Empty the Freezer Challenge 2017: Week 1

It’s been a week since the start of my 2017 Empty the Freezer Challenge began, and we’ve been trying to make the most of it here at Golightly Gardens. If you’d like to know a bit more about the challenge, you can have a quick look at last week’s post about it.

To start with, I used up the frozen pasta, mixing it with some leftover roasted veggies and grated cheese. It was not the nicest pasta in the world to be honest, but it was a quick and easy meal and at least there was no food waste. The next day I decided to start using up all the frozen fruit bit by bit in breakfast smoothies, and have managed to have one every morning since. That’s used up fresh fruit as well, plus some milk, oats, muesli and so on, as well as frozen blueberries, strawberries, mixed berries, cherries and banana slices.

The next main meal used up the two frozen veggie burgers, one of the burger buns, and lots of vegetables including some of the frozen peas. The following night I had some fish fingers, more frozen peas and loads of vegetables from the garden. Of course I forgot to take pictures, as I’m sadly not someone who remembers to put all my meals onto a marble flatlay and take an overhead photo of everything. Must try harder, I know, I know.

Anyway, the next meal was some tasty burritos that used up the flour tortillas and a couple of Quorn fillets. We also added some hot sauce, some black bean salad and a sprinkle of cheese, and that was a tastylicious treat. Plus I remembered to snap that one.

To round the week off, there was a quick stir fry using the frozen prawns and some more of the frozen peas, plus some lime and ginger and extra veggies. Doesn’t look much in the pic, but it was healthy and the flavour was great too. The final meal was a brunch that used up four of the English muffins and some frozen spinach, plus some eggs. Beau had some bacon to use up for his plate as well, so that’s in the final picture.

Not bad for one week of the Empty the Freezer Challenge is it? We’ve hardly needed to buy any extra groceries this week, so it’s been a good way to cut back the spending.

What do you have lurking in your freezer that needs using up? Look out for the latest #EmptyTheFC posts on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with the challenge, and to share your own freezer meals.