Clearing the Fridge & Freezer

Ever opened your freezer, starred at a red ziplock bag of what 'might' be pasta sauce and thought "why didn't I label that?"

Our freezer is full of perfectly good food that for some or other reason did not hit the table when originally planned. To avoid the inevitable build up of unrecognizable packages once every 2-3 months, before a full cooking and freezing session, we have an empty-the-fridge-and-freezer-week.

The Basics: No grocery shopping this week

• List everything in the fridge and freezer
• Scratch out the un-recognizable/un-savable items and toss them
• Make a list of meals using as many ingredients from the list as possible
• Be self disciplined and do not go shopping until everything on the list is eaten

Now this works especially well for families like ours that do not eat eggs or drink milk and who make their own bread. For others you might want to grab those perishable items and nothing else from the store.

Meal Examples from our fridge and freezer:

• Crock pot roast beef & potatoes (throw roast, potatoes, any favourite veggies, 1 cups of broth, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper into the crock. Cook on high until done)
• Turkey soup (put broth, turkey meat, available veggies, and spices in a pot simmer until done)
• Chicken Tacos (brown ground chicken & and spices, chop up some veggies, and throw into tacos, or fajitas with some cheese and salsa)
• Chicken wings & green beans
• Lasagna & green beans
• Banana bread