Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

@zafiro1984, if you are nervous of canning, how about stewing some fruit and treating it as jam? When cooked, pop into hot sterile jars, screw on the lid and tip upside down until the lid pops, forming a seal. Then it keeps like jam until you open it (then, unsurprisingly, it won't keep beyond a day or two) but it is instant home-cooked crumble filling or breakfast topping, dessert with ice cream or custard? - the trick is portion size by jar!

EssexHebridean

Hello all - SL sorry to hear about your freezer traumas! Hopefully the one you thought was broken is going to turn out to have more life in it yet? 

It'll be back to proper meal planning from this week - plus we must sort out some of the tasty stuff we brought back from the Hebrides with us. The store cupboard is packed with oatcakes and water biscuits (Stag bakery from the Isle of Lewis make the most incredible water biscuits). Then we have black, white and fruit puddings to slice and freeze - that'll be a job for MrEH this evening while I sort out tea I think. Tonight's nosh is going to be something involving pasta plus the half a tub of hot smoked salmon that needs using (three more tubs of the same have already been frozen). As in the "also to use up" camp is part of a tub of soft cheese, and a courgette (I bought a YS'd pack while we were away but for various reasons they didn't get touched - and as every penny is a prisoner there was no flipping WAY they were being binned!) those will also feature. I'm thinking I'll also likely add either a tin of sweetcorn or possibly some frozen peas and it will just be a pretty simple salmon pasta with a creamy sauce. 

I could do with having a proper look in the freezer to see what else needs used. Also stashed in there since we came back are a couple of packs of tattie scones (Stag bakery again) and half a loaf of bread that also returned with us. I have a feeling it will be reasonably full by the time the puddings are added in! 

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:

@zafiro1984, if you are nervous of canning, how about stewing some fruit and treating it as jam? When cooked, pop into hot sterile jars, screw on the lid and tip upside down until the lid pops, forming a seal. Then it keeps like jam until you open it (then, unsurprisingly, it won't keep beyond a day or two) but it is instant home-cooked crumble filling or breakfast topping, dessert with ice cream or custard? - the trick is portion size by jar!

What a brilliant idea - never thought of that - thanks.

Been collecting the crab apples, I'm just doing crab apple jelly with cinnamon or with cloves, not wanting to waste anything I'll process the 'sludge' into crab apple jam. Rose hips collected yesterday are in freezer, softening ready for rosehip and orange marmalade. Someone's going to give me a 'runaway' courgette tomorrow which I'll turn into marrow and ginger jam. 
I thought I'd make quite a few small jars of unusual jams this year, make them look pretty and use them (perhaps in groups of three) as Christmas presents. I have a medlar tree which is groaning under its fruit this year. I've never made medlar jam, so that should be an interesting exercise.

Finished defrosting the freezers, I haven't done an audit but I've I've kept similar things together in the drawers. The big chest freezer has all the uncooked meat so I've used cardboard boxes to separate the types of meat.

Tea last night was a couple of lamb burgers I made a few months ago from the bits and bobs box in the freezer followed by LO tray bake with custard, unfortunately the custard boiled over so I ended up cleaning the microwave.
 

DawnW

@zafiro1984 medlar jelly is lovely, and is a beautiful amber colour.

EssexHebridean

Woop - I’ve just been offered some apples. A friend has been given some and there are too many for her so she’s offered them to us. Apparently they are eaters but “very sharp” - now we like a sharp apple so there is a chance that they may be OK for us anyway, but I can always plan to stew them with some dried fruit, mixed spice and brown sugar then either freeze in crumble sized portions of smaller portions for topping porridge. 

On the subject of porridge, this morning felt like the right point in the year to kick-off porridge season so that was breakfast sorted. MrEH topped his with banana, I had raspberries (from the home-frozen YS’d stash) and  dollop of peanut butter. Very yum and a lovely start to a grey, autumnal morning. 

Tea last night was a sort of tagine-ish concoction made almost entirely from freezer contents. Lamb, some previously roasted marrow chunks, some chopped peppers all just dumped into a pan from frozen with a tin of chopped toms, and lots of spices, plus a handful of sultanas. Very tasty indeed served up with rice. That frees up one of the Haggis’s we brought back from holiday for this evening - that’ll be along with mash and some form of veg (probably peas, although dependant on what I track down first in the freezer.) 

ideally I would get my act together to go and shop this afternoon, however I’m drifting round to the idea that as I want to go to Al’s anyway for some storecupboard bits, it might be most sensible just to rely on shopping there for everything. I was considering heading to our “local” Mozzas, but sadly “local” is still 7 miles away, and as the friend with thr apples has just messaged to say she’s in now if I want to collect, that sounds like a far better option! 

Primrose

EssexHebridean said:

Woop - I’ve just been offered some apples. A friend has been given some and there are too many for her so she’s offer. them to us. Apparently they are eaters but “very sharp” - now we like a sharp apple so there is a chance that they may be OK for us anyway, but I can always plan to stew them with some dried fruit, mixed spice and brown sugar then either freeze in crumble sized portions of smaller portions for topping porridge. 

If you,re short of freezer space storing in a cool shed or garage is always a good option as long as you check them regularly.    Even sharp apples will freeze well. I often throw in a few sultanas or an odd chopped pear and some crystallised ginger to vary the.mix.   I freeze in mixed sized bags so e can decant some into a lidded glass jar and store in fridge for a few days' additions to porridge or muesli, or to eat wth ice cream or milk based puddings. 

zafiro1984

EssexHebridean said:

Woop - I’ve just been offered some apples. 

There's a good freezer recipe I use from an old M&S cookery book which makes mincemeat. It has to be frozen because of the high proportion of apple. I've used it for years. I usually make quite a lot and use it in the winter with more apples to make a tasty, slightly spicy crumble. 

A very busy day here today, no time for cooking but I had a bit of pork mince in the fridge so combined it with chopped apricots, a bit of onion and seasoning and wrapped a tablespoon full in bacon to make a sort of fat 'pigs in blankets', a couple each on the plate with veg went down quite well. Pudding was LO blueberry and lemon filled sponge cake from yesterday.

CCW007

Had a week of soup making for the freezer, using up whatever needed using.  I've got some leeks left from dad's allotment. Some will get used for leek and blue cheese pasta tonight but will have some left.  I've got frozen jacket spuds which we don't enjoy reheated- any reason I couldn't use them to make leek and potato soup?

joedenise

CCW007 said:

Had a week of soup making for the freezer, using up whatever needed using.  I've got some leeks left from dad's allotment. Some will get used for leek and blue cheese pasta tonight but will have some left.  I've got frozen jacket spuds which we don't enjoy reheated- any reason I couldn't use them to make leek and potato soup?

I’ve never done it but can’t see any reason it wouldn’t work.  Certainly worth a try.

Primrose

CCW007 said:

Had a week of soup making for the freezer, using up whatever needed using.  I've got some leeks left from dad's allotment. Some will get used for leek and blue cheese pasta tonight but will have some left.  I've got frozen jacket spuds which we don't enjoy reheated- any reason I couldn't use them to make leek and potato soup?

,I've  never frozen jacket potatoes so don,t know what their consistency is like but am sure they,d be ok for L&P soup.  If you have a stick blender you could Whizz everything up to make a thick creamy type soup rather than a more chunky version.