Day 43

Oooohhh...lookie what I found in the depths of the freezer.........FLANK STEAK!!!

I marinated it in some lime juice/zest, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, brown sugar, salt, and red pepper flakes overnight.

Threw it on the grill and cooked up ANOTHER bag of frozen pepper/onion strips

and we had FAJITAS!!!!!!!!!

Here are the "fixins"


and is THIS not GORGEOUS!?????


Mmmm...I'm going to have dreams about that flank steak tonight!!!! It was SO yummy!

***NOTE*** The freezer project is going to take a 3 day hiatus while I go to Michigan to visit my grandpa and mom. Kevin will likely be surviving here on deli fried chicken and possibly Taco Bell (one JUST opened up down the street from us!)

Day 42

I was watching Cook's Country (on PBS) and my mouth was literally watering watching them make meatballs in marinara....so I made it too.

I cleared out a pound of frozen ground sirloin, a little quarter pound pack of ground pork. Here is the start of the meatball mixture (garlic, onions, parm, bread soaked in milk, salt, pepper, oregano and eggs)



The sauce was garlic and onion, tomato paste and a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes and also a can of diced San Marzanos (which, I discovered, are TOTALLY worth every extra penny they cost!!!!)


I like peppers in my sauce...so I added in THIS (another bag gone from the freezer!)


Here's Kevin's finished bowl...two big honkin' meatballs on some angel hair with the sauce, torn basil and some shaved fresh parm up on top. YUM!


And here's my bowl...one meatball and some sauce (pasta and I are not friends!)


MANGIA!!!!

Day 41

Crap...I forgot to get a pic of dinner tonight!
We had RIBS (again) because I thought I was pulling pork chops out of the freezer. NOPE...they were ribs.

I'm using an old pic because I did them the same way.......


I served them with frozen french fries (crinkle cuts) and some steamed broccoli with a quick mornay (cheese) sauce.

ME...I had my usual salad and a little bit of a rib with mustard BBQ sauce. Yum!

Sorry...I'll try to remember a pic tomorrow!!!!

Day 40

TGIF! Today's dinner was CHICKEN ENCHILADAS!

I'm a huge fan of those store rotisserie chickens and will sometimes buy 2 at a time, peel the nasty skin and just take it off the bones and keep it in the fridge for salad or whatever. Apparently, I got a little chicken happy a few months back because I found a huge tub of pre made chicken enchilada filling (chicken, peppers, onions, cream of chicken soup, cumin, cilantro, salt, garlic and a bit of cayenne.

I rolled the filling in tortillas, topped with sauce and cheese and then made a side that is always popular in our house. Kind of like a "salad/salsa". I throw in diced tomatoes, can of rinsed black beans, corn (from the freezer), red onion, cilantro, garlic and the juice of one lime.

I forgot to take the picture until it was almost all gone...these are the leftovers!

Day 39

Thursday...I found a batch of frozen stew meat cubes and decided......

Guinness stew!!!!!!!

Ok...it's just basic beef stew but I add a bottle of Guinness at the beginning after the meat is seared. Adds GREAT flavor!

So we have onions, beef (from the FREEZER), flour, salt, Guinness, carrots, potatoes (I had TWO small ones!),peas (fron the FREEZER), beef stock, tomato paste and some thyme. Simmer a few hours on medium until it's reduced and thick and then chow down.

(this freezes great too....but I'm not even going there!)

Day 38

Wednesday...just ME for dinner! Here's what I came up with...

NACHOS!
Started with a few BAKED blue corn chips (Trader Joes) then topped with some lowfat cheese and a black bean Morningstar farms patty. Add some salsa and some fresh cilantro from the herb garden and I've got another EMPTY BOX! WHOOHOO!

Day 37

Today was kind of a "throw it together" night...I grilled some boneless skinless chicken breasts and topped them off with PESTO (YUM). I put mine on top of a salad and heated up the leftover Greek style green beans and made some quickie rice for Kevin.


Holden is visiting his grandparents...so Kevin and I are kind of just picking at leftovers and not doing much cooking!

Day 36

Monday. I made Greek style green beans (green beans steamed and then sauteed with some onion, diced tomato and some Cavenders Greek Seasoning (BEST storebought seasoning blend EVER!)
Paired up with some Boca "chicken" (not really chicken) patties.

Not exciting, but those BEANS are SOOOOOOOO good...you almost don't need anything else with them!

Day 35

Sunday...Holden was in the mood for lasagna. VOILA!


Whenever I make lasagna...I usually make about fifty of them (well, ok...THREE) and then freeze them to either give to people (say like when a neighbor is sick or needs kitchen help) or just keep for when someone wants lasagna for dinner.

This time, I made them in smallish sized loaf pans...kind of perfect for two big portions, or 4 smaller ones.

Here it is after it was baked and looks a bit more appetizing than the frozen pic!

Day 34

Saturday...I decided to turn this post into a BREAKFAST use of the freezer. We had lunch/dinner at The Pug Posse's house yesterday so we didn't make anything later...but I made FRENCH TOAST for breakfast for the boys using THIS...

Frozen Salt Rising Bread from Concannon's Bakery in Muncie, IN. Kevin LOVES the stuff and we always have a few loaves on hand for him to make toast. I turned it into some cinnamon, vanilla french toast paired up with some bacon (also from the freezer) that I had used (no pic) to make the baked beans that I took over to the Posse's house!

Just ignore the Colts cheerleader poster in the background on the table! Holden and his buddy were deciding which girl had real boobs vs. implants. Great activity to keep two 10 year old boys busy for at least half an hour on a hot summer day!

Day 33

Friday...FISH TACOS! (I made these for the boys...personally, I don't eat most things that swim...I'm missing that taste gene or something because it ALL tastes like rotten garbage to me).

That being said.....the boys love fish tacos after having the real deal from a little cafe in Mexico a few years ago. I took a tiny gaggy taste just to be able to know what to do to recreate it at home.

Here's how it went down....

Started with some frozen Tilapia filets


I cut into strips, doused them with fresh lime juice and then did a quick toss in some beaten egg and then rolled them in panko (bread crumbs) and then blasted them in a HOT (400) oven with a shot of cooking spray on top (for browning) for about 10 minutes. Here's what they look like when they're done...

Salinger got those extra little creamated parts of extra bread crumbs!

Shredded up some Napa cabbage and blended up some sour cream with lime juice, cilantro and a little salt (for sauce) and then they ate them on tortillas.

Finished plate with a Spanish rice/pilaf-y thing I tossed together, some cheesy refried beans and a VIRGIN strawberry sugar free (mix) Margarita (that really tasted like cough syrup...it wasn't good)

The rice thing had frozen pepper/onion strips from the freezer AND some of the cilantro lime corn on the cob that I had cut off the cob and frozen a while back...so technically it was a player in the freezer game too!


OLE!

Day 32

SPAGHETTI!

I actually had a THREE-FER tonight! I got rid of a pound of ground sirloin and a bag of pepper/onion blend for the sauce...AND dessert!


Here is the finished sauce (full of diced tomatoes, red wine, garlic and about two big fistfuls of basil!)


Holden inhaled his


Holden has a buddy staying night with us tonight, so I told them they could have dessert (usually this is a treat reserved for the rare occasion that we have company or I make something for someone else). I found some mini frozen PECAN PIES that I had made at the end of November and used my vacuum sealer on!

I shipped a bunch of these beauties to my dad for his birthday...pecan pie is his fave and this was the best way to ship them....vacuum sealed and made minified in the disposable muffin tins! They arrived intact...but I did keep three here for "emergencies"!

Day 31

It was just Holden and I here tonight for dinner. I told Holden to go shopping in the freezer and pick whatever he wanted and he found THIS gem!


He paired it with some canned peas (ugh...vile!)

He ate it...but when I asked him how it was he said "Eh. Chicken is kind of falling apart, but the sauce is ok".

I had yogurt. My tummy didn't feel good tonight. :-(

Progress Report!

Ok...thirty days have come and gone, but we've had a Family Meeting and decided we need to keep this going! Here are pics of our freezers NOW (today 7/8/09) and they honestly are still RIDONKULOUSLY full!






Stuff isn't falling out with the force that it used to...but I still am finding stuff in there I had no idea that we had that is still considered "edible".

We have purchased NOTHING NEW that requires freezing (HONEST!) and the only thing I've added to the big freezer is the orange container which holds the rest of the batch of Brunswick Stew I made a few weeks ago.

SO...stay tuned and we'll see how far we can ride this thing out! Findings may become more interesting!

***Note to Vikki and any other interested party...you will notice that the Jim Beam is now gone...our friend Rob (that drinks it) was here last Saturday and finished it off. I should have gotten a pic of the hilarity that ensued when we all did Wii Hula Hoop!

Day 30

Tuesday was kind of crazy around here...we were out and about until about 5 and then Kevin had to run to a coach's meeting for Holden's football league, so I slapped THIS together for dinner...




Buffalo burgers (from Trader Joe's), frozen fries (only got rid of half the bag) and some fresh broccoliflower (broccoli/cauliflower hybrid). Holden made a quick Mornay sauce for the veg and dinner was on the table in about 20 minutes and Kevin made it to his meeting on time!

Day 29

Monday...I have an exercise class, so I kind of do my own thing for dinner after class, so I left the boys in charge with tonight's freezer items....

CUBESTEAKS! Here are four of them breaded with some seasoned flour along with a bag of stir fry veg (I helped with this step and then had to scoot to class).

I understand that Holden browned them in a touch of olive oil and then I instructed him to deglaze the pan with a slosh of Madiera wine (under the supervision of Kevin of course!) and finish that with a spoonful of capers. I don't think Holden was a fan of the sauce...his cubesteak looks like it was kind of nekkid.


I'll bet he and Kevin plopped them on the buns and ate them like burgers!

Day 28

Another Holden specialty...MEATLOAF! We "shopped" in the feezer and found a package of meatloaf mix (beef, pork, veal) so I gave Holden my "meatloaf secret" (whiz peppers, onions, carrots, garlic in the food processer then blend in with egg, cracker crumbs and chili powder). He decided to try "mini meatloaves" (ohhh...kind of like EMMITT makes!) in my mini bundt baking pan...


Mashed potatoes, salad and the rest of the carrots from last night rounded out the meal...


Sorry it's blurry...we're using an old camera because Kevin had the "good" camera!

Day 27

It was just Holden and I again tonight (Saturday) so here is tonight's entry...

UGH...blurry pic, but they're garlic chicken sausages from Trader Joe's!

Holden wanted mac and cheese (he made himself some Easy Mac) and some carrots rounded out his plate...


He's looking forward to the leftover sausages tomorrow for breakfast!

Day 26

It was just Holden and I tonight, and he felt like making his own dinner...so I just supervised the production (and grilled some chicken for myself).

Here are tonight's winners...


I grilled up the chicken tenders and Holden made himself a bechamel sauce (flour, butter, milk...thickened up) then added the frozen veg, a little bit of whole wheat rotini pasta and made sort of a creamy pasta thingy...


Must have been good...he ate it all!

Day 25

For day 25 (Thursday) I decided that it was Mardi Gras in July, so I made RED BEANS AND RICE!

Here are the winners of today's Freezer Game...

A nice half package of Andouille sausage and a frozen ham hock/pork shank.


I added red beans, onion, peppers, celery, garlic, bay leaf, water, cayenne and the above meat items and cooked it low and slow for hours until THIS resulted....

(the rice is hiding on the bottom of this bowl....I just skipped it for mine)

Luckily no one lost an eye with all the bead throwing that ensued!


I also made Beignets for dessert (with the Cafe Du Monde mix that Heather and Harry sent us!). Be sure to check out Salingers blog for details!

Laissez les bon temps roulez!

Day 24

Tonight (Wednesday) was just Holden and I for dinner. We had "sort of grilled" pizza!!!

I make whole wheat pizza crusts on the grill and then freeze them for a quickie dinner. We dove into my stockpile to clear out another ziploc bag from the freezer!

Topped with yummy chunky spicy pizza sauce (cleared another container out of the fridge! YAY!), peppers (from the freezer!), sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, a tiny bit of lowfat ricotta, shreds of ham, crumbles of leftover bacon from last night and basil...



Here is my sous chef Holden doing a perfect chiffonade with the basil!


About 10 minutes in the oven and VOILA!

Pizza's ready...and the freezer is getting empty!!!