Reverse Meal Planning

Mrs_Cheshire

ruby_eskimo said:

marionmgcars said:

I have a bowl of plain organic Couscous.  Not a big fan of eating as salad etc.  Any suggestions what I can add it too ?  Don’t want to waste such a thoughtful gift.  X

I've been known to mix couscous with some passata and italian herbs and used it to stuff peppers with topped with cheese.  That's pretty much the only thing I can think of as I love couscous on it's own and it was one of my staple "meals" as a student!

Thanks for sharing, I've got some giant couscous left and haven't known what to do with it as I don't like it plain

greent

Lunch today was a success - had half a large cauliflower left over from Xmas (and Tesc0's 29p offer) and riced it - not usually a fan of cauli rice, but stirfried this off with loads of finely chopped shallots, sliced mixed peppers (going past it in the fridge), a grated carrot, a couple of broccoli stalks finely diced up and part of a pack of chinese-stytle marinated pork strips (bought YS in November) with lots of garlic, soy sauce and a spoon of sweet chilli sauce and half an egg stirred through (half an egg left over form DS3's food tech homework - we halved the recipe as it's not one many of us would eat) - was absolutely gorgeous and there's enough 'rice' left over for me to do it again in the week

Dinner tonight is the last of the pulled pork form the freezer (made it in early Dec and boxed leftovers into 2 small tubs) which we'll have atop of burgers (leftover from summer BBQs and bought YS back then) with HM rolls, 0lio tomatoes and lettuce and wedges made with 0lio sweet potatoes  

rtandon27

Tonight's dinner was Swedish meatballs in cranberry sauce with fluffy mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.  At long last have used up a bag of frozen fresh cranberries & a there is now bit more room in the fruit/stock drawer of the freezer.  The OH who used his usual line of 'I'm not really a fan of' in this case cranberries, managed to have helpings and declared he couldn't eat another thing!

Mrs_Cheshire

Morning all, Hubby's birthday yesterday and I managed to find a fab deal on a full beef fillet, so collected 1 yesterday and have managed to get 10 steaks from it. 8 went in the freezer and 2 were enjoyed last night for his birthday tea.  Served with sweet potato fries, stuffed mushrooms, baby corn, mangetout & tenderstem broccoli (mostly saved through 0lio). Tonight we're having left over Turkey, pigs in blankets, stuffing balls, honey roast parsnips from Christmas, mash and veg for stores. Need to do a meal plan for next week as I'd like to get a drawer emptied from the freezer to allow for freezing some rolls/bread now I've got 2 kids having lunches at home now. Need to adjust my shopping slightly to allow for those meals as they would usually have a school meal. 

ruby_eskimo

Finally managed to actually get the freezer sort of defrosted over the weekend (only been banging on about it here for months 🤣) so now have some space to freeze some batch cooked things.  Made a huge vat of vegetable soup yesterday using up some carrots, a red pepper, some potatoes and half a leek that were in the fridge drawer so 4 portions are in the freezer and 2 in the fridge for lunches this week.  

Having sausages and mash for dinner tonight with some broccoli but will freeze half the pack for a couple of other meals at a later date.

rtandon27

Over the weekend, I managed to fix the oversalty split pea soup made with gammon stock.  Whizzed it up & then diluted with some water, put in peeled potato & boiled it for 40 minutes, pulled out the potato and then added a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.  Soup is rescued - yeah! - 1/3 is now in the freezer & 2/3  in the fridge for this week's lunches.

Lunch today not soup however, it was the last of our blue cheese & mushroom risotto along with a salad that used up the last of the cherry tomatoes, the last avocado, some winter salad greens, sliced cucumber, apricot stilton and a glug of salad dressing.  A slice of yesterday's pork roast  and a spoon of cranberry sauce.  Just a bit of each so still a lunch sized meal - utterly delicious & a change from the usual soup and sandwich rut we often fall into!

Mrs_Cheshire

We're having salmon for tea, so something else used up from the freezer, with new potatoes, green beans and corn from fridge/freezer. 
tomorrow the kids and hubby will have turkey sandwiches as I've got slices in the fridge which need using up and we're having chicken & mushrooms in a sauce with rice for tea, might use a tin of chicken soup for the sauce. Having a week of using bits from the freezer to empty it a little. 

ajmoney

Do you guys freeze spinach in portions?  I bought a bag yesterday and have only just seen that it has tomorrow's date on it and I definitely won't eat it all by then.

joedenise

I always buy frozen spinach.  Just don't use enough to buy a bag of fresh.  Have frozen in portions before now but quite honestly the frozen stuff is better!

Primrose

I freeze Swiss chard in portions, which is pretty identical to spinach. Just blanch for a minute then drain really well to remove as much moisture as possible to prevent it frosting up I frozen for too long.   The quantity reduces to almost nothing so it doesn take a lot of freezer space.  Useful  for including in items like cheese omelettes or stir fries.