Make Yourself at Home

Welcome to my fridge! Are you hungry?  Feel free to whip up dinner while you are here.  When I first heard of this idea for a blog post courtesy of Elle the Heiress, who got the idea from Katie over at Cleared for Takeoff, I thought it was a little kooky. (Check out Cameron Crazy Mom too.) I believe my first  thought was, ‘I wouldn’t want to show my cluttered fridge and freezer to the world. Why just the other day I was thinking about how I need to clean it out.  And don’t even get me started on the deep freeze.  I should really clean it out too.  I have no idea what all is in there.  I bet I’m wasting a ton of money buying food we don’t need because it’s hidden in the black hole.’ Okay so it was a rambling thought, but that’s what popped in my head.  BUT the more I pondered this idea, the more I thought what great incentive to get this chore I hate to do done.  So, here we go.  Mi casa es su casa.

First up: the deep freeze.  WARNING: IF YOU ARE A VEGETARIAN YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS PART.  YOU WILL QUICKLY SEE WE LIKE OUR MEAT. We are the stock-up-while-it’s-on-sale kind of people. And you’ll see that when we stock up, we stock up.

Before the Clean-out :

After the Clean-out :

 

This is a collage if the goodies in the nooks and crannies. We have enough mozzarella cheese to make pizza for the entire neighborhood.  (This is why I need to do this little project.) We also have a ton of steak; it was on sale a couple of weeks ago. That deli cheese in the middle there on the left is THE BOMB. We get it at a place on the way to Branson.  We’ll stop to eat at Lamberts, and then we go buy cheese while we wait on our table. In the middle are the pre-made meals—some by me and some store bought. Some nights you just need something EASY, you know? With the buns and bread, I have banana breads and Amish Friendship breads I made and froze for later. My husband smokes the best ribs, so we have four racks of those. And the crown jewel of the deep freeze? The Blue and Gold Sausage.  This is made in Oklahoma and is BY FAR the best sausage around. In addition to all of this, we are stocked up on chicken, pork chops, and ground beef.  There are a couple of roasts in there and a pork roast too.  Should we not be able to leave our house for some reason, no one worry about us going hungry. I think we’ll be just fine. (as long as we don’t lose power.)

Next up let’s journey back into the house to the fridge.  I know there are all kinds of goodies in there.  Meet my fridge. (Sorry these pictures are the best.  I had to do this project quickly while my 1-year-old was sleeping, so I grabbed the first camera I could find, which was my iPhone and got moving.)

After I finished organizing the inside of the fridge, I cleaned the outside.  Here is the reality of what it looks like now. I think it’s a nice compromise of the above two pictures. Because, let’s face it, I gotta entertain the boys while a cook, and they love the magnet toys. Oh, and I have since found the M, so my boys will only have 3 letters they don’t know. The collection of magnets on the side of the fridge are from various places we have traveled.  The little measuring cup on the front is my lifesaver.  it contains all kinds off cooking helps. Substitutions, equivalent measures, those type of things.

And now on to the inside of this monster. Yes, this is going to be a long post.  Go grab a drink and some popcorn. Maybe take a potty break if you need to. And then come on back and settle in again. Go ahead, I’ll wait for you…

Okay, are you back?  Here’s the inside of this bad boy. And, yes, these are after I did a little cleaning and organizing.

Oh my.  The left side of that picture is way blurry.  No need to fret! I have some close ups! Let’s take a closer look at what my family is eating.

                  

We have two open bottles of ketchups and 2 open jars of mayo because we went on vacation and had to buy more.  Those then got brought home and added to our fridge. I have no idea why we have 3 bottles of open BBQ sauce. None. My 3-year-old would not survive this life without his strawberry milk.  We never run out of this. We are trying to eat healthier, which explains the many bottles of salad dressing.  Most of it is light. (A quick apology here to my Dad who works for Borden. Sorry about the milk.  The boys where in meltdown mode, and I wasn’t making another stop. I know you understand.) Of all of that yogurt, we have three left in the fridge as I type this. My boys eat at least one a day and usually more. Oh, and the homemade jarred stuff? Most of it is courtesy of my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law. Just wanted to give credit where it is due.

 

 

Almost finished.  Only have the freezer left. This is the one place that I really needed to throw some things out.  There was a lot hiding in there. This is what I pulled out of the freezer. Crazy huh?

And here it is all cleaned out and pretty: 

I was excited to see that we had more fish and seafood than I thought we did. Those Whips yogurts make great little low cal treats when frozen.  I found the pecans, almonds, and walnuts I thought had disappeared.

        

AND BONUS POINTS: RANDOM FIND

Now tell me how in the world that crayon got on the top self  in the door of the freezer.

And just as I was finishing all of the cleaning and organizing, my toddler woke up from his nap.  He helped me finish the job.

 

Your turn.  What’s in your fridge and freezer?