What's in your freezer?

[cjsmith]

Serious question.

If I am ever going to cook, I'm going to cook for one, which is pessimal from a purchasing and storage point of view. My freezer is perennially full.

Friends ask "Full of WHAT?" They have a point. Food! But it's not that simple.

What have I got in there? Seven servings of bean soup (and that's after I've eaten three), one serving of lentil soup, some meatballs, two servings of beef stew, four servings of meatloaf, one ancient serving of Dijon chicken I should really pitch, a couple of pounds of lean ground turkey, two frozen chicken breasts, a big honkin' pile of chopped onion, some chopped bell peppers, a bowl of walnuts, lots of frozen veggies of the Bird's Eye sort of genre, a handful of frozen taquitos, several ice packs, and a tiny Godiva chocolate raspberry truffle ice cream container I'd forgotten about.

I had to look in there to write that paragraph, and truth to tell, I'm surprised by some of it. I didn't remember the meatloaf, the Dijon chicken, or the ice cream. Some of these things were seriously buried, of course.

What would I like to put in there? Multiple kinds of flour. The half a lemon I didn't squeeze into a recipe or the half a can of tomato paste I didn't use. Most importantly, a large variety of finished products, so that I have a big choice of what to pull out of there.

So there's my question. What's in your freezer?

More later.

Comments

[katestine.livejournal.com]

I'm confused: you have bean soup, lentil soup, meatballs, beef stew, meatloaf, and Dijon chix - how is that not a large variety of finished products? Frankly, I want to raid your freezer 'cuz mine is currently lacking in the soup dept!

In cooking for one, I often halve recipes and when I make soup/stew, I plan on freezing 3 portions and eating 2-3 within a day or two of cooking it. I generally eat the rest within a month of freezing, so that I generally have 2-3 different frozen things to choose from.

Unfortunately, and getting back to your original question, most of what I currently have in my freezer is commercially frozen foods that seemed like a good idea at the time. I should eat some of that stuff.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Well, I can't count the Dijon chix, but you're right: there's a lot more variety there than I had thought there was. I wish you could raid! It's yummy soup but I'm going to get tired of it soon.

I need to get better about halving recipes. That's good thinking. Half a pound of dried beans stores just as well as the whole pound did.

All those frozen veggies of mine (except the bell peppers and the onion) are commercially frozen stuff. This topic has inspired me to start eating them. Duhhhh, CJ. Eat what ya got. :)

[katestine.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm totally okay with commercially frozen vegetables: some people argue that if you live in a cold place, you're better off eating frozen than getting them shipped from Chile bc they'll retain more nutrients.

[katybeth]

It was a long time into making soups before I realized I could halve a soup recipe as easily as double it. And then there was a more reasonable amount!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wish I had thought of that with my recent bean soup attempt. I had no idea that a pound of dried beans -- when all the water and celery and potatoes and stuff got added -- would suddenly be two crocks worth! (I admit I have a small crock pot.)