Update on My Freezer Clean Out

You may have read my post the end of January where I said NO MORE SHOPPING TRIPS until I clean out the freezers and pantry. The foods are dwindling down and I have come to the end of February. I do this every year and it’s amazing how many meals I can come up with just by using what I have stocked up. I took inventory to see how I did and how much I still have left before I can stock up on groceries again. So today I’m sharing my update on my freezer clean out!

I didn’t realize we had SO MUCH hidden food in the freezer! I started pulling out whatever was in the front and made dinner. The next day I did the same and finally could see the back of the shelves! But I had some delicious meals that cost only a few dollars! Yesterday I rearranged what was left and while it looks like a lot, I was able to deplete most of the meat, chicken and salmon during the past month. The first picture was a month ago and the next is now! After using almost all the meat up, we now have 3 packages of pork, 1 more package of chicken that was buried (I thought I used it up for yesterday’s dinner!) and 2 pieces of salmon. The second shelf is mostly Alex’s special foods that she eats so that is always revolving. But we now have room to restock and do some portion control meals! Throughout the month I’ve made some delicious dinners and I have a few meals to share with you.

For yesterday’s dinner I pulled out a bag with 2 huge chicken breasts and another small bag with 3 thighs. After cutting the chicken in pieces I browned them before adding to the sauce. I cooked on the pressure cooker mode for 45 minutes and the chicken was so tender! Alex decided to have a chicken sub while we had spaghetti with ours. It was delicious and made 4 servings for dinner plus enough left over for three to four more meals. The total cost for the entire pot of chicken, sauce and spaghetti was less than $4.00! Not bad for at least seven meals!!

This is a combination of freezer and pantry meal. I sauteed cauliflower and broccoli then added a package of salmon with a side of Milton’s gluten free crackers. This is such a simple meal but healthy and filling.

Have you every had a tuna pizza? That’s what I called this as what started out as a tuna melt. I mixed my tuna with pickle relish and mayo, added shredded cheese then spread it on a tortilla. Put butter in the bottom of a fry pan and carefully put the tortilla in the pan and cover until it browns and the cheese melts. It was SO YUMMY with the cheese overload! So these are two quick and easy meals you can make very reasonable.

Lia helped pop make meatballs and the first night we all had meatball subs. We had enough leftovers to last three more meals! My neighbor brought me a homemade loaf of sour dough bread and I added butter and sprinkled it with onion and garlic powder! What a delicious variety of meatball meals.

This package of beef was well hidden in the freezer drawer. I chopped up an onion and sauteed it with the beef. Add rice, green beans, more of the homemade sour dough bread and spinach/articoke dip for a mouthwatering meal for Rich and I for two nights!

The lasagna Alex made in January and I meal prepped a full pan is now gone! Lia helped added more sauce and cheese to the last two pieces and we shared dinner!

Of course Lia help reduce stock from her baking cupboard! She made delicous banana muffins with crumb topping and another day she may chocolate cookie dough bites. Oh my were they both delicious!

But the best cookies Lia made were fruit cookies and she made her own recipe! She will be sharing this on her Friday Story Time by Lia so be sure to check them out! These were so delicious and she used up ingredients from her cupboard.

I even reorganized the panty yesterday! I found four yes FOUR boxes of StoveTop dressing plus a big jar of cashews and another jar of peanuts for my trail mix. I had just said I need to stock up on those for my trail mix but now I just saved some money! LOL You might wonder why the drawers are on the shelves, well when we got our new kitchen cupboards I saved the old drawers and they were perfect to keep things organized. The clear drawer with Lia’s Knorr packs of noodles is the crisper drawer from our old fridge! I told you I save everything!

I’m pleased the way the month went and how I was able to cook enough meals with what we had on hand. I did purchase ground beef for a meatloaf and a roast that lasted for three days of dinners. Other than that we lived off the freezer and pantry! I’m looking forward to another Costco trip to stock up on some steaks and salmon again. I hope the update on my freezer clean out gave you some ideas.