Spring Cleaning the Freezers - 52 days on £70

Cherryfudge · 27 February 2018 at 11:54AM

XSpender wrote: »

I might do a bit of a freezer sort out at the weekend and organise the drawers better so I don't have to rummage about as much.

I'm sure the rummaging round is one of the reasons we don't get through the stuff in our freezers. I thought I was doing all right then it got packed with soups and odds and ends again - I'm fairly sure they are breeding in there, possibly due to freezing stuff that had been in the fridge as long as I could safely leave it! Then DS appears to have raided L!dl and there are multiple packets of quorn products fighting with the frozen fruit I bought at about the same time to add to our overnight oats pots. I know those are things we will use steadily and are a good use of the space but it makes it harder to remember/find/get to the longer term odds and ends.

Hope your journey goes okay this afternoon. We have a couple of inches of snow here which is very pretty but not good for driving.

purpleivy · 27 February 2018 at 4:26PM

I thought of you earlier XSpender! I've been trying to get some of the longer residents of my freezer used up. I've planned for the next couple of weeks, when we'll be having 'the wrinklies' to stay , weather permitting. I've planned in some things from the freezer.

Then to do the rest of the online shop. My daughter heard me umming and ahhhhhing about some 50% off flash sale on some meat or other and reminded me that if I keep buying it, the situation won't get any better!

janb5 · 27 February 2018 at 4:30PM

I found the same things with odds and ends that I wanted to use up so all those bits/open packets go in the top drawer which hopefully means they get used up first.

Cherryfudge · 28 February 2018 at 2:16PM

janb5 wrote: »

I found the same things with odds and ends that I wanted to use up so all those bits/open packets go in the top drawer which hopefully means they get used up first.

That's a really good idea janb5, though I might need 2 drawers!

I was inspired by seeing someone's take on 'pottage' and am doing a slow cooker version with lots of veg and pulses, oddments of cooking bacon and rather a large lot of chicken livers from the depths of the freezer. I was debating whether to add the pack of sausagemeat I found while delving but I think I'll save that and the remainder of the bacon for something else. Ideas welcome!

XSpender · 1 March 2018 at 7:47PM

We have finished all the chicken sausages :T. Although I do feel a bit

as I have discovered they are lovely in a GF wrap with a little ketchup and either an egg or a sprinkling of cheese.

DH has also used up more chicken and broccoli from the freezer and some rice from the cupboard.

I am home a day earlier than expected due to the weather. I picked up some salad bits, some ys, turkey, apples and milk from the services for DH diet plan and will be using up more of the freezer contents over the weekend as I have no further plans to go to the shop. I am also watching what I eat but the weather makes me want cake so I will probably make some flapjack and some little jam puddings to have with custard for me and DS.

Cherryfudge · 2 March 2018 at 1:20AM

What is it with cold weather and cake?! I have been baking: Honeysucklelou's date bars and macaroons. I've since been demolishing the evidence.

DD is also home for a few days so she is helping.

Other than that, rice, oats and stuff like that are gradually getting used but I had lost track of which flours I had replaced and so I now have two bags of SR and two bags of plain. DH misunderstood a text about pasta so we have about three bags of linguine as well as various oddments of spaghetti and pasta shapes. If they would only fold flat they wouldn't have such an impact on available storage!

XSpender, how did you manage to list all your food stores? It must have taken ages! Mine will just have to be whittled down as inspiration occurs because it would take such a lot of effort to catalogue them. I also need to develop a sudden love for stir fry because there are lots of sachets of sauce that DD brought back from Uni a few years ago and which no one is eating!

I also had a look at the box of packets: DS has enough fajita mixes to open a restaurant and DH has custard galore. I'm not sure who bought all the jellies but I made one up for tea tonight.

The trouble with using things up seems to be a) the need to get other things to make the original ones usable and b) making myself plan creative cooking is too much fun.

Suffolk_lass · 2 March 2018 at 7:42AM

I've been baking too - a proper old-fashioned bread pudding and a Mary Berry lemon tray-bake recipe but I made it in cup-cake paper cases as both are for having with a cup of tea at our monthly lunch today (goodness knows if anyone will come out in our weather but I want it to be there, if they do).

XSpender · 2 March 2018 at 8:52AM

Cherryfudge wrote: »

XSpender, how did you manage to list all your food stores? It must have taken ages! Mine will just have to be whittled down as inspiration occurs because it would take such a lot of effort to catalogue them. I also need to develop a sudden love for stir fry because there are lots of sachets of sauce that DD brought back from Uni a few years ago and which no one is eating!

I made 3 columns on a couple of pages of an A4 pad and headed them meat, vegetables and fruit, bread, pudding etc. And went through the drawers in the 2 freezers one by one. I did one freezer one day and one the next. It didn't take that long really, the cupboards were harder as I kept remembering other places where stuff was stored.

DS has requested pancakes for breakfast which won't make any inroads into the cereal mountain

hex2 · 2 March 2018 at 2:20PM

Suffolk lass, I like the sound of the lemon traybake. I have 2 lemons and 5 limes lurking in the fridge. ooh lime curd, is that a thing? Vague memories of a delia lime and coconut cake too.

I made flapjacks yesterday using half oats. half value muesli that was lurking. They are ok although I preferred the raw mix.

I need to stop making sweet things as use them ups, its not good for me.

Flat_Eric · 2 March 2018 at 8:12PM

What a great thread!

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

Spring Cleaning the Freezers - 52 days on £70

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