Tag: freezer challenge

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Freeze! Part Three

DIANE IN DENMARK2 Comments

What’s a Scaredy Cat Challenge? To be honest, anything you like! 😉 A project you’ve been putting off. Lifestyle changes you’d like to make. A new hobby you’d like to try. You decide. We’re here to cheer you on and hold your hand! Need inspiration? Go take a peek at what my fabulous blog pals are up to – we’re all doing different things…together! In strict alphabetical order they are Asfora, Candace, Emma, Lee, Lesley, Lizand Sheryl. Always room for one more! 🙂

My own current Scaredy Cat Challenge is getting my (three) freezers under control. By the end of last week I had put everything into one freezer and made an inventory. I’ve only been using the meat etc that is in there for my menu planning, so stocks are going down, albeit slowly 😉

Here’s what’s in there, as of today, Sunday:

MEAT (all of these are servings for four people)

1 marinated chicken fillets

1 steaks

1 ribs

1 minced beef (cooked, ready for crockpot)

2 minced beef

1 minced chicken

1 large ham

1 chicken legs

1 cod fillets

1 quorn fillets

2 veggie starters

½ fish fingers

READY-TO-EAT (again, these are servings for four people)

2 suppe (meatballs/dumplings for Danish soup)

1 Biksemad (Danish beef/potato hash)

1 asparagus soup

1 asparagus/chicken filling for pastry tarts

1 ready-made crispy chicken fillets

1 ready-made crispy fish fillets

1 pizza

1 chopped chunky bacon

3 sliced bacon

2 liverpâté

VEGGIES/FRUITS

1½ sliced potatoes

2 potato rösti

½ oven chips

1 sweetcorn

1 mini onions

1 mixed veg for crockpot meals

½ peas

1 green beans

½ spinach

ginger

leftover bananas for use in smoothies/cakes

DESSERTS/PASTRY/BREAD

1 box mixed icecreams

½ B+J Phishfood icecream

½ B+J Cookie Dough icecream

1 puff pastry

1 baguette

2 packs pitabread

1 ryebread

1 morning rolls for weekend

5 Kærgården (Danish butter)

MEDICINE SHELF

½ bottle Krone snaps

Various dregs of Christmas snaps, Linie Aquavit and Porse snaps

I’m going to try and get rid of (i.e. eat) as much as possible this next week. And then the plan is to carefully (very carefully) only restock the main freezer in the kitchen. Then I can unplug the basement freezer. My safety net will be the little mini freezer (which is part of the fridge in the basement) for impulse buys. But there won’t be any more of them, will there? 😉

And what will all this achieve? Less money spent on electricity. Fewer trips up and down stairs – perhaps alleviating my newly-discovered asthma? 😉 Easier menu planning and less food waste. We shall see! 🙂

Have you got a Scaredy Cat Challenge of your own? Something you’ve been putting off? Join us – we shall hold hands and be scared together! Use the MckLinky below…

Have a super Sunday! 🙂

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Freeze! Part Two

DIANE IN DENMARK4 Comments

As I announced last week, my latest Scaredy Cat Challenge is to get my freezer under control. Truth to tell, at the moment I’m using three different freezers – yikes! On Monday morning (as soon as the schoolrun was done and before my NEWO run), I set my Flylady timer for 15 minutes.

I started this challenge by going through our big old freezer, drawer by drawer, and taking an inventory. Luckily most of the stuff was already in the correct drawer (meat, vegetables, freezer meals, bread, icecream/pastry) and I only had a small bag of stuff to chuck. Mostly bread – why do so many half loaves end up in the freezer food cemetery? 😉

On Tuesday morning I emptied the contents of the tiny fridge freezer into the big one. Added the items to my master list and chucked out some old bags of frozen fruit. And no, I’m not going to even think about the ‘best before’ dates on those bags – progress not perfection! That little freezer is now empty. But, um, might need defrosting…

On Wednesday morning I felt more challenged. It was time to decant the contents of our new kitchen freezer into the basement one. I think I felt overwhelmed because everything had just been pushed in – I hadn’t made any kind of system for the drawers in there. This is how it looked last Sunday…

But I took a deep breath, set my timer for only 5 minutes (five minutes wasn’t going to kill me, right?) and stuffed a couple of shelves’ worth into a plastic bag. Took the bag down to the big old freezer and worked as fast as I could. Each item was either a) put into the correct drawer and added to master list or b) put in the rubbish bin. Just three more 5 minute sessions and it was empty – yippee!

Well, perhaps not completely empty. I decided to leave the snaps bottles in there 😉

Did you see mymenu plan this week? I’ve only used meat etc that I already had in my (abundantly stocked)freezer. No more food is going back in there until further notice!

And what happens next with this particular Scaredy Cat Challenge? You’ll just have to wait until next Sunday for the next ex-ice-ting installment! 😉

Don’t forget to check out all the other fantastic challenges my virtual friends have embarked on…weightloss, decorating, sewing, exercise, anti-procrastination. You name it, we can do it. Holding hands and being scared. Together! 🙂

Would you like to do great things too? Add yourself with the MckLinky below.

Have a simply super Sunday! 🙂

Scaredy Cat Challenge – Freeze!

DIANE IN DENMARK8 Comments

Hooray, we’ve got even more FLYgirls taking the Scaredy Cat Challenge! Liz and Sheryl have now joined myself, Lesley, Lee, Candace, Asfora and Emma. Are you next? 🙂 Remember, it can be anything you like – something you want to do but are having trouble starting. We’re here to hold your hand! 🙂

Today I’m starting a new Scaredy Cat Challenge. Something I’ve been putting off for months…six months, to be exact! Oh, the shame! 😉 We remodelled our kitchen at the end of last year (it’s all here on the blog…) and I got a brand spanking new ‘American’ fridge. Which to those of us in Europe means b-i-g. The old fridge went out the front door and the old freezer was moved to the basement – just in case. I was glad to get a fresh start with my freezer because, although I’m getting really good at meal planning (thanks to the Flylady, I’ve been planning meals for over 30 weeks – go me!), I’m really bad at forgetting what’s in the freezer. And not using it. And buying more. You get the picture?

After 6 months, my new freezer looks like this. No rhyme or reason any more to how things are stored…just shove them in! 😉

The old freezer (you remember…the one we kept, just in case) is also full of food!

Though in my defence, at least the baskets are marked with categories: meat, bread and pastry, vegetables. And the most imporant one with all the goodies! 🙂

Did I tell you that we also have another little freezer space? The little box on top of our very first fridge – which we also keep in the basement. This freezer is very occasionally used for ‘stash and dash’ but most of the time it’s left completely to its own devices – eek! 😉

Many moons ago I used an inventory – I just typed up a list of the main things that were in the fridge (minced beef, lamb steaks, frozen peas, etc) and crossed them in and out. So I think that’s my first task. Any ideas welcome! And if you want to join me on this, or any other challenge…join up with the MckLinky below!

Have a super Sunday! 🙂