Merciful God, You are great in compassion and Your tenderness for us is without measure. We ask You to give us today our daily bread, and also provide for the needs of all of Your hungry children around the world. Through Christ Your Son and Our Lord. Amen.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

What's in Your Freezer?

I went to rearrange some stuff in the freezer today and found some surprises. It's amazing how quickly I forget what's in there. All the containers start looking the same after a while. Amongst all those ice cream sandwiches and bags of frozen veggies, here's what I found, that I didn't expect:

* one container of red beans and sausage -- still looking good and would make a good lunch or dinner side dish
* one container of lentil stew -- heavy frost - pitched
* coffee cake -- individually wrapped and ready for breakfast treats
* half a recipe of spicy crock pot chicken which would be great to use on these
* one pound of ground beef -- perfect for these
* sugared strawberries -- need to make these
* a frost-bit package of hot dogs -- I think they were supposed to be fish bait -- pitched them
* pumpkin
streusal muffins -- also breakfast-ready
* corn cut from the cobs -- great for these
* and three loaves of banana bread -- no more banana bread!

You may think that this amount of food in my freezer really does not amount to much. And really, it doesn't. But, as Americans, we, by and large, keep an overabundance of food in our pantries. Really, what's the point? We go out and buy more, and we haven't eaten what we have. It's fairly
glutenous, in my book. We really should have just what we need to live on, with maybe a little extra for emergencies. I try not to overstock my pantry too much. Extra stuff just ends up getting wasted because I forget about it. I suppose if you buy large quanities of food from Sam's or Costco, you have to keep it in your pantry, but I don't. I shop weekly and try to buy just what we need.

So , when I plan next week's meals, Chicken
Nachos, Corn Fritters, and Loosemeat sandwiches will be on the menu. Along with a few dishes using up the beans and pasta I have in my pantry.

.

7 comments:

Marye said...

Oh my! I am afraid to go look...
I know I have 2 turkeys in there....some vegetables I froze..Phyllo....
ummm...several bags of goat milk for soap from when our goat had mastitis and was on antibiotics and we couldnt drink the milk....fish bait. sigh..yeah, our 15 year old fishes every day at our creek and the stuff I find in my chest freezer is...unusual at times. I was able to talk him out of the roadkill raccoon a few months ago...

Margaret in Minnesota said...

When do you do your shopping, may I ask? I've been meaning to pick a day and then stick with it, which means either going at night after my husband gets home (bleh) or eating up a chunk of Saturday.

Neither sounds...enticing, exactly, but what choice do I have? I tried a home delivery service once but the high prices drove me crazy.

Rasa Malaysia said...

My freezer is quite empty now as I didn't go shopping for food last weekend...time to stock up. ;)

G.Stein said...

Margaret,
I usually shop on Saturday morning. I plan my menu and grocery list on Thursday and Friday and get out pretty early on Saturday. Dad handles breakfast that day -- so, it's French toast every Saturday for he and the kids. I'm usually home and unloaded by late morning. So, it doesn't steal too much of my Saturday.

Every once in a great while I deviate from my norm, but I'm really better off sticking to my regular schedule. Luckily I have my pick of grocers within five miles, so travel is not an issue. I usually have to hit two stores -- one for great deals and the other for meat and produce.

Barb Szyszkiewicz said...

I HAVE to try that spicy chicken. Soft tacos, here we come! Thanks for the recipe.

Barbara said...

Margaret -- it appears that my son replied to your comment. I'm still not used to my son having a Google account -- I need to train him to sign out.

Anonymous said...

Good for you for making use of your freezer excess. One idea for knowing what's what in there is labeling and dating everything you put in the freezer. Of course, I don't do this myself.

I've been researching and blogging about Wasted Food for a while and I've found that you're not alone--we are a pretty wasteful bunch. About one-fourth of all the food we buy doesn't get consumed. That's a lot!

Thanks for sharing your freezer contents and recipes. I love corn fritters--especially dipped in maple syrup (tastes better than it sounds!).