Reverse Meal Planning

Primrose

Greenbee. . Possibly worth buying a couple of  plastic bottles of milk from a supermarket and saving these robust bottles as in this very cold weather, if temperature stays at 5 degrees or lower, you could decant the glassed milk into them and then store outside to make more room in yiur fridge.  

We always save a few empty plastic milk bottles, wash thoroughly and refill to the top with really hot water and seal until we need to use them for soup freezing. 

joedenise

Using up some of the LO roast chicken from Sunday to make Spanish chicken with some risotto rice from the cupboard and some chorizo from the freezer with smoked paprika to up the Spanish flavour a bit.

Florenceem

Using frankfurters - FF + tired veg  - fridge + rice - from stock for dinner tonight.

ruby_eskimo

Having sardine pasta for dinner tonight I think - quick easy and all from the cupboard.

rtandon27

@Primrose - that's a great idea about the overflow fridge!  We have a picnic cooler in the storeroom that I may have to fish out again and use when we get our next bi/tri-weekly grocery delivery.  Would save me a lot of fridge tetris time!

On the subject of freezing - we use glass jars from either salsa or coconut oil for all our liquids (soup, milk etc.)  They get put through the dishwasher to sterilize & we leave about 1-2cm gap at the top for the liquid to expand when using for the freezer.  The smaller jars will hold about 250mL and the large ones 450mL.  The bonus is that they stack nicely in our drawers and once the metal lid is taken off, straight into the microwave on the defrost cycle.

ruby_eskimo

I've started using glass for my freezing needs too @rtandon27 - we don't have a microwave so it's just easier when I want to shove something in the oven.  Still feel a little funny about freezing liquids in glass though as we had an explosion in the past but think that was because I didn't leave a big enough gap.  May try it again one day when I'm feeling brave.

Primrose

I have previously occasionally frozen only very small glass jars of surplus liquids/sauces in the microwave, leaving an expansion gap and have thawed slowly in warm water as I was unsure of their safety's when thawed out rapidly. .  When we need to thaw out our soup in one pint plastic milk bottles we either place them still sealed in a bowl./saucepan of hot water, or place them in a large Pyrex bowl in microwave on Defrost.  Have never had a split/,leakage yet but  work on the possibility there could always be a first time and don't want to risk the hassle of a subsequent clean up nightmare. 

greenbee

Primrose said:

Greenbee. . Possibly worth buying a couple of  plastic bottles of milk from a supermarket and saving these robust bottles as in this very cold weather, if temperature stays at 5 degrees or lower, you could decant the glassed milk into them and then store outside to make more room in yiur fridge.  

We always save a few empty plastic milk bottles, wash thoroughly and refill to the top with really hot water and seal until we need to use them for soup freezing. 

The fridge is fine - plenty of space. And I have a spare fridge and freezer in the garage. I'm just trying to empty the chest freezer to defrost and getting frustrated by the fact that I keep creating more to put in it!

Like a number of you, I also now use glass rather than plastic wherever possible (I still have a few plastic boxes that are going strong. Some of the glass has glass lids, some has plastic lids. I also don't go to the supermarket. Long covid means I'm not up to the drive, let alone the shopping, so I rely on deliveries. I'm hoping that the lack of supermarket shops and therefore increased dependence on veg box, freezer and cupboards will have the same impact as in the first lockdown and result in eating healthier meals. I'll start worrying when the outside freezer is empty and I can see space in the kitchen one!

Mrs_Cheshire

@greenbee I hope you start feeling better soon, glad you have a well stocked freezer and store cupboard. 
Doing well with our meal plan so far this week, plenty of using up supplies. Got loads of cherry tomatoes in the fridge so might make a tomato sauce with them. Need to use up some cucumbers before they go off. 

Florenceem

Using frozen vegs from freezer tomorrow which will go in a casserole