The Kitchen Series: Stocking your fridge and freezer.
Kitchen Series note: Some things may not be things you would like or use so mark those off and replace with things you do use! Most pantry lists you find out there are either subjective to the writer's use or have too many things on them to be good for you. They all need a little tweaking to get them to where they work for you. This is my take, so take it with a grain of salt and make it your own.
Today we are going to look at what you should have in your fridge and freezer almost all of the time. I'm going to split this in to the 2 areas so it is easy to read. Note that this is a basic list and a little short. This is just meant to be a stock on hand list so you have a base to work with. You are going to need to add to this list. I am not including any condiment items as I will get into those in the Spice Pantry post. Once again extra items will be in italics.
Fridge Basics:
Milk
Eggs
Butter (or your choice of equivalent)
Onions (both white or yellow and red)
Garlic
Potatoes
Carrots
Celery
Veggie stock bucket (*see note)
Capers
Mixed olives
Plain yogurt
Freezer Basics:
Ground meat (turkey, beef, chicken and other)
Uncooked Meat of choice, packaged in the amount your family will eat at 1 meal
Cooked beans (cooked then flash frozen and put in a large ziploc bag)
Stock (some in ice cubes and also flat packed in 1 and 2 cup bags)
Frozen veggies
Homemade pasta sauce (flat packed in 1 and 2 cup bags)
Shredded Cheese (in 1 and 2 cup bags)
Extra veggie bag (*see note)
Coffee Ice cube bag (*see note)
Now you may be wondering about a few things on my list so I will explain them.
First off the Veggie stock bucket in the fridge. This is a small container I bring out of the fridge when I am cooking with raw veggies. I wash my veggies super well and then all peels and good looking (no bad spots or yuckies) ends go in the bucket to make stock once a week. Almost anything can go into it, except for things from the cabbage family (broccoli, cauliflower or radishes). I put onion ends in, minus the very out side papery skin along with potato and carrot peels, celery leaves and mushroom ends. I will get more into this bucket in the post that talks about making your own stock.
And how about that Extra veggie bag in the freezer? Well you know when you make part of a bag of frozen veggies and you are left with just a cup or 2? Take a gallon sized freezer ziploc bag and dump it in there. Then the next time you open another bag and have the same leftovers add it to the bag and mix it up before you throw it back in the freezer. Before long you will have a nice bag of mixed veggies to add to anything or make as a good side dish. This cuts down on finding that 1/2c portion of frozen corn freezer burned in the door of you freezer then next time you clean it out!
Now for the Coffee Ice cube bag. This could be coffee, tea or left over fruit juice. Since I love coffee and make a pot every morning
for me it is the coffee bag. Just take your empty icecube trays and full them up. Then when they are frozen put them in a ziploc and you have coffee/tea/juice cubes for your next cold drink. Use coffee ones for iced coffee so it doesn't get watered down as the cubes melt...same goes for tea ones. Add juice ones to club soda or sprite for flavored sodas. What you do with them is endless and helps you not waste the extra!
Check back to see what you should stock in your Spice Pantry, next time in The Kitchen Series!
Previous Kitchen Series Posts
Posted in: In The Kitchen, The Kitchen Series on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 10:05 AM
