Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

Thank you for that idea @ruby_eskimo - I shall bank that idea. On this occasion the leftovers stretched to a little meat left on the bone and enough for a sandwich which DS came round for. DH snacked the bone (he loves picking them clean!). 

We had the second lot of roasted veg with a jar of tomatoes and cheese sauce. I wasn't sure the dish would come clean as he did not transfer it to a smaller one and just re-baked it, so plenty of his favourite food group (burnt on crunchy bits!) - but it's pyrex and it is pristine this morning; although of course I have no idea what he did before putting it in the dishwasher.

I have removed a mystery package of savoury looking something and a divided up pack of chipolatas from the freezer for this evening (and maybe tomorrow) - I'll let you know what MP is...

ruby_eskimo

You're welcome @EssexHebridean and @Suffolk_lass - I'm all for making life easier where I can.

Lunch yesterday was a success.  Chopped up all the odds and ends in the fridge (1/2 courgette, 1.5 peppers, pak choi, onion, tofu and a small aubergine) and cooked them off in a soy based marinade.  Cooked a few portions of rice while I was at it so that's lunches for most of the week sorted - plus it tasted pretty good also!

Dinner tonight is a portion of chickpea curry I found in the freezer alongside a couple of mini naan breads; don't think I can face rice twice in one day!

Suffolk_lass

We use the Jamie quick flatbreads recipe for naans now - so easy

Herbyme

Suffolk_lass said:

We use the Jamie quick flatbreads recipe for naans now - so easy

Monica just made those on Masterchef, same recipe!

rtandon27

The flat breads are really great - OH has taken to making a batch every weekend for us to munch on. - It's a great way of using up our copious amounts of self-raising flour!

We also managed to use up the languishing celeriac in a soup with blue cheese that was living in the freezer.  OH left the soup quite chunky rather than blitz it as he likes a bit of bite in his soup,  It's really tasty, but I think it needs letting down with a bit more stock.  The recipe made 4 good sized servings & we have two in the freezer for a 'cba' day.

Last night's dinner was taco Tuesday - lots of extra mince & toppings left, so I can see that being reverse planned into quesadillas in the sandwich maker later this week.

Tonight's plan is Swedish meatballs and gravy with sides of mash & steamed carrots.  OH noticed we still had some chard left in the fridge, so that will probably make it on the plate as well.

We unpacked another box yesterday thinking it was books, only to find MORE store-cupboard ingredients!   We now seem to have ingredients for 3 lots of pumpkin pie!  Not sure why, as I only ever make one pie a year in October for (Canadian) Thanksgiving.  Also 2 cans of bean sprouts, which I think was something we used during last year's lock-down for stir-fries.  Hopefully the next box we tackle will produce all the extra boxes of herbal tea, as we are coming to the end of our current stash and it would be a shame to buy more when there is already some in the house!

Primrose

I think we all have some oddities stored away in our food cupboards which only occasionally come to light and sometimes wonder what bizarre meals we would be eating if Armageddon was approaching and that was all we had left !

On a more practical point I occasionally ask myself how long it would take  us, if ever we had to downsize and move house to clear outr freezers and storecupboards.  (Longer than practical I would suspect). As we,re no longer in the flush of youth, perhaps this is a project whixh should be higher up our action list!  However as my OH does all the shopping and is very conscientious   about replacing anything as it starts to run down I suspect however practical a concept, this would go very much against his Boy Scout "Be Prepared" attitude!. 

EssexHebridean

carolinerunner said:

Suffolk_lass said:

We use the Jamie quick flatbreads recipe for naans now - so easy

Monica just made those on Masterchef, same recipe!

She didn't name check him though did she! I noticed they looked the same! 

RT I'd be with your OH on the soup front - I far prefer a nice thick chunky one over a smoother, more liquid textured option. Will also send you "right box" vibes for the great Herbal Tea search too! 

I remembered at the last minute last night to get the liver out of the freezer for tea tonight, plus a tub of mixed root mash, but I do need to go somewhere and get an onion. If worst comes to worst I'll get MrEH to drop me at the shop along the road from home on the way back tonight and will dive in there and get one - theirs come with a gold-plated price tag though so I'd sooner not have to go there! Actually, I've not got the bike at the office today so I can walk along to T's on the way back to the car later. 

Storecupboard oddities - many MANY years ago we were given a jar of firey hot chilli oil by the chap in the chinese takeaway we used a lot then - it moved to our current home with us, and stayed, unopened, in the cupboard, until the kitchen was done and all the cupboards got cleared, and we think we got rid of it at that stage, but it could potentially still be lurking. I get the feeling that the jar of chilli sauce we made the other week might be the next thing to lurk for a while unused as it was far hotter than we'd hoped - the perils of using "roulette" gifted chillies! 

CCW007

Cauliflower!!!  Did my Olio collection this week and got 7 purple cauliflowers and only managed to rehome 4 so got 3 left plus a regular cauli.

Made a lovely cauliflower and camembert soup recently (using a camembert out the freezer from post Christmas bargain YS cheese board) - still have one camembert left so might make more of that.  Made a vegan cauliflower soup today and it was uninspiring. 

So researching recipes which can be frozen as I don't think I can face that much cauliflower before it goes off, any suggestions welcome!  Thinking cauliflower and chickpea curry, found a harissa cauliflower pilaf recipe which looks good.

EssexHebridean

Cauliflower cheese freezes brilliantly for me - although I usually make it as CauliMac with pasta in the mix too. And some bacon. assuming you're not veggie, then bacon improves everything... 

CCW007

Thanks EH, I am (mostly) veggie but I did think cauli cheese with those bacon bits you get in Harvesters which are vegetarian would be great!