Reverse Meal Planning

ruby_eskimo

I was thinking of doing baking jars as gifts this year for some of our friends with the dry ingredients for chocolate chip cookies or something like that.  The aldi passata jars look pretty good for this and we have a few left over from stocking up last year 👍

Have a shed load of potatoes to use up so might have to make some mash to freeze but will be trying to work them into the plan over the week.  Was gifted a few pomegranates and avocado's from my parents at the weekend so also have to try and use them up 🙄😆  Lunch today is going to be avocado toast with eggs and dinner tonight we're having miso stew with rice so that will use some of the potatoes and the courgettes from the garden.  

Really need to take inventory of the cupboards and work out how we can use things up that need to be used up!

EssexHebridean

Love the gift-wrapped home made preserves idea as presents - that would look amazing too! Also love the idea of the baking jar type things -  in fact I got my birthday present from my friend at the weekend (first time I'd seen her since my actual birthday!) and there was one of those included in there! 

Last night's tortilla omelette using the previously roasted potatoes was GORGEOUS! So much added flavour from doing the tatties that way, and the fact that they kept a good part of their crunch was a bonus too as it added a really nice texture. I cooked some chunks of chorizo, and bacon and mushroom as well, threw the tatties in to heat through them added to the lot on top of the beaten eggs and cooked as normal, finishing under the grill once I'd topped it off with cheese. Served up with a big pile of salad with a dressing made using oil from a jar of sun dried tomatoes and vinegar from a finished jar of pickled beetroot - yum! (Apologies to anyone who also ready my diary and thinks "that was familiar!" - it's a straight copy! 

Tonight is couscous with roasted veg (that was done at the same time as the tatties on Sunday) and halloumi I think. Tomorrow's tea is also a night easy "made ahead" option - black bean chilli which I'll serve either with rice or with a couple of pittas each as I have some of those in the freezer. I'm more inclined to save those to use with an indian fakeaway at some stage instead of naans though I think. I'll need to remember to get pulled pork out of the freezer ahead of needing it later in the week as well - once that is out the second portion of chilli can go in. The pulled pork is being done with wedges again as we still have plenty of tatties to use.

Ruby you know you can home-freeze pomegranate seeds? We bought a larger than needed pack at the weekend and have frozen the excess - we just spread them out on a tray on some baking parchment and then tip them into a box once they're fully frozen. They seem to defrost fine although it might depend on how you want to use them.

Suffolk_lass

@zafiro1984 you could mix a few of those left-over or not quite enough for a batch bits together and make Jingleberry Jam for Christmas - I make Jumbleberry the rest of the year. It always goes well at the Christmas sale as I think people like the whimsical name.

My sister also makes cordial (usually blackcurrant) - this year I used the first picking of crab-apples to make crabapple cordial with a slackened off jelly mix, with a crushed campden tablet (beer supplies in Wilko or Boots) to stop it fermenting like Mary Berry does to her Elderflower cordial. It tastes just like apple juice now when diluted with water (very diluted).

ruby_eskimo

Thanks for the tip @EssexHebridean will definitely be freezing them as there are way too many for me to use quickly.

Working through the avocados with lunches this week and dinner tonight is lasagne using everything we already had in, plus some broccoli that we had left over too.  

EssexHebridean

Must remember that there's a tub of gooseberry puree in the fridge that needs using - will probably get MrEH to make up a small quantity of crumble topping and have a rare weeknight proper pudding tonight - he'll undoubtedly do custard as well! 

Tonight is the black bean chilli - the second tub of that found its way to the freezer last night after I took out the pulled pork and it's attendant tub of sticky sauce for tomorrow. 

Must start thinking through meals for next week too. And for Friday and the weekend come to that! I did find a tub of lamb plus a small pot of lamb gravy in the freeze so there is a good chance those will work their way in - maybe for a cheaty mid week not-quite-a-roast dinner - always tasty at this time of year.  I also need to do a review of the fridge to see what still needs using - I know about salad leaves and cucumber, and there are also parsnips and beetroot too although those will keep absolutely fine. 

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:

@zafiro1984 you could mix a few of those left-over or not quite enough for a batch bits together and make Jingleberry Jam for Christmas - I make Jumbleberry the rest of the year. It always goes well at the Christmas sale as I think people like the whimsical name.

Love the names as well as the idea
I've found a recipe for whiskey ginger and it only takes 3weeks, that's doable for Christmas and I have all the stuff needed. Orange gin also cropped up as a recipe. I know I have the oranges but not sure about the gin until I've checked. Never thought about cordials - one for the backburner

Love the ideas people come up with, it's very refreshing. I know everyone's very worried at the moment but sometimes I feel I want to be cheered up and positive and forget the negative things for a while so my thanks to everyone for ideas.

joedenise

Have got some goats cheese in the fridge which really needs to be used up so going to make a warm goats cheese salad for lunch today.  Not really salad weather but the salad also needs using!  The TGTG bag I got at the weekend had 2 Iceberg lettuces and I'd already bought a couple of Little Gem lettuces when we went shopping when we got back from holiday a few days earlier.  

Think the Little Gems will end up being made into peas a la Francais to have as a side dish with tomorrow night's pork steaks (reminder to self get them out of the freezer as well as the bacon and sausages for weekend breakfasts!).

ruby_eskimo

We're not being too frugal this evening as I'm taking DH down to the coast (about an hour away) for fish and chips for dinner as a little treat and a midweek adventure.

But lovely people of the internet, I'm after some advice when it comes to kitchen "gadgets".  We need a new slow cooker as the coating on ours is coming away so I want one with a ceramic "dish" to stop that from happening in future.  We also want to get an air fryer to cut down on our oven usage as it takes ages to heat up and doesn't really get things crisp etc.  So I was looking at getting one of each and then one of our friend's has recently bought one of the 10 in 1 ninja foodie / instant pot things that is a slow cooker / air fryer / pressure cooker + other things in one and he's raving about it.  It sounds amazing but I'm still leaning towards getting separate appliances rather than the all in one.  Any advice or opinions would be much appreciated!

Primrose

Ruby-eskimo
i suspect available storage space and frequency of use any be a criteria here.  How often will you be preparing meals using these device?  Will they give you value for money fuel-wise compared with using other forms of cooking?

EssexHebridean

I'm looking at one of the Instant Pot versions of those at the moment Ruby - we too have been considering an air fryer for a while, and in the current climate I can REALLY see the advantage of a pressure cooker. I was looking at the Ninja originally then saw in the reviews that you need various extra "bits" to actually get it to do what it says it does. (IIRC the slow cooker function needs a different lid, and the dehydrate function needs a rack which has to be purchased) We're in a position where space is indeed at a premium too - and the "two lids" initial situation of the Ninja also put me off (that's two before you even consider any more it might need - we just wouldn't have the storage space!). not quite committed yet, but I think we're going to. 

The main reason we are hesitating is that for us, it probably won't save us money - the vast majority of our cooking is done using gas, and of course that is far cheaper than electric cooking even with the increasing price of gas! We need to properly accept that it will have time advantages, and if it does replace the existing slow cooker, possibly space advantages as well. 

The black bean chilli was lovely - more tins of black beans will be added to the stocking up list. I'll be thoroughly looking forwards to the second lot next week now!  We also did crumble for a rare midweek "proper" pudding - the gooseberries from the freezer with a single apple sliced up and added between the gooseberries and the crumble layer. Very tasty, and a second portion each for tonight which we'll have cold.