Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 said:

A couple of years ago I made a casserole - can't remember which meat I used - but I found a bag of 'baby onions' unlabelled in the freezer, added them frozen to the casserole only to find out later they were gooseberries - ugh - most went in the bin.  

The mini fillets of chicken we were banking on for the stir-fry were sliced up conference pears in this house. An interesting little composition!

I have prepared a chilli that is in the Slow cooker now. Hopefully it will be ready for supper tonight!

Primrose

I do laugh when I read about these unlabelled freezer "accidents";   It makes me feel rather better about our own disasters.   

A current one is finding a bag of whole chillies which I was convinced were part of last year's crop of very small ripened  "pointy peppers".   We grow Hungarian Wax chillies which look identical to small Italian "pointy peppers"..  In future any ripened peppers, no matter how small, will be sliced before freezing so we immediately recognise the difference!    . 

happydenial

Luckily - or should I say sadly - food never stays in my freezers long enough to be forgotten about 😳 I have a sporty husband and two boys of 11 and 13 who seem to have hollow legs and eat everything in sight! I have to refill the fridge twice a week and both freezers at least once a month. But having said that, we make & eat all breakfast/packed lunches/dinners at home (with the exception of the occasional takeaway/meal out) so I suppose that’s to be expected.

Re reverse food planning, last night I did grilled sausages/halloumi, jersey royals, roasted veg, salad and baguettes for dinner - ended up with a small dish of potatoes and veg left over, so made an oven baked frittata for lunch with added feta and chilli. Smells delicious 😋 

ETA - said frittata (onion, sweet potato, jersey royals, peppers, roasted garlic, parsley and chives)

Primrose

It,s interesting reading about everybodys, culinary efforts. 

I expect the coming months are definite going to sort out the sheep from the goats when it comes to household food budgets and those with good culinary skills and a little imagination are definitely going to be able to stretch their housekeeping miney a little further.

i suspect it,s time for a return of Ready, Steady, Cook to our tv screens to encourage people to experiment with cooking a few totally odd ingredients.  As always, a good stock of basics, herbs and spices can really me to the rescue. 

EssexHebridean

So I have decided that the easiest way of prepping the veg for use with couscous and the leftover lamb is to cut it all to similar sized bits and stir fry in a splash of sesame oil. There's the rest of the tenderstem broccoli, a small chunk of butternut squash, there is definitely some red peppers that will get included, and I shall have a good old fridge rummage to see what else can go in. I'll probably add the mushrooms I roasted and froze the other day - although might just go for some standard sliced frozen ones. Sweetcorn from the freezer too, very possibly. 

In other freezer news there will now be enough space to pop the two tubs of roasted tomato and peppers in there as well. 

With jarred pesto I find you can prolong its life by making sure to use a spoon to flatten the top surface before it goes back in the fridge - it's invariably the bits sticking up that go mouldy first. 

Suffolk_lass

I'm another fan of topping bottles up with oil as a preservative and that reminds me - I plan to preserve a few vegetables in different ways and I need to start considering what!

We had some of the chilli last night, with a dollop of Greek Style Yogurt (as I had no soured cream). Just chilli, with no additional bread, rice or toppings. We are trying to be good after the excesses of the party on Saturday that we attended. I haven't ventured onto the scales yet.

While dog walking with a friend yesterday she was saying she plans to check out cherries in a nearby village where they are quite famous and often sold at the doorstep. I casually pulled one of the tree we were beside and tried it. Small, but perfectly sweet. So we emptied the dog biscuits bag into my pocket and filled it with lovely ripe cherries. The farmer is always happy for us to do so. I cooked my share and have pitted them. I cooked them in a syrup as I wanted to add them to the unsweetened maraschino cherries I pureed from our own garden - so now I need a couple of pints of cream in order to make ice-cream!

Primrose

The only problem I found in the past with topping up jars with oil as a preservative (and I,m thinking particularly of oven dried herbed tomatoes) is that if you put a half-used jar in the fridge the cold temperature makes the oil go thick and cloudy and it looks unpalatable.  

How does one overcome that when the jar is being gradually eaten?

Suffolk_lass

To be honest, I just shake or stir the jar. I have Lazy Chilli topped with olive oil at the moment. I stir it, take some out then top it again (only to cover the flakes, not to the top of the jar) and do the same with any things like ready made sauces or pesto too.

I have stopped buying the big jars of ready made sauce as I use them so infrequently but if I do meatballs, with big pasta like rigatone, I pour over half a jar and grate some cheese over and bang in the oven for 20 minutes

EssexHebridean

Primrose said:

The only problem I found in the past with topping up jars with oil as a preservative (and I,m thinking particularly of oven dried herbed tomatoes) is that if you put a half-used jar in the fridge the cold temperature makes the oil go thick and cloudy and it looks unpalatable.  

How does one overcome that when the jar is being gradually eaten?

I usually remember that it doesn't massively matter how it looks, and just stir it in, to be honest! even if there are still "bits" of solidified/cloudy oil, they disappear as soon as it's heated so it's not a problem! 

QueenJess

Today I’ve tried to make a start on the freezer…

Lunch was crumpets (freezer), scrambled egg and spinach (freezer), smoked salmon (freezer) and the last of the cherry tomatoes from the fridge.

Dinner is lazy tonight.. beans/hoops on toast to start attacking the tin drawer and DH is having one portion of mushroom pasta that I found in the freezer. Pudding is fruit salad with the last of the out of date yogurt in the fridge. I’ll also be chopping the other half of the honeydew melon up. Cucumber was used up yesterday by DS, but I actually have two that have grown in the garden, so I will pick one later for him to snack on post school.

Progress is definitely being made as the fridge is emptier and the freezer isn’t quite as rammed full (you could actually put something in it), but lots of work to go yet. I needed one thing from the shop earlier and I only bought that one thing despite being tempted by the yellow stickers. I am determined not to ram more into the freezer until I’ve cleared it out!