I'm not the only person who serves "random brown shit" for dinner am I?

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Because whenever I freeze leftover stew, soup, pasta sauce, chilli etc OF COURSE I am going to remember what it is so I dont need to label it, right?

So 6 weeks later when I defrost it .,.....well lets just say that we have occasionally had chilli with pasta and bolognaise with rice. But thats ok isnt it?

Tell me I am not the only person who does this!

My mum once got a left over pie out of the freezer for tea. It wasn't until we all tucked into it covered in gravy that she realised it was a cherry pie 🤣

I used to freeze food and bin brown scary looking lumps a year later. Now we eat leftovers until they start coming out of our ears and never freeze anything.

YANBU.

@Notimeforaname ha, I once got half-way through a bowlful before it occurred to me that this was not, in fact, chicken soup but chicken stock

I started labelling because DH labels the food he makes meticulously. Date included. I can’t have him show me up.

We have freezer roulette too
Tonight I'd defrosted chilli instead of bolognese
So I made burritos 🌯 with some left over rice 😀😀

@Whoopsies

My mum once got a left over pie out of the freezer for tea. It wasn't until we all tucked into it covered in gravy that she realised it was a cherry pie 🤣

That is hilarious, I hope you all had a laugh about it.

oh, and I forgot to refresh again so everyone has said that already...

I've started defrosting first before I decide on rice or pasta. I tend to make a lot of tomato based sauces that I'm convinced I will remember what's chicken and what's beef. Never do!!

I discovered (probably here on mn) that sharpies are your friend here.
we just write on the lid of the container the contents and date.

A friend of mine froze peeled bananas and put them in her slow cooker as part of a casserole.

@Whoopsies

My mum once got a left over pie out of the freezer for tea. It wasn't until we all tucked into it covered in gravy that she realised it was a cherry pie 🤣

did it taste nice?

Why do we do it, convincing ourselves that this time we will remember what it is?

I made some cakes a couple of weeks ago and had some frozen stewed apple so defrosted that to use in the recipe. Unfortunately I had a cold and couldn't smell that it was actually chicken stock...cakes not surprisingly went straight in the bin.

One day I WILL buy some labels.

I just serve my frozen mystery meals with chips. Everything goes with chips!

I label everything, & keep a spreadsheet with headings such as "meals", "fish" etc. & what shelf each item is on.

This only came about after many disasters like you are all describing - and particularly items from DM's freezer. Chocolate ice cream as a gravy for leftover roast beef anyone?

The fun in my house is that there may well be vegetarian chilli/soup/whatever and non-veggie. It's very annoying to defrost the wrong one.

Iceland tapas is a great name for it, much better than "bung it beige" which is what I call it.

I gave my husband what I thought was chili for lunch at work but it was just meat sauce. I asked him what he did and he said he just ate it. I find that I really don't remember what is in those containers well but find sharpies don't write well on foil and freezer tape doesn't stick.

My Sam famously served apple and blackberry pie with mash and veg. She thought the meat looked off. We had omelettes mash and veg and weekday pudding

It’s the ones you can’t solve even after defrosting… I think it was pumpkin mush but I’m still not certain

six weeks?
correct gestation period in the freezer is 3 years - YABU

Oh yeah - annoys the hell out of DH as sometimes mystery substance sits in freezer for ages bc I'm not sure what it is. The worst is when, very occasionally, I've made a big dish which leaves lots of leftovers but it's also not very nice so you defrost it and it's like 'Oh, it's those meatballs that didn't work' :/

This thread also remind of the time once when, as a teenager, my mum walked into the room looking very serious and said my name, and I thought she was about to tell me someone died or something, but she just said, still very seriously 'The stuff I defrosted for dinner isn't bolognaise.... it's goulash'. I think I might have cracked up laughing at that point.

@purplesequins

I discovered (probably here on mn) that sharpies are your friend here. we just write on the lid of the container the contents and date.

I can’t help laughing at these responses, sorry

I have loads of sharpies, all working and within easy reach, I still fail to label everything

This is a regular issue here. As long as it's not the vile chickpea soup I made about 3 years ago and which must have cloned itself in the freezer as there's so much of it, no one really minds ... although defrosting leek & potato soup rather than stewed apple to put into a crumble when we had friends coming for lunch did require an emergency pudding being made.
On the topic of mains and "correct" side, when DD was about 4 I offered her a choice of cottage pie, chilli or pasta bolognase for tea and a horrified a friend who questioned when I was going to fit in making this as it was already after school and I explained that I'd taken a bag of frozen brown stuff out of the freezer so what I served it with would determine what meal
I would then call it.

I can't be bothered to label either, fortunately I've not made any mistakes yet.

I had a friend who was served chicken curry lasagne by her MIL who had mistaken the chicken curry for ragu. Rather than cooking rice she just decided to proceed with the planned menu anyway! I'm told it was interesting.

I once served up coq au vin - minus the coq. Not sure what happened to it.

I offered DH lasagne for tea the other night...he loves lasagne. Was not impressed when it somehow turned out to be lentil moussaka that he hadn't been that keen on when I made it originally. I have a whole freezer drawer full of takeaway tubs, some not labelled at all, some labelled incorrectly in Sharpie with previous contents. I like to live dangerously!!