Need a way to break out of the midwinter blues? How about clearing out some space in your freezer? It takes wit and skill, and will free up room for you to stuff more delicious food in there (until next year) (let us not speak of it).
Assuming that food in your freezer has been kept at a proper temperature (i.e. not subjected to a lengthy power outage), food will be safe indefinitely. However, it loses quality over the months. A lot of quality, depending on how dutiful you were about wrapping it properly before you put it in there. Even the best-wrapped meats will start to get cruddy after 6 months, though.
Soups and stews are the ultimate solution to freezer-burned food. You get all the flavor and nutritional benefit, without having to worry about "off" textures. This is a great way to use a slow cooker, if you have one. If not a big pot on the stove will do the trick over the course of a long Sunday afternoon.
Related to this, clear stock or broth is an invaluable tool in any cook's arsenal. Use your freezer leavings to create beef, chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock, strain it out, pour it into individual small containers, and put them back in the freezer. You've basically traded up, from gross frozen leftovers to marvelous additions to your future meals. (Plus, stock A) doesn't really get freezer burned, and B) stacks nicely in those rectangular plastic storage tubs.)
Chili is another great option for using up frozen meat and vegetables, if you mince them finely enough. Heck, with the right set of chili spices, you could put just about anything in there and no one would notice the difference. A big pot of chili will also freeze well, if you decant it into separate Ziploc bags or storage tubs.
Image courtesy Flickr/Mark & Andrea Busse
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