The Freezer - Enter if You Dare!

Somehow over the last month or so, my freezer had become a very scary place. Who knew what was going to fall out when you opened the door. Hopefully it would be only the loaf of bread from the door and not the 4-pound bag of frozen chicken breasts! I kept putting off organizing it and just kept trying to shove stuff in as best I could; however, when the food started attacking the kids when they opened the door, I knew it was time. So Friday night I took the plunge and started unloading. I had a pen and paper at hand and as I started to put things back in an organized manner, I wrote down what was there. Meat went on the bottom shelf with breakfast items; fruits, vegetables and baked goods went on the top shelf. At the end, this is what I learned:



1. I have the ingredients for at least 8 meals plus 2 complete freezer meals just waiting to pop into the oven. I'll hold onto the freezer meals until mid March because we just had both of them within the last week, but the rest of the meals will last us at least 2 weeks with the main meal and leftovers.

2. I don't need to buy any more hamburger for a long time! There is more than 10 pounds in 1- and 2-pound bags, plus patties, and since we don't care to eat hamburger every night ;-) , that should last a minimum of 2 months.

3. I have partial ingredients for 3 more meals. Now that I know what I need, I just need to watch for sales to complete the recipes.



In total, it took maybe 15 minutes to reorganize the freezer and write down what was there. I spent another 20 minutes or so to cross-reference the freezer items with the pantry items and meal plan. I now can easily access what I need, and in the mornings, I can quickly get out what I need for that evening's dinner without having to search and hunt and give up! It definitely pays to spend 15 minutes to organize the freezer every so often!