It is freezer/pantry challenge time once again. (1,765 views)

erin --- I had a big food delivery this week and I now have every type of canned tomato known --- puree, whole, diced .. Plus my usual black beans and chickpeas. Good thing I don't want to eat my way thru canned goods otherwise I would be eating beans and tomatoes for every meal.

Tonight pulled chicken from the freezer, bagel for breakfast, tomato sauce defrosting in the fridge, soup for tomorrow. And I found some sliced banana bread from those "foil things" that I don't label but think I will remember what is in it. But no fro yo tucked in the back of my freezer which would be a nice find. That would never get lost and forgotten in my freezer.

I might make some soup tomorrow with chickpeas. My parents live in FL so I'm stressed and they are driving me more than a bit over the edge. I don't think they "appreciate" all my questions and opinions. Ha. I need some distraction.

Let's see if you can beat the 2015 date!

What kind of things are you adding to your freezer? It will more interesting than my bag of chopped spinach or frozen corn.

Sounds like you have the butternut squash figured out but if you'll still have some left over this is a great recipe.

www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/moroccan-slow-cooker-stew-1/5626a5e3a6d5b396106fe34e

I got it off the old board years ago and it's still a fave although I haven't made it in a long while.

Varaile --- So glad that this thread might be helpful to you and perhaps others as well. I will post any recipes that I think might work for you (some of the foods I don't have any experience/recipes for, but I bet others do). I just came across this Skinnytaste recipe while do a search of my recipes (I have some gorgonzola in the fridge)). The recipe is for Baby Spinach Salad with Honey Roasted Butternut Squash, Pumpkin Seeds, Gorgonzola and Dried Cherries www.skinnytaste.com/baby-spinach-salad-with-honey-roasted/. I don't think I've tried the recipe but have made something similar. Does the texture change much with freezing squash???

mcgee -- That recipe looks great, I'm always up for more recipes that use chickpeas. I would have to tweak it since I don't have a slow cooker. Thx for posting.

I made one of my go-to soups that I got off the old CLBB a few years back and froze the leftovers. It was Creamy Chili-Corn Soup with Chicken and Black Beans recipe by Pam Anderson. It is beyond simple. This time I left out the chicken and upped some of the other ingredients. I never bought (or bet didn't even know what creamed corn was) before trying this recipe. It just takes a few minutes to pull together (assuming you have cooked chicken ready, if using).

I might make this tomorrow since it has some ingredients that I would like to use up/make a dent in (artichoke hears, feta, I have cooked rice in the freezer...). It is called a Veggie Stuffed Pepper Casserole (from domestic geek you tube channel) but not actually stuffing the peppers, it is made much easier since all the ingredients are chopped/mixed in. Some of the ingredients include: peppers, zucchini, cooked rice, canned diced tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta .....

I do love the idea of taking any savings you might have by using up some of the food on hand (vs ordering take out etc on a busy night, buying lunch etc) and take that money and save it, donate it etc.

Varaile -- Great job! And I'll have to check out the Chickpea stew recipe, thanks for mentioning.


I'm trying to use up things that have been in the freezer/cabinet awhile, so over the weekend I made Nacho Taters from budgetbytes. It is simply a baked potato topped with the ingredients you would use to make nachos --- for example, black beans, cheese, green onions, top with avocado etc. It is certainly nothing fancy just comfort type of food, and it did use up the homemade taco sauce that has been in my freezer for months (first time I ever made/used), and likely months more if I didn't make this since just not something I seem to grab from the freezer.

The recipe calls for enchilada sauce (or says you can sub taco sauce). So taco sauce finished, and used some shredded cheese from the freezer, 1/2 an avocado from the fridge .... I don't buy white potatoes often, but gotta say I really liked it for a change. I don't know how enchilada sauce compares to taco sauce -- but my taco sauce was a bit bland and this is from a total heat wimp.

www.budgetbytes.com/2015/02/nacho-taters/

I really need to get back to this. I do well for a while and then I end up buying more stuff and shoving it in our freezer in the garage. I don't have any room to store my Christmas cookies as I bake them!

Yes, I have same problems...stacks of 'stuff' I've crammed into the garage freezer over........years. sigh I know I must doing something about it. The newest stuff is on the top shelves and the oldest is in door or on bottom shelves. But there is always the hope that something will entice us to crave that random bag of fake chicken (ugh) or one of those boxes of fake burgers (older than I care to admit) or the very old lima beans that my husband would refuse to eat if I did make them. There's a ton of stuff like those in my freezer. Boxes of misc Chinese food -- that all sound perfectly horrible. Frozen store-bought rice. (Just so much easier to MAKE rice.) I can't really think of anything GOOD in that freezer that I will EVER want to make. Oh, maybe the frozen Enchiladas...always like those...and the Trader Joe's Vegetable Lasagne, always good. sigh again.

I guess the real freezer challenge should include (and I will DO IT--this is a PROMISE) tossing out some of it...as well as consuming some of it...even if it almost gags me to contemplate the act.
(Thinking about a coupla blocks of flavored tofu that I've put off opening for years now. I have made Key Lime Pie vegan, using all kinds of vegan products which, as I recall, had soft tofu...but you'd never know and the pie was awesome (at the time I was an omnivore, too). But somehow the idea of tofu soaked in some flavoring sauce seems more than awful; the texture alone has to be yucky.)
Catbatty

Ugh, my freezer challenge is that we keep being given packages of pork by people who are dear to us. We surely appreciate the thought, and they keep giving it to us because they KNOW we'll eat it and appreciate it- and they lovingly raised this piggie themselves. But, they then raised more piggies and now they're desperately trying to clear out the old pig for the new pig, so are giving us the old pig.

Biggest problem being that we already have a good portion of our own pig from a farmer in the freezer!

Bonus points- they went to different butchers so we've been getting different cuts than what we usually get, so that's been a nice change. But then I go back to the part where we're getting the old piggie. Since their butcher wrapped in butcher paper (instead of vac-u-seal plastic) much of the pork is starting to take on that freezer taste.

I should really just go through the freezer and thaw ALL the packages from them at once and make a big pot of shredded pork. Maybe cooking low and slow with lots of seasoning will eliminate some of that getting-too-close-to-freezer-burn-taste.

I've finally returned to weekly meal planning and that definitely helps with the fridge/freezer stash. Tonight I used up some leftover turkey breast tenderloin. Next week I'll say good bye to the last container of beef vegetable soup and one container of Senate bean soup, plus two chicken breasts (don't know what I'm doing with those yet) and two lamb shanks. Unfortunately I'm making charro beans for Christmas Day (they go with the tamales we're buying) and black eyed peas for New Year's Day so those will add some containers back. Oh, and I'm doing some turkey thighs in my Instant Pot one night this coming week.

I have a ring of smoked sausage in the freezer so I'll probably do something with that after the first, maybe a chicken and sausage gumbo.

Uh oh! I was on the right track and then the neighbors brought over a ton of venison and wild hog as thanks for babysitting their furry family during hunting season. I"m not complaining because we got some really good stuff, but I'm officially back to overload now in the freezer department. On the plus side, I did toss some ancient quinoa, farro and lentils from the pantry. 2018 resolution, no more legumes, grains or pasta until we use up the stash!

soupandstew -- I've never had venison before, and never even heard of wild hog before. It is great that you got stuff that you like and could use. Sure it might add to your freezer supply but hey, less proteins to buy when shopping. Enjoy! I'm with you, I am stocked with beans for a good while.

varaile -- Slow counts too. : ) I'm trying to be better with labeling too -- I always think I'll remember what is in that piece of foil, and sometimes it is quite the surprise. I've actually been trying to label when I open condiments and such since sometimes I have no clue how long its been opened.

I made some black bean soup over the weekend and added that to the freezer. I'm all set with soups for the freezer for awhile .... for one thing I used up most of my freezer containers and I don't really have lots of room given an average size apartment fridge. I might make some brown rice and add that to the freezer. This week I want to use up two spinach feta sausages in the freezer, I'll clearly have some soup, and I just have two pieces of chicken in the freezer so I'll use that up too. I do have a couple of peeled bananas in there for a long time, I wonder how long you "should" keep them in the freezer. I'm on a no baking kick and it is kind of cold for smoothies so I'm guessing they will stay in the freezer.

I'm also trying to use up some other odds and ends -- mainly condiments, salad dressing, salsa (might use in a rice dish -- oh have lots of that too!).

It is so cold here that I'm in no mood to go food shopping, so that might help me use up some of my pantry/freezer.

Keep plugging!

Wild hog is pretty good if you know what to shoot and how to cook it.  In Texas, most of the hogs get a lot of corn from the deer feeders and, in a good year, plenty of acorns too.  A young hog, while far leaner than our commercially produced pork, is very tasty.  It's often prepared as sausage, either on it's own or mixed with venison.  If particularly lean, some folks add fatty pork or even beef before processing.  Our neighbor prepared both link sausage with a rosemary & garlic seasoning, and patty sausage with standard pepper, sage, etc.  On the venison side we got some of the prized backstrap, chili grind meat, a small loin roast and more link sausage done with a very spicy treatment that might end up with some beans.  He also made bulk Italian sausage which should be amazing in a pasta sauce.  

Still haven't done a complete review, but since my last post I have used up all the panko, half the PB chips, two quarts of pho and leftover pho beef, half the barley, and some frozen ricotta. My eyes are on the cappuccino chips next!

January update!

Week 1: From the freezer one whole chicken AND from the pantry wild rice in a slow cooked Chicken and Wild Rice Soup recipe by America's Test Kitchen Slow Cook Revolution. Though I should add, I still have about 10lbs of wild rice left so this one is going to take a bit longer to use up.

From the pantry: one package of Udon noodles that was a couple years old (Sesame Noodles from Jan/Feb Ckng Lght)
From the pantry: one package of instant Enchilada soup mix was a gift from a couple years ago and time to eat it. Instant soups aren't my favorite, which is why it's been languishing in the cupboard.

Week 2: From the freezer: two chickens, 6lbs of country pork ribs; one chicken went to stock (shredded the meat and saved for another day); one chicken went to Chicken Raman Soup (ATK Slow Cook Revolution), and ribs were in Asian Ribs (ATK Slow Cook Revolution)

I thought the ribs used up the last of the pork we bought last summer, but the husband unearthed a substantial pork butt roast so I'll need to think of something to use that in.

Chipping away.

Used a TJ's dark chocolate hazelnut bar (exp. Spring 2017), some hazelnuts, and the last of the brown rice flour to make Wheat-Free Hazelnut Brownies. They worked this time--first time came out great, second time threw them away, third time good. Go figure.

Threw away a 1/4 c GF baking mix, some stale cereal, an expired jar of hot chili oil.

Pulled out a ham bone and cut all the meat off to make scalloped potatoes and ham.

Today I am making Double-Dark Mocha Drops or, as I know them, Gwen's Very Special Mocha Cookies to use the cappuccino chips.

I've got my eye on the last pack of oxtails. Maybe Strozzapreti with Oxtail Ragu and Horseradish Breadcrumbs because I have fresh horseradish, too. Also some hot sausage and escarole: Pasta Shells with Escarole, Sausage, and Cheese. Hmmm, I must have pasta on the brain.