Reverse Meal Planning

Frugalista

QueenJess said:

Pudding was a rhubarb and orange cake made because I have too much of both of these ingredients from my fruit/veg box, although the recipe was enormous and I got two cakes out of it.  So I now have a whole cake in my freezer!

Oooh!!  Can you post the recipe please?

QueenJess

Frugalista said:

QueenJess said:

Pudding was a rhubarb and orange cake made because I have too much of both of these ingredients from my fruit/veg box, although the recipe was enormous and I got two cakes out of it.  So I now have a whole cake in my freezer!

Oooh!!  Can you post the recipe please?

Sure, it was just a BBC recipe, but very tasty.  I also fancy trying their rhubarb and custard cake recipe.

Suffolk_lass

DH did the cooking yesterday - both a sausage and a small pork chop. To be honest I could not begrudge both but he does not let the chops relax after cooking so they taste tough.

We had them with salad - the last of the iceberg lettuce, with almost the last tomato and yellow pepper, and a bit of bought coleslaw. I broken-heartedly threw the rest of the cucumber away. It had been left it in its plastic sleeve and when liberated was beyond use. Slimy spotty monkey-poxed thing. Ugh

EssexHebridean

Morning all. Lots of stuff to juggle with us about now but still trying to keep a lid on the grocery spending regardless. Freezer seems to be rammed again though - pah! 

SL - of all the food waste I dislike slimy cucumber the most - is there anything more revolting?! 

Last night was our planned sausage and mushroom pasta - the "meatiness" of the mushrooms when cut chunky and cooked means a good way of stretching the remining two cooked sausages from last week into a meal for both of us. The sauce is made from a third of a tub of soft cheese (the budget one at 49p a tub, of course!) and several good splashes of the pasta water to loosen. I add a sliced pepper, some sliced onions and a good spoonful of grain mustard, as well. Hearty and tasty, and also rather frugal - a quick tot up in my head and I reckon it cost well under £1.50 to feed the two of us last night. 

Tonight will be a smoked mackerel salad - there are three bits of mackerel in the pack so the third will be whizzed into a pate with another dollop of the soft cheese and a spoonful of horseradish - that will do both of us for lunch tomorrow. I like stuff that I can roll forwards like this. The remaining soft cheese might do another pasta dish next week - not decided yet.  The salad for tonight will be the big bag of leaves I got in the veg box, tomato, plenty of diced cucumber (I already had half a one and got another in the veg box!) a red pepper and probably an avocado - hopefully they'll be ripe. I won't bother putting anything traditionally carby with it as it will be a decent plateful without. 

Tomorrow evening is planned to be a chicken stir fry. 

Primrose

Interesting that Essex Hebredian mentions avocados.  We usually find buying them a step into the unknown.  So many look good on the outside but disappointingly when cut the flesh is black and inedible.  Any magic ways of selecting reliable ones? 

EssexHebridean

Nope! I wish I did know a way - these came from the veg box as an add-on - they were a reasonable price, we fancied them and decided to risk it. So far we've had two which were fine, one was nasty when I cut in, but might have been my fault as I left it out to ripen and forgot it for an extra day. The two for tonight have been out of the fridge since sunday evening and felt hopeful this morning.  If I buy in a shop then I always opt for the knobbly skinned variety as I find them slightly more reliable, but I've long since held the theory that avocados have a "perfectly ripe" window of approximately 30 seconds, and it's pure luck if you happen to cut in at exactly that moment! 

joedenise

If you pick the stalk off and it's brown underneath the avocado will be brown inside as gone too far!

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

If you pick the stalk off and it's brown underneath the avocado will be brown inside as gone too far!

Yes indeed, and we have previously discussed whether a bag of wonky ones ever ripen or just rot from the inside. Personally I prefer the smooth skinned green avocados because you can spot the rot more easily, but Hass are the most common where I shop. I have resorted to buying two perfectly ripe ones from Morries and one is always ripe with the other good for in a week's time.

Suffolk_lass

We had poached eggs with new potatoes and grilled asparagus. The eggs were all double yokers - all four!

JingsMyBucket

@Suffolk_lass you better buy a lottery ticket!