Good evening everyone.
This month my goal is to eat down our freezer. We have quite a bit of frozen food on hand,
We are hoping to harvest lots of pecans at our friend's orchard in a couple months and we will store most of them in the freezer.
This is our chest freezer.
I'm pretty most of my blog readers do this kind of scratch cooking anyway. But I'm guilty of going to the store and buying things we really could easily do without and eating out a convenience instead because it's a special occasion. Any of you remember when eating out was most always because of a special occasion?
Our zinnias, that I grew from seed, are doing so well even though summer is almost over.
If you're wanting lots of color in your yard next summer, I recommend thrifty zinnias started from seed.
This month my goal is to eat down our freezer. We have quite a bit of frozen food on hand,
We are hoping to harvest lots of pecans at our friend's orchard in a couple months and we will store most of them in the freezer.
This is our chest freezer.
From these photos, it looks like we only have ice cream and vegetables.
But this freezer is 3 feet deep and I promise there is more than enough meat for the month.
I'll post an inventory later in the week as we are getting a new upright freezer delivered on Wednesday, I think. Chest freezers are just so hard to organize. I've been wanting an upright for awhile and have been watching the ads. Lowes is having a great sale this weekend. With my husband's military discount and free delivery, were getting a nice upright for about 1/2 of what it would been without careful shopping.
This chest freezer will get passed on to a son that hunts.
If you want a new freezer, this blogger Fun cheap or free is giving one away. She is doing a challenge she calls "shelf-tember" where she wants people to cook from their pantry shelves and freezer all September and only spend $25 each week on fresh produce, milk, etc. I'm not following her challenge exactly as we've already done a big grocery shopping trip this month. But I do plan to not shop much more in September and to cook every meal at home with ingredients we already have.
So far, this month we've had barbecue sandwiches and taco bowls both made with cooked roast beef in the freezer and sausage gravy on freezer biscuits. To avoid eating out, I packed sandwiches, drinks and snacks when we drove to the commissary to shop.
I'm pretty most of my blog readers do this kind of scratch cooking anyway. But I'm guilty of going to the store and buying things we really could easily do without and eating out a convenience instead because it's a special occasion. Any of you remember when eating out was most always because of a special occasion?
Our zinnias, that I grew from seed, are doing so well even though summer is almost over.
If you're wanting lots of color in your yard next summer, I recommend thrifty zinnias started from seed.
I think you readers are some of the nicest people on the internet, I've gotten so many sweet comments this month and I thank you all ❤️
Your zinnias are gorgeous! I'll have to remember that next year. Best wishes on eating out of the freezer. We need to do that as well. We'll see how it works out. We've spent more money on food since my diagnosis. I just don't have the stamina to do all the cooking.
ReplyDeleteBe blessed,
Laura of Harvest Lane Cottage
Your flowers are beautiful. I get the biggest bang for my buck from zinnia and marigold seed packs. Thanks for the Shelf Tember idea.
ReplyDeleteWow! Your zinnias are very plentiful. I grew zinnias one year from a packet but hardly any came up. I think that was the year I had water damage and had to move out for several months. I didn't get to take much care of the garden so that might have had something to do with it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your son will really use the chest freezer if he is a hunter and I just know that upright freezer will be much handier for you to organize.
Zinnia's, my favorite frugal flower! I have some in my garden and started them from seed almost 10 years ago! They come back year after year and have become one of my favorite flowers!
ReplyDeleteYes, eating out to my family is still a treat, since my husband prefers to eat at home.
How wonderful to have an extra freezer! We don't have the room for one at the moment, but they sure are handy!
I hope you have a wonderful day!
I don't want to talk smack about my chest freezer(because the freezer gods will hear me and strike mine with lightning)but I much prefer a standing freezer. But going through that standing freezer debacle a few years ago(had it not even 3 weeks and it crapped out-a Whirlpool)we went with a chest freezer. Being short it's hell on my back.....ever try to life a frozen turkey out of the very bottom of one of those when you couldn't reach the netting handle on it? lolz
ReplyDeleteI'm going to plant zinnias next year. I love how colorful they are!
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago we traded our chest freezer for an upright. I love it! No more lost items in the bottom. Chuck hated searching for things in the bottom and would give up quickly. Now he's happy to go retreive something for me.
We've cut waaaay back on our eating out. It's becoming a treat for us. Our goal is to eat out only once a month. So far we haven't reached it. What happened to celebrating birthdays by having others over for cake? It seems everyone wants you to join them out for dinner to celebrate. We've been declining some invitations, but it's hard. We want to celebrate the ones we love, but we also don't want to break the bank!
Have a great week!
We're trying to eat down the freezer as well. It got all stocked up when I was cooking for 6. Now, with just the two of us, it'll take awhile to clean it out. Yes, I have given some of it away as well. We filled Jess's frig freezer when she moved. Yet, finding pork roasts for 99 cents a pound meant we had to buy four, right? LOL. I'll keep working on it, though.
ReplyDeleteI love your gorgeous zinnias, and have been buying them for my house :( Did you start them from seed indoors and then plant the young plants? (am a horrible gardener, excuse my ignorance! )
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are gorgeous. I love zinnias - had a few this year - but nothing like yours. Love it.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on getting a new freezer!
You will really like an upright freezer. I still have baskets on the shelves for organization but I am short and reaching the bottom of a chest freezer is difficult for me so we have always had an upright. I didn't plant any zinnias this year and really missed them. They do have a tendency to mildew here in SC but I sure do enjoy them as long as they last.
ReplyDeleteYour zinnias are beautiful! I can grow them but they always get mildew and fungus on the leaves. Got to try and do something about that next year.
ReplyDeleteI do remember when eating out was just for special occasions and also when cooking from scratch was nothing special, it's just what you did.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteWe need to get to the bottom of our chest freezer, literally!
I love your idea of eating what we have on hand.
I try to do that, but not enough.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Your flowers are so pretty!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your new freezer!
I love your zinnias- they are so pretty. Your right they are the best! You are very lucky to harvest pecans. I so wish they were cheap here! My aunt used to send us some many years ago. I do miss that!
ReplyDeleteYour flowers are so pretty, its so great to have a freezer at home I got mine few years ago and don't know how I lived without it.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful zinnias! I've never tried seeds, but I sure will next year! Did you start them inside or outside in the ground?
ReplyDeleteMy bf and I were just talking about eating out when we were kids. She was telling me that one of her co-workers was taking fast food orders from her kids before she left work. Co-W was stopping at THREE different places. She said, "Not only would that never happen when I was young, but fast food was such a rarity that we didn't care where or what it was! My dad would put down a bag and say, "Everyone gets a Filet O'Fish. Share the fries."" And they'd have milk to drink. That was how it was at our house, as well. Even on road trips, we'd only stop at gas stations and rest stops. My mom always packed a lunch. And we had one of those small keggy thermos' with the little spigot...full of cold water! Soda was even a bigger rarity that eating out.
I would love an upright freezer, but a little one. I do have two stories involving uprights to keep in mind tho'. We had one when I was in college and one day the door wouldn't open. After many tries, my dad called a handyman. It turned out that my brother slammed the door and it popped open just a hair. Inside was a solid brick of ice from the motor working so hard to cool it. The second story was similar. My friend's son did the same. Slammed it, but he didn't notice it popped back open. They went out of town for the weekend, returned and the house stank. They found the freezer dead and lost a whole load of beef. While the same can happen with a chest freezer...not mine because I'm OCD about it now lol...but it seems to be easier to do with the upright.
Zinnias! Oh Lord, I saw these once in a yard and wanted to plant some but had no clue what they were. I love plants and anything green and growing but I'm the worst at knowing names.
ReplyDelete