Empty the freezer challenge

[hollyquaiscer]

i have a question. how do you freeze your meat? i mean, you buy them fresh right. do you just put it in a ziploc bag or do you buy those vacuuming gadget? if the latter, what brand are you using?

thanks!

I have a vaccum sealer and I seal everything, even frozen veggies, portioned and frozen. I find everything lays flatter and it keeps and ice and frost from forming of the veggies, because those to can get freezer burnt and taste


It's easier for me too, when I'm cooking for just 2 of us to have everything portioned out properly, not waste. If I have people over, I just take out extra packages. For roasts, I portion them to 2 people roasts, 4 people roasts and 6 people roasts.

[momof5boys]

Just took out beef - will chop it up for a Bahmi dish tonight.

[alicia]

Found two home-made muffins, so took those out.

Used two packages of ground beef into a meat loaf (I package them in 1/2 lbs).
Not my freezer, but I emptied my honey, ketchup, brown sugar, rice, vinegar and... one other thing I can't remember. Everything I touched yesterday, I finished

[momof5boys]

Today it's a couple of pizza shells, left over frozen pizza sauce, and shredded cheese to make pizzas of course....and corn on the cob (we always freeze corn on the cob raw with husks on and they taste fresh when cooked!)

[MrsSunshine]

aha took out the chocolate bars to make my reindeer and hot chocolate spoons.

[momof5boys]

Today here is what came out of the freezer for dinner - hamburger (to make meat loaf) and green beans (home grown). Add mashed potatoes and canned red pears and that should satisfy everyone under this roof!

[harbie]

I have a vac sealer that I bought from Costco in the US and I love it! I vac seal EVERYTHING!!! I find the bags not too expensive at Costco (US) so I figure it's still cheaper than throwing out food!. I even vac seal Harley's kibble!!! I buy the massive bags and since he wont eat that much before it starts to go stale I seal it so that way I always have "earthquake/emerg" food for him


ETA, How do hotdogs taste after being frozen??? I've never done that. Do you just take them straight from the store to the freezer or how do you wrap them???

[momof5boys]

We're having left over soup, so I dug out home made hamburger patties and buns from the freezer to eat with the soup.

[momof5boys]

I always freeze hotdogs in its packaging and it works great!

I have a vac sealer that I bought from Costco in the US and I love it! I vac seal EVERYTHING!!! I find the bags not too expensive at Costco (US) so I figure it's still cheaper than throwing out food!. I even vac seal Harley's kibble!!! I buy the massive bags and since he wont eat that much before it starts to go stale I seal it so that way I always have "earthquake/emerg" food for him


ETA, How do hotdogs taste after being frozen??? I've never done that. Do you just take them straight from the store to the freezer or how do you wrap them???

[momof5boys]

OK, back on track with emptying the freezer...today I took out three packages that were too freezer burnt to use (mainly frozen chopped peppers) and threw them out (gasp!...I hate throwing out food).

For dinner tonight, chicken cordon bleu and corn on the cob came out of the freezer. I also took out a tub of cooking pears that I will make into a sauce, as well as plum juice that will be made into some sort of jelly (like jam).

[momof5boys]

Took out a package of spareribs, beans, grated cucumber (yes, frozen raw and then thawed tastes great if a bit of vinegar, salt and pepper are added). We had an abundance of cucumbers and, after making pickles, I just peeled and grated the rest for the freezer. Also took out a package of grated zucchini and made zucchini chocolate chip muffins.

[momof5boys]

So here is what is coming out of the freezer today...chicken (just made shake and bake to use with that), perogies, blueberries (just made muffins), bread crumbs (to make the shake and bake). By the way, I had a box of crackers that was over the date and just ground them up in a blender to make crumbs and then froze the crumbs to use in recipes.

[Lavender Lady]

You are good! I think I need to do that.

[BC Gal]

How do hotdogs taste after being frozen??? I've never done that. Do you just take them straight from the store to the freezer or how do you wrap them???

I think they taste the same, and put them in straight from the store. It's easy to break a few off with a butter knife when needed and the package fits perfect in a ziploc to store once opened.

Lovin' your posts momof5boys! Very inspirational

[momof5boys]

Wow, time flies....have been taking a bit out of the freezer each day but yesterday was frozen chopped green pepper, two pizza shells, grated cheese, left over frozen cooked sausage, left over frozen spaghetti sauce (all to make pizzas), soup....pretty well a left over type of day and good to get a bunch of little packages out of the freezer