Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Hey all - just catching up! The start of this month's grocery spending has felt a bit out of our control for various reasons - we returned from our week away with our friends with Covid which was a nuisance, then promptly tested positive for 13 consecutive days! Argh! Anyway - we had to do a lightning fast dash round Morries on the way home (masked to the eyeballs and with frequent and liberal applications of sanitiser!) because needless to say we had precisely nothing in at home, and the earliest online shopping slots I could get were 4 days away!  The following weekend there had to be a T's click & collect shop done - collected and brought to us by my Mum - which inevitably ended up higher than I would have spent usually because of trying to come up with stuff I was confident we'd fancy eating when we felt a bit off colour and also making sure that we had "enough" in case we weren't able to shop the following week either. By last weekend we were OK to go out and actually do a shop and by then there were gaps in things we needed plus I wanted to get some more storecupboard items as well  - partly offset with some vouchers we had to use for Sainsbugs but still - a spendy week!  it has however encouraged me to make next week super-frugal - and as a result we now have a meal plan in place which is almost entirely fridge/cupboard/freezer based! 

Tonight I've got a chilli-base out of the freezer which will get kidney beans added to it and be used to top jacket tatties. I'm also in the "sprouty potato" club - like almost everyone else I think! I'll probably cook those and turn them into bubble and squeak/colcannon tomorrow with some random bits of spring greens/spring onion tops/anything else green I can find that needs using. I think I'm gaining some more tatties from Mum at the weekend too as she has more than she can use with my Dad being in hospital at the moment. 

The aim for this week's shopping is sub-£20, which ought to be achievable as there's relatively little we need aside from the usual milk/fruit etc. I don't even need to make a loaf for toast this week thanks to MrEH's eagle eyes spotting of a 20p reduced white farmhouse load last weekend - we couldn't make one for that money! 

CCW007

OH said he fancies a ploughmans type lunch so got a loaf on to bake (haven't had an Olio collection in three weeks so have actually run out of bread ), got some YS sliced roast beef and YS smoked salmon out of freezer, just hard boiling half  dozen eggs and will make potato salad from a tin of potatoes, sweetcorn and spring onions / shallots.  Very glad to have my stores to be able to rustle this up.

I've got lots of mushrooms so may make mushroom and lentil stroganoff for dinner - will see what OH wants but hopefully can be something out of the freezer.  Spent ages yesterday trying and failing to find a YS pack of asparagus in the fridge - found them immediately after dinner so will use those up today.  Also got lots of carrots so need to think about something other than soup to make with them! 

CCW007

Found a piece of tofu in the freezer so having tofu scramble for breakfast, haven't had that for ages.

joedenise

Found some braised liver and onions in the freezer so we're having that for dinner tonight.  Will have it with mash (made with the sprouts potatoes!), some cabbage and frozen green beans and peas.

QueenJess

Been MIA for a while as I no longer have much time now I'm working full time ... I love cooking.  Anyway, I was assessing the freezer this morning and have too many bags of frozen mango and pineapple for some reason.  Anyway, I defrosted some of each, cut them into pieces and baked them into muffins (with a bit of coconut) for pudding tonight.  I hope they're nice!  I definitely need to hunt through the freezer, fridge and cupboards to use up all those things that have been shoved to the back..

Anyway, dinner tonight uses up a big piece of beef from the freezer (half will be going back in for a future dinner once cooked) which is being roasted with onion, celery, parsnips and carrots in a beef stock, cranberry juice and thyme sauce.  Will serve with roasted potatoes (for some reason I have a huge bag to use up) and hm yorkshire puddings from the freezer.  Yummy..  May need to look for recipes to use up excess cranberry juice now though....

I am slowly clearing out all the veg from the bottom of the fridge and making inroads into the enormous bag of potatoes.  Yesterday I made an enormous broccoli, leek, celery and pea pie in a white cheese sauce and topped with mashed potato and cheese.  It was lovely and I have another 2 family meals worth in the freezer for another day.  For lunch today I made a leek, cheese and pea orzotto for lunch.  After all that, we finally are down to our last 2 leeks(!), although we are about to run out of frozen peas (a total disaster in our house as the kids love them so I throw them in most things).  I think I'll use the last of the leeks tomorrow for dinner with some cauliflower, veggie sausages and mash.

zafiro1984

made fake KFC yesterday, 2 pieces left over so tonight I'm  heating them slowly for quite a long time. I do this with the real KFC; any leftovers, I freeze and then reheat slowly in the oven and we actually prefer them the second time around. So I'm going to try it with the fakeKFC. Some mushrooms need using up, plus I'll probably do some chips - not exactly a Sunday roast meal but we've been busy today and have only just come inside.

There's a couple of bananas sitting in the bowl so it will be banana and custard for afterwards - a childhood favourite of mine.

My old creaky bones love this weather, long may it last, but we do need some rain.

EssexHebridean

Morning all! We had lunch with my Mum yesterday - with my Dad still in hospital she's identifying foods she won't use or won't use all of while he's not there, so we left with the remainder of the chicken from yesterday's roast (bar the rest of the breast meat which she's kept), a bag of small potatoes (more in the bag she bought than she'll use before they sprout) two frozen burgers(she'd only use one at a time and these were frozen together) and a packet of bread mix. Definitely all stuff we'll make use of!

I'll sort the chicken carcass out in the next few days and probably adjust the meal plan to take account of using some of it - I reckon once it's well picked over I'll get two meals worth of meat off it though, plus the bones will go in the freezer ready to make stock once I have more freezer space. 

The last 5 eggs in the box need using so those will be turned into an omelette tonight with the rest of the mushrooms, probably some leek and the last chunk of chorizo. I've got three enormous veg box tatties so one of those will get baked and get split between us to go with. 

We have all been talking about the issue of potatoes sprouting - I had to admit defeat last week and throw three small ones away as they'd simply gone too far over to even attempt to eat. It's frustrating - we're pretty on top of food waste and ours live in a cool, dark larder inside a bag which blocks ALL light, and we don't buy in vast quantity - so if WE can't eat them ahead of them reaching the inedible stage, what hope for the majority of folk out there? 

QueenJess

A clean up exercise today food wise to use lots of things up (always prioritising fridge stuff first).  Lunch is just me, so I will reheat the leek, pea and cheese orzotto leftovers from Sat and have a leftover sandwich from yesterday.  Pudding is the pineapple and mango muffins.  Dinner will be chicken noodle or rice stir fry with carrots, sweetcorn, mushrooms, cauliflower leaves and frozen peppers (and sweet chilli sauce for the grown ups). Pudding needs to be yogurt or ice cream as I have a ton of it - DS can have it with some cones I bought.  I will defrost some frozen fruit and smashed up meringues from the freezer for the grown ups.

I also will make some flapjacks (posted recipe here a while ago) replacing the oatmeal with DD's strawberry baby porridge that she won't eat and needs using up (although I have quite a bit of it to use up).  It also keeps DH away from the expensive snack bars, so should be win win!

I desperately need to use up tons of things from the freezer, cupboard and a bit in the fridge too.  I will have to come on here more often to keep myself on the straight and narrow!

I have some hot chocolate powder which I dislike - it looks like grains of sugar mixed with some chocolate powder.  Any good ideas on how to use that somewhere?  I wonder if it could partially replace cocoa powder and sugar in a cake?

MissRikkiC

Been out of action for a week or so on this board but been reading along. 

Not doing too badly to use stuff up I guess. I’ll be glad when I haven’t got some form of illness and feel much more open to the idea of tackling the fridge and freezer (although 1 there isn’t a huge amount anyway and 2 the baby will be here by then no doubt!). 

Friday was a Chinese ready meal on account of being poorly; hub picked them up on the way home. Saturday was my birthday and he’d ordered a mystery plate away which was pretty decent for the cost and we would probably do it again. It also yielded some l/O bbq sauce which was both mixed into some plant based chicken last night for hub and will make a sauce for bbq chicken for sandwiches. 

I had salmon from the freezer and managed to make a recipe from my new OKT book also to serve with everyone’s dinner. 

It might actually help you @QueenJess  as it will use up your carrots. Confit veg with pickled chilli and herbs. 

Peel and cut length ways, a heavy based pans worth of root veg, add approx a handful of peeled garlic cloves, bit of salt and cover veg with oil. Cover pan with foil and bake for 45/1 hour. 

Add some red chills sliced finely to apple cider vinegar (or whatever you have) and set aside. 

Finely chop big bunch of fresh herbs and a extra garlic clove and mix with a few tablespoons of the oil once veg is cooked, then add the chilis (not the pickling juice). Lift out the veg and scatter with the ‘herby type pesto’ you’ve made and serve! 

This isn’t the exact recipe as it calls for grilling if you wanted to, specifically parsley and coriander, olive oil and not carrots but parsnips however I only had mint and basil, I needed to use up some carrots as well as parsnips, was too low on olive oil so used sunflower and didn’t have chance to grill anyway! 

It was delicious!

ruby_eskimo

Hi all.  Did quite well with using things up last week so had to replenish stocks this week.  Having a last portion of butternut squash soup for lunch and dinner is pepper and tomato risotto based off of a gousto recipe and we had everything in already 👍