Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

Have got a gammon joint which I'm going to boil with carrots, potatoes and onions for dinner tonight.  Will then roast the rest of it and slice it for ham which will mainly get frozen in portions although will leave out some for mine and DH's lunch tomorrow.

CCW007

Loving the squash suggestions, thank you.  Suffolk_lass, I've got bags of carrot, celery and onion in the freezer for using as soup base so I might add some squash / marrow to those bags as well.

Mushroom risotto will also feature here this week as we got a box of wild mushrooms in the veg box.  

ruby_eskimo

Another idea for squash that I saw the other week was to roast and puree and then add as a base for a dhal.  Going to be trying this with some carrots next week as we will have a few left over and will report back.

Herbyme

For me the best thing to go with squash, e.g. in a risotto, is a few sage leaves, briefly  fried in butter til crispy mmm

joedenise

Using up some bits from the cupboard and fridge to make a breakfast hash.  Will add a couple of handfuls of free flow mince for protein to the veg.  Will also add a couple of fried eggs on top for additional protein.

This is one of my favourite breakfasts!

Suffolk_lass

I smailed when I saw this @joedenise! Sadly, there are never (ever) leftover potatoes here. DH snaffles them cold when loading the dishwasher. I guess I prefer this to the lost biscuit (usually with cheese but sometime half a packet of digestives) raider alternative. We refer to this as pinkering. It extends to tidying up the bits of roast meat hanging off the edge slightly, or making the edge of a baked thing straight. Pinched from our Yorkshire friend we may have adapted it to include the first "n" but it is common parlance here. Does anyone else have a family phrase for "tidying" leftovers?

ruby_eskimo

Morning all.  Having a chickpea curry tonight that will use up the last onion in the fridge, some peppers and chickpeas from the freezer and I also found a mini naan bread lurking in there so DH can have that on the side of his.  Now have a whole drawer empty in the freezer and one drawer only has some soup that will be lunches for next week and then we can start thinking about Christmas food.

joedenise

Suffolk_lass said:

I smailed when I saw this @joedenise! Sadly, there are never (ever) leftover potatoes here. DH snaffles them cold when loading the dishwasher. I guess I prefer this to the lost biscuit (usually with cheese but sometime half a packet of digestives) raider alternative. We refer to this as pinkering. It extends to tidying up the bits of roast meat hanging off the edge slightly, or making the edge of a baked thing straight. Pinched from our Yorkshire friend we may have adapted it to include the first "n" but it is common parlance here. Does anyone else have a family phrase for "tidying" leftovers?

There are never any LO potatoes here either @Suffolk_lass, especially roast potatoes!   I even deliberately cook extra roast and we end up eating them cold in the evening with some piccalilli! I cheat and use a tin of new potatoes when I make hash.  Always keep a couple of tins in the cupboard.

EssexHebridean

carolinerunner said:

For me the best thing to go with squash, e.g. in a risotto, is a few sage leaves, briefly  fried in butter til crispy mmm

We have a large sage bush just outside the bedroom window - I can frequently be found just before cooking risotto leaning out and picking a few leaves!    

SL love that description for tidying up of leftovers! Nothing specific here (but then I also tend to cook exact amounts so we rarely have leftovers in the traditional sense) but we do sometimes have a tea at the weekend made up of odds and ends and that is always from family tradition known as "picky bits". 

I need to start tackling our meal plan for next week tonight I think - my plan is to try to make it a lot more based on yanking stuff out of the freezer than this week's was - this week's started with good intentions but then bits of veg needing used took priority.

MrEH picked what might be the last handful of runner beans and the final three small courgettes - think last night's heavy frost will have done for anything more that's coming so we'll probably take the plants out at the weekend. 

Suffolk_lass

We went for a late pub lunch with DS yesterday as it was DH's birthday. A very low key affair because both DH and I were out last night at a committee meeting, so no tea (too full)