How long will this lot last?

Ames

Hi all, I know the answer to the question is going to be 'a bloody long time!). My cupboards and freezer are full to bursting. I've had a few unexpected expenses/overspends lately and know I can pull it back from my food budget by using up what I've got. It's not rocket science is it? Except I can't seem to do it. I end up buying whoopsies when I really don't need them. And I forget to take stuff out of the freezer every day and end up nipping out for something - but I'm going to put a post it note on the muesli tub so I can't forget. So, here's what I have:

Cupboard:
1 egg
oat so simple sachets
2 sm tins butter beans
2 sm tins chick peas
3 big tins spinach
3 sm tins fruit cocktail
1 tin mixed berries
2 tins mushy peas
1 tin raspberries
jar horseradish sauce
2 lg tins sweetcorn
1 sm jar pasta sauce
4 med tins chopped toms with garlic
2 med tins baked beans
1 lg tin peach slices
1 tin hotdogs
1 tin beef broth
2 lg tins prunes
1tins chopped toms
bag pasta
jar picallilli
jar mayo
Dijon mustard
Jar roasted red peppers
8 packets various flavour cous cous
2 past snack pots
1 cous cous snack pot
4 packets supa noodles
stuff for own muesli - running out, need to make more up.
3 packs of wraps
4 cartons juice

oils, spices etc:
olive oil - running out, on list for tomorrow
Nearly empty bottle lime juice
Black pepper
Salt
Med herb sea salt
Chlli and cocoa bean spice blend
Ground cumin
Veg oxo cubes
Ground cinammon
Ground ginger
Chilli powder
Dried rosemary
Dried thyme
Mango chutney
Jamaican jerk spices
Dried coriander
Paprika


Fridge:
Wholegrain mustard
Jar sun dried toms
milk
jam
half jar olives


Freezer:
1Lamb steaks
Bags chopped med veg
Whole sea bream
3 80g Bags mixed veg (brocolli, carrots etc)
2 lots of Turkey breast pieces
2 Bags of 2 garlic mini roast pots
6 sun dried tom meatballs
bag cut beans
5 slices melon
sweet pot wedges (small portion left)
4 steaks
2 lamb chops
3 pork chops
3 meat pasties
turkey steak
1 gammon slices
herby pork ribs
lamb ribs
2 duck legs
chicken breast
6 salmon fillets
diced beef
bag spinach
green thai herb kit


Garden:
fresh rosemary and thyme,

List now updated


I'm pretty sure I've got all the meat right - sometimes I defrost something and find it's not what I thought! Most of the salmon and pork steaks are already marinated. All meat and veg is in 1 portion sets. There's just me.

I have ME so need minimal/no preparation, and minimal use of pans.

I drink dilute juice a lot, and coffee on good days. I use between one and two, 2 pint bottles of milk a week - I can't buy big ones cos they hurt my hands to lift and pour.

I'd like to do a big montly online shop for milk, veg, juice etc, but need to run the freezer down so I've got somewhere to keep it all (and I'm looking for a second freezer on freegle). In the meantime I need to be strict with a shopping list and only get what's on it.

If you need to know anything else, just ask, and I'm sorry it's such a long post!

Ames

Sorry, forgot to say what I actually want help with! I want to know what I NEED (not want) to get each week to make it all last as long as possible, and a rough idea of a budget to stick to for it. Veg has to be supermarket, the market here's great for meat, but the veg goes off before you've even got it home. Any suggestions of how to make the meat a bit tastier would be great.

Primrose

Where to start?
Firstly I'd empty the can of peaches into a lidded plastic container in the fridge
and stir the chopped fruit every day into my Oatsosimple for breakfast. You could also use the prunes or mixed berries in a similar way.
Your lamp chops & lamp steaks I'd use in a slow oven caserole with onions & carrots, two at a time, covered with sliced potatoes on top (i.e. hotpot) so that you can save on fuel and just reheat the dish the next day.
The gammon slices can be cut into thin stips, fried with onions & tinned tomatoes to make a pasta sauce.
The chicken breast can be sliced, fried with onions & mushrooms, and mixed with a little stock & some creme fraiche to make a different pasta sauce.

To be honest, cooking for one, especially if you're not feeling terribly well, can seem an awful lot of effort and I understand why you feel a little overwhelmed.
When I want a quick tasty meal, I just fry a little chopped bacon, onions, mushrooms and red peppers in a non stick saucepan, boil some quick cooking macaroni, mix it into the fried vegetable mixture and stir on a little grated cheese. Apart from boiling the macaroni, the rest of it is all done is one non stick saucepan, so not a lot of cleaning up afterwards.

No doubt somebody else can come up with some easy suggestions.

Penelope_Penguin

Ames wrote: »

Sorry, forgot to say what I actually want help with! I want to know what I NEED (not want) to get each week to make it all last as long as possible, and a rough idea of a budget to stick to for it. Veg has to be supermarket, the market here's great for meat, but the veg goes off before you've even got it home. Any suggestions of how to make the meat a bit tastier would be great.

How many is this for

I'd suggest you don't need to buy much (apart, perhaps, from fresh stuff, bread and milk). There are plenty of meals you can make with the frozen meat and vegetables (you may want to buy a bag of potatoes or pasta to go with ).

See if you can make a week's meal plan from your list, and you shouldn;t need to spend more than a few £££ for fresh things in the first week. Then see what you have left.

Good luck, Penny. x

Seakay

I think that you should stop buying food!
Maybe you could get your bargain 'fix' by trawling charity shops for books to read, wool and material to use for crafts, items to adapt for your home (eg see shabby chic thread) by painting, mending, change of use etc, clothes to wear as they are or to use as a base for a redesign.

Also, I suggest that you take your list to your cookery books, or to the library, and work out menus for yourself for a week, with a note of what ingredients from you store you will be using and when they are to be defrosted.
If you get into the habit of looking at our menu for the next day in the evening, then you will get things out to defrost in good time
You could plan for more than a week at the moment, but a week at a time is a good habit to get into ready for the time (quite a long way away!) when you need to go shopping again, and will be planning a menu around your weekly shop.
I tend to shop and then make recipes fit what I have - it's usually cheaper than shopping for a specific recipe.
Always shop with a list of what you need - and more importantly a list of what you already have so that you can judge if a woopsied item is a bargain for you

Ames

It's just for me! I tend to just stick the meat in the george foreman with some spices. I can't prepare potatoes, so need to get them ready wedged or whatever.

Frying things off is difficult because of the standing and then having to wash the pan afterwards. Throwing stuff into the slow cooker is fine though! I've got a mini one that does individual portions, and I've just got a big one. I want to get used to it all before I use the big one, plus I don't have the room to freeze portions yet!

I like the idea of cutting the gammon into strips and using it in something else though, cos it's smart price and not that great on it's own.

Seakay

Sorry, just seen your second post!

Ignore most of what I said but do do the recipe trawl and menu planning.
If you look for recipes with reference to the ingredients that you have it will quickly become obvious if you need to get one or two things.
Even if things go back into the freezer as portions of a cooked dish you can still cross an item off your ingredients to use list, and start a new list of meals for one (dated)
This probably all sounds like a lot of work when you are looking for a simple routine (my sister has ME and I have fibro and possibleCFS so I do sympathise)
but most of it is by way of clearing the decks and putting routines in place which will hopefully become automatic and relatively painless in time

By the way, have you seen https://www.foggyfriends.org ?

run by ME suffererers for ME sufferers and their friends and family.
Lots of info, discussion and support.

Angelfeathers

Quick tip: if I've got a couple of ingredients I really need to use up quickly, I just type them and 'recipe' into Google and it's amazing how many useful results come up!

It's incredible, for instance, how many yummy recipes there using salmon and kale! :-)

candygirl

Angelfeathers wrote: »

Quick tip: if I've got a couple of ingredients I really need to use up quickly, I just type them and 'recipe' into Google and it's amazing how many useful results come up!

It's incredible, for instance, how many yummy recipes there using salmon and kale! :-)

Thanks for this fab idea, i've just tried it on google and it works!yipeeee:T:T:T

Ames

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to start meal planning from monday (I'm eating out tomorrow and probably Sunday).

I've just been to asda, and the only food I bought was fruit - I didn't even look at any of the other food sections! I had to go for tupperware boxes and paper plates and bowls. They're only for when I'm really ill though, they're so expensive.

So for the next two weeks I've set myself a food budget of £5 a week - that's for bread, milk, sandwich fillings, and bananas. Then hopefully I'll have cleared enough space in the freezer to get in a few emergency ready meals, and it'll be back to £5 a week till everything's cleared.

If no-one minds, I might post my meal plans on here each week so that people can suggest ways of making things nicer/tastier, I'm not really sure about herbs and spices and things.

Also, can you only make stew type things in a slow cooker?

Snowy_Owl

For lunches, what I tend to do is buy tinned tuna when it's on offer - 4 tins for what £2.50/£3 sih. 1 tin lasts me 2 days and i get 4 nice rolls from tesco for £1 (another offer!) made up with nice fresh lettuce from the garden. I have tuna for about another 2 months!!................

Snowy

PS - Good luck!!