The freezer is stuffed! I mean, absolutely, jam packed, need vaseline to get another thing in stuffed. Which is a shame as I have home made soup and a casserole to be stashed in there.
There are a number of reasons. The first reason is that I keep forgetting what we have in. Then I keep trying to stash stuff in there if circumstances mean we don't finish something off. We have just had Christmas and an epic fail in eating all that stuff up. And it is all incredibly badly organised.
The freezer also needs a defrost but that is not happening in the next month or so.
I have come to crisis point. I bought meat in, in order to make up casseroles to have when I really can't face cooking. However, half the veggies didn't arrive, then I had too many mushrooms and carrots so should freeze them, except there is no room in the freezer. Of course, there is no room for the casseroles either. Yesterday I put a turkey drumstick (really inexpensive and worth trying) into a large pan with a sachet of chicken and leek soup mix, some barley, carrots, celery, mushroom and dried onion. The soup was for last night, but no-one could face food except little bear who wanted something hot, like a ham sandwich, and darling father who had eaten out. I had put a casserole in to the slow cooker with the turkey, dried onion, cuppa soup mix, celery and mushrooms, but there is no room in the freezer for it. There is also the matter of a huge turkey drumstick whose meat was destined to be stirred into a jar of curry sauce and served with rice.
Current plan - the casserole we have tonight with leftovers squeezed into the freezer. The turkey is stripped from the bone and is put in the freezer as it will thus take up less room than a casserole and if it is finely chopped it should be possible to go from frozen to pan with jar of sauce and heat through without defrosting as long as I make sure that the temperature is brought up to hot and kept there for long enough. As for the soup (liquid that the leg was cooked in), well that depends on whether I can find the energy and resources (and gloves!) to sort out the freezer, throw out any ice cream and lollies and find space for it. Because I had forgotten about mini pork pies that darling father and I really need to use up for lunch before they go out of date and I don't want to freeze them, so I don't want the soup for lunch.
It's a great opportunity to sort out the freezer and make a list. I just wish I felt more enthusiastic.
3 comments:
Sounds very complicated! Our three freezers are also very full, hence our low-spending month to try to use some of the stores up. Turkey stew for tea here tonight, using up a packet of diced turkey thigh. We often have those large turkey legs you mention and find them very good value - I cooked on on Christmas Day for the YFG as she didn't want the beef that everyone else was having.
Hugs xx
Dare I utter the words Meal Planning or would that be too profane to even contemplate?lol
Seriously though Sybs I'm a terrible hoarder and when I get to your situation I just rake through the freezer removing enough for meals for the week and then usually there is enough room left for me to freeze whatever I dont want to use at that particular time
I've never been a big fan of cooking meals for the freezer as imo it takes less freezer room to freeze the components than to freeze the cooked meals and as most meals only take a few mins to prepare I dont see the point
Lesleyxx
With respect to Lesley, who has some very wise words there, I do find it invaluable to have a few single portions of meals in the freezer for days when I can't eat what the others are having, or when someone is out late/early and needs a meal at a different time (not always convenient to keep something warm or reheat) or when I just can't be bothered!
I also find it very good for portion control: I can make a 6 portion lasagne, and if I don't freeze three portions for another day, they soon get eaten as seconds because the folks love lasagne, but they don't actually Need seconds. And I am not actually that keen on making lasagne as I find it a pfaff, but since they like it so much, it is much nicer for me to be able to produce it twice for only one lot of pfaffing, if you see what I mean!
Sorry for waffling on in your comments, Sybil!
Meal/menu planning might very well help, Sybil, as well as keeping track of what is in the freezer.
Good luck! xx
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