Reverse Meal Planning

ruby_eskimo

Morning all.  Think it's going to be a leftovers heavy week here - lunch today is leftover stir fry noodles from dinner last night and dinner is LO lasagne from the freezer.  

joedenise

LO aubergine, chickpea and vegetable curry from freezer for dinner tonight.

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

LO aubergine, chickpea and vegetable curry from freezer for dinner tonight.

that sounds lovely. We've got lamb cutlets tonight but we might go for a veg curry tomorrow. I might prefer it to meat curry these days

joedenise

When I looked I'd actually got an aubergine dhansak out which I'd made when I had an aubergine getting a bit wrinkly along with some other veg and red lentils but there is an aubergine, chickpea and vegetable curry in the freezer somewhere!

Primrose

I know none  of us like to waste food but can anybody share /(confess!) to some really unlikely food leftovers or scraps that they have actually turned into  to be a reasonably edible meal? 

My best offer is on one occasion fishing some potato peelings out of my kitchen compost crock, washing them and roasting them on on top of a tray of tomatoes, red peppers and courgettes. They turned out quite well.
They  do of course cook down nicely in soups, or even in meat casseroles. 

I recall my mum doing some tasty things with stale bread and a few sultanas during the war.

marionmgcars

Freezer portions of curry - chicken for me and veggie for hubbie with some home made naan breads and rice.  I have started weighing the rice according to the packaging for portion size, and I always make us too much, which we always end up eating - ha ha.  needless to say we are not the stick insect style of beings.  Being frugal while healthy is always a good goal for the challenge.  

rtandon27

@Primrose - I'm not sure we actually have any unusual leftovers/scraps...
...we turn breadcrusts into crumbs... mashed potatoes into croquettes or pan-fried patties... leftover roast chicken or pork into lunch time sandwiches...
...chicken carcasses & drippings into poultry bone broth... meat bones & roast drippings into regular bone broth... vegetable peelings into veg stock...  those in turn get used as the base for lunchtime soups...
...but those are all quite 'normal' things & I can't think of a single unusual one!
TBH, since the OH took over the majority of the cooking when he retired, we have more meals that don't have any leftovers, as he tends to prefer freshly cooked food everyday.  When we do have leftovers, they usually are 'planned' such as lasagna or pasta bake that are next to impossible to do in small quantities.  The extra 4 portions go into the freezer ready for another meal or two later in the month.

greenbee

@Primrose - I keep all the ribs/stalks from green veg and turn them into soup. I don't waste them on the compost! Most veg gets cooked with it's skin on, so there aren't really any peelings going spare here. 

@marionmgcars - I find portion control is a good way of being frugal. Sticking to the calories/nutrients I need rather than what I feel like generally results in the food lasting a lot longer! 

I'm still running down freezers - the outside one is now empty and defrosting, but the inside one has plenty to keep me going. I've defrosted some green soup, cauli & broccoli cheese, beef casserole and what looks like chicken with fennel and parsnips. Although it could just be fennel and parsnips without the chicken... I haven't had a supermarket delivery since Dec 15th (so two months today!), and I cancelled my veg box last week to try to get myself focussed on using up what I have. I need to inspect the greenery in the garden, but I may skip this week's veg box too. Or put the weekend supermarket delivery booking off again. Or both... And I need to think sensibly about what to stock up on. I still have plenty of food in the house, some of which really does need eating! I need to get things that will result in it being used up, so probably need to plan to buy stuff to turn into meals and then freeze rather than freezing ingredients and forgetting why I bought them. 

Suffolk_lass

I'm like @rtandon27 - none of mine feels particularly unusual - my Mum's bread and mixed fruit desserts were bread and butter pudding (butter the bread, sprinkle the fruit and pour over egg and milk and sugar mix and bake slowly) - or if half a loaf was left she made bread pudding (my favourite, and to this we owe the sticky rib layer of body insulation... ).

I do use the leaves from the cauliflower in cauliflower cheese, along with leeks from the garden, or broccoli stems or macaroni to pad it out. I always make stock with a chicken carcass, and either pie or curry with the pickings after two other meals - so typically 5 meals plus soup for 2-3 days from a chicken. I also compost all my veg waste so it helps me grow in my garden every year, typically a 5L bin full twice a week.

Oh yes, and we dry any citrus peel and keep it in an old Roses tin as firelighters along with branches off the old Christmas tree and newspapers - but obv not a meal, just normal frugality!

joedenise

More stuff for the freezer for meals today!  Home smoked haddock in kedgeree for breakfast. Linda McCartney rosemary and red onion sausages in a sandwich for me for lunch, fish finger sandwich for DH.  Sloppy Joes from some of the mountain of mince in the freezer for dinner tonight, with jacket potatoes.