So...instead...I'm going to explain to you why I said in my 4 Month Meal Plan post that you should not attempt this without multiple frozen/refrigerated storage areas. Or rather...I'm going to show you. You get to take a little tour...
In order to not completely bore you with pictures, I've just taken a few. I think you'll get the point rather quickly.
I'm going to make a disclaimer here that we did have some things already purchased. Our cupboards and fridge/freezer were not bare. That's how I made it out of the store without a single pound of hamburger or any butter. So...maybe you could do this with a full sized fridge and a full sized deep freeze. But I so wouldn't want to try.
Just a little sample here... This is the top shelf of our indoor refrigerator.
Yup. Stacking them sky high. And yes, I know that tomatoes supposedly store better at room temperature, but I don't like them on my counter. Fridge. And they taste fine and last just as long if not longer. I've never had an issue with a mealy tomato. So yes...top shelf. Why not the produce drawer, you ask? Wait for it. There's a reason.
This is why the grape tomatoes are on the top shelf...
Oh...and this...
Right? The first picture is of the produce drawers of my indoor side by side. Tomatoes, celery, cucumbers, carrots, salad, green onions, green peppers, red peppers...and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. The bottom picture is the produce drawer of our garage side by side. Totally saved my bacon. Or in this case, my lettuce and cabbage. This baby barely shuts.
I didn't get you a full shot of my indoor fridge. For a couple of reasons. (1) You get to see what needed to go in overflow. (2) There were too many leftovers in there. It was almost embarrassing.
So, this is our garage fridge in full view. Ignore the snow cone syrup and maraschino cherries in the side door. They are irrelevant. Delicious, but irrelevant. The rest? Totally relevant.
Top shelf? That blue container is the salmon that we will be having tomorrow night. There are also three jugs of milk. I'm kind of dumbfounded how we fit all three up there if you want to know the truth.
Second shelf? Behold. Tortilla heaven. Though I will say, I totally kicked myself in the butt when I realized that the tortillas at Costco are not only still local (my typical criteria for the brands I will purchase), but freakin' cheaper! Drat. Alright. Costco for tortillas next time. They share their space with my ricotta...which will be gone in a week or two.
This fridge is pretty much cheese heaven. Other than the produce drawer you've already seen and that pretty obvious bag o' lemons, the rest is all cheese...delicious, delicious cheese. Could you fit all that cheese in your fridge and have room for the rest of your stuff? I think not. Unless you live off of milk, lettuce and cheese, in which case this might actually be a picture of your fridge. Oh wait, nope...snow cone syrup. Yup, it's mine.
On to the glory that is the deep freeze. We don't need to talk about the side by side garage freezer because it currently only contains ice cream, pureed pumpkin and some wayward loaves of zucchini bread.
I've already shown you the deep freeze before. It's not much different now as far as how packed it is. The contents have changed. Much less pizza, the top shelf is full of ground beef and the bottom shelf is full of chicken, shrimp and some barbecue meats.
But I had to show you this. This is the part of my freezer that I love right now. Behold, the meat drawer...
Why do I love it? It's organized. You don't think so? Look again. Left side: Pork. Right side: Beef and deer. For those of you freaking out...deer is yummy. The "not for sale" packages are deer roast and deer burger. I'm looking forward to them. The other nice part about this drawer? My Ziplock bags. I love that they are all pretty and labeled. Ignore the NY Steak at the top right. I promise it's not freezer burnt. I had just stuck it in the freezer when I took this picture. It's fine now.
And finally...I've shown it to you before, along with the convertible pantry that houses our spices and baking supplies, but this is what our pantry looks like as of this weekend.
The old house had a bigger pantry, so I feel a little squashed in here, but it works.
Top shelf is the cereal. Rule #1 in our house: Eat the cereal in the order it's lined up or you will be taken out to the yard and shot. Rule #2: Don't pay more than $2 for cereal. Ever. (I typically pay $1.88 or less.)
Next is the baking and breakfast followed by pastas (which you can't quite see), rices and currently in use cereals. Then shelf potatoes and rice mixes (again hidden by the wall), my premade (or what I call "quickfire") meals for when I don't feel much like cooking, nuts, vegetables and canned fruits.
Fourth shelf: pasta sauces, condiments, soups. We have a crapload of condiments. This includes our salsas, salad dressings and barbecue sauce. Bottom shelf is...well...let's face it...junk and snack foods (crackers, popcorn, etc.), canned meats, broth and beans. Canned meats, you say? Yes. Canned meats. Chicken, anchovies, tuna fish and the all important SPAM. We like it at our house.
And finally, the floor. Juices are against the wall, then chips, tomatoes and the random Ramen box. I blame that on Collin. He has a weird affinity for Cup O' Noodles.
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| See? I asked him...he said I could use this. There is a backstory. |
See? Told you. You need to be a master at Tetris and have multiple locations to store your food. This would so not have flown in my old house or in my old apartment. Oh, boy. I shudder at the thought. Pretty sure I would've been having to use that Cup O' Noodles box as a footrest or have it stored on a bookshelf.
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