Reverse Meal Planning

MissRikkiC

Using veggie mince from the freezer, along with 1/4 of a huge leek, 1/2 large Spanish onion, cauliflower leaves, carrots and peas (frozen) I rustled up cottage pie last night. There was so much base, I think I could’ve got away with 1/4 pack of mince! There were left overs for hub today, 2 portions for my daughter, 1 large one for me to have with a baked potato today and the rest is back in the freezer. This will easily do another whole meal for us all. 

Into the oven went a handful of wonky potatoes to be used as baking potatoes last night since the oven was already on. 

I’ll have 1 tomorrow for lunch with half a tin of beans and a smattering of cheese. 

Out of the freezer this morning came 1 large chicken breast and a pack of pittas. These will be used for fajitas as such tonight, using frozen peppers (including the green ones I froze recently) and frozen onions too. 

MissRikkiC

Thanks @joedenise I’d love to have them in the shed but we have mice who already steal the dog food

CCW007

Suffolk_lass said:

Ooh, home canned chicken breast, interesting. I have only ever bottled (same thing) fruit and veg, mostly tomatoes. How do you do that please @CCW007?

I have a pressure canner so did them in that (75 mins) cut up into chunks and cooked in its own juice but I know lots of people water bath meat for 3 hours and then reheat it to boiling point for 10 minutes before eating.

Epic fail on any kind of meal planning today - busy day followed by a stressful trip into town centre and we ended up with chippy dinner. 

Cat has to go into vets tomorrow for consult on major dental work which is going to be horribly expensive so must do better with the reverse meal planning / eating up what is in.  Slight downside is the garage door has broken and two of my freezers are in there but still have loads in the inside freezer so should be okay until we fix garage door (hopefully!)

QueenJess

Back to completely rammed cupboards and freezer again, but need to use up the fresh stuff first.

Lunch is veg peel soup that I made yesterday and we have loads of. Dinner is fish and chips and I’m going to make a carrot cake for pudding.

MissRikkiC

Prawn and potato curry for us tonight, trying to use up another handful of the potatoes especially as I’d like a TGTG bag this week which is always laden with spuds. 

Jacket potato cheese and beans for lunch and probably need to cook up some other bits from the fridge to reheat at a later point! A huge cauliflower is one!

zafiro1984

I was explaining to my DH this morning what 'reverse meal planning' entailed. He actually thought that everyone automatically did that hence his common comment of 'Leftovers again?' made me smile.

Lunch is squash and parsnip soup - crinkly parsnips at the bottom of the fridge and frozen squash from last year.  
Tea - casserole made from frozen pheasant.
We have a house rule here. DH shoots over our land from Nov to Feb and for the table only. The moment I don't process what he brings in he stops shooting for that entire year. It really makes me focus and and not take things for granted.

EssexHebridean

The final portion of sliced roast pork from the enormous joint we had for sunday lunch at the start of the year came out of the freezer ready for tonight along with it's attendant tub of meat juices, plus a tub of mixed root mash as well, so an easy "not quite a roast" for tonight along with whatever veg I decide on from the freezer. 

Planning a couscous salad for tomorrow - it'll have assorted roasted veg in it which I may as well do this evening as MrEH is planning to stick the oven on to bake a batch of rolls. Ideally I need to crack on with getting that prepped and ready to go when I get in this evening - it will involve some of the golden  beetroot from the last veg box, some of the remaining bendy carrots (that came from a TGTG bag a while ago - they've done well), a chunk of the butternut squash that also arose with the last veg box, and the remaining mushrooms from this week's pack I think. I can then chuck the pre-cooked veg into a pan to reheat along with some chickpeas and spices to make a REALLY easy tea tomorrow. Winner! 

CCW007

Off running shortly so will have a light-ish supper when I get back - maybe stirfry.

Got a stew pack and mushrooms from Olio so will make some kind of casserole tomorrow in the slow cooker.  Rest of mushrooms will go in dehydrator / freezer for later use.

MissRikkiC

Prawn and (not potato) curry for dinner on account of working later and realising I wouldn’t have time to peel, chop and boil the spuds. 

Instead it was 1/4 of the cauliflower and a tin of chickpeas which made life much easier. 

To add flavour there was the last tablespoon of mango chutney from the fridge, however whilst it was nice, due to cooking it quickly (aka boiling the life out of it!) it was just a bit plain. There are 4 adult portions and 2 child size portions for the freezer, another child size meal for tomorrow or Friday and leftovers for hub tomorrow so it went far enough which is also important. 

Naans from the freezer helped scoop up a bit of the sauce and fill us up too. 

Lunch was baked potato with left over beans as planned and a little sprinkle of cheese. 

Im out for dinner tomorrow so will get hub something out of the freezer. 

Suffolk_lass

We've accumulated three pots of leftovers. I made a beef casserole with the two slices of beef shin and added a bulb of fennel (interesting, it kept its's form), onion, carrot and sweet potato. Made four+ portions which we have had the last two nights with steamed savoy cabbage (a good foil to the rich sauce that I might have added half a bottle of wine to). We now have the last of this, some bolognese and some cauliflower cheese all lurking. I really want to have soup for lunch today, rather than leftovers but might suggest DH has them as he has a committee meeting tonight