Reverse Meal Planning

CCW007

Trying to consolidate three freezers into two so I can defrost the upright freezer.  Last night I had breaded fish and OH had a pack of breaded chicken pieces with canned new potatoes sliced and roasted.  There were two pieces of fish in the pack so I'll have the other piece today and OH will have a carbonara ready meal from the freezer for lunch.  I'm away over night so eating with family tonight and tomorrow morning.

Did an Olio collection and picked up four packs of black pudding which were not requested so they are in the freezer for OH at a later date - it feels like I'm not making much progress with clearing the freezer! 

Primrose

Clearing freezers is an ongoing dilemma i find.  We have a combined fridge/freezer in kitchen and an upright one in garage and transport longer term garage stuff into kitchen one for immediate use.  But trying to run the big one down when we have ongoing garden crops to freeze and occasional bargains to store is especially difficult now we're facing rising prices and potential shortages in the months ahead.   One certainly doesn't want to be short in winter months when getting out to the shops may be more difficult but at some point one has to bite the bullet.  What one really needs is a spare emergency freezer and enough space to store it to temporarily house  all the stuff while the big freezer is being defrosted !!

joedenise

Just had a freezer rummage and got out a beef bourguignon for tonight, chicken curry for tomorrow night.  Also got out some sausages and bacon for weekend breakfasts.  There are burgers in the freezer so we'll have those for lunch on Sunday so I'll get those out tomorrow.

zafiro1984

Gosh what a busy day. On top of our usual jobs we had to cover for one of the staff who was on holiday and then go to a memorial celebration of the life of a friend. Lunch was grab what you can from the fridge - eaten whilst getting showered and changed. Cheese, a bit of HM pork pie, lettuce/toms/celery. 

The celebration was both sad and happy, what was interesting was that how our lives are intertwined, we knew so many people there. There were friends there who I didn't realise also knew our friend. I can now put a face to people who we had heard about but never met - so interesting. We had only intended to stay for a couple of hours but stayed for five. 
Once back home and jobs finished I'm afraid it was fridge food again. The odd cooked sausage, a bit of smoked salmon left from yesterday, some crispy bacon, cold egg salad, potato salad, more bits of cheese, jelly, Lo fruit salad. It was a useful 'fridge graze' all the bits and bobs have been eaten, The fridge is looking rather empty, so I'll give it a good clean tomorrow before anything else gets put in there.

Primrose

At least this heatwave is saving us some cooking energy costs - we seem to be living on salads of various sorts!     No doubt the reverse will happen when colder weather comes.

joedenise

I cooked a gammon joint a couple of days ago so that will feature quite a bit in this week's menu plan, including today!  Will have it with potatoes and veg today, chips and beans tomorrow night and in sandwiches with a bit of salad on Tuesday for lunch.  I've also frozen a few slices which will do once defrosted for another meal.

There's some bits which crumbled when DH sliced the joint so they'll probably get frozen as well to use in a carbonara at some point in the future!

zafiro1984

joedenise said:

I cooked a gammon joint a couple of days ago so that will feature quite a bit in this week's menu plan, including today!  Will have it with potatoes and veg today, chips and beans tomorrow night and in sandwiches with a bit of salad on Tuesday for lunch.  I've also frozen a few slices which will do once defrosted for another meal.

There's some bits which crumbled when DH sliced the joint so they'll probably get frozen as well to use in a carbonara at some point in the future!

Gammon is so versatile, when on offer I try to get a couple extra in the freezer

joedenise

Unfortunately it wasn't on offer so just bought the one!  But like you I do buy extra when I find it on offer and freeze some.

ruby_eskimo

Threw a chicken in the slow cooker yesterday and that's going to be the protein for my lunch time salads this week.  

Dinner tonight is a japanese style veggie curry to use up some veg in the fridge.  It's quick and hopefully the weather will have cooled down by then if the promised rain comes.

Suffolk_lass

Primrose said:

Clearing freezers is an ongoing dilemma i find.  We have a combined fridge/freezer in kitchen and an upright one in garage and transport longer term garage stuff into kitchen one for immediate use.  But trying to run the big one down when we have ongoing garden crops to freeze and occasional bargains to store is especially difficult now we're facing rising prices and potential shortages in the months ahead.   One certainly doesn't want to be short in winter months when getting out to the shops may be more difficult but at some point one has to bite the bullet.  What one really needs is a spare emergency freezer and enough space to store it to temporarily house  all the stuff while the big freezer is being defrosted !!

I completely agree. I have a catering freezer in the pig shed, for garden produce (although it also has 3 loaves of bread and two chickens in at the moment!), a chest freezer with meat, treats, bakery and ice in the cart lodge, a small FF in the toolshed - contains takeaway boxes of stuff I've cooked plus drinks and any kitchen overspill. A 600mm wide 50:50 FF in the kitchen with open veg bags, portioned meat, ice and icecream in the freezer and a heavily loaded fridge.

Oh, and a tall upright freezer in DH's workshop full of bee frames, making sure the wax moth larvae are dead before storing them. I would like to defrost the catering freezer but with so many wasps this month we need them to dwindle before I get anything containing a trace of honey out and move it about, to give me the decant space.

That said, DH shopped yesterday for yogurt, cream, fresh fruit (apples and peaches) and cat litter, and picked up two avocados that we had as a salad last night