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Please help my family!

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  • Valli
    Valli Posts: 25,463 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    The freezing instructions on the pack say must be frozen immediately then used within one month...it had all been in there for at least 2 or 3...



    x
    :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

    then you buy more;)

    seriously; it'll be fine.

    Borrow one of my mottoes;)
    Don't put it DOWN; put it AWAY
    "I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness" Emily Dickinson
    :heart:Janice 1964-2016:heart:

    Thank you Honey Bear
  • tessie_bear
    tessie_bear Posts: 4,898 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    hi...i agree with the name change...iv just changed my sig to give myself a bit of motivation...i like my slow cooker and use it quite often but i dont think buying one will solve all problems of time/lack of energy/no time/limited cash....i think u might do well with a bit of batch cooking at the weekend and freezing in tubs then lifting out in the morning

    id go to a supermarket when u have a bit of time and browse the aisle with the blackbean sauce ect in....that sort of thing would make u a takeaway type meal and u can put in extra veg and u know the provedence of the food...no chance of horse:)

    further to chucking food out...i would have defrosted it a bit at a time and given it the once over (sniff look) and decied if it was ok

    dont be hard on yourself...kids are hard work im sure it will all start to fit into place....baby steps
    good luck
    onwards and upwards
  • Ok guys, child is currently eating her books (yknow, as you do?!) so I've started on the list of everything we have.
    Big Cupboard
    Heinz beans big tin x3
    Curried beans sml x2
    Mulligatawny soup
    Pea & Ham soup
    Vegetable soup
    Mushy peas tin x2
    Tin spaghetti lge
    Spaghetti hoops sml x2
    Tin apple slices
    Tin pear halves
    Tin raspberries in juice
    Tin rice pudding
    500g chilli penne
    500g penne
    Mexican rice microwave
    Tin macaroni cheese
    Nandos bbq sauce
    sharwoods sweet chilli stirfry sauce
    Homepride cheese & bacon pasta bake x3
    Sharwoods tikka masala ex creamy
    Sharwoods szechuan sweet chilli sauce
    Sharwoods madras sauce
    Sharwoods h&s tikka masala
    Sharwoods bhut jolokia curry
    Sharwoods cantonese curry
    Sharwoods tikka masala
    Discovery cajun chicken sauce
    Homepride peppercorn sauce
    Levi Roots rasta pasta sauce
    Chopped tomatoes
    Vegetable broth mix
    Pataks korma sauce
    Gravy granules x2
    ½ bag risotto carnaroli rice
    Curry savoury rice
    Golden veg rice
    4 lasagne sheets
    ¼ bag trottole pasta
    Bag of pancake mix (bb nov 12)
    Full bag sharwoods noodles
    ½ bag caster sugar
    Flava it Piri piri marinade
    So crispy lemon and herb chicken
    So Juicy Sweet&sour chicken x2
    Colmans chicken nuggets spice mix
    Medium fajita spice mix
    Crispy chicken fajita spice mix
    So Crispy chilli chicken
    Schwartz potato dauphinoise bake powder

    Fridge
    lemon curd
    raspberry jam
    filled pasta x2
    cheese spread
    marmite
    filo pastry
    sausagemeat (defrosting) x2
    chicken fillets x2 (defrosting)
    2 pints blue milk
    exotic fruit smoothie
    Freezer
    2 portions white fish
    half bag of homefries
    chopped leaf spinach
    big bag petits pois
    full bag chicken fillets
    1 ptn potato croquettes


    We've got more than that in the freezer but havent had a chance to check yet.
    Need to think of something to do with the sausagemeat tomorrow, will be making a chicken curry with one of our many sauces!!

    Ran out of fresh stuff, hence the need to do a food shop.
    Any meal ideas from all this junk would be awesome guys :)

    Thanks so much for all your advice.
    Btw how do I change my name?! I couldnt find any option to change it :S

    Thanks again, you're amazing :D
    xx
  • aliama
    aliama Posts: 242 Forumite
    The freezing instructions on the pack say must be frozen immediately then used within one month...it had all been in there for at least 2 or 3...

    Is that one of the instructions I should actually ignore? When are things safe? I cant put them back in the freezer now, its all in a binbag outside :(

    I went on a cleaning frenzy this morning, I wouldnt normally throw everything out! :(

    x

    Yep, that's something you can safely ignore. Once food is frozen it should be safe to eat indefinitely (assumiing it was fine when it went in and the freezer doesn't break down or something). Sometimes instructions will say it needs to be used within a month or three months, but this isn't to do with safety -- it's because the taste and texture of food can deteriorate if food is stored in the freezer for too long.

    When you've got a bit of free time, I think it would be an idea to make up a double batch of food -- stew or spaghetti bolognaise, for example -- and freeze half of it, so that you've always got something easy in the freezer.

    I also think online shopping is worthwhile, interspersed with trips to the supermarket in person to pick up any reduced items or to visit the bit where they sell foreign brands of food (coconut milk for example) at cheaper prices, which don't show up online.
    NSD May 1/15
  • You've got enough sauces and packet mixes there for at least 23 main meals! I can't see normal 'rice' - either basmati or long grain - on your list.

    You could buy a big bag of rice, a big bag of spuds, and the meat to go in those sauces and that's enough meals for nearly 4 weeks.
    If you haven't got it - please don't flaunt it. TIA.
  • diane39
    diane39 Posts: 347 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    Check out https://www.allrecipes.co.uk and http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes These websites are great for searching for recipes when you've only got a few basic ingrediants in.Good Luck,it does get easier.You've got loads there to work with x
  • Thanks guys :)
    OH is obsessed with spicy stuff (makes his own chilli sauces) hence all the curries...we get plainer ones so that I can have my half and he can add the scary chillies to his half.
    I think thats what we're going to do Sambucus, hoping that we can use the majority of whats in the cupboard before we move then start afresh in the new place.

    Thanks for all the advice :D
    x
  • sonastin
    sonastin Posts: 3,210 Forumite
    Looks to me like you don't need to do a "Big" shop, just a small top up of fresh stuff. The big shop is for when the cupboards are totally bare and you're all out of storecupboard stuff. You're a long way from that state!

    I still get the urge sometimes to clear stuff out of the freezer because its been in there too long. I think sometimes I look at it and think "if I haven't used it by now, I have no use for it". Lurking around this site has got me more disciplined in that respect and every now and then I force myself to use that *thing* that has been tormenting me so that I don't end up wasting it. Its usually OK, even nice, when I've cooked it, whatever it is!

    I agree that the answer is to start meal planning, but start small. Don't plan complex and elaborate meals when you know realistically you won't want to cook them. If needs be, to begin with, get ready prepared veg, diced meats, etc - to go with all those jars of sauce you've got. It takes less effort (and costs less) to open packs of stir fry veg, diced chicken and stir in sauce than it would take to go to the takeaway. Crikey its borderline whether that's easier than finding the phone, dialling for takeaway and finding your purse with the delivery boy stood on the doorstep!

    Once you're used to standing in front of the cooker for 5 minutes assembling the pre-prepared stuff, it feels like less of a stretch to start chopping veg and dicing chicken breasts yourself which helps shave a few more £££ off the grocery bill. And from there cooking completely from scratch and making up your own sauces isn't too much of a stretch - but that's a step that only needs taking if you enjoy cooking and/or you're really tightening your belt. You don't need to feel like you've got to start there if its just going to make you feel like you'd rather go and get a takeaway!
  • RAS
    RAS Posts: 35,549 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    OK

    So you need to list the freezer contents as well. You have enough cook-in flavourings/sauces for the next month. Now you need enough basic main like chicken (thighs rather and breasts if they are cheaper) to make up the meat component.

    You also have a lot of tins that could be the bais of a lunch-time snack, or make 2 and a 1/13 portions out of the main meal and then freeze the small portion to have for lucnh in 2 days time.

    Do you bulk meant based meals out with beans (say chickpeas in a curry)?
    If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing
  • evie451
    evie451 Posts: 364 Forumite
    100 Posts
    I find its easier to cook now than to sod around with processed meals which invariably you have to do at different times, temperatures stir halfway through etc when you are heating them up but this revelation has taken a while!

    I have a slow cooker and do use it every week but it sounds like you and OH need to sit down and agree on some mealplanning.....I am in a similar position with a chilli lover and quite a lot of problems are solved with a bottle of hot sauce!!:rotfl:
    Every Penny's a prisoner :T
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