Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

More chicken thighs out for dinner tonight.  Going to cook a Spanish dish of chicken & bacon with peppers in a tomato sauce.  Will serve with some mash.

Have also got out some beef and stew veg to make a stew tomorrow.  Will make enough to put a couple of portions in the freezer for next month.

I really must do a freezer inventory to see how much of everything I have in there!  Have added some home smoked bacon and home cooked ham portioned up which gives us some options for meals.

Primrose

1. Keeping a freezer or cupboard inventory is a bit of a pain but being able to check what you,ve actually got is hugely useful in terms od being able to flag up possible meal suggestions, as well as helping to ensure that  older stocks of  items are used up in a timely manner - not something we're probably all doing !

rtandon27

Primrose said:
...not something we're probably all doing !

Ha ha - I keep a list & am still guilty of not using older stock items!  My lesson learned is not to fall for exotic yellow stickered items 'in the hopes' of maybe using it one day in a fit of creativity!

Successes on using up current items in the stores - some peach & mango chunks in smoothies this morning and for dinner tonight roasted chicken drumsticks. 

This time next week we will be in our new place with an empty freezer but no fridge! - it's on order but may not be in until the 17th!

joedenise

@rtandon27 - sounds like a good time to start an inventory and keep it up to date!  Easier said than done.

I've tried so many times but never seem to keep it up after a while.  Really wish I did every time I need to sort out the chest freezer!

joedenise

I'm going to use up some more freezer, fridge and cupboard stuff today!  Going to make a beef casserole using some beef and a couple of bags of my own chopped up stew veg from the freezer.  That should easily make 4 and possibly 6 portions as I always serve stews with mash.  Might even make some dumplings to stretch it even further which will use up some of the suet in the fridge which is probably out of date by now!  I don't like them but sometimes make them for DH.

I've also got a carton of almond milk in the fridge which has been there a while so going to use that to make a rice pudding at the same time as the casserole.  We'll have half the rice pudding tonight and the other half tomorrow (assuming DH doesn't decide he's "hungry"!).

ruby_eskimo

I always try to have an inventory but it doesn't really work 😆 I did separate our emergency food supplies into separate crates according to the use by dates so things won't go to waste - I can just move stuff over to the main food cupboard when the new year starts.  Might try and keep an inventory again in January when I move the new stuff in but need to find a method of recording it that works.

Made a vegetable stew for lunch yesterday to use up the vegetable drawer in the fridge but didn't eat it all so will have the rest for lunch today with rice.  Dinner tonight is home made pizzas so DH can use his BBQ pizza oven 🙄

Pixiehouse55

Well, we have 19 days left before completion. Sausages sausages and more sausages ha h with a bit of chicken breast and a pizza in between. 
Then it will be however long in our motor home till we find and move in to our narrowboat. So tonight was sausages and chips with baked beans.... in between advertising and selling our furniture.  

Suffolk_lass

Just back from a few days away in our van. I seem to have a lot of garden produce - esp courgettes and raspberries. I might stew some raspberries and make a juice with them and combine them with a packet of jelly - probably orange or lime. I also need to chop and freeze tomatoes and I think courgette soup needs to be made. The last of our Victoria plums are in the fridge too (and DH is away on a bike rally - a bunch of fat blokes in a field talking rollocks and drinking beer, then snoring all night!). 

I too could do with a lettuce but not going shopping just for that!

Mrs_Cheshire

Pixiehouse55 said:

Well, we have 19 days left before completion. Sausages sausages and more sausages ha h with a bit of chicken breast and a pizza in between. 
Then it will be however long in our motor home till we find and move in to our narrowboat. So tonight was sausages and chips with baked beans.... in between advertising and selling our furniture.  

Good luck with everything. Such a fun adventure. 

I really need to go through our freezer and have a good sort out. I've got bread drawer which is full, so need to work out how to use some of it up.

I made a really tasty Asian minced beef stir fry dish the other day which was really tasty so will definitely add that to the meal plan again. I'd previously fried the mince with onion and grated carrot so just defrosted it and added some peppers and a sauce made with soy & fish sauce and honey. 

I've got surplus courgettes at the moment so will use a couple in recipes this week and will grate the rest and freeze to chuck into sauces to bulk them out. 

Suffolk_lass

I finished the pink edged lettuce (verge of bin stage!) and cook a couple of potatoes to have with an avocado I found in the veg drawer. Homegrown tiny cherry tomatoes (stopped watering and letting them die back) and cucumber, with a good quantity of shop-bought coleslaw. I also need to do things with courgettes. Grating them sounds good. i am running out of space in the freezers