Attack the Ice Monsters in your life...

Wow, the summer has come and gone since my last post. I don't know why, but lately, the ideas for good posts are still in my head, but I just haven't taken the time to write them down. I suppose that with cooler weather ahead, hibernation mode will hit, and I'll once again have the focus I need to write. I do my best writing for this blog when it is late, late at night. There are less distractions that way. So for now, this post is mainly designed to let you know that I am still alive and kicking.



I do have another idea for reducing the stress in your life. This weekend, I took about a half hour to go through my freezer and toss out anything that was frostbitten, extremely old, or no longer identifiable. It was a very appropriate exercise to perform on Halloween. I had some scary food in there!

As a reward for my efforts, I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon, and in a more conservative way, I bought a few new frozen food items. Now, instead of an overstuffed pile of freezer burned fish sticks, chicken strips, and sandwich meat surrounded by countless overly icy cobs of corn, the bottom shelf of my freezer contains fresh batches of ready-to-bake biscuits, two apple pies, and some orange juice concentrate. In my refrigerator, I now have a roast and some veggies that I'll use to make at least a dozen servings of my home made heat-and-eat lunches. I also bought some hamburger meat, spaghetti sauce, and curly noodles to make my own frozen meals.

How nice it has been to open my freezer without fear of being pummeled by falling ice cube trays and UFO's (unidentified frozen objects). I think I saved a bit of money at the grocery store as well. Whenever the impulse hit me to purchase an item, say, for example, a new bag of crinkle cut fries or frozen fish, I simply recalled the image of all the old food that I scattered in my yard for the critters.

I'm getting real about the amount of food I can actually eat compared to the amount I think I need. While at the store, I remembered that some of the items purchased on my last grocery run remain unopened. So, if an item in the store did not pass my "Get Real" test, it stayed in the store.

Take a few moments to attack those Ice Monsters in your life. It's annoying to find out how much food and grocery money we unintentionally waste. We usually buy or store more than we actually can use before it goes bad. Face it. Most of us wish we were like the folks we watch on the Food Network, but sadly we are not there yet. Unless you have a lot of people living in your household to help you eat all that food you buy, eat what you have before buying lots more.

This is good to remember, especially since we are now entering into the holiday season. This is the time of year when the excess leftovers from the festive gatherings of today can become the frozen fiends that lurk in the freezers of 2010.

This week:

-Declutter your freezer.

-Eat before going to the grocery store to reduce the number of impulse buys.

-Choose only the items you will actually eat between grocery runs.

-Save money by eating in more often than eating out.

-Make your own frozen dinners. Cook a family sized meal and place in individual freezer containers. Reheat for tasty home cooked meals anywhere anytime.


Best wishes and happy decluttering! :)