Thursday was our Azure Standard pick-up day. I haven’t ordered in a little while, and I haven’t done any major grocery shopping. Our freezer was almost bare. I hate that feeling as it makes it difficult to prepare meals. There is something beautiful about a well stocked freezer.
After picking up my Azure order, I headed to the grocery store to pick up my ground turkey and chicken breasts. This time, it was actually cheaper to buy the “tubes” of ground turkey instead of buying the bulk size and repackaging. Plus, that saved me a little time.
Once I arrived home, Munchkin helped me get everything put away. I had ordered LOTS of frozen veggies as you can see in the picture. Azure has great prices on their frozen bulk organic veggies, so I stocked up. Some of the veggies came already packaged is smaller sizes while others are in large packages. Originally, I was going to repackage the bulk ones into smaller sizes, but I decided that I would just wait until I actually opened the package.
The biggest job was shredding 5 HUGE blocks of cheese. I ordered 2 blocks of raw white cheddar, 2 blocks of mozzarella, and 1 block of raw pepper jack. All of those needed to be shredded and placed in baggies for easy use. Thankfully, I have an attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer that shreds cheese, so I don’t have to do it all by hand. Even with this attachment, my hands were aching by the time I was done.
The next job was vacuum sealing all of the chicken breasts into family size proportions. I do not like freezing chicken breasts in the package from the store. They’re more likely to end up with freezer burn, and it’s hard to get just the number of breasts out that you need for a meal. By vacuum sealing 3 breasts in each package, I am able to just pull out what I need, and the chicken stays nice and fresh.
It took a little bit to get everything arranged in the freezer so it all fit. In the picture, you can see the top shelf which is also filled with veggies. For me, a well stocked freezer includes lots of veggies, lots of shredded cheese, ground turkey, chicken breasts, a little organic beef (too expensive to really stock up), freezer jam, and brown rice tortillas. (D always adds coffee to this list.) With these items (and items from my pantry), I’m able to quickly pull together many meals.
What do you always like to have on hand in your freezer that helps you prepare quick meals?
That does look like a nicely stocked freezer. I had forgotten about Azure Standard…I’ve never ordered from them but my m-i-l did for years and I recall looking through the catalogs she had. I might look into it since we live in a more rural area and they just might have a co-op going 🙂 I want my freezer that full!!
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I would check into it. I started ordering from them this past year when we moved to Arizona. (It wasn’t available at our prior location.) I’ve been pleased with the quality of items that we’ve received. The only thing that is hit or miss is the fresh produce, but they really stand behind their products. If you end up with something that isn’t good, they will immediately credit your account. I appreciate good customer service. 🙂
Oh, I love the day we stock our freezer. Yours looks great. Azure is not available here in NJ which makes me sad because they have great prices. My co-op is definitely not up to par. Enjoy all that wonderful provision!!!
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I will definitely miss Azure when we head back to the East Coast, but I’ll enjoy it while we are here.
The only thing that doesn’t like the stocking of the freezer is my pocket book. lol! Thankfully, we don’t have to do it too often. 😉
I agree – a well-stocked freezer makes life as a mom so much easier. I love the photo!
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I just love shopping with Azure Standard, too! However, I think it’s funny that I’ve never ordered all of the things you mentioned here from Azure: organic frozen veggies, cheese…and were your chicken breasts from Azure? I’ve never looked into that.
The family who stores our Azure order until we can come and pick it up has limited freezer space, so I suppose that I would need to order a little bit at a time. And Azure doesn’t place our refrigerated items into separate boxes that are marked to be refrigerated, so is your cheese still okay and safe to eat?
Sometimes, our Azure truck brings the food around 10 p.m. and then the family calls us the next morning to let us know that our Azure order is here. That would make me nervous to have cheese sitting out or chicken or whatever that needs refrigeration, especially in the late spring through fall months.
How does your pick-up work, and are your items kept refrigerated? Our refrigerated items are just packed with the other items that don’t need refrigeration, which I think is strange.
Loved this posting! It was fun to see your freezer. Ours has 1/4 organic, pastured beef in it plus some lamb and pork and frozen fruits we’ve picked, so if I do order frozen veggies, it won’t be in the quantities that you might be able to order it in.
Julieanne
http://www.JoyInOurJourney.com
We get our things directly from the Azure Standard semi-truck, so all of our items are refrigerated or frozen on the truck until we pick them up. We all place our individual orders online (and pay online), and we are responsible for picking up our own orders. We get a call from our drop point coordinator the morning of the pick-up to let us know when we need to come (usually in the morning from 9 – 11). The truck driver just lets her know when he’ll be pulling into the area, and she relays that information to us. Our pick-up (truck drop point) is a local church.
The chicken is just from our local grocery store. I haven’t ordered that from Azure yet. We do get organic beef from them that is quite good. I would love to be able to get the side of organic beef locally, but it isn’t an option here.
It was inspiring to see your freezer. I am fortunate enough to have a both a chest freezer and an upright freezer. I bake all our bread using half unbleached white flour and half whole wheat flour I grind myself. About once a year, our local Safeway has a sale on flour at $1.00 a bag. I stock up on about 20 bags and then store it in the freezer. There is also a gentleman at the church we attend whose Christian service to widows includes stocking their freezer with venison in the fall. In addition to those things, and the kinds of things you have, we also have 1/4 pastured beef (purchased yearly from another homeschooling family), frozen fruit, and butter that I buy lots of when it goes on sale.
Got so into telling you about what’s in my freezer that I forgot to say I was stopping by as part of the TOS Crew Blog Walk
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WOW! You & Minchkin were very busy girls ;D ! I don’t mind the shopping it’s having to put it all away when I get it home! Happy cooking! God Bless 🙂
I always like to have frozen broccoli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, mixed vegetables, home made mashed potato’s, spinach, various shredded cheeses, tortillas, home made burritos, chicken breasts, various other meats, fish, whole baking chickens that we like to rotissiere cook, home made biscuit dough, home made cookie doughs, sometimes home made noodles that need to be cooked. I like mine well stocked too and I like it to hold enough food for our family for two or more months if possible.
It sounds like we both like very well stocked freezers. I usually have whole baking chickens in the freezer as well, but it’s too hot to do much in the oven right now. Once the temps go down, we’ll start adding those items back into the freezer.
Heather, I was sorry to hear about your grandfather. My prayers are with you!
Your freezer looks wonderfully stocked… very Proverbs 31-ish 🙂
Have a blessed week!
Sallie
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