Surprise From the Freezer

This morning I took a lidded Pyrex dish from the freezer which contained 2 serves of lasagne. I left it on the kitchen bench to thaw.

When we were on our way home this evening The Duke asked what was for dinner so I assured him we were having lasagne. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was one of my creations which was actually pasta (2 different types), re-fried beans and a little shredded chicken topped with grated cheese. Considering the pasta and cheese it is not entirely surprising that I mistook it for lasagne.

I use a random selection of containers for freezing meals, leftovers and produce and have never come up with a really effective method of labelling items for the freezer so I simply don’t do it. This does lead to the occasional blunder but generally nothing that cannot be solved reasonably easily.

My funniest experience was the day I took a small container of frozen pumpkin soup to work for my lunch. I also had a slice of home-made bread which I was going to toast and have with my soup. The soup was still partly frozen at lunch-time so I loosened the lid and popped it in the microwave. After a period of time I decided to check if it was warm enough. I dipped my finger in to check and it was only warm. Upon licking my finger I discovered that the pumpkin soup was mango puree!! The toast was already cooked and I did not want to waste the ‘soup’ so lunch that day was warm mango puree and a slice of toast!

How do you keep track of what is in the freezer?

6 thoughts on “Surprise From the Freezer”

I just write on a piece of paper, cut it, and then stick it onto my container with sticky tape.
The amount of times I have thought soup was defrosting and it turned out to be pasta sauce. Not as bad as your mango puree, at least I can use the pasta sauce on some quickly boiled spaghetti…lol

I use my dymo label maker

I write on the container with permanent texta. At washing up time I use eucalyptus oil (and my finger) to remove the writing. Or orange oil. Pyrex? Tupperware? No, I would not use pen for that. My mother used to put the container or bag inside a second bag and include a paper label between the two layers. I have done this too. The outer bag can be reused many times if you are careful. I freeze rice in small bags packed together in a cut down juice bottle and the writing is on the plastic juice bottle. I reuse plastic take away boxes and find they last several years. When I had a big freezer I packed different meats in labelled cartons with handles.
Pasta, something, sauce and cheese layers. Isn’t that pasticcio? Definitely not a new invention; you just did not have the name of it. There is nothing new in cooking.
Having raised a family with unconventional hours, I learned that many things in the house need to be accessible and labelled. I even used to have labels for the stacks of sheets and towels in various sizes.
I am not obsessive but I am very particular and careful.

I find it easier to eat the leftovers then and there and not try and find a container to scrape them into.

Oh that is funny – I make up a big batch of soup every weekend and decant it into smaller containers which I freeze for lunches. We have a small freezer inside and that is what I mostly use for my lunches. I have tried labeling, but then they don’t wash off, and then I write over the first one – oh sometimes it looks quite a mess! I would like to have everything nicely labelled….