Eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge - part two

caronc

In: fish pie mix, cod, prawns, kale, pizza, crusty rolls,cupasoup
Out: some of the fish& prawns, peas, cheddar
Used up: spring onions

zafiro1984

In - nothing
Out - 300gm mince,
rest from fridge
Picked up a YS trifle when I went to Sain.... for some printer paper. The trifle was fro dinner with enough left for Dh for lunch tomorrow

caronc

In: brambles, portion fish pie
Out: cauliflower, cheddar, chicken wings, lamb shank
Used up: 1/2 portion fish pie, LO cheese sauce,

caronc

In: nothing
Out: lorne sausage, tattie scone
Used up: OOD egg

dekaspace

Not buying much as most of my diet now is getting a subway most days and then just a snack or two from cupboards at night.

Was I told of a recipie sort of thread here before? Im wanting to make proper chicken flatbread with salad, but the chicken I got from Iceland was bland at best, Farmfoods was nicer but £1 more so trying to save the pennies.

nmlc

Morning everyone

dekaspace - I don't know whether this will help you or not, but I was buying ready cooked and sliced chicken for pack ups and it was so expensive - I've now started buying a small whole uncooked chicken and cook it when the oven is on cooking Sunday lunch, and that is then used for pack ups - I was buying 2 x packet of the ready cooked chicken at £1.70 per pack and now a whole small chicken is £2.35 - I also have the carcass to make stock with and sometimes use some of the meat for other dishes as well as the pack ups.

It might be something that would help you.

HTH

Keep safe and well x

nmlc x

zafiro1984

I've got to start batch cooking, I need to make 8-10 weeks worth of meals for two of us. We will be starting to eat them sometime in January, I won't be able to cook and DH can't cook - he never has tried and to be honest he won't have time either, so it will be all reheated in a microwave

That's 70 lunches, dinners, and puddings plus snacks of cake and biscuits. All meals have to be complete (that's including veg and pots) I feel like I'm going on campaign, it's daunting. I thought to make it easier I'd try to make 14 different meals and 5 of each.

Whatever I make has to freeze well and be OK until needed. I'm going to start with the meat I have frozen but not cooked. I need to be organised like I've never been before. I want to start now so I won't be in a panic closer to Christmas.

The first thing I'm looking at online will be some containers - the sort you get with a Chinese meal, they should store well and I can write instructions on the lid for DH to follow.

HELP - Ideas very gratefully accepted, but the meals have not got to contain, rice, pasta, tomatoes or cheese. - quite a challenge. -:eek::eek::eek:

Primrose

Indeed quite a challenge. Could you make up several different varieties of "all in one" savoury mashed potato dishes containing ingredients like chopped sausages, bacon, minced beef, chopped frankfurters, corned beef, small chopped veg like carrots, etc. Then you would have containers that could simply be out in the microwave to heat up. Do beware the Aluminium foil containers though u less you defrost them the previous day as they can,t be defrosted and reheated in the microwave.

You could vary the potato part by doing mashed potato and parsnips combined. Incidentally a little dash of horseradish sauce, if you like it, mixed in with the mashed potato really lifts it.

Zaffiro, I must have missed why you won't be able to cook. Are you undergoing surgery and will be convalescing afterwards?. Perhaps it's time your husband learned some basic cookery skills. The basic things are not rocket science and I was making them when I did stuff for my Girl Guides cookery badge at the age of 13 or so many of them are not beyond the bounds of somebody who has never previously cooked. Simple soups and casseroles containing beans or potatoes etc are all-in-one meals which not hard to produce and can mostly be left to cook themselves.

How ever would he cope if he were left on his own?
I can only quote the case of a man near us whose wife sadly died. His wife was supported on the cooking front by neighbours while she was alive but because he had always maintained that cooking was "woman's work" he refused to learn any basically culinerary skills. He was taken aback when the neighbours' services suddenly faded into the background following her death. He had truly imagined that they would go on cooking meals for him indefinitely.

dannie

Since last Friday :-

Two weekend shopping outings were made. Went out really to obtain winter household type items (bulk supply of kitchen rolls) as part of preparing for winter but also to purchase a few winter (food) store cupboard supplies from the "Cash and Carry". The other local shopping trip was just a habitual check on clearance items/reductions; nothing purchased.

Keep working my way through my "tofoo" but more keeps "appearing" in the freezer. The 1 kilo + of free turnip greens seem to be all cleared; the last few bags (stems) were used in stock making. More free blackberries keep being snacked upon but are still plentiful in the freezer. Now at a stage of removing frozen packets of sliced bread so pockets of space now. Today has been soup making in order to use up a variety of perishables.

dannie

dekaspace - Could the "recipe thread" on the "September 2017 Grocery Challenge" be the one you require? Go down page 1 of it. It is on "Old Style Moneysaving". Not sure if anybody referred to it from here though.