I had two packages of beef and one of pollock in the freezer that was frosty when the power finally came on, so I cooked it. I made a batch of a nacho filling (I use it in tacos, burritos, nachos, etc.) and much of that is in the freezer now. I made a small pot roast the next night, and on Sunday night I made whiting stew (celery, carrots, potatoes, onions). It made a lot of the soup/stew, so I've shared it with a friend. I have leftovers for the rest of the week now.

My big upright freezer is only a couple of years old and was a real champ - after three days my next door neighbor with a generator realized they had extra capacity they could send my way so we ran an electric cord and the freezer was plugged in. When I finally opened it I was glad to see that it held up well. I have lots of frozen berries in there and none of them had melted into blobs - they're all still frozen hard and individual berries. I bought this to replace a 50-year-old mid-century modern harvest gold freezer that has in the past been less good about keeping things frozen solid in power outages.