Our new freezer is working splendidly. It is bigger than the old one, and much easier to see what is stored therein. Husband and I realized after transferring things to the new freezer that we had far too many frozen leftover dinner entrees and we decided to cut back on our cooking and make finishing off the leftovers a priority.
We are usually pretty good at labeling foods we freeze by writing the name of the foods on the lid of the container using a permanent marker. It isn’t the best method, since the older lids have multiple names on them. I try to cross out the old names before I write a new one.
This week I chose three containers of leftovers to finish off. One was labeled “Cuban Black Beans”. One was labeled “Rare Lamb Roast”. The last one had “Green Chili Chicken” written on the lid. As they thawed I checked to make certain the labels reflected what was in the containers. They seemed to match.
Husband heated up some of the chicken for dinner on Monday. We were looking forward to some Southwest food, and had heated up some corn to accompany it. It was quite a shock to find that the chicken bundles topped with what I thought was tomatillo chili sauce were really haddock-stuffed cabbage rolls with dill cream sauce (Fischrouladen), a Northern German dish. The coarse mustard in the sauce looked just like tomatillo seeds. It tasted really good, though.
We bought some freezer tape to put on container lids so that we can write the contents on the tape instead of the lid. That may help reduce the confusion of our leftover’s identity. In a few days I will pull some more leftovers out of the freezer. I hope there aren’t any surprises.
How carefully do you read food labels when you shop?Many Unidentified Frozen Objects in your freezer? How do you manage leftovers?
yesterday my daughter offered me some broccoli cheddar soup and I told her I would certain that there would be chicken stock in it. I have seen it before at Mills Fleet Farm in their camping supplies and also at one of the other camping supply stores in the tinfoil bag that you tear the corner off and just add it to water reading the label she said look there is no chicken stock in it when I promised her that there was chicken stock in this label, I remembered she looked it up online and discovered that they have incorporated chicken stock into their listing as natural flavorings, and don’t mention the fact that there’s chicken stock or beef stock in any of their Soups. I’ll try and get the name of it so that you can be certain not to buy it yourself if you are of the veggie persuasion.
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I promise one of these days. I will figure out how to get signed back onto the trail and stop being anonymous.
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Third party cookies……
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I have third party cookies blocked. It doesn’t cause a problem for me.
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I became a vegetarian when I was 16 so I have decades of careful label reading under my belt. Luckily these days there are so many more “safe” options, but I have yet to find a commercially-made broccoli cheese soup that doesn’t have chicken stock. (And I’ve discovered that you also can’t always trust wait staff to tell you the truth about things like chicken stock and lard.)
Personally, I’m a very good labeler. For jams I just use a marker on the lid since those top lids get dumped after one use. For vacuum sealed bags I just write with sharpie right on the bag. Everything else gets painter’s tape with sharpie and also the year.
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Our leftovers are seldom a full dinner’s worth so we don’t clutter up the freezer with them. They go into the refrigerator and get eaten for subsequent lunches or breakfast, or not. If they don’t get eaten in a couple of days they go to compost. I have never found a worthy commercial soup and never buy them, so I have no soup labels to read. If my homemade soup contains chicken broth, it’s because I put it there.
Our freezer labeling echoes Sherrilee’s, with sharpie notation on freezer bags, canning jar lids and on masking tape.
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Rise and Get Out That Marker, Baboons,
I am erratic about labeling left overs. It depends on how available the materials for labeling are. Since husband’s descent into dementia, the masking tape and Sharpee Markers wander out of the drawer. When that happens then I place the item in the freezer and forget what it was. Right now there are 3 pints of beef barley soup in there, unlabeled. Sigh. When I use a plastic bag (boo, hiss for plastic) which I try to avoid, all I have to do is find the marker and it is labeled with name of item, amount, and date. That works.
I read many labels while shopping because I have encountered so many problem ingredients: MSG also known as “Natural Flavoring–also known as a LIE”, high levels of sodium, extra sugar, preservatives
I get hives when there is a lot of MSG.
Renee, I am delighted to hear of the new freezer working for you. I am waiting to hear what you name her. I loved the Lutheran Freezer and will miss that one.
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Two OTs:
1. A Master Gardener friend of mine recently retired and is now giving concerts, often in her home or someone else’s home. Here is her website. These are usually free with a donation:
musichouse415.com
There are a few notable musicians on here. My friend is Anita.
2. Husband’s cousin Kevin Sand helps me care for husband when I need a break and travel. His son, Rob Sand is now Governor-elect of Iowa. He did very well Tuesday evening and they called the race pretty early. Now on to governing.
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Boommate is allergic to turmeric, so we read labels carefully. We still cook with turmeric, but she eats other things when we do that.
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The Leftovers HBO series used this song.
Let the mystery be on the labels. Open. Sniff. Consume.
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Excellent choice!
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LOL!
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Just this week I lamented the fact that I hadn’t labeled a freezer item, so I am now leaving a black Sharpie next to the freezer – we’ll see if that helps.
I read labels fairly often when grocery shopping – but I’m a lot less picky these days, when I often have canned soups, frozen entrees, and I just try and forget what might be in them. It’s sort of a survival thing on days when there just is no time to cook.
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