Reverse Meal Planning

CCW007

Lunch was carbonara for OH to use up some bacon and pepper / tomato pasta for me to use up \ slightly soft pepper.

Dinner will be hunter's chicken for OH and tray bake for me: tofu, fennel and chinese leaf with peanut satay sauce.  The tofu is tossed in cornflour and coated with oil before being baked so I'm hoping it crisps up.

joedenise

Used up some bits from the fridge - mushrooms, tomatoes, a leek, some pepper, also found an odd sausage in the freezer so chopped that into it as well plus a tin of new potatoes and fried it all together into a hash and then topped with a couple of eggs.  Was delicious.  It's something I often do as a breakfast but not often for lunch.

Tonight's dinner is a jerk beef stew which I made in the SC yesterday using an ox cheek which had been in the freezer for several months.  Looking forward to that later.  Will serve with rice n peas which will use up one of the "pucks" of coconut milk from the freezer (only 5 more to go!).

EssexHebridean

That's what I need to do - buy a couple of tins of coconut milk and freeze in blocks - I love the stuff but a full tin is often more than I want in one go! It's that or buy the blocks of coconut cream which we used to get a lot when we lived in London - but then the Indian supermarket used to sell them 4 for £1, so that's probably why! 

RT - veg box fortnightly is our model too - it's a "large" one and we do sometimes get issues about having too much of something but I'm getting better at remembering to check what we're expecting and plan it in now! 

joedenise

I freeze the coconut milk in a silicon muffin tray.  I use the light coconut milk usually but the last one was a full fat one which DH picked up by accident so I diluted it and that's why I've got more "pucks" than usual from one tin.  Have to say it tastes pretty much the same as the light so definitely a cheaper way of getting it so that will be the way I'll be doing it in the future.

Managed to get a Lidl £1.50 fruit and veg box today as well so need to change the menu plan a bit as got a couple of aubergines in it and I've already got one in the fridge.  Not quite sure what I'm going to make but I'll find something!  Also got some baking potatoes and some smaller potatoes, couple of bananas, couple of pears, 5 satsumas, a cauliflower and a single tomato!  

Primrose

Butcher has just given us a carrier bag of fresh chicken carcasses for stock making,
 it's produced a pan of stock for soup making and enough good chicken bits for a chicken & mushroom risotto tomorrow and a Chinese stir fry on Friday.  Plus plenty of scraggy chicken bits to feed our pair of daily visiting semi tame crows! 

joedenise

joedenise said:

I freeze the coconut milk in a silicon muffin tray.  I use the light coconut milk usually but the last one was a full fat one which DH picked up by accident so I diluted it and that's why I've got more "pucks" than usual from one tin.  Have to say it tastes pretty much the same as the light so definitely a cheaper way of getting it so that will be the way I'll be doing it in the future.

Managed to get a Lidl £1.50 fruit and veg box today as well so need to change the menu plan a bit as got a couple of aubergines in it and I've already got one in the fridge.  Not quite sure what I'm going to make but I'll find something!  Also got some baking potatoes and some smaller potatoes, couple of bananas, couple of pears, 5 satsumas, a cauliflower and a single tomato!  

Decision made!  Had planned on using some chicken from the freezer to make a curry but instead I'm going to make an aubergine dhansak.  Will make it tomorrow and we'll have it reheated on Friday when we're away in the motorhome for the weekend.  Will get out the lamb hotpot mix that went into the freezer last week to have on Saturday night.  Will just reheat that and have with some mash; so that's the weekend's evening meals sorted.

We're not leaving until quite late on Friday afternoon so will get out a couple of duck breasts to leave in the fridge for Sunday night's dinner!

becky170

When I was growing up my mum never meal planned and always brought what what was on offer/what she fancied at the supermarket and planned around that. If I do that I tend to not buy enough to last the week and reach for a takeaway  so I have to think about some type of meal plan before heading to the shop I've sorted out my food cupboard and I am definitely in need of doing some reverse planning as I have lots of half full packs of pasta and noodles and pasta sauce and tinned soup which have been sitting in there for ages and are threatening to go out of date.  I also have some meat I brought on offer and lots of frozen Bolognese sauce in the freezer which needs using. So dinner tonight will be left over Bolognese from the freezer topped with sweet potato and potato mash and whatever veg I can find in the fridge. 

Suffolk_lass

@becky170, I always think that recognising where you have failings, helps to identify how you can improve. I tend to meal plan around things that need using up and then write the list to say "veg on offer" or the staples that we use all the time (carrots!).

Currently we are working our way through the paper flour sack that is housing our homegrown potatoes. They are starting to chit (I will remind DH that if you close the sack they don't do so, so fast!) and I am trying to reduce the meat in the chest freezer so I have room for half a lamb. I have lamb mince and beef mince defrosting. I think a pasta with ragu using the beef mince and maybe roasted lamb meatballs (on a rack) in tomato spicy sauce and mash might be the slightly weird choices for today and tomorrow. I also have some lamb neck and bones that I might make a stock and then a casserole with over the weekend.

EssexHebridean

Ha SL I have "standard" items I always tend to stick o a list (mushrooms!) but am also trying to get into the habit of stopping and thinking if we actually do need them now rather than buying them then finding somewhere to use them. (Although in reality I could just eat them straight from the punnet as a snack!) we are also approaching the time for another meat order - need to make the decision whether it will be another lamb, or half a pig this time - we have good local producers for both options.  The lamb meatballs and sauce sound lovely - and you've reminded me that I think we still have one lot of stew-type lamb too - although it may be neck like yours which I also find makes an amazing curry. 

Tonight - Lamb! Chops that were got out last night - will be with roast veg - the other half of the fennel bulb, some or all of the remaining squash, and anything else in the fridge that needs using - and the other monster veg box tattie which will either be mashed or baked. 

Need to do a quick fridge-review too to check for anything else lurking. And MUST do something with the chillis tomorrow - neighbours gave us another HUGE bag of them so there's lots now! 

joedenise

I think we all have standard stuff we add to the list but even so I often find I need to top on some of the stuff that I buy regularly, particularly yoghurt and mushrooms!

Glad I managed to get the Lidl fruit and veg box yesterday as that will save me having to do a top up shop of potatoes at the weekend as I've now got enough until the middle of next week which is brilliant as we are off on holiday on Thursday morning for a couple of weeks for a bit of sun!

Have used up the aubergines in a curry this morning.  We ate a couple of pears and satsumas last night and have had a banana each this morning.  The potatoes have gone into the potato bag; the tomato got used at lunchtime yesterday in the hash.  The cauliflower will get used on Sunday with the roast dinner so has worked out quite nicely and saved quite a bit.  The only things I need to find is something to do with the peppers so I think stuffed peppers may be for lunch on Monday but that will still leave me with another two which I'd already bought when I went shopping.  They may well end up chopped and frozen if I don't need them for something!

I always meal plan so things like this mean a lot of stuff can remain in the freezer as I have been trying to use up some of what is in there.  Those things can now go into a menu plan for early next year!  I've already meal planned November/December.