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Monday, April 5, 2021

The Plan That Went Awry

I make a meal plan weekly, generally based on what I have in the freezer. Last week was no exception and I pretty much followed the plan until Wednesday when the freezer started misbehaving. After that I was in salvage mode and had to use foods that had thawed. This week I will still be using a lot of the food that had thawed (which has been cooked and waiting  their turns to become dinner) Does it matter if it is what we want to eat or not? Not really. I am just using inventory.
I had run out of fresh produce and did have to make a run to the store to restock the crisper, but other than that everything is coming from storage, and hopefully by Wednesday everything   thawed that was salvageable will be gone.



This was planned:
1. Fajita chicken casserole, rice or caulirice, mixed greens or coleslaw, keto cornbread
2. Soup and salad (no idea yet what kind__depends on what I find lingering)
3. Grilled tuna or steak, asparagus, mashed potatoes or caulimash, rolls or keto rolls
4. Spinach, artichoke chicken over mashed potatoes or caulimash, green beans
5. Rack of lamb, basmati rice (or caulirice), asparagus, rolls or keto rolls, some lame keto dessert.
6. Moroccan chicken over couscous (or more of that damned caulirice) tossed salad
7. Take out

And this happened: 
Monday: Chicken fajita casserole, green beans
Tuesday : Grilled porterhouse, smashed potatoes or caulimash, asparagus spears
Wednesday: Hamburger, fries, chocolate milk shake. (If I post it in tiny font did it even really happen)
Thursday: Salvage meal #1. Tuna steaks with red chili sauce, green beans, mashed potatoes, Waldorf salad.
Friday: We had some running around to do and we were out a bit later than expected. We both decided it was too late to come home and cook so we phoned in a take out order , ran by the house to put up the groceries, the ran back to La Fiesta to grab our dinner.
Chili Poblano
Saturday Salvage meal #2 Spring greens with tomato, olives, cucumbers and grilled chicken breast
Sunday: Salvage meal #3 Spaghetti with meat sauce, mixed greens and cucumbers


Used: from storage
From the freezer:
1 pack chicken
2 packs green beans
1 porterhouse steak
3 tuna steaks (one became tuna salad for lunch)
1 pack mashed potatoes
1 pack grilled Italian seasoned chicken breasts
1 pack spaghetti sauce
1 pack chopped ham (Easter Sunday omelet)
1 pack carnitas (lunches)
1 pack pepper jack cheese
10 or so packs of mixed berries (they became 3 pints of mixed berry jam)

From the fridge:
red pepper
yellow pepper
bell pepper
cream cheese
condiments
cauliflower
asparagus
butter
heavy cream
eggs
apples
celery

From the pantry
onion
herbs and spices
new potatoes
coffee
tea
mixed nuts
coconut flour
1 bag keto "cheese puffs"
walnuts

And the new plan:
1. Salvage meal, Sausage, sautéed cabbage, augratin potatoes, rosemary garlic biscuits
2. Salvage meal, Philly cheesesteak casserole,  brussels sprouts,salad
3. Salvage meal, taco salad
4. Grilled burgers, fixings, caulitato salad
5. Salvage dinner, peas, okra, mac and cheese, coleslaw
6. Moroccan chicken, rice or caulirice, broccoli, salad, 
7. Takeout

Since I am still salvaging foods that were thawed or near thawed this week is going to have some pretty uninteresting meals and most of them are not what I want to eat. But__it is food and eating things that do not sound interesting is a first world problem that I am very grateful to have. I am just guessing but I think I lost less than 10 percent of what I had in the freezer and most of the loss was frozen meals or entrees that were on the top shelf. I only had to throw out one pack of ground beef. The rest of the chicken, meats or seafood were still ice cold or icy (they became the salvage meals) or frozen solid (they are still at my sister's) I feel so lucky that I lost so little.



You will mostly notice that keto and I are not married to each other until I get through the salvaging process. 

33 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you were able to salvage most of it, and are making the best of it with meals that need to be eaten this week. I'm sure it will all be good. :)

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    1. It does not sound very good, but there are worse things than eating something that just does not sound great

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  2. Well done you.
    And yes, keto needs to go on the back burner for a bit.

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    1. It is for the next four days until this stuff is eaten and then it is back n the wagon.

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  3. Of course, I never refreeze food that has thawed. But, I read that once the thawed food is cooked, it is okay to freeze the cooked food. I have done that.

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    1. That is what I had to do but we are eating it all this week

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  4. It was definitely a good thing you were around when the freezer began thawing. I'd say your salvage meals sound very good to me...much better than my uninspired offerings.

    Take care, stay well.

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    1. Spring is full blown and our last cold snap is over. I am ready for spring/summer food now. It will happen, just not this week.

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  5. Not only salvaged but your meals sound delicious. Good luck with your planm o need to use up apples that have neen lingering too long.

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    1. They were not delicious, but it was food and it was fine.

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  6. First world problem, yes, but annoying all the same. Glad you were able to salvage most of the food.

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  7. You did well with planning menus to make good use of what you were able to salvage. :)

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    1. I salvaged what I could and incorporated it into meals, but they were not really tasty!

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  8. I must share your blog with both of my kids. My son especially because he is always looking for KEtO. I am happy to show him that you are not married to KETO.

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    1. I do try to be and I really do feel better when I am doing it, but sometimes life gets in the way and I am not going to quit living life just to stay on keto

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  9. How many times have we vowed to clear out the freezer and then the bloody thing conks out and it all gets done in one go!!! Still, at least it'll allow you to restock soon!

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    1. It is working again and I am going to wait just a bit before moving stuff back in it

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  10. Sorry about your freezer. Sounds like some delicious meals. We just stocked our freezer from Costco.

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    1. The freezer is no longer an issue! I was not ready to deal with it when it happened but it is done and over now.

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  11. Too bad, we had about the same thing happen here. You did a great job of salvaging. Lots of good meals around your house for sure!

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    1. Everyone I know who has had a freezer for a long time has had s similar experience before. No major harm so all is good.

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  12. It's great that you could still use most of the food. A friend of mine in Dallas lost two freezers of food during the horrible cold.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. I am not unhappy at all about the food loss vs. salvage. There is no telling what was lot in all of Texas during the big freeze

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  13. I would be spectacularly happy if I managed to salvage pretty much everything from a conked out freezer, it's always worth a wee celebration.
    That thing in the tiny weeny font? Pretty sure it's keto ;)

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    1. Thank you for confirming what I thought about the tiny font!

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  14. Such a bummer about your freezer! I've always relied on freezing, even though I've always wanted to learn to can stuff. Freezing is so much easier - but there's always that spectre of a loss of power...

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  15. Hate it when my freezer acts up. Or we lose power and things thaw. Doesn't happen often, but such a downer when it does. :-(

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    1. We have a generator for extended power outages, but the acting up is a totally different issue and you don't really know it is behaving badly until things are kinda bad.

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  16. The meals still sound fantastic to me!

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