Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

Thanks @Hopefuljoy.  I don't American recipes at all - I also have measuring cups so makes it really easy for American recipes.

It's really some inspiration I need as we tend to eat similar things most weeks :  curries with different meats and veg, casseroles, a roast, cold LO roast etc etc so would be good for some new ideas.

We definitely all need to save a bit a money.  My DD has just gone up by £70 a month for gas and electric - just hope that's enough as really don't know where the money is going to come from once we get to October and have to pay even more.

CCW007

@Hopefuljoyit was an improvised haybox with packing materials.  Sadly didn't work as well as planned, after six hours it wasn't as hot as I'd hoped so will bring it back to temperature and cook it on the woodburner.  Will try again though until I find a better solution - it's a cast iron casserole so should stay hot with the right materials.

Primrose

CCW007 said:

@Hopefuljoyit was an improvised haybox with packing materials.  Sadly didn't work as well as planned, after six hours it wasn't as hot as I'd hoped so will bring it back to temperature and cook it on the woodburner.  Will try again though until I find a better solution - it's a cast iron casserole so should stay hot with the right materials.

Was interested in your experiment.  The last time we tried this was during the 3 day week and got the same result.  It,s emergency cooking certainly and not totally effective.  Think the secret is to chop meat and veg very small so they tend to cook in a shorter time.  With a cast iron casserole a half time booster over a tea light candle might help keep the liquid temperature a little higher perhaps?

Suffolk_lass

We were lucky enough to find a (Mr D's) thermal cooker on FB marketplace for £15 and use that in our motorhome instead of a slow cooker (gifted to DS) as it just needs the ingredients to be heated on the (gas) hob before packing up and leaving (so a 21st century haybox)

CCW007

Ooh, now I want one of those Suffolk_lass!

Have to say the woodburner did a great job of cooking the stew so if we are going to light it it's worth using but does make the living room smell of cooking!

joedenise

@CCW007 - there is a cheaper version of the MrD Thermal Pot available, I think of the Bay of E called an Ecopot.  Might be with a look.

Personally I wasn't impressed with the Mr D and sold it a while ago at £30 to a fellow motorhomer.  I tend to use my pressure cooker in the motorhome as it doesn't take too long to cook things and then I just carry outside to release the steam so the van doesn't get steamed up!

Have taken a chicken out of the freezer to roast today so will be using the LOs for dinners over the next couple of days.  I'm also roasting quite a lot of veg so will also have some of that left to use.  Just need to decide what the LOs will be turned into!

zafiro1984

Talking about LO's 

DH doesn't know it yet but he's having 'dog food' tonight for tea

Yesterday, we had a recently bereaved friend stay to tea. He came and helped DH chain-saw and chip some trees so it was only polite to ask him to stay for tea. However, he brought his large dog with him - not a problem - For tea I was going to stuff and wrap some chicken breasts in bacon but time moved on too quickly, I hadn't time to do the chicken so had to get something pre-cooked out of the freezer. 

I was worried that the dog wouldn't have eaten all day so boiled up two of the chicken breasts and did some rice and carrots separately - just for the dog. As it happened he had brought the dog its tea so I was left with two boiled chicken breasts and a pan of rice and carrots.

DH doesn't know it yet but tea tonight is LO boiled chicken in a casserole and I still need to think how to disguise a pan of rice and carrots for tomorrow.

joedenise

Could you add some more chopped veg to it and some curry spice and turn it into a sort of biryani?

Suffolk_lass

We had roast chicken with roast onions, cabbage and carrots, simply steamed. Back on the diet and approaching a stone oss, slowly but surely. Hopefully by this time next week.joedenise said:

@CCW007 - there is a cheaper version of the MrD Thermal Pot available, I think of the Bay of E called an Ecopot.  Might be with a look.

Personally I wasn't impressed with the Mr D and sold it a while ago at £30 to a fellow motorhomer.  I tend to use my pressure cooker in the motorhome as it doesn't take too long to cook things and then I just carry outside to release the steam so the van doesn't get steamed up!

Have taken a chicken out of the freezer to roast today so will be using the LOs for dinners over the next couple of days.  I'm also roasting quite a lot of veg so will also have some of that left to use.  Just need to decide what the LOs will be turned into!

I saw one of these when I looked on FB yesterday but location might be an issue on marketplace. I think as long as it is hot all through the pot is fine. You can't treat it like a slow cooker you plug in though

MissRikkiC

Got a stern telling off by my hub this weekend for having so much in the freezer (I assume multiple frozen bagged items fell out of the freezer and landed on his toe based on the swearing I heard from upstairs) so need to revise and replan based on that…