out early in the morning. Trouble is, as I've only just eaten, the thought of prepping any food is not appealing…

rtandon27

We've spent the weekend clearing out the fridge of all the fresh items. Dinner was comprised of leftovers from the week so the fridge is now free of tupperwares!

Enough in the fridge for tortellini tomorrow & a pie and wedges for OH's lunch tomorrow. Am currently cooking up some mince with fafajita seasoning to put in the freezer for another day.

Cherryfudge

Our fridge has somehow filled right up again and I'm having to throw some yogurt out as it's gone over since Thursday. It's a shame - not enough freezer space to rescue it while it was good.

Other than that, I was clearing up around a buffet at work and got permission to take home some left overs - as a result I have various sweet treats (AKA massively sugary, high fat, fibre-free concoctions) to last me over the next week or so. I also have a box of chocolate biscuits which I bought to feed to the builders who've been here this last week - and which they didn't seem to require.

I am having to be strict and allow myself one of the above per day.

No more baking recently, though I need to make banana bread. Last Sunday we had chicken, with enough left for chicken and chorizo pasta and some for something else at some point. Meals since then have been mainly things like fishcakes or pasta, so not much using up has happened.

L1dl has given me incentives to spend £30 or £40 in the next few days so I've started a list, but I'm not sure it's going to be worth the expenditure to get the saving.

Cherryfudge

Sunday dinner was chicken chasseur plus a few vegetables that were needing to be eaten. That will feed us today as well. I also rediscovered some very synthetic-looking ice pops at the back of the freezer from about three years ago, so I'm having one now while the weather suggests it. Lunch was vegetable soup from the freezer and some of the cakey things from work. I'm not doing at all well at sticking to one a day of those, but they are so sweet that a little goes a long way.

(I do wonder how thought-through things are at work: people are encouraged to be in the office, where infections easily spread and which increases their costs and lengthens the working day, they generally have to sit all day (though there are a few standing desks) and the canteen produces large portions of sugar… go figure).