Eating Down the Freezer

Our freezer is quite small, consisting of only two shelves, but never the less it can hold quite a lot of food and periodically I tend to fill it up with meat, breakfast items (i.e muffins, crumpets, potato cakes, etc), frozen vegetables, meat pies, etc., buying the food when it is on offer, taking account of it when menu planning and keeping food spending to a minimum.

During March through to the first week of April, I was steadily working my way through the freezer using the contents for some meals, using fresh food for others and was shopping strictly in accordance with the menu plan and what was required for it.  As a consequence of this, I wasn't buying more items to fill the freezer and by this weekend I had successfully almost emptied it.  As someone who hates waste, and likes to use everything up, this feels very satisfying.  

There's still a couple of bits of meat in there, some bacon lardons and some pork steaks, but I intend to use these in the next week or two.  There are also some frozen vegetables and minced garlic, from last years allotment excess, which desperately need using up, and which I tend to put in casseroles and stews when I remember. Perhaps now that they are all that is in the freezer I will be more inclined to use them.  Other than that and several trays of ice cubes there's a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream left over from Little Bird's smoothie making, a few oven chips and a yoghurt stick.  It's really strange to see it quite so empty, it makes me feel a bit like a modern day Mother Hubbard, but having said that I am reluctant to fill it up again.  The other thing of course, is the waste of energy if I'm not keeping anything in there.  Seems silly.

Anyway,I did my weekly Lidl shop this morning, but didn't get as much as I usually do, as we may be going away for a few days later this week.  I just got some frozen vegetables and a couple of other bits to go in the freezer and other weekly fresh food items that I keep mostly in the fridge.  No wonder the bill was only £33.33 for the shop.  I still got 3 bags full though.

I'm now thinking of starting to cook more and more from fresh in future and buy more things as I need them.  I will still put some meat items in the freezer, when I divide up larger packs and make more than one meal from them and I will still have the usual frozen vegetables for convenience and breakfast/bread products likewise, but I am going to try to make more room to accommodate produce from the allotment from now on, so that nothing I do manage to grow gets wasted.

I don't know why, but I just feel I want a clean sweep of the cupboards and freezer before the new growing season gets fully underway, so that I can start from scratch and maybe start to think differently about the way I shop, where I shop and what we eat. 

It has occurred to me lately that perhaps one of the drawbacks of menu planning, is that you don't realise how often you eat the same dish until it is written down on paper.  Don't get me wrong, I  enjoy using a menu plan, as I find it means I often put a better meal on the table, rather than throwing something together last minute from the fridge or cupboards.  It makes me more organised and keeps me knowing what I need to do/get each day/week.  I will continue to menu plan for this reason and on account of the fact that it does reduce waste and save money, but I do need to inject some more variety into the process and add some more meals to my repertoire.  I'm looking forward to the challenge though.  I'll keep you posted.