Wednesday 27 July 2016

Making Every Day Count: 5/40

This morning I drew up an inventory of everything in my freezer.

I counted 102 items ranging from tiny sachets of herbs to a long roll of filo pastry.  My printed list divides them up by drawer, and colour codes them by category.  Orange items are cooked, blue raw, green vegetables and fruit, yellow miscellaneous and pink desert.

There are 12 items coloured red - for danger!  These are items which have been languishing at the back of my freezer for longer than I care to admit, and which may longer be fit for human consumption.  Does anyone know the freezer life of puff pastry?  Or what terrible fate would await you if you ate it?

Then there are the unlabelled containers filled with orangey yellow substances that could be dhal, or mashed swede or stewed apple.  Who knows?  Fruit puree on a bed of basmati anybody?  How I wish I'd taken the few minutes to label them before squeezing them in beside yet another nameless package.

There are 7 balls of pastry, 12 egg whites, the juice of 14 lemons, four bags of bread in various forms, another four of grated cheese and half a dozen sachets of fresh herbs.  You'll gather I don't believe in throwing anything away, but equally that I don't often get round to using up these leftovers.

I reckon I've enough frozen food to keep me going for some time, even if I do ditch the dodgy items.  On which note I'll leave you to consult Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on what to do with a tub of cubed beetroot.

4 comments:

  1. Oh those featureless tubs of yellow/ brown / orange concoctions of indeterminate origin sound so familiar. I tend to bet on them being vegetable based (quick cook up of 'veg on the edge' into some sort of stew - then thrown in a takeaway tub into the freezer). More often than not that is correct and can be a handy quick supper . Occasionally I am horribly wrong. :)

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    1. I don't know how long I can keep it up, but the last few things I've squeezed into the freezer have not only been labelled but also dated! Have I finally learnt my lesson?

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  2. We recently had a week of 'Arctic Surprise' dinners, i.e. stuff that had been in the freezer for ages, amd was all a bit unnacountable and mysterious. Most of it was labelled, and there was only one truly unpleasant dinner, where the food had been in the freezer for a couple of years , and the texture and flavour were shot to pieces when it was defrosted and eaten. X

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    1. Arctic Surprise! I like it! Having reminded myself of what's actually lurking at the back of my freezer drawers I've made use of several items this week, including a tiny packet of orange rind.

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