Oh, can I play?
I just realized today that it is
March, and very soon we will be gardening- and our freezer is stuffed to the gills.
(That is, our basement chest freezer. Our fridge top freezer is basically empty, all that's in there is juice concentrate, ice cubes, and bags of bread ends, fish skin, and random meat bones that DH uses for making croutons and stock, respectively.)
Besides the basement freezer, we have a basement pantry (old house, used to be a root cellar) and an upstairs pantry... and of course, our fridge. At this point there's enough food in this house that we shouldn't have to shop at all for months. Yet we continue to shop. Sigh.
So today, I cleaned out the freezer and made an inventory list. Go me!
(Hopefully, this makes meal planning easier. Even though I've already meal planned and shopped for this month. Heh. I like to do things backward.)
Now I just need to do the pantries. Anyway, here's what's in my basement freezer:
Freezer Inventory
Miscellaneous
Coffee Beans, 10#
Prepared Food
1.5# Bags Cheese Ravioli, 2
Veggie Burgers, 10
Pckg of 2 Veggie Sausage, 8
Portioned Veggie Lasagna, 4
80 oz Bag Tater Tots, 1
Battered Fish Portions, 5
Fish Sticks, 44
3 cup wedge MacNCheese, 1
2 cup containers Cabbage Soup, 4
Vegetables
Sundried Tomatoes, 2 handfuls
Whole Roasted Bell Peppers, 6
Whole Green Anaheim Chili, 1
1# Corn, 4
1# Peas, 4
1# Broccoli, 3
1 qt. Chard, 4
1# Edamame, 1
1# Okra, 1
1 cup Sliced Mushrooms, 3
1 qt. Sliced Bell Peppers, 1
1 qt. Brussels Sprouts, 1
Fruit
1# Red Raspberries, 2
1# Whole Strawberries, 1
1 # Cranberries, 1
Dried Fruit
1# Raisins, 3
½ # Pineapple, 1
½ # Cranberries, 1
Nuts and Seeds
1# Roasted Sunflower Seeds, 1
1# Walnuts, 1
½# Cashews, 1
Pecans, a handful
Bread
Pizza Dough, 8
Whole Wheat Loaves, 4
White Loaves, 1
Dairy
Gallon Bags Shredded Pizza Cheese, 2
12 oz containers Heavy Cream, 2
1# Butter, 3
Meat
1.25# Salmon Filet, 1
1# Bologna, 2
1# Cotto Salami, 2
1# Bacon, 2
Taco Meat, 2 servings
1# Ground Beef, 12
1# Venison/Pork Cudighi, 17
Chicken Portions, 13
Turkey Balls, 4
Pheasant, 1
Smoked Turkey Breast, 1
Cubed Round Steak, 1
Venison Loin, 1
Herbs and Spices
Ancho Chili Powder
Green Basil
Purple Basil
Cajun Seasoning
Chili Powder
Chinese 5 Spice
Ground Cinnamon
Cinnamon Sticks
Cloves
Coriander
Cream of Tartar
Cumin
Dill
Granulated Garlic
Ground Ginger
Fennel Seed
Jerk Seasoning
Ground Mustard
Mustard Seeds
Ground Nutmeg
Oregano
Paprika
Parsley
Whole Black Peppercorns
Rosemary
White Sesame Seeds
This stuff is grouped by geographic location within the freezer (I use plastic baskets). The insane part is, I have a spice rack that fits 84 jars, currently holds about 60 jars, and the spices on the freezer list? That's just back up. I'm starting to think that in a previous life, I lived through times of extreme food scarcity.
You know what else is insane? All that meat- only DH and DSS (who's only here part time) eat meat. DD and I just eat fish. Now, granted, a great percentage of that meat was given to us- in fact, everything but the lunch meat, bacon, and chicken was given to us by the ILs. It's lovely of them, really, and all nice, good stuff- grass fed beef, they hunted the turkey, pheasant, and venison themselves, all natural pork, you get the idea.
All the stuff we bought we bought because it was on really good, really recent sales- it's all natural, and I know that we spent $25 on all of it (chicken, bacon, lunch meat).
But now that I've gone through it all, I'm like, egad, how is all this meat ever going to get eaten? It'll take all year.
I think we should donate some of it. I'll mention that to DH.
Anyway, I'm going to do some more laundry and inventory my basement pantry. Wish me luck and continued motivation!