Help with using what meat/fish i have in the freezer buying minimal ingredients pls!

heavenleigh

Good afternoon all,
I have well and truly fallen from the OS wagon and need some insperation to get back on track.
Between Christmas and new year i luckily hit Mr T's at the right time a few days on the trot, and have a full american size freezer full of fish and meat (all at under 25% of original price), my problem is i'll take out a pack of mince/casserole steak/chops etc at night then go to the shop the next day and spend up to £10 on extra ingredients to make a nice meal out of it!
Im struggling for money at the moment (aren't we all) having gone from a married couple on an income of £30,000+ a year to a single mother of four on benefits!
Just wondered if any of you nice people could help with some staple ingredients/recipes that means i dont have to shop every day and can interchange between meats etc. My brain is mush at the moment so im struggling to do it myself x

LandyAndy

How about giving us an inventory of your freezer contents so that we can spot possible multiple meals (different things requiring almost the same ingredients) etc.

That should keep you out of mischief for a few minutes.:)

heavenleigh

Hi sorry about delay, just been on the school run,

In the freezer i have,

500g diced pork x 3
400g Lean lamb mince x 2
350g stir fry fillet steak x 4
finest breaded haddock fillets x 6
Salmon fillets x 18
Finest sausages (various flavours) 8 packs of 12
Bacon x 5 packs
Scallops x 3 packs
Steak mince 500g x 6 packs
Finest aberdeen angus burgers 2 per pack x 3
Haddock fillets x6
Gammon steaks x4
Sausage meat x2
Pork loin chops 4 pack x5
Lamb chops 4 pack x2
Cod loin fillets x3

As you can see i dont need to buy meat/fish for a while but need to stop spending £10+ a day on extras to make nice meals,
Another problem is that i usually batch cook and freeze the extras but until i have whittled down my supplies i have no room to freeze anything in the freezer :0(

heavenleigh

Sorry forgot to mention thats just the meat/fish, i have the usual frozen veggies/chips/ emergency fish fingers and a couple of ping meals plus home made frozen sliced beef and chicken joints/yorkies etc

Linda32

heavenleigh wrote: »

500g diced pork x 3
400g Lean lamb mince x 2
350g stir fry fillet steak x 4
finest breaded haddock fillets x 6
Salmon fillets x 18
Finest sausages (various flavours) 8 packs of 12
Bacon x 5 packs
Scallops x 3 packs
Steak mince 500g x 6 packs
Finest aberdeen angus burgers 2 per pack x 3
Haddock fillets x6
Gammon steaks x4
Sausage meat x2
Pork loin chops 4 pack x5
Lamb chops 4 pack x2
Cod loin fillets x3

As you can see i dont need to buy meat/fish for a while but need to stop spending £10+ a day on extras to make nice meals,
(

You could say that :T

Just to give use an idea, when you say you would spend another £10.00 to make a meal, what extras would you buy. Maybe we could offer suggestions to cut down there.

Personally, I'd not be thinking to hard and just buy a bag of spuds and have lamb chops, potatoes and veggies for a start.

I'm hungry now we've got Sausage and Mash for tea :rotfl:

heavenleigh

Hi Linda, i think my problem is i tend to turn to the recipe books on an afternoon and always end up having to spend money on obscure ingredients and veg that are only good for one recipe.

I have my basics of lasagne, spag bol, casserole, fish in olive oil and pesto etc that i have all the store cupboard things for but i hate to feed my kids the same thing week after week (maybe i need to change my frame of mind on this one)

Infact maybe i just need therapy and not advice lol

I have the staples of pasta/potatoes/noodles etc in the cupboard, i think its the lack of imagination that is getting me down more than anything else.

One of our favourite meals is toad in the hole (cheap and easy, but yet again i dont want to feed them it day in day out)

P.S forgot about the bottom two drawers of the freezer also have 14 chicken breast fillets and 4 packs of cubed stewing steak along with some liver and a pack of pork ribs!

Linda32

Well, I have to say that with all that food, I truly don't think you will be feeding your family the same thing every day.

I mean, if you start at the top of the list and work your way down, you'll get around to the top of the list in another 16 days and thats with meat or fish every day.

I take it you have ingredients for pastry, so how about mince and potato pie, this only involves carrots and potatoes, but don't buy loads, two potatoes and two carrots are all you need. Thats an example of spending another £1.00 at most to give you a pie, if you already have flour etc.

hot.chick

just do the days of the week and put one of your meat choies next to it and build it up form there:

Monday - chicken breasts x 4(or 5) then add something from your cupboard (potato,pasta, noodle, rice? & a type of veg
Tuesday - mince (lasagne, spag bol, chili, mince pie??)
Wed - toad in the hole
Thursday - beef stew with dumplings?or curry with rice?
Friday - gamon steak - pinnaple or egg & home made chips or wedges?
Sat - fish with new pots and veg?

See if you can do a week at a time or 2 weeks if your into the swing of it?

Hope this is of some help?

quintwins

i never go out for extras if you have taties/rice/pasta/noddles and general store cupboard stuff like tomatoes and spices/flour i'd just make do, you can make anything interesting with abit of imagination, or a slow cooker where u can just throw everything in

archiesdad

I know how you feel I have a freezer full of food and always end up cooking the same dishes. We are trying to cook a new dish every week.

Here are just some of my suggestions, I am fairly new to the old style life so apologies if this is not what you are looking for.

What about using some of the sausages on this dish, I have yet to try it but I have heard it mentioned by others on the board it's will be my new dish next week.http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9527/fragrant-pork-and-rice-onepot

or with your lamb mince
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7736/diy-kofta-burgers

I am not sure if you make this but what about a cottage pie with the mince, I use a tin of tomatoes and a bit of marmite in mine things that are usually in the cupboard.

I find meal planning for the week helps as you can buy the ingredients for that weeks recipes and then try and incorporate those in the next weeks dishes if I am buying spices etc.

I am sure more experienced old stylers will be along to help, I will watch this with interest as I have a few of the same things in my freezer and am always looking for inspiration.

YORKSHIRELASS

Oooh, lucky you, do you want to swap freezers?

Seriously though, I would sit down with a pen and paper and list all the meals that you can think of that are easy to make/liked by the family/dont require lots of additional shopping. I would start with mince and write down loads of recipes for mince then move on to salmon, pork, sausages etc etc. I am a bit obsessed with meal planning but I do actually keep a list like this in my recipe file!

For me mince would go: Lasagne, spag bol, shepherds pie, mince cobbler, minced beef & onion pie, chilli, meatballs, mince and yorkshires. Chicken would be Hm chicken nuggets, chicken curry, chicken risotto, chicken ham and leek pasta, chicken pie, chicken fajhitas, sweet and sour chicken. As you can see we are fairly unadventurous but there are loads of recipes on this forum if you search about.

Having made a list of recipes I would then make up a meal plan for the next 4 weeks, slotting in the recipes you have listed. You can then list any additional ingredients you need and shop for them.

In terms of rotating meals, I work on a 2 week meal planner and this seems to work fine (well the kids and OH dont complain anyway!). You have got loads of variety in there to play with.