Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

Over here we had hm courgette soup for lunch yesterday with freshly baked bread, and I liberated the chicken pie I froze last week for supper last night with leftovers for lunch today. There are two jacket potatoes in the oven now to have with cold pork and pickles and I've stewed frozen garden gooseberries, cooked an oxtail for another pie, and to top up a chilli, and made a rice pudding. I might make custard as I know the gooseberries are too tart at the moment. I will be making a ragu tomorrow, half to put with the oxtail chilli and the other half for a pasta bake.

EssexHebridean

Tonight's freezer extraction will be another tub of that ragu which will again be converted to a chilli with the addition of some spice and a tin of beans of some description. Probably cannellini as I think there are a couple of those in the kitchen drawer. I also got the haggis out ready for tomorrow - I'm really looking forward to that! Thanks to us both having been walloped by this grim cold that's doing the rounds, really well flavoured food feels like an absolute must at the moment to offset the effects of bunged up noses on tastebuds! 

CCW007

New FF in place and everything swapped over, now have no space in freezers as new FF has less freezer space (but more usable as drawers).  Soup for lunch using sliced peppers from Olio and tomatoes - was not very nice sadly! 

Dinner will be cauliflower and pasta cheese bake - haven't had that since the time I got about 30 purple caulis from Olio and ended up with several left.

Huge sack of bagged salad from Olio last night and as its Use By I can't share it today so every meal will have a large side salad!

EssexHebridean

Cauli pasta cheese bake is a huge favourite in this house - usually with some chopped up bacon or chorizo cooked in the sauce , and plentiful gratings of nutmeg too! I top mine with more cheese and some breadcrumbs before sticking in the oven too. 

Suffolk_lass

Don't forget you can make soup with salad leaves (a basic onion stock with peas, then salad and some cream or yogurt, whizzed) - there are various recipe options on-line featuring pea pods. First not readily available at this time of year but secondly, left in, the don't break down enough and make the soup stingy. I speak from experience!

Here we are still working our way through the oxtail I bought to try a local farm shop (cheaper than the butcher, lovely quality). Very nice in chilli and last night we had it with peas in a pie. Leftovers for lunch today and then cauliflower and broccoli cheese tonight. With DH out of action (as per my diary) it needs to be simple as I have all the jobs today, and for a few weeks to come.

Primrose

Suffolk Lass 
i echo your  comments about pea pod soup. It,s a delicious way of using up the pods for  free which I,ve often done when Ive grown peas but it can be stringy and you really have to pull the stringy bits off the pods before whizzing them up.
Having said that, most  of our home grown peas end up being enjoyed as fresh "nibbles" with a glass of G&T  after they,ve been picked.  They rarely make it to the saucepan ! 

zafiro1984

I had a lot to do today, more than usual so I retrieved an uncooked turkey back from the freezer early this morning and decided to make soup with it using most of the veggies from the fridge. Used the slow cooker. However, neither of us were very hungry tonight so I added a couple of dumplings to it and we had that for tea - loads left over, lunch tomorrow and I'll freeze the rest for another day.
I also had some LO shortcrust pastry from yesterday in the fridge so made a sort of flat Eccles cake which I cut into slices and we had that with yogurt afterwards. Nothing special but edible.

EssexHebridean

Morning all! A couple of freezer extractions so far this week - a box of lamb from the roast the other week went with couscous last night, and tonight will be a chicken noodle stir fry using chicken from the freezer, a chunk of the huge sweetheart cabbage lurking in the fridge, whatever other veg I have around that seems to suit, and a dollop of satay sauce from a jar that was bought at the Good Food Show on Sunday. (A bargainous deal from a chinese supermarket who usually have a stall - 4 x bottles of "drizzle or dip" soy dressings of various flavours and 2 jars each of satay and Char Sui sauces for £7). 

Need to get the 2 x squashes sorted out for use although I think I might bake them filled with a mix of cream, cheese & bacon as that usually goes down well. Also have a small cauli lurking which needs using - I might use it for a pasta bake next week though I think as I reckon it will last that long. 

zafiro1984

Meal plan for the week done, so I raided the freezer yesterday as I'm finding I need to be very well planned and organised regarding meals (and housework -what's that?) at the moment. 
 
One medium chicken, 350gm venison mince and 500gm pheasant pieces.  Venison mince is cheaper than beef mince at the moment and pheasant pieces were £2.95 for 500gm when I bought them earlier this year so it isn't as posh as it may seem. All went into the fridge to defrost (that may help with saving a bit of electric) 
Hopefully there will be enough meat for a week for the two of us. I'll joint the chicken and then make casseroles, pies, swoup (cross between stew and soup), things that are easy and able to be left in the oven adjoining the woodburner. I'll use the vegetables, bacon, cheese, mushrooms and cream etc from the fridge and raid the freezers again if I'm running short. 

We usually have a pudding after our meal. Not a problem, I've loads in the freezer. I think I have a crumble/sponge/cake or similar made from every English grown fruit. All made this year and frozen.

DH can now eat a little without it going through a straw but I have to cut things up very small - it reminds me of when the children were toddlers. His head is fixed ridged in a brace 24/7 and he can't look down or up, neither can he look to the left or right without moving his body - very restrictive, but it could have been a whole lot worse. My day starts early and finishes late but I do pop in and out of the house several times just to make sure he's not up to doing something stupid, so far so good.

I don't think I need to go shopping at all this week, which is a blessing, but when I do I'll use  online home delivery.

EssexHebridean

I really feel for your OH Zafiro - I'm pretty severely claustrophobic so can't imagine much worse than being fixed in a position like that without freedom of movement, it must be awful for him, as well as having been a really scary time for you, too. 

Last night's chicken noodle stir fry was lovely - we are both very impressed with the satay sauce, albeit I did say I might boost the peanutty-ness of it next time with a dollop of peanut butter from the tin, too. For tonight I have a pork steak marinading in the fridge with some of the char sui sauce (another of the food show purchases) so we'll see how that turns out. the sauce certainly tasted good when I had a sneaky little taste last night! I think that's going to get served with tatties of some description, and probably some more cabbage as frankly that beast is HUGE and I barely made a dent in it last night! Might go the frozen veg route though - we'll see. 

The only meal to plan tomorrow is breakfast as we are out through the afternoon/evening - and a friend we're meeting has suggested meeting for pizza so that will do lunch! MrEH set the bread maker running overnight so we're OK for weekend toast (the loaf did lunch today, too) and I'll aim to do the weekly shop on Saturday morning I think.