Thursday, November 11, 2010

Freezer Inventory: Do You Know What is in THERE?

If you haven't figured it out by now, freezer cooking is without a doubt my favorite tip when it comes to my savings strategies. You can save a lot of time and money, but without proper measures you could also waste a lot of food!

Unlabeled and unaccounted for food tossed into the big black hole of the freezer is a recipe for disaster.

If you are going to spend time
planning for and cooking on a freezer day, you want to take every measure to preserve your food. This is often one of the most neglected steps.


Steps to Keeping Track of WHAT is in Your Freezer!


1.Label

Once you have
packaged your food for the freezer properly, don’t neglect to label it. Whether it is a freezer meal or frozen beef, make sure you write both WHAT it is and WHEN you purchased it. The contents may be obvious now, but come back in six months...you may not be able to tell!


2.Rotate

Same as with your pantry or stockpile, when you purchase more food…take the time to rotate the new to the back. This will ensure that older food is always used before newer food and consequently less waste when it comes to clean out the freezer day!


3.Keep a Freezer Inventory List

Good luck remembering everything you have in your freezer without a list. I have the memory of an elephant and I have tried my best…and I can’t remember it all. I need to have a list. I have made a
Freezer Inventory List that you can print off and use. Make sure that you stay on it and keep it up. I keep my lists on the freezer so I can mark items off as I pull them out.



4.Keep a Freezer Meal Inventory List

I prefer to keep a
Freezer Meal Inventory separate from my other freezer inventory. Maybe it is my simplistic mind, but it helps me to just look at that one sheet and know what meals I have available.


I have started to use a white board for my meal inventory rather than paper. I keep it on the freezer with a dry erase marker. When I take a meal I just mark it off.



5.Consult Your Inventory When You Menu Plan

Stay familiar with what is in your freezer. Consult your list so that you make sure you are not only inventorying, but
using what you have in a timely manner!



If you are new here you may want to go back and read the prior posts in the How to Begin Freezer Cooking Series!

1.
How to Begin Freezer Cooking
2.
Freezer Cooking Questions and Misconceptions
3.
What Can I Freeze and How Long?
4.
How to Package Your Freezer Meals
5.
Making a Freezer Cooking Plan
6.
Freezer Cooking Day Planning Worksheets

I know I said this would be the last post of the series, but...I have at least one more. I planned to do Freezer Organization with this post and it was just too much. So, look for the next post soon!

8 comments:

Kimi said...

Thank you!!

Sarah said...

Question about freezer cooking - I am new to this. How do you know when to take things out of the freezer to have them de-thawed in time? Do you take everything you need out at the beginning of the week? Or, do you pull things out in the morning? What if you forget to take something out - do you defrost it somehow? Thanks!

Katie said...

Sarah,

I usually take out the meat at the beginning of the week when I menu plan. For instance, a roast takes several days to thaw so that usually works for me. Say I have a casserole and a roast on the menu. If it is roast night and it is still frozen I can just switch it up with the casserole (which thaws faster).

If I do forget and I have nothing thawed I will defrost things in the microwave!!

Hope that answers your question1

Joy @ Joy Of Desserts said...

I'm your latest follower. :-)

Katie said...

Hi Joy, thanks for following...I love desserts so I will be checking you out!

Mom2fur said...

This is funny. I just reorganized my freezer a few days ago and I found a loaf of Trader Joe's Texas Toast bread I'd completely forgotten about. Not to mention some chips and pretzels I'd put in there because we never finish a bag before it goes stale.
I tried to group things back together again in ways that will make them easier to find. Now I know I have a boatload of pork, a little chicken and almost no beef, so I can be more prepared next time I shop!

Katie said...

Mom2Fur, doesn't it help so much to know what you have! Then when you see good deals you KNOW what you need!!

Misty said...

Thank you so much for this series... I am learning so much and I appreciate the forms, can't wait to use them. :)

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