Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

We finished off the leftover cauliflower and leek dish I cooked last week and added the leftover vegan roulade I made for the village lunch. Personally, I would dump the bought pastry and just make a savoury crumble to top the different layers next time. The filling was tasty though.

I need to process and freeze the meat left over from the (Village Sunday) lunch today, and make some soup with the veg. I'm not sure what we will eat tonight. There is half a jar of ready made pasta sauce that we had with giant pasta shells and meatballs last week, which needs using up so maybe just a quick pasta dish. Followed by some crumble as not all was eaten on Sunday

joedenise

Got some decent bacon and gammon misshapes from Home Bargains this morning so have changed today's planned lunch of jacket potato to bacon, egg, chips and beans!  Will split the pack shortly and freeze the rest for later.  So much for running down the freezer!!!

zafiro1984

Yesterday I had a small bit of cooked turkey left over from the previous evening's tea. it was too small to make it stretch to another meal so made a 'meat paste' by adding spices, salt, pepper and butter all whizzed up in the processor which we had on toast for lunch.
Tea was a portion of batched cooked and frozen pheasant casserole made into a pie with the addition of more vegetables, followed by apple and blackberry crumble.

Lunch today is green pea soup, just defrosting (it's sitting on top of the boiler at the moment) which I made last week, then biscuits. Tea is a scotch egg. One of the hens excelled themselves and laid an egg weighing 110gms that will be for DH, Mine is a more modest 70gm egg. I'll cheat and surround it with meat from sausages to which I'll add a bit of chilli instead of doing the pork mince effort. Pudding will probably be rice pudding as the milk needs using up before it goes off.

EssexHebridean

My flipping avocados are not playing nicely. Two have been in a bag with a banana since the veg box arrived on Saturday and frankly, I was expecting better from them. Checked last night though and they are still stubbornly hard, so I suspect we won't be having those this evening unless some sort or ripening miracle has occurred during the day!  I'm not going to worry too much though as we do have plenty of other veg. 

Sausage, mash and beans last night was lush - I spiced the beans up with masses of allspice, some smoked paprika and black pepper which is a favourite variation of ours. The remaining two sausages are now lurking in the fridge waiting to be used tomorrow with pasta. 

MrEH was dispatched to the large supermarket beginning with a T this morning to try to track down some baby plum tomatoes and also to buy a pack of smoke mackerel - if he's been successful in the latter then Thursday night's tea will become radicchio, smoked mackerel, beetroot and lentil salad. This evening meanwhile will be couscous with assorted veg and the lamb that I remembered to get out of the freezer last night, but probably without avocado... 

Primrose

Avocados are so unreliable arnt  they?  Either rock hard or nasty and black inside!
i learnt ages ago never to depend on them especially if planning an avocado and prawn starter when guests are invited!  The last thing you need is to find them totally inedible  for whatever reason.
i sometimes wonder how restaurants cope with this unreliability when avocado is on the menu.  I guess they just try serve it as an element in a dish which can be substituted with something else if they,re all cut open and found to be iinedible.

sadly.  I,ve yet to find an expert who can tell you how to select with 100% certainty, the perfect one just by looking at the outside.

Suffolk_lass

Mostly, we have Hass acocados in UK supermarkets. It may sound obvious but they darken as they ripen. Unfortunately people often squeeze the loose ones, bruising the fruit and causing it to rot from the inside. A better indicator is to flick the stalk and if it stays, they are not yet ripe, and if it comes away, check for the colour. If it is brown, it is rotting inside, if green it is ripe enough for the next day or two (and could be put in the fridge to stop it ripening further if it is for a dinner with friends). Also look for dark blemishes which are often bruises. It isn't foolproof but these indicators help. 

The same guide with the stalk works for the smooth skinned varieties, if you are lucky enough to get these. We used to peel these rather than scooping the Hass ones. Similarly the brown blemishes on the skin are an indication of rot or bruising but very gently pressing will tell you how bad. When I worked in a friend's restaurant we used lots of avocados but mostly in guacamole, where we mashed rather than chopped, and added lots of lemon juice to stop it discolouring, making small batches fresh for each day, or two maximum. We used to add cottage cheese or soured cream to the guacamole too (along with chillies, deseeded tomatoes and finely chopped cucumber), so it would be stirred just before serving and look creamy and appetising, while stretching what were much more expensive ingredients, back in the day.

EssexHebridean

I love avocados but they certainly are contrary little things. Having said that, the one I had last night in spite of feeling less than promising was actually lovely. MrEH's one might have been too but he forgot it!  

As I was popping the oven on last night to roast veggies for tea, I made the most of it and made up two full trays to go in - one with a couple of beetroot sprinkled with black pepper and smoked salt, and drizzled with smoked oil, plus the salad toms from the veg box (Spanish, so no flavour without being cooked) sprinkled with garlic, black pepper and salt, and drizzled with plain oil. The other tray had two large courgettes, a fennel bulb, and half a punnet of mushrooms. There are now two tubs of roasted tomatoes and one of roasted courgette in the freezer ready for use in the future - the rest was used last night. 

I remembered to get pesto out of the freezer ready for tonight's pasta - that will also see off one leek and another courgette from the fridge, plus half the remaining soft cheese, as well as the two remaining sausages from Monday that will be finely sliced. 

Oh and MrEH was indeed successful in buying smoked mackerel yesterday so we're on for the radicchio &etc salad tomorrow. 

Soontobeoap

I am taking a while to get into this reverse meal planning lark. I have been going out and buying bits to make a recipe up with one thing that I have in. Well that has got to stop. I am just getting into the mindset of creating meals and treats with what I already have. With that in mind I looked for a recipe and made my first ever microwave cake/pud. It isnt bad either and I experimented with gf. I think I can improve on it but its a start and all ingredients were in the house. 

Picked up Asda magazine when I was in shop and made a discovery. Apparently if you need buttermilk or yoghurt in a recipe and you dont have any, you can replace 250ml with 1tbsp white wine vinegar mixed with 250ml of milk (or dairy free alternative). Leave it to curdle a bit, then add gradually, using less than stated if the batter seems thin. 

It also has a lovely looking microwave brownie recipe that I am going to try next time. Lots of other tempting recipes in there too. 
.

joedenise

Got a Morrisons TGTG bag tonight.  It was mainly fruit and veg plus a baguette, a ciabatta and a cheesy bloomer.  Will make a French bread pizza for lunch tomorrow - haven't got any tomatoes but will use some passata from the freezer which is currently defrosting, some onions, peppers & cheese from the fridge.

There was a couple of small cauliflowers which will be turned into cauliflower cheese.

The fruit will all be used either as snacks or as puddings.

Was a very good bag for £3.09.

QueenJess

Soontobeoap said:

Picked up Asda magazine when I was in shop and made a discovery. Apparently if you need buttermilk or yoghurt in a recipe and you dont have any, you can replace 250ml with 1tbsp white wine vinegar mixed with 250ml of milk (or dairy free alternative). Leave it to curdle a bit, then add gradually, using less than stated if the batter seems thin. 

I do this but with lemon. Works the same 🙂