I LOVE my Freezer!!

I love my Freezer! Even when I was in a little townhouse and just had the freezer compartment of my refrigerator available I was able to use it to do some amazing things. I had treats available without making a mess, food to take to friends or family with no trouble, and I had significantly reduced our grocery bill. Of course those were the glory days. It is amazing the things you can accomplish when you build up your energy level chasing toddlers!  Alas, those days are gone, but I still use and value my freezer.

And it was a disorganized mess! 

One of my goals is to use this blog to improve my own life, too. So I put myself on track to having a more usable freezer.


I went from this:

to this:

I didn't really set up a system I just got rid of a lot of things I was hanging on to or had forgotten. It had been a while. Now it's clean and the air can circulate in there so it should use less energy, too.

(The kids also helped me clean off above it and wipe down the outside.)


Much nicer.


But what do I keep in there? And why would I do that?

Right now it is mostly full of two kinds of things: Pantry Items and Reuse Items

1. Pantry Items: things I keep on hand to be able to make meals easily, if not quickly.
They include:

Chicken or beef stock
Yeast
Bulk Parmesan
Wheat germ
Pizza sauce
Raw meat (though most of this is in the chest freezer I have.)
Nuts
Frozen veggies
Soup

Keeping these things on hand lets me have more options when I meal plan. I imagine they save me trips to the store.



2. Reuse Items: leftover things that I toss in the freezer to use later.
Things like:

Meat bones and veggie ends in "stock bags"
Bread ends
Leftover rice
Leftover cooked meats
Leftover pasta
Leftover cheese
Leftover pasta sauce
Leftover sprouts


Some of these things are ingredients in their own right. The bread ends and stock makings require a little work. I use my mixer with the cheese grater to grind the bread ends into bread crumbs. The stock making supplies get made into stock, then generally soup. The pasta I toss into soup or cook in sauce. The cheese (usually leftover from pizza making), I freeze spread on a cookie sheet then place into a bag so I can use as much or little as I want. I do the same thing with some kinds of meat (pork and roast beef mostly). The rice I save for pudding. The pasta sauce I save in a container that I add to after each meal until I have a full container then I use that. The sprouts I toss any recipe where they would have been cooked to softness anyway.

These days I try to only save leftover things I know how to use. I hope to keep my freezer this clean or cleaner as time goes on. We shall see.


So there you see my freezer. While I know that is too much clutter even after cleaning it up for many people, it works for me. 

Thoughtfully,
Kristin