Reverse Meal Planning

ruby_eskimo

That sounds like my kind of dinner @Suffolk_lass 😋

Dinner tonight is a chinese style chicken curry using the last of the chicken from the freezer and the courgettes left over from last week.  We'll end up with a second batch of the sauce so I'll have something to add back into the freezer but at least it's a quick and easy meal for the future.

Suffolk_lass

Been a bit quiet - I defrosted a bag of lamb mince and finally got round to cooking it, using half a large jar of my hm chopped tomatoes and store-cupboard onions, garlic, carrots, herbs and a dash of tabasco. I also used a courgette and an aubergine, with sliced potato to make a much-too-big moussaka-like dish (stuck a cover over it and will resolve it today) and used the other half with the off-cuts and another potato, sliced and roasted. I need some cheese sauce or just grated cheese to top it with and then it will be complete. Meanwhile, we had cauliflower cheese to actually eat as it was too late after all the faffing

ruby_eskimo

Keep forgetting to update here!  Made a batch of dhal on Tuesday night for dinner and having the leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week.  Tonight I'm having a bit of a fry up so I can use up the eggs, mushrooms and some vegetarian sausages with some HM hash brown too.  Opened the fridge this morning and pleased to see that it's looking relatively empty - which means we're actually using stuff up!  Have a cucumber sitting in the fridge that I haven't touched yet so will probably make some kimchi with it as I have enough pickled cucumber to last me a while!

rtandon27

We are still reverse planning from the freezer, trying to use up one thing in each meal, so that we don't have to try and move frozen food later in the summer.  We are down to half a drawer of meat so that is progress!  Hoping to make inroads into the dairy drawer as well.

Last night's dinner was dame mary's recipe for leek and potato pie.  Used up one of our numerous huge leeks & about a pound of potatoes along with some frozen shortcrust pastry.  Delicious, but we both felt it could have done with a bit of protein on the side and a serving of greens to round it out.  About 8 servings in the pie, so we'll not have to cook lunch for a few days!

Primrose

We do a fair bit of bulk cooking but my husband refuses to eat the same meal more than two days on the run.  Does anybody else suffer from this boredom fatigue or do you slightly modify meals on Day 2 and beyond to avoid this problem?

rtandon27

There are weeks when the OH refuses to cook once and eat twice, and there are other weeks when he happily scoffs down his share & mine as well!  We often mix it up by adding different vegetables and different proteins.  My go to option is to  store portions in the freezer for another day - OH's memory lasts about 3 weeks, and by the time I defrost the extra potions and put them on the plate with fresh vegetables, he has forgotten that they are 'leftovers'!

ruby_eskimo

Primrose said:

We do a fair bit of bulk cooking but my husband refuses to eat the same meal more than two days on the run.  Does anybody else suffer from this boredom fatigue or do you slightly modify meals on Day 2 and beyond to avoid this problem?

I'm happy to have the same thing for a few days in a row which is good as I'll usually prep the same lunch for the working week just to make life easier.  With dinners, I'm like rtandon27 and freeze the leftovers if it's something like chilli, bolognese, curry - a finished dish essentially.  If it's something like a roast chicken or meat joint then I'll just use it in different ways so if we roast a chicken at the weekend, I'll then turn the leftover chicken into tacos and risotto that week which mixes it up just enough to make DH happy 😆

Suffolk_lass

We don't mind what we eat - last night was the sort of shepherd's pie made as the leftovers of the nearly moussaka (that needs attention - we will have it tomorrow) - by attention, it needs the aubergines cooking and putting in a bigger dish. Or, a very, long, slow cook!

Mrs_Cheshire

Hi all, just been catching up on all your lovely meals. We're doing fairly well at using up the contents of the freezer. Need to work on using up the storecupboard now. I've just rejoined the world of slim so need to fill the freezer with healthy options to make life easier for myself, particularly for lunches as I get fed up of salads. 

rtandon27

Hello folks - anyone have a favorite way to use up a fairly large fennel? - I have a couple of recipes for various tarts but could do with a bit of creative inspiration!