Mandatory Meal Planning (Damn You Freezer)
Posted on October 12, 2007 by Him and tagged appliances, food
photo: Esther17
About a month and a half ago our refrigerator didn't work so well, but we thought we saved it.
Not so much.
This past weekend we went out of town to visit some friends, only to return to a refrigerator that was barely refrigerating and a freezer that was not freezing very well.
We called our landlord and he replaced our fridge right away (he had an extra in the basement?). While most of the items in the fridge were salvaged (anything that didn't have mini-ecosystems growing in them), we were left wondering what to do with the items in the freezer.
Unfortunately, we had to discard more than we wanted to. We decided that frozen veggies, ground beef, cheeses, and a few other items could be refrozen. We didn't want to take the chance on chicken breasts, beef and lamb steaks, and two sirloin tip roasts.
Adding to the chaos that is already our lives, we decided we would cook all of that food and then freeze it. We've had post-work obligations every day this week, so we've been exhausted from the constant cooking we've had to do and getting to bed late. The good thing is that we found recipes that used much of what we already had around the house. After this week, I believe that Her and I would make a great team on Iron Chef, if the time limit were 4 days and the secret ingredient were "everything that you don't want to go bad in our freezer." Take that, Bobby Flay.
The big negative: we had to throw away a lot of food. The big positive: we've essentially menu planned our winter, allowing us to just reheat the food instead of eating out.
Not exactly lemonade from lemons, but it'll do.
Comments/Trackbacks
Trackback URL: http://www.makelovenotdebt.com/MT/mlnd-trackbacks.cgi/1156
That has to be so frustrating. At least you already have your meals for the week made!
I usuallly find it frustrating when I don't pack my lunch the night before. I hate wasting time in the morning trying to figure that out, and will usually opt to eat out. At least its already done for you!!
Avlor | Oct 15, 2007
We had a similar situation with our big freezer going kaput. We stuffed everything we could into the fridge freezer and hoped that the fridge wouldn't go (just had it repaired). Like you, I cooked several pieces of meat to salvage them.
Good for you for doing all you could to save your food (and your wallet)!
Karen | Oct 16, 2007
While your idea is a fantastic one - especially to help recoup the cost of the lost food, I would like to point out a potential hazard. Out of the meat you salvaged, the steaks and roasts were the better options to save rather than the ground beef. Why? Food-born illnesses - you are much more likely to get food poisioning from ground up meats than you are from solid pieces. If your meat was totally thawed out, the ground beef would have been the first to go in my kitchen as it has the highest potential for contamination. One way to help keep that from happening is to make sure you cook ground beef to a temperature of 180 to kill any bacteria - however, this is not always guaranteed to work. I'm sure there are others out there more knowledgable than I about this subject, but this is how I would have handled it.
The temperature of the freezer never went above 40F, the "danger zone" of bacterial growth for meats. Refreezing the beef will probably give it a bad case of freezer burn, but the growth of harmful bacteria was still inhibited by the cold temps.
I'm not sure about the validity of your comment about a greater chance of getting food-born illnesses from ground up meats vs solid pieces. I'll have to look that one up.
Karen | Oct 17, 2007
IF the temperature of your freezer never went above 40, then potentially you could have salvaged all of your meat. Just cook all of it and refreeze it cooked (I do this all the time with bulk purchased ground beef - saves me time as I can cook 6-10 lbs in just a little more time as 1lb. I then refreeze in 1-2lb portions to take out as needed).
By no means am I an expert in food handling safety. My suggestions come solely from what I have learned in food handling classes for managers/supervisors in a healthcare setting (I was a supervisor for a hospital patient trayline). These tips were learned several years ago, but TX health department safety guidelines may have changed since I was in that business.
Laura | Oct 12, 2007
So sorry to hear about the defective appliances, but you two had a fantastic idea by cooking ahead!
Reply to this comment