Menu planning Monday - Disaster redeemed!

What was going to be my First official Menu Planning Monday post today turned into disaster relief and recovery day instead. Somebody, not to be named publicly, unplugged the freezer (for what reason, I never determined) probably a week ago. How I discovered it in time to save the many items of frozen meat and tons of berries still, was amazing. I pulled out a bag of blueberries and sat them on the counter and then decided to get another bag. Digging deeper this time I discovered that the top layer in my chest freezer was completely thawed, although still very cold. Poking my finger in just about everything else I could I discovered that nearly everything was thawed to a point of being soft, but still cold!

I let out a yelp! Oh no, how can this be? All the meat that I planned for the next month was completely thawed and had to be pulled out and cooked ahead of time and re frozen. Well, I guess that takes care of my menu planning after all. We will have chicken soup, meat loaf, hamburger paddies, and spaghetti and meat balls for the next several weeks. The berries will now be frozen for the third time as this is now the second time this mysterious plug has popped out of the receptacle. (The first time it was my fault. You see our vacuum is the problem in that it blows the circuit about 5 -6 times per vacuuming session. We sometimes have removed the fridge or freezer plug in order to stop the shorting out and all too easily forget to plug it back in again. )
Whether this was the problem this time or not, I do not know, but some how we have got the get this freezer thawing habit under control! Instead of the disastrous day we could have had it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both boys jumped into the kitchen and we all cooked and fried and packaged up our cooked meals for the next few weeks.

Hmm, that was nice. I wonder how I can get this to occur again WITHOUT the freezer thaw catastrophe. I like have company in the kitchen and my boys learned a few cooking tips as well!

Next week - another try at a Menu Planning Monday post, Lord willing!!