Note to self - remember to label stuff before putting in the freezer

[rustylady]

OMG, spent the morning sorting out and defrosting the freezer!! How many times have you just popped something in a bag or tub and stuck it in the freezer thinking I will remember what that is?

[binley100]

Too many.......

[lindyloo]

me too. and also jam; its always a surprize when i open a jar! but at least i know i will like it.

[Lulubelle]

I can remember my Grandmother serving up a lovely apple pie and cutting it open to find out it was steak! Good job she hadn't poured on the custard!

[quark1]

I've come up with a good trick when using old ready meal dishes to store freezer fodder.

Wrap in the usual way with cling film and just scribble contents on a small piece of paper and lodge between the last wrap-around of the film. No sticky bits required!

I do realise this means you have to 'remember' - but its quite easy to grab even a slip of newspaper/pen or the like if a proper label not to hand - but it does save the problem to decide whether what you want out the freezer is a chicken casserole or chicken curry as both look near identical until defrosted/eaten.

[Bramble_killer]

we have freezer surprise quite often. Sometimes, it ends up with us ordering a takeaway as what I thought was a main is stewed fruit :O

[rustylady]

I can remember my Grandmother serving up a lovely apple pie and cutting it open to find out it was steak! Good job she hadn't poured on the custard!

Oh lord, I've done that too!

[Brengirl]

Suck it and taste it. If it's sweet use custard if it meaty use gravy. Always works for me. Many a calamity sorted.
I do agree that unless you have named freezer drawers cockups can occur.

[rustylady]

I do agree that unless you have named freezer drawers cockups can occur.

My problem is that the main freezer is a chest freezer (only a smallish one cos there's only me). I start off with the best of intentions (meat on one side, fruit on the other, veg in it's own pile etc) but it somehow always gets mixed up. I did think of putting all the "like" things in a binbag or something but that doesn't always make the best use of space and it's when you're trying to slot things in that the problems seem to occur.

[bubblewrap]

I once took out of the freezer what I thought was chicken soup but NO! it was stewed apple!

[Brengirl]

Tell me about it. I have tried so hard to be orderly in the main chest freezer. I even had a contents board listed left and right etc. My dearly beloved oh would mix and match to make room and confusion resulted.

[Seahorse]

Lol! 'Freezer suprise' is as exciting as my life gets some days

We also had great fun once when #1 son 'helpfully' recycled all the labels on our tins

[bubblewrap]

Also remember to sort out your chest freezer now & again.
A few years ago my late father "discovered" a couple of chickens that had been there for over two years he had bought them "cheap" off the market & had forgot all about them them.
But they were still OK.
PS we have some plums that have been in our freezer for three years.
Must do a plum crumble or a strawberry surprise.

[Incy]

Lol! 'Freezer suprise' is as exciting as my life gets some days

We also had great fun once when #1 son 'helpfully' recycled all the labels on our tins

I was already chuckling at the opening post as OH has been suffering from freezer surprise syndrome recently but this made me laugh out loud. Thanks Seahorse

[chris]

My wife does a strange thing..

Any left overs, are placed in a tuperware box - and topped up with whatever left overs are present the day after, and so on for a month. At the end of the month, she makes a soup out of it all, sometimes it's alright, othertimes I flush it (she doesn't know this of course) - but it's a free lunch for a day or two out of what would have been waste.