Reverse Meal Planning

zafiro1984

I knew I had some smoked haddock somewhere in the freezers, dug deep and found its hiding place. I'll add a poached egg and have it with some shredded runner beans from last year. 

Love the ideas with angel delight and jelly, reminds me of when the children were small. However it will be fruit after tea - easy peelers and apples (I bought some on offer and they're not very flavoursome - serves me right) 

joedenise

joedenise said:

We're having a liver casserole with lots of onions, carrots and mushrooms.  Will serve with some mash and cabbage.  The lamb casserole cooked yesterday still needs to be portioned up!  Must get on and do that.  We'll have some for dinner tomorrow night and the rest will be frozen.

I've also got some goat out of the freezer so that will be made into curry tomorrow and we'll have that on Friday night instead of the planned Fakeway KFC!

Didn't manage to get the liver casserole done in the end so we had some of the lamb stew with a jacket potato for dinner.  Four x 2 portions went into the freezer.  Really pleased with that as only cost about £4 for the lamb and £2 for the veg so 60p per portion.  Even with mash & extra veg it's going to be less than £1 per portion.

As we don't need to go out tomorrow afternoon now I'll cook the liver casserole tomorrow for dinner and the excess will be frozen.  Hopefully will get at least 6 portions from that.  Liver cost £3.90; carrots are LO from the stew veg plus some onions from store.  Will also add some mushrooms as bought a big box this week, so hopefully around £1 per portion again.

Goat curry definitely won't be as economical as even though the goat was a good price at £9 per kilo still more expensive than the liver or the lamb!

MissRikkiC

@joedenise where was the lamb from again? You probably did say. Was it a local butcher and what cut did you go for? I’m shocked it’s gone so far is all. 

Dinner tonight was using up spicy sausages from the freezer we got from olio about 5 weeks ago, with a ragu and served with polenta.  

The polenta was £1 for 500g and tonight’s amount cooked made enough for 4 portions, which was probably 100g of dried polenta. Excellent value for money. 

Literally 5p a portion! 

With Free sausages, 1 tin of cannellini beans at 45p, 1 tin of chopped tomatoes at 35p, 1 stock cube (10p) 200g frozen onions (approx 40p) and half a stalk of YS celery (approx 10p) plus garlic and herbs. This was approx 4 portions at £1.40 total!! Unless my maths is bad that’s 35p a portion, 40p to include the polenta. 

I’d add another tin of beans to make this more filling if it were veggie and if paying for the sausages and no YS celery, would cause costs to be higher but till he less than £1 per portion either way! Extremely happy with that and May refer back to it in a time of need.

MissRikkiC

Thanks @Suffolk_lass wil check it out as have 2 little gems without purpose right now 

CCW007

12 packs of little gem in my Olio collection today - am sure they won't all be claimed so will be pulling out the lettuce recipes again!

I've bagged a TGTG bag from our local One Stop tonight.  I've had three - the first one wasn't great, the second one they didn't have anything, the third one was cancelled - but the ratings have gone up now so hopefully that was teething problems.

OH will be out all day Saturday and potentially Sunday as well so I'm planning on spending some time organising cupboards and freezers.  All three freezers are full so I really need to start using stuff up or finding another way to preserve it.  The upright freezer could do with defrosting so running it down would be good.

I start a new job mid-May which will involve me going to the office two days a week (potentially more to start off with) and those days will be best part of a two hour commute so I'd like to be organised by then.  OH is not very capable in the kitchen - bless him, he made us pasta with pesto for lunch yesterday which is the first time he has done lunch for us both so he is trying but he's really not confident so having things I can set off in the slow cooker or reheat when I get home from work will be good.     

joedenise

@MissRikkiC - it was neck of lamb from my local butcher at £1.99 per lb and I bought just about 2lb.  It had masses of veg in it which is why it's gone as far as it has; also each bag has far less meat than we would normally eat but it's one of our cut back measures to eat less meat and cheaper cuts.  When we eat it we always have potatoes and often a green veg as well so don't need a huge amount of stew.  Each bag weighed just over 600g so plenty with mash.

I like little gem lettuce braised with spring onions and frozen peas; makes a really nice side dish.

Suffolk_lass

@London_1 JackieO how lovely to see you here - you are most welcome! x

@joedenise I think it was you I got the braised lettuce recipe from. I might do that this evening to have with a couple of pork chops that are not in the freezer (despite the other two being cooked!) DH aspires to a more meat diet, I think.

@zafiro1984 We are doing that. I had lost 9lbs in 8 days when I weighed in yesterday before going to a buffet-infested funeral yesterday. I tried to minimise the damage but the choice was not brilliant, for my diet. It takes about 4 days to get in the swing of it and full fat Greek-style yogurt with frozen berries is my friend as it is desserts I miss more than the potatoes, pasta, rice and bread. I have to admit to succumbing to a cream cracker with butter and cheese occasionally, usually in the two hours before dinner.

• Meat and lots of veg is very easy and a good chilli with plenty of veg and red lentils, to add to the meat (we both eat) is excellent for low carb-filling winter or cold day food. Rice, potatoes and garlic bread are not needed. I make six portions at a time with around a small pack of beef shin and 300g of minced beef.
• Soup is my lunchtime friend.
• Occasional crisp longings are countered with a handful of mixed unsalted nuts and seeds (breakfast sprinkle on yogurt with a tablespoon of jumbo oats and a handful of mixed frozen berries), or with carrot sticks and hummus so I don't feel deprived

It is getting easier to move towards a mediterranean diet as the weather gets warmer

CCW007

Making an other batch of carrot and coriander soup using YS carrots, coriander from Olio chopped and frozen in ice cube trays and spinach from the freezer.  OH is out Saturday and Sunday so I am more likely to stick to three regular meals - at weekends we tend to go a bit off piste for eating!

TGTG bag was cancelled yesterday two hours before the collection time so I didn't have a wasted trip.  Ordered one for today - this will probably be the last time I try for One Stop but I need to go to town this evening to get cash out and I have arranged to collect a couple of Olio bits which are nearby so it makes the trip worthwhile.

Some sad looking aubergines in the fridge so I am going to get the slow cooker going with an aubergine, tomato and chickpea stew which will do a few dinners. 

joedenise

Got the curry cooked yesterday but not sure it's going to be enough for 4 portions so makes it a really expensive meal!  Hoping that I can at least get a meal for the 2 of us tonight plus 2 small portions which we can have for lunch one day with either some couscous or a jacket potato but won't know until tonight!

Primrose

When doing any kind of meat casserole these days we tend to add a lot of extra liquid.  Some of this tends to remain after everything has been served/portioned up and can be used  as a beefy broth/soup base with the addition of some grated or shredded vegetables to thicken it up.