February Freezer Challenge

Over the end of summer, the bountiful fall, and the ambitious celebration season, I tend to fill my freezer.  It gets the overflows of produce at it's peak, greens blanched our otherwise cooked down from enormous batches ready all at once.

turnip & chard & mustard

 It gets fruits frozen for use in smoothes and baking.

February blueberry waffles - FTW!

It gets portioned out beets from a large roasting session so planning ahead is an unattended thaw, rather than session with the oven I have to be there for (and the peeling, and the clean-up and…).  And it gets all the parts and bits of stuff leftover from my ambitious winter cooking - but the portions of awesome leftovers, but also the parts of convenience food I've purchased for those days that appear to be 14.5 hours long instead of the standard 24.

Oh yes, I LOVE Trader Joe's, and even some Costco items.  I finally grew out of trying to be perfect.  The hours are better, and you meet a better class of people.

And right about now I find my freezer(s) - the one in my fridge, and the chest one in the garage, to be a higgledy-piggledy hodge podge in need of some serious discipline.

Further more, the next produce season is rolling around.  I need to use up the old stuff, clean the accumulated out of the chest freezer, and make room for the next summer and fall bounty.

And the fish heads at the bottom that were due to be crab bait are REALLY ready for it now, and must not miss their chance this summer.

Last night was easy - Chicken soft tacos with leftover rice, shredded cheese and Mexican style sauerkraut with carrots (cumin & jalapeño spiced - very similar in flavor profile to the the vegetable escabeche you can get in the "ethnic" aisles - but way WAY better.)

I will thank TJ's for their cryo-vac'd pre-spiced chicken and Oly Kraut for my long keeping crunchy veg.  And corn tortillas for going through the freeze thaw so well.

Tonight?  We shall see.