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I spent yesterday afternoon naptime working in the kitchen. I’m getting ready to do my monthly grocery shopping trip this weekend and see what else I wanted to be cooking up for Fill Your Freezer February.
In order to do both I need to inventory the pantry, look through the freezer, and clean out the fridge.
Fridge to Freezer
Cleaning out the fridge is an easy way to add to the freezer!
Here are 3 ways I do this:
1. Fruits and Vegetables.
Bananas going brown? Broccoli going limp? Moving these items to the freezer will both save you money and save you time in the future.
One downfall of monthly grocery shopping – true monthly grocery shopping without mid month grocery runs- means you either run out of the fresh fruits and vegetables OR it means that well meant, new dish you had planned doesn’t sound so good but you bought the extra ingredients.
But that is how Fill Your Freezer challenge is helpful! By having a system that slowly adds to the freezer, even months where your shopping doesn’t completely cover all 90+ meals a month comes in handy!
2. Leftovers.
Remember the chili I made and froze? Normally I would have kept that in fridge and had it for another meal, but I put it in the freezer.
It doesn’t even need to be a big batch either. Lately I have been also putting single servings of a meal into a freezer friendly container for future lunches portions.
3. Abundance.
Apple’s turning brown? I’ll add them to the crockpot with some cinnamon and turn it into applesauce- which can be eaten right away or frozen.
Extra cheese? I’ll freeze it! I do this for portion control (we are mostly dairy free here).
Those extra leeks I had bought because I wanted to make potato leek soup and never got to – added them to my freezer stash of scraps to make broth!
Filling your freezer isn’t always about a sprint to get your freezer filled, but rather a skill to learn as an ongoing part of your kitchen routine and serve your (future) self.