Reverse Meal Planning

CCW007

My last house (rented) had a hug walk in larder which made up for the lack of storage in the rest of the kitchen.  It was my one regret when moving here - the kitchen is much bigger but has less storage.

Dinner tonight will be noodles with LO beef for OH and salmon and sweet chilli for me. Noodles and salmon are out of the freezer.

rtandon27

Life without a larder certainly is an adjustment!  In the 4 months before moving we attempted to eat down the stores only to find that we still have quite a way to go!

Last night's dinner incorporated 4 veg from our supplies - kale & potatoes, some carrots & Brussels. Alongside a bit of pork steak and some red currant gravy. Variation on an old standby is a winner every time.

Tonight's dinner will be pasta, pancetta, mushrooms and spinach in a cream sauce - a 10 minute meal for a weekday - lots of flavour for minimal effort!

joedenise

Going to be doing a bit of cooking for the freezer today as we're going away for a couple of weeks so all the veg in the fridge needs either slicing and then open frozen before bagging or being made into something to then freeze.

Anyone got any idea what I can do with one small aubergine?  Leeks I'm going to turn into leek and potato soup; swede and carrot will get turned into mash; celery and mushrooms are going to be sliced, open frozen and then bagged up, separately of course! to be used in casseroles etc.

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

Going to be doing a bit of cooking for the freezer today as we're going away for a couple of weeks so all the veg in the fridge needs either slicing and then open frozen before bagging or being made into something to then freeze.

Anyone got any idea what I can do with one small aubergine?  Leeks I'm going to turn into leek and potato soup; swede and carrot will get turned into mash; celery and mushrooms are going to be sliced, open frozen and then bagged up, separately of course! to be used in casseroles etc.

@joedenise you could slice it, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it - then either freeze it or layer it with potato, onion, meat ragu and cheese or white sauce with an egg for a cheat's moussaka.

Alternatively I just chunk and roast it then freeze to add to casseroles

I excavated two rather ancient fish fillets which turned out to be monkfish tails, not cod (!) so I filleted and chunked them, poached in seasoned milk and added cooked prawns, made a parsley sauce and topped it with cheesy mash for a quick but pan-use-heavy fish pie with peas and carrots. I think I would deconstruct the pie next time, but it was tasty and there is some left for lunch.

ruby_eskimo

@joedenise if you have some chopped tomatoes, you could make a pasta sauce with those and the aubergine, plus some onion, garlic and herbs?

Cauliflower cheese soup went down very well with DH last night, which is good as we have another couple of portions in the freezer now for next week.  Dinner tonight will be a soybean stew so I can use up a potato, half a courgette and half an onion that are laying around and it will be nice and warming with some rice.  Also have a napa cabbage to make some kimchi with that I keep putting off so will prep the paste and salt the cabbage while my soup reheats at lunch time, so I just have to assemble when I've finished for the day.

EssexHebridean

@joedenise - a small amount of ratatouille if you have the other ingredients? I've added aubergine to the opt-outs for the veg box this week - they're nice but we've had them a lot, and MrEH is getting a little fed up with them I think! 

All the food sounding lovely here - RT that quick pasta has got to be a winner. Did laugh at your unexpected monkfish win too SL! For fish pie, I generally cut down on the pans a little by making the sauce first then poaching the fish directly in it - seems to work for us and means at least 1 less pan! 

So this evening with be a Tuesday standard - couscous with halloumi and various other veg added - I have mushrooms, there will be chickpeas, and then it'll be a case of see what else I fancy from the fridge or freezer I think. Might use some of the frozen aubergine chunks I have, perhaps! (in mine, rather than MrEH's!)  Quick, easy, and MrEH has his cold when he gets back from rugby training.

rtandon27

@Suffolk_lass - inspired by your poached fish from the other night, we are going to have some tonight - either salmon or cod, depending on what strikes our fancy - along side some mash & carrots.

@EssexHebridean - my OH always says he's not a fan of aubergine, but turned out he quite liked last night's pasta which was stuffed with aubergine, mozzarella & sun-dried tomatoes - not sure he's changed his mind yet, but we may try again in some other disguised form.

joedenise

Thanks for the ideas for the aubergine.  Think it's going to be roasting and freezing chunks of it!  Like the idea of the pasta sauce @ruby_eskimo but unfortunately no onions left!  The last one went into the savoury mince - can't have mince without onions, LOL!

EssexHebridean

RT - it was parmigiana that changed MrEH's viewon it - previously he'd always told me he didn't like it but I had a sneaking feeling that plenty of mozzarella cheese might change his mind, and so it proved! Baba ganoush was proclaimed "alright" but I won't bother with it again, and he's generally fine with it in ratatouille or pasta sauces. Having the veg box has definitely worked to push us out of our comfort zone with it though - it's something I just wouldn't have bought previously. 

joedenise

The savoury mince made 6 portions; 4 of which have been frozen and the other 2 are in the fridge and will turned into cottage pie for dinner tonight.  Will serve with some green veg from the freezer.

The leek and potato soup to use up the leeks also made 6 portions; 4 into the freezer and 2 we had for lunch today.

The aubergine got roasted and eaten last night so didn't make it to the freezer!