Reverse Meal Planning

VALM

Hi, just watching Healthcheck UK and they are showing rhubarb recipes. 

greenbee

Pyxis said:

greenbee said:

I need to do some serious planning today, as I have vast amounts of veg to eat, so need to focus on eating it in the right order. Thankfully today and tomorrow look like being salad weather, so I can finish the watercress and use the salad mix that came yesterday. More rhubarb, so will have mackerel again for supper with that, PSB and spinach (I think the spinach probably needs eating). Lunch will be asparagus and salad. I also have lots of yogurt, so have had grapefruit and yogurt with mint for breakfast (I don't usually eat breakfast, so this was a real treat). 

Veg box yesterday included blueberries which have gone in the freezer, bayleaves (not very exciting, although my bay tree isn't in very good condition so probably needed), rhubarb, salad leaves, avocado, asapargus, flat beans, jersey royals (I love them, but I've only just finished the last lot!) and turmeric. LOTS of turmeric. So I'm expecting @Pyxis to come up with some suggestions as to how to use it all!

Hahahahaha! My default method for using up stuff is just to bung it all in a stir-fry! 😁
Even salad leaves, if necessary! Although I usually eat the stir-fry on a bed of salad leaves dressed with a good olive oil.

The stir-fry can be eaten as just that, a stir-fry, or you can add some stock, meat or veggie, or some pasta sauce - my favourite is Sacla as they do a good range of pestos and stir-in sauces, Or I might add tomato puree.

Then, I eat it on salad, or with rice or pasta. You could cook the Jersey Royals and add them to the salad too.

I have some  parsley sauce, so my next stir-fry will have that added to it. Not tried that before, so it will be interesting!

If you want more bite, you could add Tabasco or chilli powder, or even a spoon of marmite!

As regards the turmeric, I’ve been chopping it up and adding it to everything regardless, along with all the other herbs, even to ready meals, just to get the nutrients into me!

Your insides must be yellow! I'm not so sure about parsley sauce on stir-fry... it might be a nice alternative to cheese sauce with cauli/broccoli though. 

I've had a HUGE salad for lunch (including the last of the jersey royals. At some point over the weekend I'll make another batch of green soup with all the stalks etc and any salad that looks like it won't last long.

I did offload last week's potatoes and some of the apples and clementines on the friend who came to do some outside work, so thankfully I'm not trying to work my way through that lot as well. I'd like to come out of this not having regained all the weight I've made so much effort to lose! I have small amounts of pasta, red rice, jasmine rice, couscous, wheat grain, buckwheat and oats that I can have if I need some carbs, but I'm not getting through them as I'm prioritising the fresh stuff. Hopefully they'll start offering potato-free veg-only boxes sometime soon...
 VALM said:

Hi, just watching Healthcheck UK and they are showing rhubarb recipes. 

Thanks. I'll have a look - I'm after recipes that use it as a vegetable rather than a fruit (it is fabulous baked with mackerel). Although I guess I could just roast it as it is (without sugar) to eat with yogurt. 

Pyxis

@greenbee..... I realised that parsley sauce is 2 days out of date, but seems fine, so I’m going to use it to pour over some ready-made spinach pancakes (don’t beat me!) that also need eating up, so I’ll have those later, after the VE things, and my soup-making session! 

I always think soup tastes better the day after it’s made!

greenbee

I'm envious of your ready-made food I have either stuff I have made myself and frozen (and not in single portions, as I tend to have friends over when I'm home between travels, so batch cook with that in mind) or my emergency pizzas, that have to be rationed (and I'm not allowed to eat right now as I have far too much fresh stuff to work through!).  Mackerel and rhubarb is just as delicious this time round. And I used up all the rhubarb. Which means it isn't such a problem that there is only one mackerel fillet left.

I've been sowing radishes and lettuce - I get through lots of radishes, so if I can work out what I'm doing it'll be lovely to have them whenever I want. 

Pyxis

greenbee said:

I'm envious of your ready-made food I have either stuff I have made myself and frozen (and not in single portions, as I tend to have friends over when I'm home between travels, so batch cook with that in mind) or my emergency pizzas, that have to be rationed (and I'm not allowed to eat right now as I have far too much fresh stuff to work through!).  Mackerel and rhubarb is just as delicious this time round. And I used up all the rhubarb. Which means it isn't such a problem that there is only one mackerel fillet left.

I've been sowing radishes and lettuce - I get through lots of radishes, so if I can work out what I'm doing it'll be lovely to have them whenever I want. 

Well, re. the ready meals..... there are very few that I really like. You have to eat a lot of mediocre or crappy ones before finding one or two that are good. When I do, I stock up on them. There are two that are lush, and which I could eat all the time,  and one or two, like the spinach pancakes, that I do like, but from time to time.

They are great, though, if I’m feeling really rough, or have been in bed all day and  not well enough to  cook.

I haven't had all that many during lockdown, though....too many veg to use up!😁

I did make the two soups, watercress, and asparagus, all but the creme fraiche which I’ll add tomorrow, before eating them! 

greenbee

Pyxis said:

greenbee said:

I'm envious of your ready-made food I have either stuff I have made myself and frozen (and not in single portions, as I tend to have friends over when I'm home between travels, so batch cook with that in mind) or my emergency pizzas, that have to be rationed (and I'm not allowed to eat right now as I have far too much fresh stuff to work through!).  Mackerel and rhubarb is just as delicious this time round. And I used up all the rhubarb. Which means it isn't such a problem that there is only one mackerel fillet left.

I've been sowing radishes and lettuce - I get through lots of radishes, so if I can work out what I'm doing it'll be lovely to have them whenever I want. 

Well, re. the ready meals..... there are very few that I really like. You have to eat a lot of mediocre or crappy ones before finding one or two that are good. When I do, I stock up on them. There are two that are lush, and which I could eat all the time,  and one or two, like the spinach pancakes, that I do like, but from time to time.

They are great, though, if I’m feeling really rough, or have been in bed all day and  not well enough to  cook.

I haven't had all that many during lockdown, though....too many veg to use up!😁

I did make the two soups, watercress, and asparagus, all but the creme fraiche which I’ll add tomorrow, before eating them! 

Well done on making the soups. I've been in the garden all day. I will make generic green soup (again) with whatever needs using up either tomorrow or Sunday. Like you, I've got so much veg to use up I'm eating more healthily than normal. I do need to try a few more new things though as apart from the mackerel and rhubarb (which I've now had two weeks in a row!) I haven't really cooked anything new or interesting for a while. Maybe I should take some recipe books up to bed with me. 

Suffolk_lass

Spendless said:

Aww thank you all. She's very excited. A bit disappointing that this year it will have to be delivered on-line instead of her going to London, but they've said they'll put other things on to make up for it.

Today's plan is to get all the stuff I want gone out of the freezer and present it as a buffet treat (hahaha). When the kids were young and I didn't work and it was a few days before payday and I'd not have enough stuff in to make full meals. If Mr S was away with work, I'd cook off the odd fish finger, handful of chicken nuggets, jacket potato halves and add egg mayo, cheese, bread that sort of thing as a 'buffet' for tea. Recently DD was reminising and told me that was her favourite meal gowing up. I revealed the reason andshe tld me I'd jsut ruined her childhood 

One of the things to be cooked today for me and DH iis some beef. This is the last of 3 joints and the other two have been tough. 1 I did in a roasting bag in the oven, the other in gravy in the slow cooker. Usually both methods would give me melt in the mouth meat but not these. They were bought at the very start of the current situation in the week before lockdown when food was scarce from one of the  butchers in our market who normally have excellent meat but I wonder if the quality was affected because supplies were low. I asked DH what cut he'd bought, so I could look for sugestions on cooking but he very helpfully told me 'beef joint'  Today I think I'll try the roasting bag and oven again but on a ver low heat, hoping the combination of methods will work!

I love the buffet tea explanation "ruining her childhood".   

With regards to the beef joint - hit it with a hammer to break down some of the fibres - meat tenderising they call it - usually a wooden mallet but in my experience a lump hammer with a plastic bag over it and the meat in another plastic bag works just as well and does not fill your drawers with stuff you won't use regularly. 

Suffolk_lass

I might make lettuce soup this week as it is yummy and I have one and a half iceberg lettuces looking a bit sadder than ideal!

It's a good option as it is equally nice hot or cold. One of those that I like well-blended though.

Last night, after pigging out on so much cake and scones, we had jacket potatoes and salad and then fresh berries and cream. So nice.

Suffolk_lass

Realised about mid afternoon that I had not planned a meal. I got two chicken thighs out then realised they were not going to defrost in time. I made a pasta sauce that involved liberating half of the last jar of my homemade passata, with some minced beef I found while rummaging in the freezer known as the beer fridge (because that is the other part of it) - just onions, chillies, garlic and seasonings added. Probably cooked too much pasta but it was yummy. 

Pyxis

 Well, I had asparagus tips tossed in butter on a bed of salad and cherry toms for breakfast! 😁

The salad needing using up, and with my surfeit of asparagus, I thought I’de better start eating it!

I have the asparagus soup that I finished  making yesterday to have for lunch, and there’s enough for a meal tomorrow as well, plus more asparagus tips to have at some point. 😁

I was very disappointed not to get the ‘promised’ purslane in my veg box this week.  I had been so looking forward to that.
 I have so much veg in the fridge now, that I have decided not to have a veg box this coming week, especially as the fixed contents only duplicate what I already have, or are things I won’t miss like pots and carrots and beetroot! 😁
They will still be delivering other things, though, like my weekly Prosecco! And more asparagus! 😂 Plus I might finally get some (plain) flour!