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??


This post is linked to:

• Frugal Friday at Life as Mom!