Eating our way through the freezer!

There are UFOs in my freezer. Unidentified Frozen Objects .

lol, could be an interesting meal in your house today.
I keep saying I am not going to buy anything to go in freezers when I go shopping... not so easy when you see something on offer though. I have a small chest freezer in the shed which is in need of defrosting, but still too much in there.

Our freezer's a bit like that with UFO's. I make stuff, and fully intend to label it, forget, then it's 'pick and mix' time. Happy eating one and all.

Have done exactly this Anya..same reason, economising and also it needs defrosting I usually answer the question whats for dinner with "its a culinary dare"...fortunately no unusual surprises ..just idd combinations am down to an obvious large chicken and a pack of minced beef to use up

.....several packets of beef burgers and sausages bought for a BBQ that got rained off ???

Smug here!

We did that during DD2'S last stay! Then I defrosted and am starting on the C******s build up. So have got curries and chilis already in there.

I am determined to use things from the freezer before buying any more but I buy chicken pieces of various sorts when they are on offer and forget to thaw them in time.

I never put a label on anything and reap the rewards of that in defrosting what I think is chicken curry only to find it is bacon and lentil soup! Yesterday, I took out something I thought was frozen cauliflower and it looked a bit peculiar so I put it back. Then I found the frozen cauliflower and now I can't work out what the peculiar thing was! And then there was a whole fish......

Kitty that is why I am defrosting always do it this time of year

I WAS like you lot!, BUT, I keep a list on the side of the fridge freezer so that I know what we have, (I do love a list lol). I have to say though, that I come from the school of 'Pierce and Ping' when it comes to cooking.

I am just the same. Last year my son helped me go through my large chest freezer which I can't reach the bottom of. I had a neat list and was determined to run it down. Instead it's gradually got overfull again. It's in the cellar and it's difficult to go through stuff so I often just buy fresh. I'm considering buying a smaller upright to keep upstairs instead.

I spent a while last week going through the freezer and listing what we had. So often we (well, DH really) make things like shepherd's pie, chilli, lasagne etc etc for 4, and the remains go in the freezer to be forgotten about. There are soups, homemade pasta sauces, even some cakes in there! Plus lots of lamb and fish both in this freezer and the outside one. Determined not to buy any more meat until we work our way through this lot.

I used to quite enjoy finishing off all the bits and bobs of freezer items and cupboard bits when I was struggling for money. Some strange combinations go quite well together.

I just made an autumn resolution to eat the stuff in mine, which has drawers. I gave up on my chest freezer when I last moved house, because I knew it and the fridge wouldn't fit in the new kitchen and I'd have to get a fridge-freezer.
And in any case I never could get to the bottom of it....turned out to be full of loose peas, when I finally emptied it to leave!

YES! I absolutely have this problem. I don't actually know what is lurking in the depths of my fridge freezer... And I'm unsure if I should throw it away when I do unearth it! Is a year too long for most things?

We have a fridge freezer in the kitchen and a bigger one in the utility. When I was in charge (smug emoticon) I used to regularly move things from the utility room to the kitchen and only use what was in the kitchen so that we didn't end up with a load of old stuff.

Now that DH owns the kitchen it is chaos and not only the freezer, just how many tins of tomatoes do we need and what are they all in different places?

Every now and again I find a reason why we need freezer space and persuade him to use stuff up but it is hard going. I suspect there is something in there from 7 years ago when I stopped cooking!

We are 'eating the freezer' at the moment, having hit a patch of huge expenses one after the other (birthdays, wedding present/clothes, car repair etc.) Don't know what we'll get tonight - some sort of pick and mix, but I keep telling OH that if he was in Ethiopia he would be grateful for this. I love the 'UFO' - I must remember that!

When we moved 6mths ago I insisted in a posh new half and half FF and moved the smaller FF into the shed along with the small chest freezer,in the smaller freezer I keep all the leftover bits and bobs but in the chest freezer I have not got to the bottom since we moved in as I put most of my weekly shopping in the FF in the kitchen,I had the idea that I would do batch cooking and freeze and store in the shed freezer but that good idea has not happened as yet.

We do this very occasionally. Some stuff has frozen so hard that it's inedible when thawed.

My mother once served up a brilliant rhubarb pie with gravy for dinner, having assumed it was a meat pie. Memo to self - label things clearly!

By coincidence I tidied my freezer yesterday and found all sorts of interesting things. So I too will be eating my way through most of it. I did throw out some bits and pieces which I think have been in there too long. How long is it safe to keep chicken, for instance?
I realise that part of the problem is that it's a chest freezer which makes it darned tricky to find things at the bottom.
I'm too old now to be a contortionist.
So when it's nearly all eaten I shall change to a freezer with drawers.

Same here! The FF in my kitchen is full of plastic bags with leftovers, some with labels and some that I have no idea about. The small chest freezer in the garage has containers of stock for soup making which may now get used as the weather changes. I'm another one guilty of not taking stuff out in time to defrost and having to buy fresh.

We do this every now and again. It's amazing what we find. I said to DH last night that it needs doing. He said 'OK but you'll have to eat that ice cream, it's horrible.' Charming.

When you could buy unlabelled tins, cheaply, my mum had some in the cupboard. One lunch time she opened a tin of 'carrots' to find peaches. ?

It was a race against time recently as our freezer outside was plainly on its last legs. So to use up the food if we didnt eat it, i cooked it and rented some space in a neighbours freezer awaiting delivery of new freezer. Was a bit sad as the old freezer had belonged to my mum, so was in fact, very old.
We took a few risks but luckily didnt come down with anything nasty even though some of the fast defrosting meat was somewhat out of date.