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Food for Thought Friday: avoid the “frosty land of misfit foods” with this simple trick
 
^frozen raspberries that I picked myself last weekend and froze (on trays first then moved to jars) for later in the year!


You know the feeling… you open the door of the freezer to get something you know is in there - maybe it’s a pint of ice cream or ice cubes for your iced tea; perhaps a bag of Ezekiel bread or even just an ice pack for your knee. The freezing mechanism hums and frosty air pummels your face, reminding you to proceed quickly. As you search for your targeted item, bags of mysterious stuff block your view. Occasionally disguised in freezer burn, the various odds and ends are jammed and crammed into this cold, often cramped area. As you move them around, you think “What the heck is this?!” or “Dang, I forgot I bought all these frozen berries on sale!”

The freezer - though immensely useful - can often become the frost-bitten land of misfit foods, which become more mysterious the further they sink back into the dark corners of the frozen box. Foods are forgotten, frozen to death until you have no idea what they are or how long they've been in there, and they get thrown away. (Eek! Avoidable food waste!)

Enter, a solution to this: the freezer inventory list

It’s a ridiculously simple practice AND it’s incredibly helpful - even when you only make the mildest of periodic efforts (like I do). I mentioned it briefly in my outline on Prevention of Food Waste Practices (bottom of this email), and today I wanted to dig in.

Here’s how it works:

GPJ Guide to Keeping a Freezer Inventory

  1. The first time you do it - it will take 10-20 minutes, depending on the size and contents of your freezer. You must take everything out of the freezer so you can see everything you have and write down what’s inside.
    1. I recommend organizing things into categories such as: proteins, veg, fruit, frozen meals, pantry, or whatever other categories make sense for you!
      1. If you have multiples of the same item, write it down multiple times (for easy crossing off later), or just put a number in front and change the number as you go.
    2. I recommend writing it on a piece of paper and then taping it to your freezer, right by the door where you can see it. If you have one of those mini white-boards that go on the fridge, that works well too!
    3. Alternately, OR in addition - you can keep the freezer inventory digitally in the notes on your phone. The benefit of this is that you could check it while grocery shopping if needed. However - I’ve found I’m better at keeping up with the inventory practice when I write it down on paper and hang it right near the freezer door.
  2. As you eat up what’s inside, you cross the things off on the list.
  3. As you add things to the freezer, you add them to the list.
  4. As time goes on you’ll need to entirely rewrite the list periodically, depending how often you cycle through foods in your freezer.

^This is what the practice looks like, ideally. Realistically though, I often forget to cross off or add when I’m using up just one or two things at a time. What happens for me IRL, is that about a once a quarter, I have to finagle everything in my freezer to make room for a bulk-haul of something, say - new meats, a big batch of scrap-broth, or a two sheets full of u-pick frozen raspberries (like I did last weekend). When I do this ~quarterly finangling, I rewrite and update my entire freezer inventory list.

You might be thinking - “That sounds nice, but how does that help me with cooking?!” Glad you asked :).

In the big picture, it’s my belief that what makes cooking feel easier is not just being better at it - it’s also all the little tiny things (like the environment/context/beliefs) that affect the experience of cooking. If we can create small habits that make the cooking experience simpler and more automatic, it doesn’t feel like such a chore. Instead it can become relaxing, creative, and flowy - "whipping something up" becomes something you just DO without really thinking about it.

So - even when I don’t keep my freezer inventory entirely up to date, if I redo it quarterly, then at a minimum I can see that 3 months ago, I had all of these things in there - which also helps me make sure I'm cycling through.

Here's what my current freezer inventory looks like (sorry it's really ugly!):


When you make it a habit of knowing what you have on hand (and making it easy to figure out when you inevitably forget), you feel more in control and at ease about cooking.

Clarity and organization in your pantry, freezer, fridge, and kitchen setup ALL contribute in a subtle yet important way to making cooking feel more enjoyable and fun. It’s similar to having a clean, organized desk - it doesn’t seem like it matters, but once you clean it, you realize it’s just easier to work, think, and focus when things are in order.

In addition to keeping a freezer inventory, I also highly recommend keeping painter’s tape and a Sharpie around for labeling food with dates, names, etc. This is especially helpful in the freezer when it can become hard to tell what's what. (Painter's tape doesn't leave any sticky residue. It also sticks well and is easy to write on, so I recommend it over masking or other tapes!)

Ok - that’s your hot (or cold) tip for the day! Write up your inventory this weekend and feel the simple joys of better kitchen organization :).

Love,
Jess

PS. Like FREE STUFF?! Download my Craveable Salad Guide to print out and hang on your fridge for inspiration!

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Hi, I'm Jess! I help health-conscious, busy people transform their cooking from "chore" to "whippin it up!" through intuitive cooking, which I teach through online classes, free content, coaching and more. This is my newsletter, Food for Thought Fridays, where I share highly actionable tips and inspiration to help you cook more intuitively (which makes cooking feel easier and SO much more fun!). Once a month, I share a recipe that's really worth making, and I only share those with my email subscribers.

    I currently work + live on land that is the unceded territory of the Ramaytush Ohlone. And I can't wait to eat at Cafe Ohlone when they reopen someday! Check out this article about them.


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