*SOLD* - Fisher Paykel Stainless Steel Fridge

[Tack]

Eh? In SG they were common but in UK you'd be hard pressed to find freezer on top. I couldn't unless the freezer bit was tiny.

[Kooky]

What do people put in freezers if they don't live on ready meals? Do you batch cook and freeze portions? Our freezer is quite small and usually mostly empty, seems a total waste of space and power.

[chocolate]

Well, in my freezer, I have gin and / or vodka !

[Tack]

Ice cream
Fruit and veg from the garden.
Game
Leftovers eg breadcrumbs, things from tins that I didn't need all of eg anchovies, tomato puree.
freezer blocks to take in coolbags
Ice
And sometimes I get a whole lamb or large portion of some other beast from farmer brother.
Usually there is a pizza for son hunger attacks.
And stock.

[BoD]

Just checked. Gin, Vodka, ice, meat and mysterious looking stock

[Fat Bob]

Well, in my freezer, I have gin and / or vodka !

IS your freezer on top of the fridge? IS that why you're having trouble seeing whether it's gin or vodka in there at the mo?

[Bender]

What do people put in freezers if they don't live on ready meals? Do you batch cook and freeze portions? Our freezer is quite small and usually mostly empty, seems a total waste of space and power.

We have the freezer side of the fridge and a small chest freezer and they're usually full. We make the most of them to save money, time and effort by shopping when things are least expensive and shopping less often. We don't believe in food wastage - it's like throwing away money, and we're fairly organised; generally the week's dinners are planned in advance and there's very little cooking done on weekdays.

In the freezers we usually have:

• meat & poultry - bought in bulk 3-4 times a year, packed into portions and labeled
• ordinary sliced toast bread - bought in bulk at less than $1/loaf
• packaged veg, ice cream and other frozen groceries, bought in multiples when on sale
• frozen filo/puff pastry sheets
• ice and booze
• takeaway/takeout, eg chinese (we buy a heap at once)
• cooked meals; if we're cooking anyway we might as well do a lot at once, eg huge curries, 20 large size chicken/beef/whatever pies at once, heaps of pasta sauce, enough soup to last a few months, etc.

We don't routinely have ready-made meals (they're mostly poor value for money), but sometimes buy them to keep as a backup.

[slinky]

Mainly I keep frozen chicken in the freezer - I buy a bunch fresh and freeze it so I can just thaw portions as needed. I sometimes freeze half of something I've made when I've made a large amount. I can't seem to plan a whole week of meals in advance mainly because on, say a Monday, I don't know what I'm going to want to eat on Thursday or Friday

[Possum]

Bender, you have WAYYYYY too much time on your hands

[Bender]

Bender, you have WAYYYYY too much time on your hands

Bzzzzzt! Wrong! It's exactly the opposite - that's why we have the organised freezer.

[Possum]

There could be a business opportunity here… “The freezer doctors”
I’m just jealous

[Lili Von Shtupp]

So am I.

[slinky]

There could be a business opportunity here… “The freezer doctors”
I’m just jealous

Oooh, good point! The Freezer Gurus - Bender and Disco Bunny

People have made a lot of money on ideas that aren't half as good or useful as that!

[baloo]

Our freezer is so full there is no room for vodka.

Meat and Chicken bought in bulk then packaged in meal size portions. Kids meals precooked in large batches then stored in meal size portions. Ice cream. Rice. Ice packs (kids are forever needing them after a tumble down the stairs).

[Jedi]

But it does look like the one I had 2 condos before the current one, only the handle was on the other side.

[Kooky]

Bender and Disco Bunny's Freezer Heist

I don't eat a lot of what's been mentioned but I did once buy some chicken pieces that were going cheap in Woolies, and repackage and freeze them. Then I forgot about them.

I very occasionally cook a meal and save/freeze one portion to have when Neo's away but that's about as far as my bulk cooking goes. I really must make an effort to do more now we're poor.

We can't plan a week's worth of meals. I started to do that when we first moved to Oz (and I should have known better 'cos I did try it once in Sg) but then Neo would call and say he would be late home, or he'd tell me on Monday he had a work thing on Tuesday, or I'd go out and stay out, etc., and we just wasted food.

Planning is just not our thing I guess

[baloo]

Maybe you should do up a new spreadhseet....

[cromasaig]

Aside from meat, frozen veg, ice cream, emergency pizzas etc, we (well, Mr Crom) does a lot of bulk cooking and freezing. Eg, 20 portions of spag bol at a time, soup, etc. Also, every time we have a roast chicken, we strip it and freeze the carcass. Then, when we have four or five, he makes up a huge batch of stock, bags it up in 1l portions and sticks it in the freezer for making risotto, soups etc. In fact, we also tend to freeze the offcuts of veggies (leek stalks, spring onions etc) and tip them into the stock pot too. Oh, and I make up vast batches of mash and freeze that in portions. So we've got a fridge freezer and a small chest freezer.

Bit like Bender, it's a combination of meanness and wanting to eat well. The biggest difference to the quality of our food has been from using home-made stock. Bender, fancy sending me your recipe for home-made pies? Neither of us can make pastry, so we buy it frozen. Not sure how you'd then defrost it, make a pie and then freeze it again. Don't think you can, can you?

In our more domestic phases, we also have frozen bottles of home made elderflower cordial (keeps better).

Oh, and the vodka and the gin, natch...

[Kooky]

Maybe you should do up a new spreadhseet....

Well you know my OCD so you can tell how much I hate cooking I think this must be my area of chaos amongst all the anal stuff.

I've driven Neo mad this week (yes, more than usual) with my constant list-making. Or rather dictating. Well it's over, and we're heading back today, so I can finally come out of Project Manager mode and give him a break. Ahhhh....

[Scrummy Mummy]

I should add that I've NEVER seen as many fridges and freezers as they have in the Crom household - there were more fridges than rooms..........

[Tas]

oh my, I'm am totally re-inspired by Bender et al to get my bulk cooking in order. A weekend of cooking and nesting sounds great!!

I keep all my sandwich and toast breads in the freezer, keep pizza cheese and lavish bread for homemade pizza attacks, and usually a few portions bags of chilli. Maybe mince. I've tried to freeze meat, but I keep finding I leave it over a year and bin it because not a massive fan of defrost meat texture / flavour (think I'm doing something wrong with it).

[cromasaig]

I should add that I've NEVER seen as many fridges and freezers as they have in the Crom household - there were more fridges than rooms..........

True, there are four, but in my defence, one of them was left by the owner and isn't used, so we actually use a fridge, a freezer and a fridge-freezer.

[Pinklepurr]

Don't know what I would do without my freezer. I want a chest freezer as well because my current one is always too full, but have nowhere to put it.

Bender, you are the most amazingly organised person..and you have a label maker don't you? I remember reading that some time back and now I know why. wow.

K, I nearly fell off my chair laughing, you described our household exactly when explaining why you can't plan a weeks worth of meals. I tried also, total failure. Most of my freezer is full of small meals for one...leftovers from those nights when it was supposed to be more, and for all those nights when it is just me.

Oh, and upside down fridge freezers are the only way to go!

[Beesknees]

every time we have a roast chicken, we strip it and freeze the carcass.
.

Eeeeew <BOAK> at the thought of carcasses.

[Tack]

Haha, my paternal grandmother was appalled that my mother fed us bone soup...