Cleaning Out the Freezer

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Sometimes our freezer gets stuffed with odds and ends so we have a clean out gathering. The other night, Anna, Mary, Sarah, and I pulled all those odds and ends from the freezer and had a “picking” party. We looked at each item and decided what it could be used for and who would make it. 

We decided to save the following for easy pull-out-of the freezer meals:

  • hamburgers
  • sloppy joe meat
  • pulled bbq pork

We put most of what we found in a soup that Anna, our master soup maker produced. This included:

  • leftover cut up pork chops
  • steak chunks
  • leftover stir fry
  • pork broth
  • beef broth
  • onion scraps
  • frozen chopped celery
  • a bag of stew vegetables
  • tomato sauce

We had meat and broth for a fried rice meal that Mary volunteered to make although she hasn’t made that before but said she would learn how. She also took the chorizo sausage we had gotten from our grocery store on a Free Friday Download, corn, and brown rice that she was going to make into a small casserole.

We found two single-serving meals, which was perfect since Jesse, Anna, and Mary were headed for a conference the next week, and those meals were ones Sarah could eat while they were away.

We find labeling our frozen items invaluable. When we put something in the freezer, we know we will remember what it is. However after several months in there, when it is pulled out sometimes we don’t know what it is—if it isn’t labeled!

Trusting in Jesus,
Teri

“Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store” (Deuteronomy 28:5). 

15 thoughts on “Cleaning Out the Freezer”

  1. What creative ideas for using up leftovers. Your gratitude for God’s gifts shows as you endeavor not to be wasteful or picky. Being rightly related to our food can be such a struggle, whether it is the quantity we consume ,amount of money and time spent preparing it, or being wasteful. Enjoying God’s gift of nourishment and all the amazing flavors he graces us with is a blessing.

  2. Teri, couple questions: what kind of containers do you use for all those little extra things? And, how do you label them? My freezers could use some help!

    1. We use a variety of containers. We have a supply of rubbermaid containers and much less-expensive, disposable-type containers. The disposable-type seem to last a long time here so we keep using them until something breaks on them. For labeling those containers, we just cut a square from a scrap piece of paper, write the contents on it, and tape it to the top. We also like zip loc bags, and then we label with a black sharpie pen, unless it is evident what the bag holds.

  3. We do this, as well! But, mostly it’s leftovers from the refrigerator. My children know every Sunday evening is “leftovers dinner” night. Everyone eats a little bit of something left over from the week. I enjoy the challenge of not wasting any of the food we buy. Sometimes if we have an abundance of veggies that I am hoping don’t go to waste, we might have a “veggie dinner”, in which all we eat are variously prepared vegetables. It definitely keeps things interesting!

  4. My freezer holds a zip lock bag in which all leftover veggies are placed. When making soup, there is usually a nice variety of veggies to add. Also, I write on a piece of making tape the contents of my containers. It sticks well and seems to hold up very good in the freezer or if it gets damp.

    1. Thank you, Nellie, for the great suggestion on a zip loc for leftover vegetables to be used in soup and for writing on tape to label what is in your containers. That would save me the step of writing contents on a piece of paper to be taped on the container.

      1. Oops sorry, that should have read “masking tape”. I usually cut a piece a couple of inches long and turn it under approximately 1/4 to 1/2 inch to create a little tab for easier removal. Hmmm, sounds a little obsessive, but it works so well.

        1. I tried it with normal tape already! It was readable and saved me cutting out the piece of paper and taping it on, but I am sure you are right. Masking tape would be easier to get off the container than normal Scotch tape.

  5. When you can’t figure out what it is, make UFO Soup. UFO = Unidentified Frozen Object! 😀 I used to love doing that (and of course as it cooks, you figure out what it was/is).

    I also liked pulling out the turkey carcass Mom threw into the freezer last Thanksgiving or Christmas when we got tired of turkey, and making a big pot of soup. But I called it Frozen Woolly Mammoth Soup because it reminded me of a story I read in elementary school, about explorers who found a woolly mammoth frozen solid at the North Pole (or somewhere) still with green plants in its mouth. They figured it had been in the deep freeze all this time, so they cut off some meat and roasted and ate it. I haven’t been able to verify that online, but it made a deep impression on me as a kid! I would have loved to try that. 🙂

    1. You sound like a creative cook, Diane, coming up with fun names for those creations. UFO soup would always be unique, never repeatable, and delicious. And Frozen Woolly Mammoth Soup may become a tradition.

  6. I’ll admit I’m just horrible at the leftover deal. My family scowls at such BUT I’m thinking come cooler weather I will spring a soup on them made from leftovers. Pray for me!! LOL!

    Blessings ya’ll,
    J

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