Friday, March 26, 2010

Saving Money with a Full Freezer and Recipes Needed!

A couple of days after my major shopping day, my hubby went out to the freezer to get something for me and he came back in the house(we keep our upright stand alone freezer in the garage!) explaining that the freezer was stuffed full and he challenged me by saying "You seem to have trouble with an empty freezer! I bet you can't empty that freezer!?"

I explained to him all the benefits of having a full freezer:

  1. being energy efficient because it does not run as much to keep everything cool and frozen.
  2. having a stocked freezer is saving us money by not having to run to the store every day!  
  3. we do not need to empty a frost free freezer to defrost it, that is the main reason we spent the extra money for the frost free freezer, and
  4. if we lose power in a spring storm we won't lose too much frozen food because the food will take a while to have everything thaw.


These reasons didn't seem to change his mind that we need to empty it.

I am now on a mission to get us an empty freezer(or nearly empty freezer) in a month.  My hubby did not give me a time frame to empty it but the week after spring break I have another monthly Sam's run planned so that is why I am aiming for the freezer being empty in a month. 

I have just about completed my freezer inventory! In the stand alone freezer, I have several pounds of butter and margarine for baking, many bags of frozen veggies, a little over 10 lbs french fries, and several boxes toaster strudel. I do not have much in the way of meat so I will need to get more before the month is up. I also have plenty of food in my fridge freezer!! Looks like several burger meals on the horizon!!

To empty my stand alone freezer is going to take some(or maybe I should say, a lot!) motivation on my part. I have not had motivation to bake from scratch for a while, but I know that there is at least 8 cups shredded zucchini, 20 mashed bananas, and about 3 pounds of blueberries that I put in my freezer last summer to use by making up muffins, quick breads, and ??? over the winter months. The winter months are over and those items are still in there!

So I need your help by giving me some tried and true recipes to use up all that zucchini, bananas and blueberries.  What can I make or bake with these items except muffins??


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6 comments:

Jessica said...

Sounds like bread-making time and/or pancake time!

jamie said...

How about some blueberry/lemon scones? Zucchini quiche?

Noelle said...

I've got Food Network on in the background, here and Barefoot Contessa is making zucchini pancakes (ala potato pancakes).

I've got a favorite casserole that calls for summer squash, but I always substitute zucchini!

http://frugalhudsonvalley.blogspot.com/2010/01/summer-squash-casserole.html

Mom2fur said...

Smoothies, of course--except I'd probably leave out the zucchini, LOL!

Check out "Supercook.com" for some good recipes. You just put in a list of what you have on hand and it will throw back a gazillion recipes.

Allrecipes.com also does a by-ingredient search.

BTW, all your reasons to keep your freezer full are good ones. But maybe what your husband really means is that you should use up what you have before buying more? I know I need to do this--I can't fit another thing in my freezer, LOL!

SnoWhite said...

you've called on the right ingredients -- I LOVE zucchini and blueberries together.

Here are a few I recommend:

1) Zucchini Crisp (http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/zucchini-crisp.html)... I added blueberries! YUM. You could also try making the base the same and adding a cake mix for the top (making it a dump cake).

2) Blueberry Zucchini Bread
(http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/blueberry-zucchini-bread.html). This is my all-time favorite. Works well with whole wheat flour too.

3) Lemon Blueberry Scones
(http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/01/lemon-blueberry-scones.html) -- perfect for a spring brunch.

4) Cinnamon Zucchini Cake - (http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/09/cinnamon-zucchini-cake.html)

5) Chocolate Chip Zucchini Cake -- one of our favorite ways to use up zucchini!
(http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/05/chocolate-chip-zucchini-cake.html)

6) Whole Wheat Carrot Zucchini Cake -- I made this for Easter last year -- loved it! (http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/whole-wheat-carrot-zucchini-cake.html)

7) Carrot Zucchini Pancakes (you could even add blueberries, or serve with a blueberry sauce) --
(http://joyinmykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/02/carrot-zucchini-pancakes.html)

Sheesh... sorry, got carried away. Like I said -- these are two of my favorite ingredients :)

Let me know if you need more ideas.

LivingSoAbundantly said...

Banana Bread!!! I sometimes add chocolate chips to the recipe below, and it beats Starbuck's banana chip bread hands down!

http://livingsoabundantly.blogspot.com/2009/04/banana-bread.html


Also, if you have a lot of butter, here is a recipe for Better Than Entenmann's Crumb Cake...yum!

http://livingsoabundantly.blogspot.com/2009/04/better-than-entenmanns-crumb-cake.html

I hope this helps. :)