Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Last night's liver & onions was DELISH! I added a spoonful of marmite to the gravy along with the usual plentiful splash of Worcester Sauce and it worked really well - I'll be doing that again! Double batch of 3 root mash means that there is another portion of that in the freezer for a future week - and as there is one last lot of liver in the freezer too that gives an easy and relatively quick option to add to next week's plan, probably. 

The mince for chilli tonight and the lamb for curry tomorrow are out and defrosted, and I checked the cupboard last night and I DO have a tin of kidney beans so no need to be inventive there, either. Freezer two is looking distinctly empty now - I'm trying to make sure that anything apart from rolls and fillings for lunches that needs freezing now goes to freezer one. 

I honestly had no idea about the lime peel either so that's really useful info! 

Primrose

Suffolk_lass said:

Primrose said:

Just to add a note of caution to my tip on orange/lemon/grapefruit marmalade rind saving.
DON'T  be tempted to add Lime rind to your marmalade although of course you can add the juice.  It goes rock hard with the lengthy simmering and can be a tooth breaker !

We once made a bulk batch of Mixed Citrus as a charity fund raiser.  What a good job we kept back a jar first to sample for ourselves!  .  I chipped a tooth on a small piece of  rocklike lime peel.   We had to decant the lot and pick out every piece of lime peel for fear that somebody would buy some and suffer an injury!..   .

I was just going to say that about lime rind - that's why Rose's is a jelly! - You can tie it in Muslin too and remove it after boiling too

After our lime rind disaster some years ago  I actually contacted the manufacturers of Roses Lime Marmalade and asked for their advice on cooking lime peel.  Needless to say I didn,t receive a reply!   Our experience is that you can,t really cook with it at all (apart from the Muslim bag route) in the same way that you can use other citrus fruit skins without risking an extortionate dentistry bill.

Herbyme

Does anyone know if it’s best to freeze paneer before or after cooking?

Primrose

I think most people will probably be more familiar with its nearest British equivalent, ie cottage cheese.
i,ve always eaten this fresh and to be honest have never tried cooking with it or even freezing it but would imagine freezing would possibly change its texture and make it less pliable for blending with other ingredients.

Will be interested see some more experienced answers and find out how other people use it.

greenbee

I freeze it both before and after - but then I buy paneer in blocks, and it's nothing like cottage cheese. 

rtandon27

@carolinerunner - I've found that defrosting a frozen block of paneer makes it crumbly & works fine for a stuffing in a paneer or perogi filling - have also used in place of ricotta in greek filo pie. - have never frozen cooked paneer before - it never last that long in this house as we both love cheese too much!

Did a fridge & stores stock-take today, only to discover we have loads of vegetables that somehow have not made it into the meal plan over the past week.  Have skipped another week of veg box and will need to work harder at planning in the produce into this week's plan.  With a whole freezer drawer of meat/fish/poultry as well, shouldn't be too hard to plan it all in.  We've both been on auto-pilot the past couple of weeks so creative meal planning hasn't quite happened!

ruby_eskimo

Well the freezer is stuffed full with food for Christmas now so I need to start using some of the freezer meals up over the next few weeks.  We also have a few odds and ends of veg to use up so lunches this week are going to be biminbap; rice bowls with random veggies and topped with a fried egg.  Also have some tofu to use up so made some braised tofu to add to the bowls too.  Dinner tonight is a leek carbonara so doubling down on carbs today!

Suffolk_lass

We had a year-old half leg of lamb roasted yesterday (that is the last joint of lamb from the freezer, but there are still a couple of chops). It wasn't big enough for a two dinner option as DS joined us. He is working locally today and might pop in for a lamb sandwich and a portion of rhubarb crumble (he was too full yesterday!) at lunch time  - we will be having roast veg with my homemade tomatoes (cooked and bottled) and a cheese sauce. The same as Saturday but I don't mind. I will need to do something with the last aubergine before it is too sad to use.

ruby_eskimo

Suffolk_lass said:

We had a year-old half leg of lamb roasted yesterday (that is the last joint of lamb from the freezer, but there are still a couple of chops). It wasn't big enough for a two dinner option as DS joined us. He is working locally today and might pop in for a lamb sandwich and a portion of rhubarb crumble (he was too full yesterday!) at lunch time  - we will be having roast veg with my homemade tomatoes (cooked and bottled) and a cheese sauce. The same as Saturday but I don't mind. I will need to do something with the last aubergine before it is too sad to use.

If you have any lamb leftover @Suffolk_lass then you could use the aubergine to make a moussaka?  I usually make a Turkish style one with mince, chopped up aubergine and tomato paste or chopped tomatoes, depending on what I have in.  It's not layered like the Greek style one, just made in one pan and good to dip crusty bread into.

EssexHebridean

Ruby I love the idea of that style of moussaka, that sounds perfect for me as I’m not a fan of the faff of layering stuff! 

I’ve added to our freezer…🤦🏻‍♀️ Got a bargain on Heck sausages at the Good Food Show yesterday - we’re not a fan of their pork ones but do like the chicken ones for a bit of a change, and they were doing 5 packs of various different chicken chipolatas for £10. I’m cooking one lot tonight, and will leave another lot in the fridge to use one day next week, but three lots have gone into freezer 1 for future use. On the flip side, I have got out a tub of tomato & courgette pasta sauce and a box of frozen pepper chunks, plus the lamb chunks to go with couscous tomorrow. 

Wednesday will be liver, onions, mash & veg (liver and mash from the freezer) and Thursday will be Thai style fish stew with some white fish fillets that have been in freezer 1 for a while.