OK... so my freezer inventory is finally complete... Here's the damage:
Downstairs Chest Freezer
14 pounds(!) of cheese
4 12-ounce packages of scallops
6 jars of milk
6 jars of chicken broth
2 chicken carcasses, 2 gallon buckets of veggie scraps & 4 jars of veggie juice for making broth
6 eggs
2 small jars of chutney
3 frozen meals (2 lasagna dinners, one potato kale soup)
4 servings of frozen peaches
3 loaves of bread (2 are CatMan only)
Princess chicken
ice packs
15 packages of frozen veggies
1 pound butter
Upstairs Freezer
1 pound ground turkey
6 hamburger patties
1 hamburger bun
4 hot dog buns
4 hot dogs
3 chicken thighs
1 pound of chicken breast strips
3 pieces of salmon
5 pieces of cod
3 jars of marinara sauce
1 jar milk
Frozen veggies (about 6 packages)
Oatmeal bars (for bike rides)
Princess stuff (raw cat food, broth cubes, supplements)
Ice packs
1 loaf of bread (for CatMan)
1 jar of veggie juice and 1 package of scraps for making soup
3 packages of tortillas
2 very ripe bananas
1 pint apple & raisin compote
1 pint grape puree
1 pint of mystery something (I think I should toss it... whatever it is)
1 package smoked salmon
Hmmmm.... looking at this I can see that my food surplus falls into several definite categories.
First we have the things that I stocked up on because they were on sale.
The cheese falls into this category... seriously, it just kept getting cheaper! When it got down to $2 a pound I knew I didn't need anymore, but c'mon... $2/pound! How could I pass that up? Anyhow, the cheese is 2 kinds, shredded Italian blend that I use for making CatMan's special weekly lasagna treat, and shredded Mexican blend that I use for everything else. Anyhow, I'm not actually in a hurry to use this up, because the current price is now closer to $4.50/pound - so it's more like I want to ration it until it goes on sale again.
The frozen veggies also are in this category, though the prices there were less spectacular and since veggies are more prone to freezer burn, I really do need to eat them up. The butter was also on sale, and it will get eaten quicker than I like to admit! The tortillas also probably belong here.
Next we have things that are waiting for me to have time to deal with them - by this I mean all of the stuff for making soup and stock.
Here's the deal... it's HOT here, and I the idea of simmering broth on the stove for hours at a time... well, it's just not gonna happen for a while. Someone suggested once that I could do it in a crock pot in the garage... and I have considered this... The thing is, I sorta suffer from an "out of sight out of mind" kind of problem, and there's a significant possibility that I might burn the garage down if I tried this. I suppose I could use the solar oven... but that would still leave me with soup to eat, and it's just hard to want to eat soup when it's 95 degrees out! Well anyhow, the soup fixins might have to wait until this fall...
Next we have stuff that I either make or buy in bulk and freeze because I don't use it very often - or it's for CatMan and doesn't get eaten often, or for Princess. The milk, the oatmeal bars, the bread, the marinara sauce & all the Princess stuff falls into this category. (Princess gets treats of roast chicken breast & chicken broth, but she consumes them in very small quantities, so I freeze them in ice cube trays and little packages so we don't waste it.)
Next we have stuff that I froze to save it from going bad. The eggs (check out
Lili's page for info on freezing eggs - though next time I'll use slightly less salt) the bananas & apple compote all fall into this category. Need to use this stuff up!
Then we have the stuff that I bought because I had good intentions of using, or stuff that I made/put up at one point, but sort of forgot about it. Most of the meat & fish falls into this category (though I do like having some on hand... but not as much as I do!) The chutney, the ready to eat stuff, the frozen peaches, grape puree, and some of the frozen veggies fall into this category. Need to use this stuff up!
And finally we have the stuff I just don't know what to do with... ie the ice packs! So here's the deal, one of Princess' medications needs to be kept refrigerated, so when I order it, it arrives in a little Styrofoam cooler packed in ice packs. Oy! I really don't know what to do with either of these things... I think I have 3 or 4 coolers at this point and a pile of ice packs. I really don't want to just toss them. Any ideas what to do with them?
Well... one thing's for sure. I'm not gonna go hungry any time soon!
And I haven't even talked about the fridge, or the cupboards, or the garden (which is producing more food than I can eat at the moment...) Anyhoooo...
Part of me wants to just not buy anything else for a few months, but that really isn't totally reasonable. So I did buy some things for making CatMan's lasagna dinners - he's not exactly on board with these sorts of challenges. And I did also have to buy some chicken gizzards to make broth for Princess... so now I'm trying to eat up all of the cooked gizzards.... arrrrrg! Plus - Colorado peaches are in season, and I'm NOT gonna miss that, so I have bought some peaches (ok and some grapes and apples too - but that's all... well, except for that one little pint of Ben & Jerry's....)
So there you have it. I think it may take me a while to make a meaningful dent, but at least I know I don't need to buy frozen veggies, cheese or meat/fish for a while!
Any recipe ideas jump out at you?