Budget Stretchers: Use it Or Lose it 2012 - Join the fun!

[HeatherFeather]

I agree - stashing stuff in the freezer is a great way to save! I am trying to prep more meals in advance and store them in my freezer to pull out on the nights where I find myself tempted to just go out rather than cooking. If I know I have something store in my freezer and I just have to heat it up, that is a huge incentive to not go waste more money eating out.

Hope everyone is doing well with the event. I have really been trying hard to use up my list items. I am focusing on the white miso paste next, since that is going to expire fairly soon and I need to use it up. Probably going to use it on some fish, and also on a pork dish that I made once before already (which is why I had the miso in the first place). I have half a tub left, so hopefully I will get most of that used up in those two dishes.

I also still haven't used my marinades at all, even though I do plan to marinate some chicken this week. I am thinking about picking up some meats on sale and freezing a bunch with the marinade on them already for some quick meals later on. I just have to make some room in my freezer first and that is hard to do right now! Pretty well stocked.

[crazyndncook]

Having meals stashed in the freezer is a problem for me, I have about 20 pans (10 meals) already in the freezer and I have plans on doing more. I am hoping to make some chili soon. Canned Diced Tomatoes have been on sale the past 2 weeks ($1 for 29 oz size), so I picked some up, I might have 8 cans now. But I will need about 4 for chili. I make up about 100-150 pans of food a year.

[HeatherFeather]

Having meals stashed in the freezer is a problem for me, I have about 20 pans (10 meals) already in the freezer and I have plans on doing more. I am hoping to make some chili soon. Canned Diced Tomatoes have been on sale the past 2 weeks ($1 for 29 oz size), so I picked some up, I might have 8 cans now. But I will need about 4 for chili. I make up about 100-150 pans of food a year.

I have a hard time fitting pans in my freezer too. My freezer is very narrow (I can't even fit most frozen pizza boxes in there) and it is pretty small to begin with. I keep a lot of things in there like leftovers, veggies, and raw meats at all times, so it gets full pretty fast.

Whenever I can, I store some meals in freezer bags that I store flat as a pancake. Not everything can be stored this way, but anything that will work well gets this method. Ground meats, shredded chicken, soups, anything I can just dump into a crockpot/skillet/soup pot, etc. I can fit a lot more stuff this way.

[Kchurchill5]

I have a separate freezer, but I also use the ziplock whenever possible, it is easier, thaws faster and for most dishes it works. I can stack them up which is convenient. For my freezer since I do have more room, I have 3 tupperware containers labeled chicken, beef and pork and I freeze them flat and stack them up. It works pretty good to keep them organized.

[crazyndncook]

It isn't that I don't have the room for frozen meals, I have too much space for frozen food. I have 2-7 cu ft freezers, and the freezer on top of my frig. And they are all full.

I use 5x9 inch foil pans with lids for my freezer meals. I get them at a grocery supply store for about $28. Instead of paying $6 for 5 pans and lids at a grocery store. That way I can come home (or phone hubby) to throw a couple pans of something into the oven and have dinner ready in 1 1/2 hours.

[Roxanne]

I wish I had a separate freezer but (well where I live, here in Trinidad) those things send your electric bill soaring! When my dad was buying a new fridge he spent a long time looking for a fridge which had a large and deep freezer. I never thought of it before then but a lot of freezers on the fridge are pretty small. Although my freezer isn't as stocked as it was before I still have trouble finding space to store things from time to time. This usually happens when I want to put my ice cream bowl in the freezer or we just bought fish or goat which also ends up going in the freezer till we are ready to cook it.

[HeatherFeather]

I can scratch the miso paste off of my list. I was prepping my meals and noticed the date on the package was earlier than I had first realized and it has already expired. So in the trash it went.

I guess I can think about the fish fry mix next, and still get some of those marinades used. Why is it that when I want to buy a bunch of meat to freeze in marinades, the meat I want isn't on sale - grr. I am thinking that might be my best use of those marinades though - I always forget to use them otherwise.

The plan is to buy a large package of meat that will taste good with the appropriate marinades, along with some freezer ziploc bags. When I get home, I will divide up the meat into small packages and pour the marinade into the bag, seal it, and freeze it. Then whenever I feel like having marinated chicken or whatever, I won't have to plan too far ahead - I can just pull it out to thaw and cook with no waiting on marinating time.

[Roxanne]

I usually pre-marinate my chicken too. I use fresh herbs and all purpose seasoning then package it as I want, freeze and thaw to cook when I am ready. I'm actually looking at my list and there are a lot of things I haven't touched yet. Last week I had a lot of recipes planned to use these items but I went out every single day (unusual for me) and ate whatever I had in the freezer and fridge when I got home. So this week I am hoping to get moving in that arena and use each item at least once before the month finishes.

[Kchurchill5]

Cutting up chicken for skewers works great too and they are quick cooking, premarinate. I do it with pork loin slices and also thin slices of pork or beef with stir fry.

[HeatherFeather]

Used some of the bourbon up tonight in sweet potatoes. Fiddled around with several similar recipes until I got something that sounded right to me - hope it turns out.