Eating from the freezer

Our freezers are full and we need to start using the food again. Rick and I took my What's in the Freezer? list down to the basement and had a good look around. We have said that we're going to start eating from the freezer until Thanksgiving (other than milk and eggs and cat supplies, of course). There are some pork roasts and chops, whole chickens, chicken pieces, some beef for roasting, beef for stews and such, plenty of ground beef and ground turkey, sausages and brats, shrimp, and containers of pasta sauce, chili, and soups. The veggies from the garden, peach pies, all kinds of good stuff. It all needs to be used. We figure that by Thanksgiving, we'll have made a dent in the meat....not too worried about this year's vegetables, but we still have a couple containers of green beans from late 2014; they're still OK because they were vacuum-sealed, but they need to get used up.

I had baked a ham back in July and froze the remnants. Well, it's October, so it's coming out. Rick is never adverse to split pea soup or ham and bean soup (and it's been a while since we had ham and bean soup) or maybe some ham and green beans with potatoes. That's on my list this weekend. My goal is to empty out the upright freezer by Thanksgiving.

If you had to, how long could you eat from your freezer?

Not long. All I have in there is a spare loaf of bread.

We could eat for awhile. I have shrimp and hard crabs frozen. I have meat from the store. I buy meat that has been marked down and freeze it. I know there are seasoned pork roast( 2 or 3), port chops, rib eye steaks, some venison loin left from last year's deer hubby shot, bacon, sausage, cube steak, and more.

I also have green butter beans that I bought at Farmers Market and shelled. I have many other frozen packaged veggies from the store that were sale purchases. Then I have pear preserves from our tree in the yard. I have chunky applesauce also. I believe there are two packages of collards left from January. I buy local collards, cook them by the pot and freeze extras. I have many boxes of pecans from the tree in the yard. I am going to make some pies this week. We have Homecoming soon at church and Hallelujah Night at church also so they come in useful for that. I have loaves of gluten free bread, hamburger buns and hot dog rolls, as well as frozen rolls from a sale rack at Wal Mart.

I am not organized enough to have a list.

About a week or so. I just have the freezer in the side by side fridge. I bought a 5 cubic square foot chest freezer that DD has in her dorm right now. She's not on the meal plan this year so I need to keep her stocked with stuff she can make for herself. I told her that once she's done with school, that baby is MINE. She can keep the mini fridge I got her freshman year. That has a freezer. it's not big but it's separate from the refrigerator. 

i'd estimate that i could eat from my freezers (two uprights, and the freezer top of the refrigerator) for probably 7 or 8 months -- as far as meats/poultry, bread (i have bread flours and a one pound package of instant yeast in one freezer), blueberries, apple butter and strawberry freezer jam, and various and assorted veggies go.

when i buy chicken it's pretty much always roasting chickens, i buy anywhere from 5-8 at one time, and i buy them during the summer months (when the price is lower for them, at least in my area). pork is usually either a fresh ham or an 8 lb pork loin (which the meat department will cut up however i want it, at no extra charge). i usually buy 2 or 3 frozen whole turkeys each year during the 'turkey wars' (wegman's vs tops, every year they have price wars) around thanksgiving. and for beef, i'm still finishing off a quarter of beef -- i'm down to soup bones, stew meat, short ribs, ribeyes/porterhouse steaks. after i finish the rest of my current beef, i'll be buying 6+ lb packages of 80/20 ground beef -- before the end of winter, before the price goes back up for grilling season.

Winchester said:

 
If you had to, how long could you eat from your freezer?

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A good couple months at least. I'd have to buy fresh veggies, fruit, and dairy and maybe a few other things, but for meat I'm well covered. Plus I have some frozen meals (stew and soup) and some meals prepped for cooking. I also have veggies (carrots, celery and onions) cut up to use in various cooking.

At the end of the month when I go shopping again, I'll stock up on dairy. I hate running out of milk and I just took out the last 2 Litre from my freezer.

Earlier this year I cooked a pork roast that had been sitting at the bottom of my freezer for the past 6 or 7 years! It was well wrapped and had maintained temperature, and it was 100% fine even after all of these years.

Last week I defrosted my chest freezer and went through all of what I had on hand and organized it again, into shopping bags so that I can easily find things. One bag for chicken, one for beef/pork, one for fruit, one for veggies, one for prepped meals, one for fish/seafood and one for read ready to eat things such as muffins and sandwiches.  Yes, I premake my meat sandwiches. This way I don't have to worry about lunch meat spoiling in the fridge, and I can quickly grab a sandwich and a container of soup for lunch.

Natalie_ca said:

 
Earlier this year I cooked a pork roast that had been sitting at the bottom of my freezer for the past 6 or 7 years! It was well wrapped and had maintained temperature, and it was 100% fine even after all of these years.

 

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A few years ago, I roasted a turkey that had been in the freezer for over two years. It was fine. I brined it and prepared it like I normally do. And everybody thought it was really good (I didn't tell anybody, other than my sister, how old the turkey was). Nobody complained. I don't make a habit of using older meat, but I had had this thing way in the bottom of the freezer and when I found it, I thought, "Oh crap! What am I going to do with this thing?" So I just used it for a big family dinner. At 24 pounds, it was a huge turkey, way too big for just Rick and me.

And that's when I created my freezer lists....so that I don't get into the freezers, find something that's old and think, "Oh crap!"

About 4 days.     Maybe a week if I ate my lodgers' food as well.            I only have a little 5* freezer in the top of my under - worktop fridge.   Currently have a couple of 2 portion meals in there that just need potato or rice adding, a fruit and veg' mix for making a smoothie, and a couple of Mojito ice popsicles.  I'm sure there's something else tucked in at the back but I can't remember what it is...  it won't have been there too long though as I defrosted earlier this year when the thing got so iced up nothing would go in.       I work in a frozen food store though so get to top up fairly regularly from there when stock gets broken and not fit for sale. (Freezers there get defrosted and date checked every couple of weeks so no chance of old turkey hding in the bottom of those @Winchester      I did once find a beef curry that was a week after its BB date and that was very nice.   ) 

Norachan said:

 
Not long. All I have in there is a spare loaf of bread.

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My freezer is 99% frozen raw food for the cats. It's not a very big freezer so I keep extra bags of raw food in my brother's freezer  The few things I have for myself in there could probably be eaten within a few days.

I'm not sure.  It depends on how long a family of 4 can survive on Zucchini and Summer squash bread. There is a few meals worth of meats and frozen veggies.  But the bulk of the freezer is the breads. 

About a week.

I don't know. I have the freezer above the fridge but I don't use it properly. I need Winchester here to advise.

I could probably go about 2-3 weeks for myself, but I could feed my parents for longer (we all have very different tastes - makes cooking frustrating!).

We have a lot of fruit in one freezer - just waiting to be made into quick crumbles/crisps for puddings for dad. There's also a fair amount of gluten free bread/bagels/rolls - there was an offer on in the supermarket not so long ago and dad stocked up. There are a few things for zero effort meals too, and some chicken, fish and raw dog food (that Pixie adored a month or so ago and now won't touch :wife: ). There's a couple of tubs of locally made ice cream too.

Woah - that turned into a bit of a laundry list! :anon:

Winchester said:

 
A few years ago, I roasted a turkey that had been in the freezer for over two years. It was fine. I brined it and prepared it like I normally do. And everybody thought it was really good (I didn't tell anybody, other than my sister, how old the turkey was). Nobody complained. I don't make a habit of using older meat, but I had had this thing way in the bottom of the freezer and when I found it, I thought, "Oh crap! What am I going to do with this thing?" So I just used it for a big family dinner. At 24 pounds, it was a huge turkey, way too big for just Rick and me.

And that's when I created my freezer lists....so that I don't get into the freezers, find something that's old and think, "Oh crap!"

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Wow, 24 pounds?!

My freezer is tiny. I don't think a turkey that size would fit in there.

One meal less in my freezer today.      I was good and took out one of the two portion meals for my evening meal:  yesterday and today it's bean and lentil caserole with a little mashed potato on the side.  Now I've got room for something else.      OH, and there was a single portion of rice sitting behind the other meals.

We've been doing OK, too. I used some pasta sauce on Sunday, the soup on Monday, used some ground beef for barbecue on Tuesday, and then I took out some chicken for dinner tonight. So it's all been from the freezer. However, I put 18 quarts of applesauce in the freezer on Sunday, so I didn't gain much ground overall.

Yeah, Norachan, that turkey was a big one. I always get the largest one I can find because we usually have a fairly large Thanksgiving dinner and because I love having leftover turkey on hand for other recipes and for soup. The day after Thanksgiving is always leftovers around here and we always invite people back to help us eat them. I always make broth with the turkey carcass after our dinner is over, so the bigger the better. So when it comes time to buy the turkey, you will usually see me moving turkeys around and checking weights. 

Columbine, we had about 30 pounds of blueberries and several quarts of strawberries in the chest freezer. It took me months to get through those blueberries and I still have three quarts of strawberries left that we're working on. I still have two quarts of pureed pumpkin from last fall that I'm going to use this weekend in squash yeast rolls and then I think that will be it for the pumpkin.

Oh boy @Winchester  , give me those frozen strawberries and buzz them up with plain yoghurt or milk to make slushy smoothies and I'd get them finished off for you in no time.     

I filled the little gap in my freezer with a portion of sausage casserole when I got in from work this evening.  I was good and ate the left over bean casserole and mash for my tea though so nothing has been wasted.

MServant said:

 
Oh boy @Winchester  , give me those frozen strawberries and buzz them up with plain yoghurt or milk to make slushy smoothies and I'd get them finished off for you in no time.  

  

I filled the little gap in my freezer with a portion of sausage casserole when I got in from work this evening.  I was good and ate the left over bean casserole and mash for my tea though so nothing has been wasted.

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Oh, wow! I never once thought about smoothies! Thanks for the great idea!

Winchester said:

 
Oh, wow! I never once thought about smoothies! Thanks for the great idea!

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Any frozen berries work - taste amazing.  If you buzz up when they're still frozen it's like slush and really lovely.   You can do it with other fruits and vegetables that have been chopped up in to reasonably small chunks and frozen as well - you have to make sure all the bits are separate and not in one big lump though.   I find it much easier to get through 5 or 6 portions of fruit and veg a day as smoothies than I do cooking stuff.  

If you add enough frozen berries to yoghurt and buzz it in a smoothie maker or blender you can get instant healthy ice cream as well.   

Winchester said:

We've been doing OK, too. I used some pasta sauce on Sunday, the soup on Monday, used some ground beef for barbecue on Tuesday, and then I took out some chicken for dinner tonight. So it's all been from the freezer. However, I put 18 quarts of applesauce in the freezer on Sunday, so I didn't gain much ground overall.

Yeah, Norachan, that turkey was a big one. I always get the largest one I can find because we usually have a fairly large Thanksgiving dinner and because I love having leftover turkey on hand for other recipes and for soup. The day after Thanksgiving is always leftovers around here and we always invite people back to help us eat them. I always make broth with the turkey carcass after our dinner is over, so the bigger the better. So when it comes time to buy the turkey, you will usually see me moving turkeys around and checking weights. 

Columbine, we had about 30 pounds of blueberries and several quarts of strawberries in the chest freezer. It took me months to get through those blueberries and I still have three quarts of strawberries left that we're working on. I still have two quarts of pureed pumpkin from last fall that I'm going to use this weekend in squash yeast rolls and then I think that will be it for the pumpkin.

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How do you barbecue minced meat?