2020…A New Year, A New Decade and A New Spin on Resolutions

 

three pictures of unorganized freezers


The
holidays are behind us and we are starting a new year and a brand new decade!
Its time to think New Years Resolution. Here at Diaries of a Dietitian our New
Years resolution is freezer clean out.

It’s time to cash in and take advantage
of the food you purchased on sale or cooked in big batches to enjoy another
time.

This New Years resolution will save us some money by purchasing less
groceries over the next few weeks. It will help to reduce the amount of food
waste we have. Let’s face it freezers are an amazing appliance but they are not
perfect. You can’t freeze food forever, so use it before it goes bad and you
end up throwing it out. How long should you freeze food, before it affects the
quality?





list of food in a freezer

 

The first step is to inventory your freezer. Make a list of
everything in your freezer and how many you have of each. If you have more than
one freezer make a separate list for each freezer (it’s easier to find items if
you know where they are).

 
Post or keep the list some place visible, I like old school
paper and pen list hung right on the fridge. Use the list when you are meal
planning. I try to use as many items out of my freezer each week. Looking at
your list some up with meal ideas. Sometimes our meal ideas include just one
item from the freezer and other ideas every piece of the meal is out of the
freezer. We get quite creative with meal combinations as we get to the end of
our freezer clean out.



Set a goal. Can you use the contents of your freezer in a
few weeks, or a month or two? It’s not a race but the goal is to work on
emptying it. Then we can talk about restocking it.




baked chicken breast on top of a waffle with a garden salad
Frozen chicken breast for Baked Chicken & Waffles with a salad



pork cutlet, pasta and tomato sauce with green beans
Pasta sauce, pork cutlet and green beans all from the freezer



scallops, sauted mushrooms, green peas and pasta with pesto
Peas, pesto and scallops from the freezer



What is your favourite freezer meal?


Shannon RDRegistered Dietitian

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