Today I celebrated Independence day weekend by cleaning out the freezer and getting all the oldest stuff ready for the grill. Fred’s home today, and he’s grilling for me. I hate to clean out my freezer but I do it every now and then, to make sure of what we’ve got. Turns out I had a lot more in there than I knew. Over 20 pounds of ground beef, 25 pounds of chicken and about 15 pounds of ground turkey and turkey sausage. We are not starving in our household at all. Not even close. I wore gloves as I cleaned it out, to protect my hands, and found a lot of stuff I didn’t know we had.
All the packages of meat that were 2 years old (or older EEK!) I took out and they are thawing on pans on the picnic table. When Fred grills this evening we’ll cook all the stuff that’s thawing. I figure grilling meat is the best way to cover up the taste of any freezerburn. So far I’m thawing about 5-pounds of chicken leg quarters, 2 pounds pork chops (might be 3 years old or older, shame on me 😦 ) A couple of chicken boneless chicken breasts, some thin sliced round steaks (older than pork chops, double shame on me 😦 ) and 3 pounds of ground turkey that I had packaged into individual patties and needs to be used up. We’ll be feasting tonight and the rest of the weekend.
We’re still not sure which family members are coming over, but whoever shows up, we’re ready for them.
By the way, it occurred to me that grilling chicken leg-quarters is probably one of the best ways to use them. I haven’t grilled them much in the past, but if they turn out good tonight, then I may do it more often in the future. We’re dousing everythign with steak sauce and barbecue sauce while grilling, so it will all taste pretty much the same, ie Not Like Freezerburn 😉 .
Hope everyone’s weekend is spectacular.
Frugal Abundance 
Aren’t Freezers wonderful? We solved the “ack!-what-is-hiding-in-my-freezer?” problem with a whiteboard. We use it to keep track of how much of what is in the freezer. Whenever we take something out or put something in, we take a few seconds to mark it on the board. It makes meal planning easier and makes sure that nothing goes to waste. Also, we put smaller packages together in gallon zip bags to make them easier to find. For example, each steak is individually sealed in it’s own package, and then we fill a gallon freezer bag with the single packages of steak.
Sis,
I hope your bbq had a crowd!
Hugs
mel
Hope you had a wonderful 4th!
I love 4th of July BBQ’s and your sounds like it will be super yummy….can I swing on by? LOL too bad I am about 6 zillion miles away!
Happy 4th!
We did a variation on the whiteboard idea. That helped with our freezer. We also bought a bunch of… well, they’re like small white plastic laundry baskets. They were $1 for two at our local hardware (Aco). They stack on top of one another (or if you turn them the other way, they nest, but we have had no need for that). This has really helped us to keep our freezer organized, because you don’t have to worry about rotating and using up a whole chest freezer, just one basket at a time.
His there Mel! What a pleasure to see my sweet sissy :D. Our Weekend was lovely. Fred and I got to honeymoon a little bit while the boys spent the night at their grandparents. It was perfect. Hope your summer is going just as well.
Hugs & Love 🙂 Maggie
Robyn, hope yours was wonderful too, and that the girls are having a beautiful summer. BTW, Love your new picture on your blog. I was beginning to wonder if you all had 3 eyes or tentacles coming out of your ears or something. Nice to see that you’re a normal beautiful family, with an extra good mommy. Of course I already knew that last part, even if you did have 3 eyes and tentacle ears. 😉
Hugs 🙂
Maggie
Hey MomZoo, we’ve still got leftovers so swing on by for a doggy bag. We’re happy to share!
Great Idea Leta, I’ve been looking for something like that, but haven’t really made it a priority yet. I had forgotten of hardware stores. Thanks for the tip.
Bookworm Dragon, your idea sounds so organized and on top of things. I’ve tried keeping track in a notebook, but haven’t reached that degree of organization yet. It’s something I’m still aspiring to. Thanks for sharing.
Hey I love your blog and website!
How did the grilled meat turn out?
Susanne
The leg-quarters were heavenly. The pork chops were very good. I haven’t had pork chops in a long time and had forgotten how yummy tje fat is. The thin beef steaks were like saddle leather. Not good at all. The burgers were good, better with the A-1 & BBQ sauce than they were plain. I also made a GFCF pound cake that turned out relatively good. The kids loved the cake, but I think I can do better. Then we put Tofu Whipped topping and sliced strawberries over the cake. It was amazingly good.
BTW, is this Susanne, the HBHW or another Susanne?
Oh, thank you, Maggie. I am blessed to have found your site. My little boy was diagnosed with AS this spring. He sounds so much like your son, Tom. You don’t know how I’m drinking up the dietary information on your web site. I am hopeful that it will help my lil’ guy. Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge. L
I wish I had that much food in my freezer! LOL
I’m working in it though!
hope your weekend went well.
While reading through our home owners policy, I discovered that we are covered up to $500 for freezer food lost in a power outage. Isn’t that good news? Then I thought, would I want to risk cancellation for a $500 food claim?
We are pretty good at emptying our freezer between shopping trips. I’m not sure if thats a good thing or not…. but out here we lose power several times a year and often for several days!
Sounds like your BBQ was great! Another great way to cover the taste is to marinate (esp. the chicken pieces) in Italian dressing before grilling.
Glad to hear most of it tasted good! 🙂 no this is not HBHW susanne, I’m just a swedish fan of your site who happen to be named Susanne. 😀