Using up everything out of the freezer.

We are hoping to downsize (or right size as I prefer to call it) to a smaller town centre property. I am wondering if I can go from the 2 three door freezers we have now to just the built in one in the new kitchen. Being less than 5 minutes walk from Waitrose seems to make loads of freezer space rather unnecessary!

My 2 sons (35 and 33) are still human dustbins when they come to me for a meal. They use the excuse that they don’t have time to make pies, stews, Yorkshire pudding etc. so stock up when they can, my 13 year old granddaughter is now joining in that chorus. I take great pleasure in reminding them I provided these same meals when I was working full time and bringing them up single handed. They can actually both cook but are too lazy

I use my steam cleaner to defrost the freezer. I empty it into the garage freezer when both are low in contents. As DH was poorly over Christmas we have two very full freezers at the moment. I think we might be eating frozen sprouts/parsnip/mince pies well into the Spring.

Grandtante, no, my darling grandson is only 2. The teenage boy is a student stuck at boarding school for Christmas due to the virus. There are 2 students and me. The girl eats like a bird, the boy eats like a horse.

As I live in the centre of town and support my local shops I rarely needed the freezer before the lockdown as we bought fresh each day but have now stored a few extras in there in case of complete lockdown. The freezer is only two thirds full so I use old ice cream tubs filled with water to fill the bottom shelves to improve running efficiency.

When I defreeze the freezer, which I do twice a year, I put the food left in it into my laundry basket, and cover it with a layer of newspaper and a quilt.

(I honestly thought everyone did this, but reading this thread has changed my mind.)

Everything, except ice-cream and white bread survives quite happily.

I put basins of hot water into the freezer once I have turned it off and change them regularly, while it defreezes.

Nannagarra

A friend’s husband once remarked that when sons become teenagers you need a cement mixer to mash the spuds they can eat!

When I met my husband he was in his early 30's, with a very active job. When he cam to Sunday lunch, my Mum served his on a meat platter! (And he ate it all)

Gajo, I gather he is your daughter's son?

I once sent a school-class of boys home from a week's camping trip with a whole loaf of bread and what was left of luncheon meat, tinned tuna and the like.

They had all eaten a hearty breakfast of porridge and bread and jam, but most of their mothers told me later that the food never made it home, it had been devoured by eleven o' clock in the train on the way home.

These were eleven year olds - it goes on for years. The good thing is that they will literally eat anything at all that you put in front of them.

I cleared my freezer in November to get room for food for Christmas and New Year. Now it is full of left over ham, ham stock, pastry etc. as well as things like minced meat. January and part of February will be economical months for once.

I am doing the same. I actually had peas yesterday....cant remember the last time I had them as I love Mediterranean style veg.

I’ve got our chest freezer in the shed, and last week when it was freezing cold, I defrosted it,putting the contents into a couple of laundry baskets and leaving them outside! Probably more frozen when I put it all back,it was such a cold day!
Also, I’ve been putting pillows in the chest freezer for 10 years now, after reading it is an excellent way to kill any bed mites, which apparently proliferate on human beings! Leave them for a few days!

I gave my teenager a shelf of his own in the freezer/fridge/cupboard and said eat anything on them ... the rest is earmarked ... lots of microwave freezer stuff/ cheese/ ham instant noodles/ ciabatta etc etc .. easy to keep it stocked up with his favourites because I could see what swiftly went etc ..

We also have two freezers and frankly both could do with defrosting and cleaning. This means delving to the bottom of each where older items lie and forcing ourselves to make meals using them - easier said than done it seems! Our one remaining cat was treated to some coley fish last week, best by date December 2017. She wasn't bothered and scoffed most of it assisted by visiting seagulls

I’ve been eating out of my freezer since 27 December, and eating very well, as some of the food was quite luxurious (bought on a whim). I’m going to try to keep my freezer for only basic food. Good idea, but no doubt I will be tempted by other goodies.

I’m planning to live from my freezer and store cupboard for as long as I can, only shopping for fresh fruit, veg, bread and milk as required....see how much money I can save! Luckily both well stocked!

Only two us here however we have two freezers. One for storage, (including sliced bread). One we keep in the kitchen also holds our sliced bread which we don’t use too often so take out as and when required. I do seem to freeze a lot of leftovers particularly when I do casserole type dishes as I still tend to cook massive family sized ones ?‍♀️

I remember my son buying a loaf of bread to help him last the walk from the school bus to home! Teenage boys seem to have hollow legs.

When my freezer needs defrosting, I just pile the food in a corner (of the garage) and put it back a few hours later, the food stays frozen. I do tend to only defrost in winter, like last week.

I have just bought a fridge freezer for the kitchen and intend to replace my big chest freezer with a smaller upright freezer. I will still have a very elderly small chest freezer, which is used roughly September - March to hold surplus garden produce until we eat it.

My father and his brothers used to have bread and butter eating contests. The record was 23 slices. I am one of three girls and I can remember we three used to eat a lot and certainly got through 2 loaves one Saturday and my (childless) aunt used to dine out on stories about how she had stock up food when my younger sister and I visited.

V3ra, I can quite believe about the loaf of bread per day. I used to make large pasties for my son which draped over the sides of the dinner plate. It was nothing for him to have three in a sitting. The doctor once told me he needed feeding up!

I so hate wasting food that I have containers with leftovers in the freezer.
As I don’t fancy anything I know has been in the freezer for a little while (even if it’s perfectly acceptable) I foist them on unwitting guests and relatives ?

We have three freezers - a large chest freezer in the garage, a small one in the utility room and a fridge freezer in the kitchen. When the garage freezer is low on supplies I shove a pillow in until it is nearly full again! The other two freezers are self defrosting and are always full anyway. I keep a typed list of what is in each freezer and update it each Monday after I’ve been shopping.

GagaJo my son had a girlfriend who used to circle her plate with her fork, choose a single pea, spear it triumphantly, hold it up and examine it closely, then eat it.
Then repeat.
One pea at a time ?‍?

So I am feeding one boy, lobbing in random food for him to inhale and one girl, who picks 'bits' out and lines them up on the side of the plate. She spends longer eating 3 spoonfuls than he does half a pound of spuds.

Nannagarra I used to buy potatoes by the sackful!

A friend’s husband once remarked that when sons become teenagers you need a cement mixer to mash the spuds they can eat!

MissAdventure

I only clean my freezer when it's so full of ice that I have to dig out a hole to put something in.

That's my freezer at the moment.