To be annoyed with MIL's almost out of date chicken?

[MrCollinsandhisboiledpotatoes]

Last night, about 4pm, MIL turns up while I was out with a pack of chicken breasts with the use by date of yesterday, puts them in our fridge and says they have to be eaten today (yesterday) as it's the last day. DH tells me when I get home that there's chicken in the fridge that must be eaten tonight.
I'm like, OK.... But I have stuff I had planned for dinner tonight and all week in fact, and I've got my own use-by dates on the stuff I bought and the week's dinners planned accordingly and now you're going to throw that all out of whack because we have to eat MIL's chicken instead, because of her poor planning and/or reluctance to throw out her own shit, you acting like her food waste bin?
But DH thinks we should be grateful?
Who's side are you on?

Well Pam , one dump deserves another 😂😂

You can't stick things in the freezer on the last day, can you? I thought yours supposed to do that the day you buy them?

The chicken doesn't know when it's been frozen.

If you got it out in the morning to defrost and cooked it in the evening, it would be fine.

What a drama you're making out of it. Just freeze the chicken and crack on with your meals. Simple. You poor MIL she's only tried to go something nice.

I would also have put it in the freezer but I voted YANBU as it is annoying to be told “you have to cook this today”.

Not really relevant but my mum sometimes buys things that she doesn't want or doesn't know what to do with then gives it to me. Sometimes things like an aubergine - fair enough I can use up an aubergine but once it was a fresh coconut. She didn't know how to open it and doesn't much like coconut - I don't know how to open one either plus I don't actually like coconut that much either... (the bounty in a tub of celebrations never gets eaten here). Why she bought it I don't know. Irritating I agree OP but I'd rather receive chicken than a coconut & it's not just your MIL!

Offloading isn't doing something nice. It's offloading.

My SIL once forced an old pram of hers on me when I was pregnant with my first. I repeatedly and politely said I didn't want it. It was far too big for me as I rely on buses. I had already planned something small that fit with my lifestyle, and also to babywear as much as possible.

SIL clearly wanted rid of this pram as it was huge and she no longer wanted it in her way.
I came home from work one day and found it sitting in my front porch.
I was really pissed off but was just told at every angle that I should be grateful she did something nice for me. She bloody well did not.

I tried to donate it to several charity shops who didn't want it as it was too big. Eventually I had to make space for it in the garden shed as I didn't have a loft.

And what happened? when I was almost the end of the pregnancy, SIL unexpectedly fell pregnant again, and asked for the pram back. So much for a generous gift I should be grateful for!!

The chicken thing is just this, on a smaller scale.

It's not "doing something nice" to foist crap you don't want on someone else without asking if they actually want it or not.

Yes you definitely can. I do it all the time

Good grief the drama! Just freeze it!

OP has already said she didn't have room in the freezer.

Why couldn't MIL "just freeze it"?

"Nobody is allowed to find anything their MIL does a bit annoying on Mumsnet."

Well that's very obviously bullshit. They barely bang on about anything else.

Omg I would be furious with that.

My SIL kept insisting I needed that god awful Gina Ford book that was out around the time I had my eldest. Her and her husband would laugh and give each other knowing looks whenever I said that it didn't sound like it was for me.
Then one day she posted it through my bloody letter box!!

If it helps, OP - nice idea for already cooked chicken is to finely chop, mix it with raisins and mayo and curry powder, it’s a sort of short cut coronation chicken. Good for sandwiches or jacket potato topping.

Thank you. I've actually done this for DH's work sandwiches today.
Embarrassingly, I thought that was how you actually made Coronation chicken and you are calling it a shortcut. What's the proper way to make it? Am I missing out?

Yes, I just buy what I like the look of and either put it in the fridge or freezer to use at a later date. I have never planned meals.

Bake it then stick it in the freezer

OP, this would really p*ss me off. YANBU

I remember when DS was small and my MIL wanted to look after him when I went back to work so we agreed on one day a week and my mum did the same.

MIL would always look after DS at our house as hers wasn’t geared up for small children and every week without fail I’d come home to a ton of peeled potatoes and prepared vegetables already in saucepans on the hob. We weren’t really a meat and two veg type of family so every week I’d have to try and think of what I could cook to go with it.

Even when I’d say to her oh we’re having stir fry tonight or pizza, I’d still get home to the same thing. Drove me bloody potty.

Reminds me of a woman on Bake Off saying her parents have a huge house and she's got a tiny house, so of course her mum dumps stuff she doesn't want on her!

Your mil should freeze stuff rather than leave it sitting there going out of date and dumping it on you when it nearly has.

I wish someone would pop round to give me free chicken.

Omg how annoying. Did she bring the potatoes and veg with her?
I'd hide the saucepans 🤣

turns up while I was out with a pack of chicken breasts

Anyone else imagining OP and the chicken breasts out on the razz….

what a total bitch

Of course you can

What when you buy meat from a butcher? Won't have packaging then

There's not really an "of course" about it.
It's what I've been taught on food hygiene courses
It's what it says on the packet.
I thought it was a well known thing.
I could just as easily be all condescending myself and say "of course you can't"
And anyway, as I said, I had no room in the freezer.