Eating out of Freezer

Overstuffed.  Good thing I delayed purchasing the box of phyllo for baklava that I want to make for scheduled guests.  As it is, I had to remove an ice cube tray and most of my frozen cold compresses to cram all the food I bought into the freezer.  

The freezer makes for fast food, or really easy to prepare food since I virtually never buy prepackaged meals.  There's kosher meat when it goes on sale.  Two whole chickens and a quarter turkey breast take up a lot of space and have become special occasion entrees.  I've accumulated beef, stackable in the packaging, though for shabbos and other special occasions.  For more daily fare, fish is probably nature's fast food.  It comes frozen at sea.  I almost never buy at the fish counter anymore.   Also comes in crunchy fillets.  Just thaw a day in advance, season, and mostly made in skillet or broiled.  Lots of meals that way.  The next level are ersatz meats.  Beyond Burger or Gardein products go directly from freezer to skillet.  Frozen vegetables go on sale.  Pour the desired amount into a dish and microwave, or pour similar amount into boiling water for a few minutes.  While I prefer fresh vegetables, the added convenience, versatility, and long usable life of frozen makes it worth keeping some around.  And it comes in flexible plastic bags that can be positioned in nooks.

We keep one or two cartons of ice cream in the door shelf.  Ample butter and Earth Balance which makes the best pareve butter substitute for baking.  And some leftover phyllo, just enough to try making strudel, though not enough for baklava.  And we have easy boil pasta, in the form of ravioli or pierogies that make for a quick meal.  And frozen Tabachnick soups that we should eat more frequently than we do, but goes on sale periodically.

As we get to the festive eating of the Holy Day Season, it is my intent to consume some of this a meal or two at a time, several times a week.  Menu planning mostly done when I open the freezer door, though Holy Days and guests get more thought.  But I really need to re-freeze some of my cold compresses.

Harvesting My Freezer

 

As I pursue grocery shopping, driven by a mixture of Trader Joe's staples and discounts from the weekly Shop-Rite ad, my purchasing has changed for the better the past few months.  I sometimes follow a list, though usually not.  But to offset that, when I put something in the cart I know what I want to do with it.  Good price on salmon means gravlax.  There are shabbos dinner staples like chicken breasts or sometimes a cut-up chicken, or cubed beef bought for that purpose.  Recently I've been getting fish on sale, nature's fast food that I can freeze thaw a day or two before needed and make a quick dinner.  Some things are made in bulk.  Macaroni & Cheese or spinach lasagna lasts about four meals, two that week, two frozen for later.  Pierogies, ravioli, hot dogs or even Beyond Meat Burgers are also just pop into some cooking method shortly before needed.  Alas, I buy more than I eat.

Periodically I need to harvest usable leftovers or things I've not eaten.  I was looking for some frozen tilapia, packaged in serving sized portions, to put in a skillet later in the week but couldn't find them on the lower freezer compartment.  What I found instead, long forgotten by me, were some hash browns that make for a quick breakfast, hamburger rolls that when thawed add to the authenticity of the Beyond Meat Burgers.  Two minichallot, that I now do not have to buy for this shabbos, two serving sized mac & cheeses sitting in the freezer for two months, some unopened frozen vegetables, some opened with enough peas or brussels sprouts for one more dinner each.  And I knew about frozen cholent which will get used for a pre-Thanksgiving shabbos.

And I still have the upper compartment.  Tilapia probably there.

Stuffing Our Freezer

There was a time when I used to go to Philadelphia roughly quarterly and return with a large amount of Kosher meat which would occupy our freezer.  I had kids at home at the time, we ate more meat than now, and never bought a dedicated freezer to expand what was the top compartment of our refrigerator.  Kosher beef and poultry are now readily available in a dedicated section of Shop-Rite.  We eat much less of it, but our freezer always seems to be crammed.  When I see meat on sale at Shop-Rite, I get it with less regard to need.  Same for frozen vegetables.  We keep two cartons of ice cream most of the time, thought the size of each carton has been reduced from 64 to 48 oz.  Hardly any ice cubes.  Luigi's Water Ice makes a quick pareve dessert.  And we have frozen what was left of the Hamim I made the shabbos before.  We have a variety of cold packs, some intended to keep a lunch cool which we never use, and others intended to reduce swelling or inflammation of a damaged body part, which we also don't use that much.  Finding space can be a challenge so I have not been buying as much stuff that needs freezing.

That is until my last trip to Shop-Rite when they put their frozen section on sale.  Cut up Empire Chicken.  Luigi's.  Tabachnick Soups. Turkey Hill Ice Cream.  Earth Balance Parve Margarine, my preferred kind for pareve baking. Hebrew National Hot Dogs and Knockwurst.  Dr. Praeger's Garden Burgers.  Phony Parve chicken and meatballs.  Took some spacial insight to find a place for everything.  Needless to say, our next week's dinners will originate in the freezer.  Start with some garden burgers, french fries and brussel sprouts, none of which need to be pre-thawed.  Took out salmon portions for tonight which do require thawing.  Judicious on ice cream.  Brought sugar cones which limit how much I can take.  And I've been meaning to make something with phyllo.  Maybe even live a little more dangerously so I can extract one of those cold compresses.  We'll live out of the freezer this week.