I seem to spend a large portion of my life keeping track of food.
How much food is in the fridge? How is the food doing in the garden? Is there food in the pantry? Writing missing food down on lists. Keeping track of where that food list is in the house. What will I make for food today? When's the last time I pooped out my food?
It's time consuming. So a few days ago I figured I should do something, anything, to cut down on the amount of time I spend keeping track of food.
I did that, by ... keeping track of food.
Whenever I make meals, I often have food leftover. A lot of people with only one or two people in the household see this as a problem. They think this is one of the downfalls of cooking for one. The fact that one person can't eat a whole pan of lasagna.
Those people are stupid.
First of all, one person can totally eat a whole pan of lasagna, and the fact that you think you can't really means you think you shouldn't which proves you are a person of superior willpower. Good for you.
Second of all, a whole pan of lasagna never needs to be wasted, it needs to be frozen!
Cooking for one or two is the best thing EVER because you almost always have leftovers. And if you have even just 3 or 4 braincells remaining after a day at work you should have the mental capacity to remember to freeze the leftovers.
My one piece of advice with freezing leftovers? Do it RIGHT AWAY. Do not stick the leftovers back in the fridge, click your heels and walk away thinking "I'll take care of those tomorrow". Because you won't. They will get pushed further and further back into the abyss of the refrigerator until one day, 7 years from now you'll look behind that jar of sweet pickles to discover something that's now fur covered and has almost mastered the basics of language.
So the freezing of leftovers I've had down pat for a while. I even threw them into the same general area of the freezer so I knew where to root around if I didn't feel like making dinner.
But my method seemed inefficient. I know this because I found a container of frozen pizza sauce dated 2001 last week. (that's another tip, write the date you packaged the item with a Sharpie on your Foodsaver bag, freezer bag, mason jar or tupperware container)
So, even though it was a pajama day, I threw on my shoes and ran to the Dollar Store to pick up some containers for organizing. I pretty much blended into the rest of the Dollar Store shoppers pajama outfits.
This is what I ended up with.
In the main portion of my freezer (I have a small upright freezer in my mudroom, but this method can be used with any regular refrigerator freezer) I labelled bins for the various meats I keep on hand. Steaks, Ground beef, Chicken, Roasts.
For the freezer door I bought small plastic bins and put them in the door shelves. I have no idea what idiot thinks these door shelves should be designed like an enormous hole with a single inch wide bar holding everything in place, but as I said ... those people are idiots. Unless you have a large carton, things inevitably slip out and crash onto the floor.
The small plastic bins in the doors stops smaller things from plummeting to the earth. These door bins are reserved for seafood, pizza dough/pie dough, frozen rhubarb and a few other things.
And finally, the best part ever. I bought 3 bins specifically for leftovers or foods that I've premade. Like that famous leftover lasagna, or premade hamburger patties, or frozen pesto.
On each bin I've attached a note that says what's in that specific bin and how much. When I take something out and scarf it down, I cross it off the list. When I add something new to the bin (like I did yesterday with Curried Cauliflower Soup) I write it on the list.
Not only are my leftovers easy to find, I know at all times exactly what I have in there.
I don't mean to brag but I feel like a better person than everyone else now. I walk among the rest of you with the knowledge I am ... s l i g h t l y ... better. And with a few bins, a pen and a piece of paper you can be better too.
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sharon
What do you think? We are changing from a chest to an upright freezer. In our 80s, we no longer can lift that old door! The new freezer is located in the detached garage. I am thinking of getting one extra bin. Then once a week I can fill a weeks supply of food to bring in the house and put it in the small freezer in our fridge.. That will save me a trip out to the big freezer and also it means opening it up only once a week. We love having a large freezer as it means we only have to ask someone to take us to the market once a month.
Karen
Hi Sharon! I think that sounds like a great plan. Plus you'll be forced to plan out all your menus for the week which is always good. You'll love the upright freezer. Take a look at my even BETTER organized freezer plan. I fit twice as much into my already organized freezer. :) ~ karen!
RG
Does this help you use up the food quickly? I have to go into freezer clean-out mode, threats of winter power outages help. Some of the food is summer produce, some cheap sales, some extras from parties. I'm okay about using up dinner leftovers for lunch/snack unless I come home with 6 pounds of ground beef. Maybe it should be like closets - you put something in, you gotta take something out? I do buy an extra turkey when they're on sale: cook, separate dark/breast, portion - this is one of the few foods that gains value by freezing. My only tactic is to take a week/month and shop from the freezer.
Karen
Hi RG. I find I use the leftovers/prepared foods in my freezer WAY more often because I have notes telling me exactly what's there and they're so much easier to get to. So yes ... I personally use up foods in the freezer more quickly now. ~ karen!
Laura Bee
So glad I am getting caught up on your posts. I found 3 half bags of peas just last month between our fridge freezer & the little deepfreeze in the basement. And the elderberries are still waiting to be baked. Then somebody didn't reclose the bag of frozen mized berries properly & I dumped at least a cup all over the floor. It's in a sad state. My chest freezer is not too bad, but I try to buy meat only as we need it now, so it's usually just has icecream and those marg tubs with strawberries from 2005.
I may have said this before, but my aunt recently found a 21 year old jar of cherries in the back of her cold cellar :) I'm not that bad - yet!
Karen
LOL. Yup. Gotta love the decades old cherries. :) ~ karen!
Robyn
I used to have an upright freezer...now I don't...but I'm getting another one. Then I will be organised like you :-)
Sandra
I, too, would like an upright but, because I don't, I use plastic bags to separate the food in my smaller-sized chest freezer. I did have a list tacked on the wall behind it, and could do it again, because I separate the fam-dam-ly sized warehouse packs that I continue to buy for my husband and myself, and put them in plastic freezer bags (dated). I'm pretty good about using the older ones, but just recently found some almost year old packages of meat in the bottom freezer of the fridge that I'd brought up because I thought I'd use them right away (and forgot to); they were probably only 6 months old then. I'm proud to say that I'm passing on the $3.99 top sirloin steaks on sale at Sobey's today (already have some, haha, and there's just no DAMN room)!!
Barbie
well....you "are" smarter than me I guess! I do this with my christmas bins as I have so many. I organize like that so I LOVED this post. So going to do that...
Amanda
This post cements your genius status. You are my hero!
Karen
Aw shucks. :) ~ karen!
NikiDee
Beautiful! I have a drawer style freezer & find that it packs better than my old side by side. I Sharpie & Foodsaver all my foods (house of 2 eaters). But do confess, I've had my share of furry monsters lurking in the fridge.
Amie
Love the Garfield with the lasagna reference. True story: I was obsessed with lasagna when I was little, only because Garfield was.
Aimee at Simple Bites also has some great recommendations for freezer and fridge storage. http://www.simplebites.net/kitchen-tour-refrigerator-freezer-organization/
I like your method of labelling and having a list. It definitely stops you from digging around to find something that isn't there.
BGrigg
This reminds me...
I need to defrost my freezer. I always wait until the winter freeze happens, so I can just put the frozen food outside while the freezer is defrosting.
Another thought about leftover soup. My mom called this "Gottago" soup. She would open the fridge and say "This has got to go!" and proceed to make soup with all the stuff that had to go. Some of which had already went!
Amanda - Small Home Big Start
I wish I had a large freezer like this to keep everything organized! I try to keep like things somewhat together in my ridiculously small freezer compartment of my fridge, but it's hard with limited space. But I will absolutely be using the list! It would be great to know what's in there and see our "options" for dinner. Thanks Karen, as always :)
Julie
You make me want to go right out and buy an upright freezer :)
Michael H
I've got a small chest freezer and being single, got tired of "losing" items in there until they looked like some form of ice relic or sculpture. I took some thin plywood and made a frame inside to divide it into compartments of custom size. I then took a dry erase board and stuck it on the lid. Now I know what is where and when it went in.
rktrixy
When my uncle and aunt had finally shooed all 7 kids out the door, they had trouble dialing it down and only cooking for two. Which lead to a lot of leftovers. When it was just bits, not enough for a full meal, my aunt would put them in a re-used butter tub, kept in the freezer. When it was full, it was time to make soup. My uncle said - it's great because you have all the memories of meals floating by, and it's always different because the combination of "bits" lead to some unusual flavor combinations.
Leftover soup - try it tonight!
Karen
"... the memories of meals floating by," LOL. That's how all the finest dining establishments describe their soups. :) ~ karen!
Karen S.
Oh my gosh! This is coming at the perfect time for me. We have a freezer full of stuff, but I have no idea what. So I keep going to the grocery store and buying more! This is THE BEST idea that I've ever seen, and I can see that it would totally work for me. I'm hoppin' to it this weekend and doin' it! Thanks for the inspiration!! (Plus, my hubby will put stuff in the right bin instead of just chucking it in.)
Joanne
My husband and I have finally evicted our kids (all four of them) but still buy food at Costco and cook for six, so of course we always have leftovers. That's the way I like it! I cook maybe twice a week. If I buy a whole whack of ground beef, I cook it up with onion and garlic and divide it into containers--instant chili, spaghetti sauce or tacos. I buy little labels at Dollarama and write the date and what's inside the tupperware containers, but really should graduate to ziplock bags. I love the idea of using bins, but how did you know that they'd fit? Did you measure everything? Between my house and cottage I have five freezers/freezer compartments, so it gets really confusing. One time I used my iPhone to take a picture of what was in the fridge at the cottage so I could refer to it later. Didn't really work, LOL! I have a great app--shopshop--on my iPhone and iPad and try to keep track of what I need, but there's always something forgotten. You're right--so much of our time is taken up with buying food, preparing it, and storing it. Drives me crazy!! Anyway, thanks for the tips!!
Elen Grey | Deep in B-ville Writing Over the Garage
I have a chest freezer, and I'm going with the bins anyway. I'm much better at labeling things than I used to be, but this is better, better, and better. Thank you, Karen.
Stacy.P
Is there anything you do that does make me love just a little more?!
Stacy.P
Should read: (I need to read my comments before I click)
Is there anything you do that does not make me love you just a little bit more?!
Shauna
I hate my refrigerator and my freezer. they are soooo tiny. but in a small house, it's what fits. needless to say, my freezer would be full with two bins. i need to try to organize again, but sometimes I find that just stuffing it all in and finding an extra little crevice here and there to stuff something else holds a lot more than the bins.
Mary Catherine
marry me.
Karen
ok. ~ karen