Not long after writing yesterdays post I decided that while it was on my mind I would crack on and make an inventory of the freezer contents.
I'm a great one for prevaricating these days and I find that if I don't seize the bull by the horns and just do something it gets pushed further and further down the list and then falls off the bottom and disappears. So before the computer had even cooled down I had the top drawer of the freezer out, a few sheets of paper and a pencil on the work top, and away I went.
Sorry about the dreadful lighting, the sky was so overcast yesterday that my hallway kitchen was dismally gloomy. But if you click on the photo it should enlarge nicely and you might even be able to read my scribblings.
I simply pushed through and got on with the middle drawer while the urge to be organised was great.
I did start flagging after this one and I have to admit to a restorative cup of coffee and a quick blast of Wordle on my phone.
Back to business and the bottom drawer was soon emptied and the contents listed for posterity, well until they are all eaten up of course.
I seem to be able to fit a lot into this little half drawer. The reason for the large stack of Linda McCartney sausages is that I only buy them when they are on special offer and then simply add them to the bottom of the stash for future using up. They are an assortment of all three of the flavours that I like: Lincolnshire, Vegetarian and the Red Onion and Rosemary, plus an experimental (for me) Chorizo and Red Pepper. All bought when they were reduced to £1.50 in Sainsbugs.
Seemingly I now have a total of 41 sausages, the 40 from this drawer and the little lonely sausage that I found wrapped in clingfilm in the middle drawer.
The eagle eyed among you might have spotted something that will have surprised you.
Yes, I have some fish in my freezer drawers!! Over the past couple of months I brought fish and eggs back into my diet as an experiment for my health to see if these animal sources of protein had any beneficial effect on my health. They totally haven't, so once I have used up all that I bought including the tinned fish in my cupboards I doubt they will remain full time. But I am no longer as rigid in my views as I once was and have given myself permission to remove all the labels that the food police seem to want to place on people.
I am not vegan.
I am not vegetarian.
I am not pescatarian.
I am not plant based.
I am me!!
However, I still don't and will never eat meat and dairy.
Sue xx
Sue, I giggled at the lone sausage in your drawer :) That's something I would do too. And, as far as labels go...why does the world have to be so dramatic? Just eat what suits you and call yourself a human :) We people love to be labeled! Good job on the inventory! I've had that on my to-do list all week and still haven't gotten to it.
ReplyDeleteYou should have seen my face when I pulled the single sausage out!!
DeleteYes, it feels like the world loves a label these days, and even worse so many seem to want to be on the look out for you not sticking to your label.
To have seen your face when you pulled out the single sausage! Sorry…..couldn’t help myself
DeleteYes, it was a picture. :-)
DeleteI had to smile at 'dark green soup' in the top drawer, Sue, it could be anything I expect! And at 41 sausages ;) Now I love a veg sausage but only have 4 in my freezer, perhaps I need to buy some more in my next shop...lol...
ReplyDeleteI don't like to be labelled as this or that either. I do eat dairy in small quantities and take milk in my coffee, I eat fish twice a week and have been known to eat a crispy bacon buttie once in a while, but don't eat any other meat. Oh....except I ate one small slice of turkey on my Christmas dinner. Now what can the food police label me as? We must all eat to suit our own bodies I think.
I wish I could be as organised as you though ;0)
I'm almost 100% sure it's the same Pond Soup that I had earlier this week. I see a LOT of sausage butties and bangers and mash in my repertoire as I work my way through the contents of the freezer over the next few weeks.
DeleteI can't eat dairy and I won't eat meat but that's just me. And we should all just be ourselves, there will be no judgement from me for eating a bacon butty .... oh but my gorgeous girl Betty was a beautiful piggy ;-) (Alan ate her over the course of a year!!)
Oh my gosh! But she had a beautiful, happy life I bet.
DeleteUnfortunately, as she was barren she only lasted a couple of years, she was the sweetest natured girl though. :-(
DeleteLovely - you are so right about the labelling thing.
ReplyDeleteI organised the freezer before Christmas and its already in a muddle again!
As a meat eater I recently tried the Quorn brand of sausage again ( bro in law, a veggie, was staying and that's the one he prefers ) wondering if they've improved the recipe, I really enjoyed them.
Alison in Wales x
The thing with freezers is that we get back from shopping and just put stuff quickly away before it warms up and there's never any any method to the putting away ... well in my case anyway ... I must improve on this once I have the empty drawers available.
DeleteI've never enjoyed the Quorn branded sausages, but as you say they are always tinkering with recipes so it might be worth me having another go at them once I have eaten the 41 sausages I currently own!!
You mentioned about labelling ourselves on my blog a few weeks ago, Sue. You're right - we don't need a label. I was beating myself up a bit initially and thinking I'd be scolded for eating the odd bit of chicken or a very occasional bacon sarnie, but I haven't been. The fact is, it suits me to eat fish twice a week, chicken or a bit of bacon once or twice, and entirely veggie the rest. The one thing I never eat now is any red meat or offal - it's the texture I no longer like, nor do I like the blood! 41 sausages, oh that did make me laugh.....I like the LM red onion & rosemary ones. xx
ReplyDeleteYes, we can be quite hard on ourselves sometimes can't we, thinking we are not doing something 'right' or 'fully' I think it's time that we all relaxed our expectations on ourselves and then once we do that we can more easily live and let live with others too.
DeleteI used to only like the red onion and rosemary flavoured ones too, then I tried the Lincolnshire and I was a convert. I don't know what to expect of the Chorizo style ... but I should find out sometime over the next couple of weeks. :-)
I am with you on the labels, it really bugs me, I feel the same with labels regarding sexuality, there seem to be so many ,my good friend met up with an old friend of hers ,she hadn't seen her for many years, she showed my friend a photo of her son saying ,this is my son he is gay, why say that, it isn't necessary , it doesn't define him as a human being , when introducing my sons I wouldn't add, he's heterosexual or whatever, and it doesn't matter what your sexuality is, you are just you, grrrr! Like you I don't eat meat or dairy but sometimes I might have fish but I am not any sort of " arian ", I am me who doesn't eat those things ,my husband doesn't eat nuts so what does that make him :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, what DO you say when someone shows you a photo of their son an says that? I would be absolutely stumped for words!
DeleteYour sausage-stash made me smile. I have a similar stash of Cauldron sausages in the freezer buying multiple packs when Sainsbury's has them on offer and the new ones just go on the bottom of the pile :-)
ReplyDeleteYou've just GOT to grab the bargains when you can haven't you. I should try the Cauldron ones again, I didn't like them last time though.
DeleteThat's a job well done. Vegan pieces? They sound positively cannibalistic!
ReplyDeleteI eat to live not to be defined by it. The food police are just as bad as the fashion police, a waste of skin. xxx
Haha ... I hadn't thought of 'Vegan pieces' in that way!!
DeleteI never mind what anyone else wants to eat or what mixture of foods - I have been vegetarian nearly all my life but do get fed up of restaurants and cafes showing me the fish menu or trying to persuade me that vegetarians eat tuna sandwiches as in M&S cafe. I have even been told that most vegetarians now eat chicken - then in my mind they are not true vegetarians but simply people that do not like/eat red meat. I never minded the label of vegetarian as at one time you could say you were a vegetarian in a restaurant and the definition was better understood and you could be sure that you were not getting any fish or meat or even chicken stock in soup but now the term is used loosely and even the vegan menus can be iffy where eggs and dairy are included.
ReplyDeleteThe idea is a good one but there would be no point in me keeping an inventory as DH would forget to amend it and it would be out of date in no time. Each of the drawers in my freezer has a different type of food stuff but I often find things a bit mixed up if he puts the freezer shopping away! I just have to rearrange it a bit every so often.x
The inventory won't be a full time thing, it's just there for now so that I will actually use up what I have in there. In the past when I have tried to have an ongoing inventory it has never worked as I, like DH, forget to cross things off or add things in when I go shopping. For now I'll use it to menu plan, it should stop me from standing in front of the freezer and losing the will to live while I choose what to make for tea.
DeleteLinda sausages are our favourite - Lincolnshire especially and the chorizo ones we use in veggie paella and it's absolutely delicious :) We always have a good stash of both!
ReplyDeleteThey are consistently good aren't they. The Lincolnshire ones make a lovely sausage butty. :-)
DeleteI do like that you are giving yourself 'permission' to consider things and change things up. I am curious though. Do you eat eggs? Why won't you do dairy? I'm not judging, mind you. I just wonder what leads people to their beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI do think you have to listen to your body sometimes and react to how you feel. I have been eating eggs sporadically for a couple of months, but I didn't buy them very often and may even stop altogether again as I have found no benefit from brining them back into my diet.
DeleteI don't eat dairy as I am dairy intolerant and have been for years. Even if I wasn't I would not consume dairy when that is one of the cruellest of the food industries, and dairy the way it is produced now causes so many of the current health problems faced by the western world.
You gave me a chuckle with this post as my freezer is on the to-do list but not yet done...not sure what I'll find...
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say .... just do it. No more prevarication. ;-)
DeleteNo need for labels that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteWe don't have all of those varieties of the Linda Mc sausages here in Australia. I like the plain ones well enough but would like to give the others a try when I get the chance.
They are all very distinct from each other, what a shame you don't get them all. :-(
DeleteThe world does love a label.... I refuse to let myself be labeled by anyone.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It really does these days doesn't it. We all supposed to be in a specific little box and stay there. Good for you. xx
DeleteWell said! All those labels annoy me no end. I used to get so angry when teaching - I was the SENCo and the number of times a child was rejected for extra support/funding because there was no 'diagnosis' - in other words, no label. Our first hand knowledge of the child wasn't good enough, they had to have a label.
ReplyDeleteGrrrrr . . . (sorry)
xx
I don't blame you for being angry. It sometimes seem that all the wrong opinions matter and common-sense flies out of the window. A teachers expertise should always be listened to.
DeleteI don’t eat meat either and I had a better pregnancy without meat. I need to sort out cupboards out as the cup noodles have taken over lol . No labels required here, I am me plain and simple , mother, lover, wife
ReplyDeleteI feel so much better for not having meat. A cupboard full of cup noodles sounds great ... and I love your 'labels', now they are the right sort. xx
DeleteMy goodness, an inventory of our freezers would take a week of full time work! I admire the way you keep things small and make the most of every single thing in your food stashes. As shops are over a half hour away we don't go often. Haven't been yet this year, actually, but may have to before the weekend since we are expecting visitors.
ReplyDeleteWell there's usually just me eating unless I invite Alan round, so I have to keep things small. :-)
DeleteWe didn't go to the shops that often when we lived on our various smallholdings as it was always a full morning or afternoon away to get there, back and shop. Combining it with a seaside dog walk meant it wasn't such a chore when we lived in Wales, but it still took a big chunk of the day.