Reverse Meal Planning

Brambling

Primrose said:

I smiled about the cucumber & courgette plants.  Only 2 of us here. I sowed two cucumber seeds in case  one didn,t germinate but both did and already we,re overwhelmed with them. Can,t bear  to throw plants away! 

Acquaintances  of ours, newbie gardeners got an allotment  and planted about 14 courgettes because they thought each plant  only bore one fruit.  We couldn't help laughing. They gave up their plot after the first. year. Think they ran out of doorsteps to drop courgettes on at midnight!,    

 Runner bean and courgettes guaranteed to make people pretend their not in, first year in ages I've not grown either so neighbours can relax  I have been known to post them through cat flaps 

I can recommend courgette cake - I make this in a loaf tin and it freezes really well without the icing one year I started the winter with about 5 in the freezer every visitor for months were force fed offered a slice Carrot, courgette & orange cakes recipe | BBC Good Food lock down working from home meant I was unable to share there

EssexHebridean

Haha SL you and DH are going to look like courgettes by the end of the summer! 

Liver, mash and onion gravy hoovered up for lunch yesterday - unseasonable it might be but tasty regardless! Extra mash added to what was in the freezer will do tonight with lamb sausages, accompanied by the rest of the rest of the onion gravy - I made absolutely loads!  Definitely starting to see space appearing in the freezer - a pint of milk came out last night as well, and two bananas on saturday which got turned into a banana, apricot and treacle tea loaf. Forgot - the onion gravy also used a little block of redcurrant puree from a couple of summers back and also two blocks of onions cooked with spices and balsamic vinegar as a background flavouring for something a while ago - annoyingly I can't recall where they originated from, some sort of pickling experiment, but they've been really useful for adding flavour to things, I'm glad we thought to freeze them! Both of those were items that had been lurking in the freezer and are now used up, though. 

I need to sort out a meal plan for next week, and also put together a shopping list for MrEH who will be doing the supermarket run this week as I'm away...he's usually pretty good with a list, but will absolutely go feral if I let him roam freely! 

MissRikkiC

Leftover potato salad from bbq yesterday mixed with leftover rice from a curry Saturday with tuna Mayo, peppers, tomatoes and spinach, lettuce and rocket from the garden. Delicious. 

No idea on what’s for dinner…. I’m happy with salads all day during the summer!

weenancyinAmerica

Rumor has it that people used to wrap the veggies as gifts and leave them in the car with the windows open (so people didn't have to break in) and hope they got stolen. They did that with trash during the trash strike in New York too. Just remember you can grate and dry courgettes for later use in breads, muffins, cookies, even in pancakes. Can hid them in meat sauces too. Good luck with them (don't forget the food banks either except they may be overwhelmed).

Suffolk_lass

I use two courgette and lime cake recipes - one is the Nigella one, the other M&S, modified by me as I find things are too sweet. They both use 250g of small courgettes - a mere drop in the dumpster in terms of use. Shout if anyone wants the recipe - I make it in small paper lined loaf tins and it freezes well.

Supper tonight will be grilled chicken thighs with homegrown veg; French beans, grilled courgettes and potatoes. Last night's supper (about 20.45 - too late for me really) was the last of the chilli with a dollop of Greek-style yogurt followed by Strawberries and cream (yum!).

Just when the harvest from the garden threatens to outstrip consumption, I lose interest in food! Every year the same. I think it is the weather!

Suffolk_lass

DH announced he was giving blood and disappeared about 6pm to do so. His blood group is not the most common and they are always keen to take it but often cancel due to staff issues, so no resentment. It did involve a delay as they were running late and he didn't get home until after 20.15 (too late to start cooking) - so after briefly considering F&C I got the last pot of chard pesto out of the freezer and cooked some linguine, then chopped up most of the rather leggy basil and he grated some cheese for a quick make-do supper. We agreed linguine goes well with pesto, while penne is better with sauces that lend themselves to being captured in the tubes (as you do, when discussing your supper!). We tried my homemade strawberry ice cream after that - oh, and a tiny taster of the gooseberry ice-cream I made - both delicious

QueenJess

Suffolk_lass said:

DH announced he was giving blood and disappeared about 6pm to do so. His blood group is not the most common and they are always keen to take it but often cancel due to staff issues, so no resentment. It did involve a delay as they were running late and he didn't get home until after 20.15 (too late to start cooking) - so after briefly considering F&C I got the last pot of chard pesto out of the freezer and cooked some linguine, then chopped up most of the rather leggy basil and he grated some cheese for a quick make-do supper. We agreed linguine goes well with pesto, while penne is better with sauces that lend themselves to being captured in the tubes (as you do, when discussing your supper!). We tried my homemade strawberry ice cream after that - oh, and a tiny taster of the gooseberry ice-cream I made - both delicious

That is what you’re supposed to do with pasta - different types for different things. Tubes are meant to be used for chunky sauces etc (like meaty things) that will fill the tubes. Spaghetti is meant to be for things like pesto that clings to it. I looked it up once in a bored moment, although I don’t necessarily follow it!

zafiro1984

 
Yesterday, I defrosted and cooked a large chicken and a piece of smoked ham, both YS bought just after Christmas. Hopefully, I can think of enough variations on this theme for it not to get too boring before both are used up.
I'm finding it so tempting to abandon 'reverse meals' and just shop for easy meal options in this hot weather, hence the effort yesterday.
Lunch, cold chicken and salad. with bits and bobs like crisps, nuts, fruit, and LO Waldolf salad 
Tea, ham sandwich and I'm sure some salad will creep in as well.

I was looking through an old book in which my mother had written recipes and came across this for potatoes. I tried it, they were surprisingly good. The recipe would be from about the 50's

Peel and thinly slice large potato, put in iced water.
Dry slices and put on a counter with a dusting of c/flour.  (which I think is cornflour)
Use 2 slices, lengthways, slightly overlap and roll to a cigarette shape.
Secure with wooden cocktail stick.
Deep fry in beef dripping until golden brown.
Remove cocktail stick

They turn out like thick crisps. One large potato goes a long way
I used a mandolin, the slices have to be really thin
Used oil not beef dripping.

QueenJess

Work has distracted me from the task of clearing out my cupboards/fridge/freezer, but I am back in the case now. I cleared enough space in the freezers to put it all into the big freezer and defrost the teeny one. It was getting to the point where closing the drawers was tricky due to the ice build up…

Anyway, that is now done and I’ve barely put anything back into it. I will keep it with the things I think should go in there and continue working through the other freezer.

I am on a use up mission today. Breakfast was porridge with frozen fruit (needs using up). Lunch was vegetable finger sandwiches  (used up a box) with some sweet potato chips. Dinner will be pretend shredded duck from the freezer, the last of the red cabbage I prepared at Xmas, potatoes and whatever other veg I can find in the fridge. I also made muffins with a teaspoon of jam in the middle of each to use up a jar of old jam in the fridge and make good headway into using up another.

joedenise

Lots of reverse planning going on at the moment due to helping my friend with moving house!  She bought us kebabs for dinner on the day of the move (Monday) so the pulled pork I'd planned became dinner on Tuesday.  I'd also made a butter chicken because I'd already marinaded the chicken and didn't want to leave it in the spicy yoghurt more than overnight so that got cooked yesterday and will be dinner tonight.

We also had a curry on Sunday and there was some left over but not enough for another meal so that plus some of tonight butter chicken will end up as lunch tomorrow with some rice (will cook extra tonight so it will just need reheating).

I used up some potatoes which were sprouting by peeling, par boiling and grating and made a hash brown base for pizza which became lunch today with a bit of LO passatta, some cooked chicken pieces, a bit of chorizo and some sweetcorn kernels and covered with some sliced mozzarella from the freezer!

The rest of the cooked chicken pieces, and the rest of the chorizo will be turned into Spanish rice with lots of smoked paprika for dinner tomorrow night.

I think that will get us back to the meal plan!