Eating down the freezer
 

I am not one to usually make resolutions for the New Year. A waste of effort, for the most part, in my case, and in my opinion.
But earlier today, as I was rummaging in the freezer, I settled on one, and want to record it here, for accountability. I like to buy fresh food, but I also live kind of far from good shopping opportunities, so I tend to buy more than needed, to last till the "next time" I am in the appropriate neighbourhood. My decent butcher, for example, is an hour's drive away. But then, I also have an increasingly good farmers' market here in town, once a week, with meat & veggie options (mangalitza pork, yum). So quite a bit of stuff ends up in the freezer. But then, I buy fresh again, as the frozen will "hold", right? So my freezers (yes, plural) are full. Good for when the electricity goes out for a few days, but otherwise not ideal.
So, my resolution for 2020 is to pull something, anything, out of the freezer at least once a week, cook it up, and record it here. Might be different and exciting, might not, but will give eventually more space in the freezers, and will use food that otherwise won't last forever, even in the freezer.
And, while frozen vegetables are obviously residing in the freezer, I think of those as side dishes, and are not really what is meant in this particular exercise.
Wish me luck.
This afternoon I pulled out a container of chicken livers. Not sure what to do with them yet, but I have several tasty options available.

Great idea!! I just pulled out a turkey and baked it today. Defrosted a chicken and stewed it. Liver defrosted, and a couple pounds of ground lamb. Feels good to use up what is frozen.....to make room for the newest purchases !!

Good luck !!

Feel free to add in any "from the freezer" meals. We (meaning "I") can always use the inspiration! :-)

That's the challenge!! Soups are my default.

Good idea ladies!
I have some frozen steaks left from the 3 packs we get and also chicken thighs from pkgs that were too big.(same price as a small pk so might as well buy the large)
A couple of weeks ago I found some nice large frozen Gulf shrimp that I had forgotten about.

Oh my, this is a timely thread for me. I kid you not, I could barely get my freezer door closed yesterday when I returned from the store. I also have a chest freezer in the basement, but I generally just keep it for "overflow." It's not even half full. Newer duplicates will go downstairs to the chest freezer, and older stuff stays upstairs.

I've been off work for the last 3 weeks, and I cooked up a storm. I'm back full-time tomorrow. My SAD tends to go into full gear this time of year, so I do like making sure I have lots of decent food ready to go. I work shift and I prefer having easy dinners... but then I'll get a second wind after work, decide I want (x) for dinner, and stop off at the store to buy stuff and cook anyway. Is this what they call cognitive dissonance? :daze:

Because today's a holiday and electricity is cheaper, I'll be doing some cooking, prep and cleaning - but I'll be working overtime tomorrow and Friday, so I want to plan ahead and actually commit to it and not make another trip to the store.

Today: meatballs and mashed cauli/rutabaga - from fresh
Tomorrow: leftover veggie mash, plus beef and gravy from the freezer, already cooked - just needs to be heated up!
Friday: leftover veggie mash, plus either chicken or pulled pork from the freezer, already cooked - just needs to be heated up!

So today I cooked up the chicken livers that I pulled out to defrost on Tuesday. I "breaded" them, as per the following recipe link, and they were quite nice. I've made myself a note to cut a few minutes off the cooking time; the livers were not really overcooked, but I do prefer them still a bit pink in the middle. I will also make some sort of a sauce to go with them; something herby, like a pesto, or chimmichurri. I didn't have quite enough pork rinds, so added some psyllium husk, which worked fine, but might have added to the somewhat dry mouthfeel. Possible a bit of almond flour, and/or parmesan would have worked as well, or better. The rcipe's author posted this on another thread on this forum a couple of years ago, but the link leads to her recipe blog.
https://buttoni.wordpress.com/2018/...chicken-livers/

As a side dish I sauteed some artichoke hearts, also from the freezer.

Kristine, I upped Vit D3 to 10,000 units for the winter and kicked SAD to the curb..... Unless, lol, you nean the other SAD, Standard American Diet, and I cant help you there... only offer encouragemen to find LC items from the freezer. :lol:

Added to stewed in tomatoes stew. Bag of frozen carrots. Bag of frozen onions and sweet peppers. Frozen gingerroot.

Pulled out frizen pineapple and frizen strawberries to make a jello salad.

All for the kids. Not me.

Yum, that sounds like a great dinner Verbena.
Good freezer finds!
Peggy/buttoni has some great receipts. She gets really creative too!
I'm on her e-mail list.

Nice meal verbena. Whats for Fiday ??

MsArielle, you should sign up for Buttoni's emails. Her website is 100% low carb recipes and she adds new creations all the time.
And it's Free!

lol, i dont do email.

Oh well, really her emails are just notifications of the newest recipe that she's just posted.
Drop by her web-site then...she's such a nice lady.
She loves cooking and gardening!

Im sure she is good.

When I need to use up an item, I put in to google search , recipe, the item to use up,vand another ingredient readily on hand. Interesting options pop up. Just pick the one that matches pantry goods.

:lol: Yes, vit D is an important part of my strategy. I've experienced a huge improvement, but I have to be vigilant... and that's difficult when your worst symptom is apathy. :lol:

My meal plan changed a bit, but I still got through some freezer stock. I made cream of chicken soup out of chicken thigh cubes I froze in broth, plus some carrot/onion/celery from the fridge. I DID buy a small turkey breast roast at the store yesterday while I was there for something else, but I'll use up more chicken broth to make gravy to go with it. The turkey roast was half price, couldn't resist. ;) We'll have that tonight.