Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Oh no RT, hope you’ve not got the killer cold! 

Parsnips - curried parsnip soup is a favourite here? And surely the best use for red cabbage is slowly braised with apple, sultanas, allspice, five spice powder, a star anise or two and a healthy glug of balsamic until everything is soft and delicious….tell me that’s not just me?! 

ruby_eskimo

EssexHebridean said:

Ruby I have an image now of you standing for 15 minutes stirring tagliatelle in the hope of it absorbing loads of stock! 😂

I’m still on plan - and have most of a plan for next week too, to attack yet MORE of the freezer space. Annoyingly though I also need to make a plain white loaf ready for bread sauce, so there will be more freezer space taken up with that, then the sauce once made, ahead of a Christmas too. Still think I’m on target for getting freezer 2 switched off though… 🤞🏼

I may have to have a think about veg needing used and consider making some soup at the weekend. 

Hehe not quite!  Luckily I checked the rice situation before I started heating the stock up so no standing around for me 😆  Was actually quite nice with the pasta instead so will be happy to have that for dinner again tomorrow.

joedenise

EH - you're not on your own I do braised red cabbage with onion, apple & spices in the SC; so much easier than doing it on the stove!

Parsnips - we sometimes have parsnip & apple soup which is nice but can be a little sweet for some, although using bramleys rather than eating apples helps tone down the sweetness.

rtandon27

@EssexHebridean & @joedenise - thank-you both so much for the recipe ideas - it's so nice to be able to post random ingredients and hear back with what everyone would do with them!  OH will definitely give the braised red cabbage a go, as he pointed out we have a few apples lying about that could do with using up!  I'm also favouring a parsnip soup, but we are debating a savoury vs a sweet option atm!

Our healthy homemade soup got set to the side for tomorrow and instead we had a bowl of stodge for dinner!  My last box of mac & cheese from across the pond was sacrificed in the name of comfort food.  It's not the day-glo orange one, but a posher supermarket version with white cheese & less salt - LOL - It's fairly bland and all either of us could face today!  Tomorrrow's plan is some real food!

(ETA - not the dreaded cold thankfully EH, mostly exhaustion coupled with a migraine and a stomach bug - or as the other half says - you are getting old girl - learn to cope with it - LOL)

Suffolk_lass

We had our boosters yesterday and just about manage cheese on sourdough toast. It used up the last of the rather successful loaf DH made at the weekend. Tonight we will have lamb's liver, flash-fried in butter and oil, with onions, bacon, cabbage and mash

EssexHebridean

Ahh now liver and onions is classic winter food in this house - enjoy! Hope you’re feeling back to normal after the boosters now. 

I have mixed root mash and a tub of ratatouille out defrosting ready to have with some of the chicken sausages we bought from the food show tonight. The balance of the cooked sausages will roll forwards to tomorrow to go into a risotto with squash and sage rather than freezing them. 

I need to make use of some frozen gooseberry purée from the freezer as there’s still 4 boxes of it in there!  Also those two bananas are still lurking in there - my enthusiasm for those is waning a little due to not being that fussed about ordinary banana bread. Might see if a I can adapt a recipe I have for a banana/malt extract tea loaf to working with something other than malt extract. Black treacle, perhaps…? 

Suffolk_lass

I think the booster "boosted a cold virus that DH was harbouring. He took himself off to bed for about three hours yesterday afternoon and so we did not have the liver after all. He had cheese and biscuits and I had some porridge. I've got an oxtail to start in the slow oven today, ready for tomorrow. Although I am undecided if it will be chilli or a beef pie at this point

C_J

I had a veg box glut to use up recently too - I made a few portions of slow cooked red cabbage with balsamic vinegar and cranberries (BBC Good Food recipe online), some of which has been frozen to go with Christmas dinner. The parsnips were turned into several portions of curried parsnip soup which was delicious, and the rest were made into garlicky creamed parsnip purée (again, this was frozen to have with Christmas dinner). I had a fair few Brussels sprouts too, which I think I will shred and freeze later today, ready to be stir fried with pancetta and pine nuts on Christmas Day. I’m really pleased by how much advance veg prep I have managed to do, it makes cooking the Christmas meal so much easier and more relaxed.

rtandon27

@Suffolk_lass - it was cheese & crackers here too last night - OH was feeling manky from his booster on Wednesday so we had a bowl of soup each followed up by c&c. (I'm intrigued by the idea of a slow oven for stewing meat!)

@EssexHebridean - did you see N@diya's show yesterday evening? - she did a banana bread with thyme in it! Recipe here

Suffolk_lass

I thought everyone made banana ice cream with frozen bananas... just food process then from frozen with a little milk or cream, then sprinkle with your choice (toasted flaked almonds and chocolate sauce maybe)