Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Ooh interesting RT - I’d completely forgotten about her show, I love her too so might need to do catch up! Thanks for the link! 

I now have most of a meal plan for next week, and I also suspect by the end of the weekend there will be so little left in freezer 2 that it’ll be pointless leaving it on. May see if I can come up with something to use from it for lunch tomorrow as I’m now feeding two of us of course - potentially the wraps can be pressed into use - I’m half wondering about using a batch of mince to do some form of koftas, perhaps. 

I have chilli on the plan for next week, and sausage and mushroom pasta, so was debating using the frozen mushrooms I have rather than buying a pack, but on the whole with the current covid situation rolling on as it is I think I’d sooner hang on to more of the frozen veg for a while. 

To use: 
Beetroot
spring greens
1 bag of salad leaves
green peppers
potatoes
squash
carrots
couple of parsnips

Sunday lunch will see off the parsnips and a fair number of tatties. Half the squash will be used in risotto tonight. I’m tempted to use the rest as part of something for next Thursday which is currently blank on my plan. I might finely shred some of the spring greens to stir into the risotto tonight. MrEH will pickle the beetroot if we don’t come up with anything else to do with them, and we both love that so all good there. The green peppers are glaring at me - I’d much prefer red or yellow but hey ho. I’ll volunteer some carrots for Christmas Day as Mum and I both eat them. 

EssexHebridean

Suffolk_lass said:

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)

Never done it with frozen bananas but we do make a from fresh banana ice cream which also features maple syrup and crunchy peanut butter…It tends to not last long! 😂

joedenise

EH I usually make stuffed peppers when we have green ones.  They seem to be much sweeter when cooked in the oven.

rtandon27

EH  we use green peppers with sweet white onions in stir-fry with beef or chicken strips in black-bean sauce.  They seem to be milder when paired with the onions.

We've also been keeping a supply of veg in the freezer - I always feel better knowing we could skip a week of shopping if we had to & eat solely from the freezer & stores.

ruby_eskimo

joedenise said:

EH I usually make stuffed peppers when we have green ones.  They seem to be much sweeter when cooked in the oven.

Same, and in fact that's exactly what we had for dinner last night as there were 2 lonely green peppers in the fridge that needed to go.

Made a batch of butternut squash and roasted red pepper soup for lunches this week so that's portioned up in the fridge - it's going to be a busy week so I've been a friend to my future self and prepped as much as I can.  We have a glut of potatoes to use up so it's a cheats poutine for dinner tonight as per DH's request.  I say cheats because we don't have cheese curds so subbed for mozzarella instead (please don't kill me @rtandon27 😆)

We were also offered a pretty much brand new chest freezer last week which we would have taken if the logistics of getting it here weren't so difficult.  Will just have to put up with our tiny freezer a little while longer I guess.

Suffolk_lass

The house feels empty (apparently!) with no baked beans and no potatoes...I'm not sure how that happened!

rtandon27

ruby_eskimo said:...cheats poutine for dinner tonight as per DH's request.  I say cheats because we don't have cheese curds so subbed for mozzarella instead (please don't kill me @rtandon27 😆)...

@ruby_eskimo - in the spirit of "use it up" cheesy chips with gravy is definitely acceptable in lieu of poutine!  (Should you ever feel like splurging,  I've been told that these are the real deal & keep in the freezer!) My OH has never understood the concept of poutine, but then again he's never experienced them in the middle of winter from a food truck in -25'C in blustery winds - LOL

@Suffolk_lass - I'm glad I'm not alone in forgetting to stock the basics!  This week I had to go back into my grocery order & add potatoes! I'd never live it down twice if they got forgotten again!

Our Saturday's dinner was thai green curry - we had two lots of the sauce/gravy left over in the freezer from previous meals, so did up some fresh chicken & added the defrosted sauce.  Also opened up a bag of sticky thai rice we received as a substitute last year during lockdown - it had a nice texture when cooked up, but the taste & aroma were a bit bland compare to our usual jasmine.  It's only a small bag, so I'm sure we should be able to use it up in 2 or 3 more goes!  We've started one of  our new year's goals early - mainly using up food stores that just sit on the shelf feeling sorry for themselves.

Last night's dinner cheesy kale champ with steamed carrots & pork steaks with blackcurrent gravy.  Tasty as always

EssexHebridean

I had a "future self will thank me" moment yesterday evening when I knuckled down and prepped food for tonight and tomorrow. Today will be moussaka-ish - ish because I finely chopped the last of yesterday's lamb breast in lieu of mince, chucked in some green pepper because it needed using, and altered the spicing a bit to our taste (so as well as cinnamon, it also had cumin and coriander). It did get layered though in the end thanks to the pre-cooked frozen aubergine slices in the freezer...which stupidly I used INSTEAD of the fresh ones - doh! Oh well, the fresh ones can get sliced, roasted while the dish is in the oven tonight, and can then be frozen. Sigh.  Tomorrow will be a chilli so that saw off another green pepper at least. 

We are getting there - and MrEH now agrees that later this week we should be able to reorganise and get freezer 2 empty and off. I'll be taking sausages, bacon and black and white puddings...oh, and tattie scones...out of freezer 1 ahead of Friday so that will make a bit of space. 

I'm without baked beans at the moment too SL - they'll wait until after Christmas now though when I restock! 

Suffolk_lass

Normality resumed last night - DH went cross country to Basingstoke to collect a motorbike item he won on the bay of E and because the traffic was so slow coming back, he stopped and bought a big bag of baking potatoes and 6 tins of beans! He also picked up a bag of fresh tagliatelle. Our original plan was to visit the F&C van but he was too late back so I cut some smoked back bacon into strips and fried it, slackened off a small tub of philly with some water and then added a ladle of the pasta water, and added the cheese sauce to the bacon and then into the not quite drained pasta. Sprinkled with parmesan and black pepper. 5 minute dish with carbonara-esque sauce!

EssexHebridean

That is one of our favourite sort of pasta dishes - SOOO quick and easy! 

Tonight's tea is sorted by way of the chilli that I cooked on Sunday - I do need to remember to get the cooked chicken sausages out of the freezer for tomorrow though. 

Oh - and, the big news here.....drumroll please.....FREEZER TWO IS OFF! I basically thought S0d it last night, managed to get the contents into freezer 1, and just went for it. it'll need a proper clean out tonight but the defrosting happened easily by way of plenty of newspaper shoved underneath, and making sure the drawers took the worst of it.