Reverse Meal Planning

StickyTheStickInsect

I haven’t posted for ages but have been lurking in the background reading all your posts but not really having anything to add but today I managed to pick up for free a bag of potatoes and a bag of a carrots, 2 swede, 2 bags of parsnips, 2 bags of little gem lettuce, 2 bags of lemons, a loaf and 2 bags of hot dog rolls.
It’s the first time I’ve managed to do this, it was in a response to a post on f@cebook, so I’m pleased I went to have a look.

The loaf has already gone, we had soup and bread and cheese for dinner.
The hot dog rolls I’ll use tomorrow feeding my 3 and their 2 cousins hotdogs for dinner.
The lemons I’m going to use to clean the microwave, descale the kettle and to descale to shower head.
The veg, I think I’ll make into soup and freeze most of it.
Thank you for the suggestion to another post @joedenise, I’m going to give your lettuce a la francaise a go for the 4 lettuces we have.

Suffolk_lass

This is the recipe I make lettuce soup with, but I reduce the potato (thickening) and use more lettuce than it says

Suffolk_lass

I've got lentils soaking at the moment. Going to make a prawn and lentil curry for tomorrow (everyone brings a curry) - there should be 7 of us but maybe only 5 to see in 2022

rtandon27

Last night's dinner included more of the xmas veg box - carrots, sprouts & potatoes alongside some pan-seared pork chops in a blackcurrent gravy.  Have cancelled next week's veg box, as I'd rather finish up what we have first, so have topped up our veg stash with a few greens in the weekly shop which arrives today.

Surprisingly all three of the clearance gammons were in stock, but regular sliced ham was not, so we'll be cooking up one of the gammons for sandwich meat and freezing the other two. Both crystalized ginger and tortilla wraps are out of stock as well - these were just replacements of standard store cupboard items, so we will make do until next week's shop arrives.

CCW007

@Suffolk_lass prawn and lentil curry sounds good - not a combination I would have thought of.

Lunch today is a random mixture of home made chips (canned but didn't seal so need using up) and stuffed mushrooms.  The mushrooms were a swap with a neighbour for some Olio potatoes (she seems to collect food from Sainsbugs and had put them out for anyone to help themselves) and have the last of the blue cheese, some cheddar and breadcrumbs made from LO bread so very low cost and saving food waste all in one go!

Dinner will be new potato and green bean curry for me and honey chicken for OH.

I thought I had prepped and frozen all sprouts yesterday but found half a bag hiding in the fridge so will probably do those with maybe some little gem lettuce a la francais as a side!

Suffolk_lass

First of all, Happy New year everyone! 

We had our curry night with seven of us all LTF neg there was a certain amount of hugging and one couple have not been seen for two years. They are great friends. She retired yesterday, officially, so the new year holds very different opportunities for them.

My prawn and lentil curry was added to a shin of beef and oxtail one, and a butternut squash, chick pea and spinach curry of my own invention. I did a bucket of rice and was just thinking, that will do, when our friends arrived with a fish curry, a beef madras and a keylime torte, and the other couple brought a vegetable curry. So breakfast today is sorted!!

rtandon27

Happy New Year Folks!  Wishing you all a healthy & happy & frugal 2022

Our plans for dinner tonight...a lamb rogan josh with rice & green beans... but upon a rummage through the fridge, we realized there were several uneaten bits that could do with using up.  So tonight's dinner will be quiche, cheese, grapes, tomatoes & cucumber, some olives and salami.  Much lower effort than we originally planned, so we have ended up having a video chat or two with far flung friends

Off to take stock of the fridge & freezer and plan out a meal plan for next week!  The freezer seems to be groaning, but I'm not entirely sure how that happend - LOL

StickyTheStickInsect

Happy New Year everyone !

I’m working to try and make some space in my freezer for some batch cooking as my DH is going away quite a bit over the next two months and it’s easier for me to do homework and clubs with the little’s after school if dinner is already mainly sorted. So yesterday’s dinner was a fish pie base that had been in the freezer a while but was taking up more space than it should which we had with mash, although DS1 has requested pastry with it next time, so I I’ve pies to make now !

Dinner today was the Turkey Crown I brought in November in case there was any problem with our Christmas meat, along with some frozen roasties and Yorkshire puddings that were also part of my emergency Christmas stash! It’s made a much needed space in the freezer 😃 We had some of the free carrots I picked up the other day too.

joedenise

Have had to change my meal plans for breakfast and lunch today!  Was supposed to be scrambled eggs on toast but only had 2 eggs left so no good for 2 of us.  Used them up by making baked oats which we had with some frozen fruit & yoghurt; DH had some maple syrup on his.

Lunch was supposed to be some soup from the freezer but it's so packed I couldn't find it so ended up taking a small portion of beef stew out which we'll have with jacket potatoes!

We didn't feel like eating dinner last night so just had crackers & smoked salmon so we'll be having lamb shank, roast potatoes & veg tonight instead.

rtandon27

Dinner last night was a pot roast chicken on a bed of assorted vegetables.  Used up more of the never-ending parsnip supply - hopefully by next week we will have worked through the xmas veg box & can order a box with some lighter veg in it!  As it was only a small chicken, there is 1/2 left for another meal - tomorrow's dinner.

Lunch today is a soup cobbled together from last night's assorted veg bed & the chicken stock made from drippings and bones.  Will most probably add some random pasta bits & scraps of chicken meat to round it out.  Was planning on toasties to go along side, but as we ended up having a proper breakfast of bagels, eggs and left over salami, it will be crackers instead.

Our leftovers seem to be stretching farther than expected these days, so we have a groaning freezer of ingredients, which should help pad out our January frugal budget and lead to lots of reverse planning