GFP Day 6 - Kind Of Lame But Still Official

We had a late night. (We got home after 10:30!) The puppy woke me at 5:30 A.M.  

We had shows to catch up on! The Amazing Race and Bold and the Beautiful. (John pretends he's watching to make me happy but he knows exactly how to speed though the commercials). 

So John had a work thing and a big weekend breakfast wasn't in the cards. I made eggs and toast. But I did use a freezer item!

We buy these at Costco in the big pack. They are great. 

John also used a freezer item for his breakfast!

He had a waffle! So that's two things out of the freezer. We are now going to the movies and will see if we feel like cooking dinner after. But we did make a couple inches of space. 

GFP Day 5 - More Pizza!

An early blog as John and I have a date tonight. John made a freezer lunch instead. 

He is loving this pre made pizza dough. For $1.99 it makes 4 thin crust pizzas. 

John has become slightly obsessed with recreating the pizza of his youth and has come close. The crust was missing something though. 

Today he bought some semolina flour. It is kind of like cornmeal in texture and makes it slide on and off the pizza stone with ease.  

And his secret for quick pizza? Frozen, cooked sausage! He cooks a couple of pounds and freezes it so its pre crumbled and ready to use. 

So we had a delicious lunch and I get to go back to work for a few more hours. 

GFP Day 4 - Shrimp Quesadillas

Here is the process John goes through every day.

Yeah, that freezer is pretty full...but we're making progress! 

Tonight we are having shrimp quesadillas. 

I got these shrimp on sale several months ago for $4.98 a pound. 41/50 count, raw and already peeled & deveined.

I grab a pound out of the 2-pound bag and put the rest into the small freezer. 

Now they'll be easy to find next time! 

I prefer the raw shrimp because they're easier to season well and taste better fresh-cooked. I thaw them out in a bowl of cold water, then pat them dry to get rid of all the excess moisture. Then I season them up with some homemade fajita seasoning:

3 TBSP chili powder

1 TBSP salt

1 TBSP paprika 

1   1/2.  Tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp cumin

Mix and put in a shaker bottle. 

Get a nonstick pan hot over medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. Yes, I keep mine by the stove in a squeeze mustard bottle!

Add the shrimp and stir up as the shrimp cook. It doesn't take long, and you don't want to overcook them.

Shrimp are done. Let's build some quesadillas!

Brush a little melted butter onto a flour tortilla and lay it on the hot griddle (or nonstick pan). Add shredded cheese. We like the Mexican blend or co-jack. 

Now add the cooked shrimp on half of the tortilla. 

Fold the cheesy left half onto the shrimp-covered right half. When the underside is nice and toasted, flip to the other side and brown. 

When it's toasted and the cheese is melted, it's time to cut it up, add some sour cream & salsa, and dig in!

Love these!

GFP Day 3 - We Love Wings!

Wings are a freezer staple at our house. 

In fact we had two kinds in the freezer. The Blazin' Wings are good, not too spicy and breaded. But lately we have been frying plain wings. The skin gets crispy and it makes any sauce adhere to liven it up. 

A nice selection of plump breaded and naked wings, ready for the fryer!

And into the fryer they go. 

Watch that sizzle! 

After about fifteen to twenty minutes we have crispy wings. 

I like my wings naked most of the time. Just a little salt and pepper. John likes sauces. We got both of these at Aldi. We've experimented with homemade, but these are both great. 

I have a policy. If I can buy it as good as I can make it, I buy it!

John also saves the bags to dispose of the bones. This is a must with warm weather on its way and garbage pickup a week away. 

We like fries with our wings but didn't have any in the freezer. So we had some of our leftover Greek salad. Even better the next day. 

Three days down and not a dud yet. 

GFP Day 2 - Grilled Pork Chops With Salads

Found a couple Iowa Chops in the freezer. Great, thick pork chops (the T-bone of pork) that I picked up several months ago when they were on sale for $1.99 a pound at Fareway. It was 72-degrees outside today and it'll be rainy and colder for the next several days, so this will be the last chance to fire up the grill for a little while. Grilled Iowa chops it is! 

I start off by seasoning them with a little salt & pepper. 

Onto the grill they go. Looking good!

 

Done! And played up with some angel-hair pasta salad (leftover pasta from last week's shrimp scampi, sliced onion, cherry tomatoes, a can of mushrooms, Italian seasoning, and some homemade Italian dressing (corn oil, vinegar, garlic)).

 

Also some Greek salad with ingredients from last week's co-op basket (diced up cucumber, onion, and tomatoes with Greek vinegarette and feta cheese). I also sliced up a couple peeled cucumbers and an onion and added a cup of water and a cup of vinegar with a little sweetener added. Love this stuff! And there's plenty to last for lunches during the week. 

Day 2 was delicious, and now there's a little extra space in the freezer!

GFP Day 1 - Lasagna Pizza

A couple weeks ago I made a batch of lasagna. I make my own sauce and when I make it, I make a lot. I knew I wanted to make two pans for family potluck. I also wanted one to bring to my niece who'd just had her first baby. 

In the past a batch of sauce would yield eight to ten lasagnas. But since freezer space is so limited I knew there wasn't room for a stockpile. We made the first two then put the rest of the sauce in ziplocs. 

When we went to pick up sausage for the lasagna (only Graziano's will do) we also saw pizza crusts. 

We'd never seen it before, so we bought two and threw them in the freezer. 

After making the lasagna for my niece there was a half a bag of meaty sauce left. So we thought it would make a good pizza sauce. 

First John got the dough out to rise. 

After some hours in an oiled bowl it became huge. 

Then he rolled out half of to make it thin and crispy. 

We put it on a pizza pan (with holes) after spraying the pan with non-stick spray. Then we added a thick layer of the sauce. It has tomatoes, sausage and ground beef, along with Italian spices. So it didn't need anything else.  

John likes to make sure the sauce and cheese goes to the edge. 

And the cheese. 

Finally it came out of the oven. 

It was good. Tasted like lasagna. Next time I think we'd put a little less sauce, so the crust was crispier and maybe add some ham or pepperoni to the top.   

Day one was successful.  

The Great Freezer Project

This is John and his freezer. As you can see it is very full. So starting tomorrow we will be eating our way through it. 

Here are the rules:

1. We must use a freezer item every day.  

2. We will try to incorporate our co-op veggies.  

3. John cannot buy new meat for the six weeks of the project. (Unless it is less than $2.99 a lb. and we don't already have it in the freezer)

4. We can still eat out once a week. 

5. We will blog each meal. 

So get ready to see how creative we can be with the freezer full of meat. See you tomorrow!