Inventory

One of the things that I need to do periodically is take an inventory of my freezers, pantry and fridge to see what is going on in there.

With all the preserving, drying and freezing we do in the summer with our veggies from the garden, plus buying roasts and turkeys when they are on sale, my freezers and my pantry can sometimes become a black hole. I forget what is in there, stuff gets tucked behind other stuff, and then before you know it I have 17 bags of spinach and no meat.

Today, as I was getting ready to make my grocery list/meal plan for the week I decided it was time for a mid-winter freezer inventory. What is still hanging out in there from the summer harvest? Turns out: A TON!

That is my list of stuff in my freezers. Seriously. (click to enlarge)

There is some blackberry jam, strawberries, plums, blackberries, and a turkey. 

That is a whole mess of miscellaneous stuff (I dug it out of the bottom) including lots of corn, diced tomatoes, smoked whole peppers, smoked tomatoes, some ground sausage, a mish mash of other veggies like eggplant, peas, spinach, edemame, zucchini, and so forth.

There is also a TON of tomatillo sauce, pesto, and tomato sauce and tomato juice cubes.

This all came out of there, too. More fruit (something like 7-8 gallon bags full), some meat items, and some more veggies.

Meat list above, veggie and misc. list below.

It is a good thing I looked. I have a bunch of stuff that needs to be used up before it is freezer burned beyond use! One thing going on the menu for this week is Posole, a Mexican pork and hominy soup. The pork for posole I have in my freezer has been there for a (ahem) while. It needs to get used.

Also, I didn't realize I had a bag of shelled edemame in there. I pulled that out and used some of it in my lunch today.

I was frustrated shopping the other day because it isn't fresh fruit season yet. I guess I should have gone shopping in my freezer because I have blackberries, blueberries, plums, strawberries, and peaches all just waiting to be used in yogurt/granola breakfasts, on top of or in pancakes, smoothies and however else I can think of.

My meal plans over the next few weeks are going to include a pesto pasta veggie dish, some posole, a corn and pepper chowder, some verde chicken enchilada, a veggie based lasagna, and chili (tomorrow for the Super Bowl!). I also have plenty of meat options for meals so I won't be picking up any meat for a week or two. We will just need to make do with what is in there. Once we make a good dent we can get something else.

How often do you do a freezer/pantry/fridge inventory?