Mind set food hoarder, has to stop!!!

[Halex]

Anyone else like me?

The family and friends could live quite easily for at least 3 minths or longer on what i have in the pantry, fridge and all my freezers. We woud only need some fresh items.

We are having lasagna for tea, Ds fav!  did I choose one alteady made, goodnees NO, thats for a rainy day!! So i will make a new one. I just cant help myself, i dont know where it comes from, but i panic what if  i am sick or cant cook one day.  My freezers only just shut and they are all neatly arranged.

I think it must be an illness, i like to make sure there is plenty just in case. Of course its worse now as i love TM.

Am I the only mad mum here!?!?

Hally

[shanmac]

No Hally your not alone, my freezer is overflowing with just in case meals!

I am off to Hong Kong for 7 - yes 7 nights - and decided I need to cook up 6 kilos of mince into spaghetti bol sauce!!!!From that I have made 2 huge lasagne's to freeze and enough for 7 nights of spag bol!

My way of thinking of if I'm going to cook 500g of mince well why not cook 6 kilos same amount of effort, sort of.

Shan 

[judydawn]

I think you will find plenty of us on here Hally, it must be a disease or something    When I got sick a couple of years ago and was raced off to hospital, the freezers were pretty full (as is always the case) but no-one knows what to do with real food.  My neighbour went out and bought TV dinner type things and squeezed them into any space she could find for DH before his sister came down and took over his care before he went into the nursing home. So really, having food for a rainy day doesn't always work out being useful if those who have to feed themselves don't know what or how to do anything with the freezer contents. If you live outside the city limits I can see the merit of keeping a well stocked freezer but when you have shops just around the corner, it really isn't necessary. If we are sick and cannot cook, there are always home delivery meals available which would tide the family through until we were up on our feet again.  I know that but like you Hally, I can't stop myself. It is just the mother hen instinct to look after our brood I think but I'm sure they would cope if they had to.

[Carine]

My 2 grannies, who I spent a lot of time with when I was growing up, always had full pantries and...  I have a full pantry too 
Both my grand-mothers went through some pretty tough time during the 2nd world war and always told me to always stock on basic ingredients: "you never know..."
My hubby grew up on a farm and was used to not go to the corner shop  so we both like our full pantry AND a productive veggie patch & orchard.  Our freezer is mostly used to store meat (home-grown too )  with the exception of tomato sauces and excess summer fruit & veg (I do preserves in vacola jars too).

[dede]

My pantry is always full too. And our freezers have plenty of meat and a few meals but not so many homemade meals as we rearly have left overs with a big family. I just cook a meal everyday. I don't like wastage and think if I filled the freezer with cooked meals they would mostly eventually be thrown away.

[judydawn]

Carine, your story reminds me of my MIL who came to live with us after she had a stroke.  When her house was cleared out for sale, there were toilet rolls and cakes of soap poked everywhere. If you opened a cupboard, they would fall out. Her grand-daugher is still using the soap supplies, well over 10 years down the track.  MIL went through a depression so knew what it was like to go without life's little luxuries.  There wouldn't have been much food in the house mind you.

[fundj&e]

I always thought when the kids are grow up and left home i would not cook so mush.
Oh boy, was i wrong, it gets worse. I would not know how to cook for 2

[Yvette]

I was just thinking that the other day Hally when I was trying to squeeze something else into one of my two freezers and overcrowded pantry

[Halex]

Yay i am not alone.

JD you are right,  rainy days dont come and if they ever did, takeout, dh trying to shovd simething in the oven etc will do. I must stop hoarding.

Lets all try.

Shanmac 6kgs now that is overkill!!!

I am going to reduce stocks of everything from now until we go on holidays, just buy the essentials and use what we have which inckudes meals for a rainy day left overs etc.

H

[Chelsea (Thermie Groupie)]

Yikes I don't know if I can cope with this topic! You really need to come to Ethiopia with us on our next trip Hally. It brings with it a great respect for food and an absolute tummy churning dislike for the wasting and hoarding of food.

Once you have used up the food you already have, menu planning and detailed shopping lists are really good ways to keep it all under control. I enjoy cooking a meal each night and Hubby takes left-overs to work for lunch so I don't tend to keep a lot in the freezer.  Often defrosting and reheating a meal is more work than cooking a meal from scratch in the TM.

[Halex]

I know its shocking, a good friend of mine has a friend who has 2 boys from ethiopia (2 different families) they all go as a family from time to time, the stories are very sad.

Well i am changing this hoarding business.

I do menu pla,  have for months, thats another problem, 3 in the family and a lot of recipes feed 6, so the freezer gets full of food. Dh often just  has fruit for lunch, i normally have soup and ds has a few hot dishes and sandwiches.

We will get there, i am on a mission.

H

[shanmac]

I hear you Hally. My New Years resolution( yes I know its only September) is to menu plan.

I would got to the supermarket at least 3-4 times per week. I am a very organised person but just cant get my head around menu planning.

Of course the NY resolution will come with the TMX & I'm sure that it is going to work!!

And yes 6kg is overkill have told my DH that if he sees/hears me mention that I am going to do it again to quietly & quickly remove 1/2 the mince!!!!

Shan

[leesmac78]

Menu planning is smart.  I am not.  I jam left over after left over into the freezer until it groans.  Someone once told me a full freezer runs more efficiently so I am being green!  I found a delightful Tupperware full of something delightful I made ages ago and made some TMX rice to go with it last night.   Tonight will be another late night, so thankfully there is a Tupperware or two full of what I made on Sunday night (Hungarian Goulash from EDC and mashed potatoes).  I am a food hoarder.  Not of the mouldy of green variety but of the Thermolovely, cooked to absolute perfection and jammed into the freezer variety!!! Keep Thermomixing my loves.  If this is the worst addiction we have, we really have a lot to celebrate!!!

xxx

 

[Halex]

Lee you are so right.

As a friend said to me, you might be at home cooking 55 cupcakes, but thats much better than being out all day drinking and gambling.LOL

My freezer is a lot fuller since tm, yes I menu plan but there is only 3 of us, we dont like eating the same dinner 2 nights in a row, so los and behold it goes in the freezer. Lso ds 7 he won eat curry or spicy food, so they go in the freezer too.

Shanmac, you will want to cook everyday with tm, trying all the recipes and new foods you ndver dreamt you coul cook. Might be good to get yor freezer down now. 

H

[leesmac78]

Shanmac, empty that freezer now, fill up your staple ingredients and have a quick Tupperware party in the meantime as you will need somewhere to store all your new creations!!!!!

xxx