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Fill Your Freezer Day 8 & 9

One week done! Seeing my freezer fill up on this challenge makes me happy! I’m trying to not touch anything I’ve put in there yet so I can get into a good little stockpile of freezer items and slowly rotate more in as I take something out.

I took advantage of a couple of meat sales to stock up the freezer. Chicken legs were buy one get on free so I was able to tuck those into the freezer. Although I didn’t this time I could have easily repacked them into gallon sized freezer bags with an marinade- oil and spices/bbq/pesto.

I did however buy some of our favorite ground sausage on sale. To prep it for the freezer I carefully cut it out of the package and then sliced it (12 patties per lb). I put parchment paper between layers and freeze! Simple, cheaper, and healthier than frozen patties). When I want to cook it I simply heat a pan and cook straight from the freezer.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 6

Fill Your Freezer day five already! If you’re new- the month of February I take the time to cook and freeze our favorite meals, snacks, sauces, and other components to make meals.

Today is one of the kids’ favorite breakfasts- baked oatmeal. I’ve seen it a lot of recipes floating around pinterest lately but we have been making it for years.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 5

Thank goodness today is grocery day! Eating more fresh, whole foods has meant we go through what seems like more food! Maybe that’s true but I can only buy so much produce if I want it to fit in my fridge. [Buying more whole foods has been a better on our grocery budget too rather than trying to buy allergy replacements like dairy free cheese or specially gluten free crackers].

It’s also exciting to see the kids trying and some liking new foods – recently lentils, cabbage and kiwis. Not everyone liked all the new things, but enough did to put it into food rotation! Grocery day is like an adventure for them to see “what’s new.”

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Fill Your Freezer Day 4

Day four of the Fill Your Freezer February challenge. Yesterday I made a roasted garlic and red pepper sauce.

It is the same sauce that I use in my Roasted Red Pepper Pasta recipe. But you can read a full tutorial on how to make the red pepper sauce itself, click here. You can use the red pepper sauce to add a different flavor to your pizza or simply use as a dipping sauce too!

I mentioned a few posts back about being on a food allergy elimination and how I have been trying out new recipes. My daughter specifically asked if I could make this red pepper sauce to try it as a dipping with a couple of the different recipes.

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Fill Your Freezer Day 3: Chicken Broth

For the last few years I’ve used February as a month where I purposely cook a little more, but only on items that I already know our family enjoys eating! I fill our freezer with full meals, components of a meal, or snacks that we can enjoy over the coming weeks and months. Today: Chicken Broth!

Focusing on filling the freezer during February not only get me a stockpile in the freezer but also allows me to refill and add more over the next few months without takes large chunks of time specifically focus on it. I can fill in one or two items as things get low. I’m also constantly going through certain things, like chicken broth!

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Fill Your Freezer Day 1 & 2

Happy February! If you missed my last post or new around here I host a “Fill Your Freezer February” Challenge. I focus on making and freezing meals, snacks, and items that I know my family actually enjoy eating!

Starting Where I Am

My refrigerator freezer currently only contains some frozen cherries, homemade jam, corn, couple pounds of beef, and a whole chicken. And I shared the state of my chest freezer in this post. .. Ahem, I plan on actually cleaning it out today!

Although my freezers are pretty empty (thank you pregnancy prepped freezer meals!) I am starting with some basics, but things I know we will eat regularly and a bunch of!

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2020 Fill Your Freezer February

After a health scare last month with someone in our family, which in turn ER visit, a rare disease diagnosis called Eosinophilic Esophogitis. Which is a food/environmental allergy that goes undetected by the usually allergy signs (rashes, hives, anaphylaxis) it is a chronic inflammation in your body that manifests in your throat and can cause you eating and swallowing issues. How we found out: a food impaction!

All that to say, Fill Your Freezer February this year will be a little different. We are still on the elimination diet to help figure out what food(s) are causing a reaction. So we are currently NOT eating: nuts, eggs, dairy, gluten, soy and fish. Which I guess means, this should be a really health freezer prep! So although lasagna, pesto chicken, homemade pizza dough, and banana bread are all great ideas to stock the freezer up- you won’t be seeing that in these Fill Your Freezer February posts!

snack tray
we’re still eating well though!!
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Fill Your Freezer February 2019

freezer cooking banana bread

About three or four years ago I found myself purposefully doing freezer cooking in the month of February. I started it because I realized we had a habitual cycle of to getting take out too much in December (because hubby was home more), January would turn into a pantry challenge, and when February rolled around I had the momentum to eat healthy and fill our fridge/freezer back up with items we actually enjoy eating.

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February Challenge: Fill Your Freezer Update

fill your freezer

These monthly challenges were created to help me actually achieve my Goals /New Years Resolutions for 2018. Fill Your Freezer helps me stay in our grocery budget, keeps us from the drive through, and as we all know, healthier! Not only am I teaching my kids to cook but I’m jumping in and learning things I’ve been too scared to try and finding new foods that we enjoy. I hope this encourages you as much as it keeps me motivated! (more…)