To be annoyed with MIL's almost out of date chicken?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

Or even just put it out for the foxes to eat. The ideas are endless. Put in slow cooker, cool and make sandwiches etc etc etc . Ridiculous to worry abd fall out with MIL about a bit of chicken

The people telling off OP for being mildly annoyed about it seem to be getting more riled up and dramatic than the OP 😀

That's what I was agreeing with, freezing on date. But you can also...

I'm not falling out with the MIL. Not even a little bit. I'm allowed to be mildly annoyed at my MIL without arguing with her about it.

If there are so many endless ideas, why did she not do one of them instead of palming it off on me to do?

Yes sorry, I got my cooking programs mixed up

I’d have just thrown them in the bin personally or let DH cook them up if he wanted. Almost out of date chicken that’s been taken out of the fridge for transport isn’t appealing

You’ve actually catastrophised it yourself by not just saying thank you very much, smiling and putting it in the fridge or freezer! Your freezer surely has room for a bit of cooked chicken?

Talk about looking for something to be annoyed at her for! So what she put it in your fridge, it's her sons fridge to. Dont want it just bin it.

But WHY do you think that? How do you navigate life unaided?!😶 😆

How? Easily. By planning the shops and dinners to not get to the situation of freezing potentially fishy meat.

With my MIL, it would be straight in the bin. Couldn't trust her to keep fridge food in the fridge. E.g Xmas cheese selection boxes were generally left in the garage for weeks and totally rancid by the time she handed them over 🤮.

I don't understand why anyone would be grateful for that.

She is not trying to do a nice thing, she isn't thinking about your family and wanting to help you. She just decided to dump the meat she doesn't want any more on you.

Just put it in the freezer to cook later?

You’ve actually catastrophised it yourself
Still not a catastrophe
by not just saying thank you very much,
To who? As I said in my OP, I wasn't there
smiling
At who?
and putting it in the fridge
MIL put it in my fridge, as I said in the OP
or freezer!
No room as I said in subsequent posts
Your freezer surely has room
Nope
For a bit of
Quite a lot, actually
cooked
No
chicken?
No thanks

Erm that’s basically how we live our lives 😂😂
I buy regular ingredients each week on a delivery, pasta, rice, butter, cheese, veg, fruit, salad stuff, plain yoghurt etc, the stuff we get through or just need to top up. Dh goes to the butchers at the weekend and buys a weeks worth of meat. And then on the day we decide what we fancy. Neither of us know what we might want to eat next Thursday so we don’t meal plan ever.

I think it's a guilt/grief alleviator too.

I have to really fight myself not to put absolute tat in charity shop bags because I hate waste. But I don't get that feeling if I pass it on to someone else! Even if the object remains objectively crap.

I’ve never meal planned in my life outside of specific meals with Christmas dinner or a big dinner party. I think it’s quite weird.

Seriously?
How do you shop?
Surely most people have a vague idea of what they are going to do with the food they buy?
Surely you think oh, we'll have sausage and mash one night, pasta another night, pizza another, roast dinner another, and then buy the stuff you need for those meals?
What do you do? Just buy random stuff and hope for the best? Surely you have a lot of waste that way?
Genuinely curious how you do it and how it works?

Jesus is this really such a concern for you? What the hell are you going to do when something major happens in your life!

All you needed to go was cook them, then eat them cold the next day in sandwiches for example, or whatever.

Oh, I don't know, explode probably. This already has me on the verge of a total breakdown.

Yes, a vague "let's have sausages on Monday and pasta on Wednesday so need both of those" way. But vegetables are just general and not usually associated with a particular night. Definitely don't have such a strict plan that some unexpected extra chicken would throw the whole week out so much it would be any issue. I don't keep the freezer so full to the gills that there isn't room for one pack of chicken or something else from the fridge to go in it

At least that poor chicken died only to be famous on Mumsnet. Wonder if he knows how much discussion this has prompted?

I was just thinking...why is everyone telling you to freeze out of date chicken? Chuck it out

"I make something theres enough time in the use by date so we can still eat it for leftovers. "

I'm not sure if I'm reading this right, but FYI the use by date refers to the "must-cook-by" date only. You do not need to eat cooked leftovers before this date.

Once cooked the timer re-starts and keep it as long as any other cooked item of the same type. ~5 days.

Yes you can. I buy yellow sticker stuff and freeze it. It’s due out that day so they reduce it. It’s the day of purchase!