Reverse Meal Planning

Soontobeoap

@QueenJess thanks. It really good to know. Must try it out soon 

JingsMyBucket

@joedenise our local Morrison’s has started doing TGTG bags again so I’m going to try snatching one this month. I should set an alarm on my phone for 9:15pm every night so I can check the app. They supposedly go live at 9:20pm. 

joedenise

The time depends on each store's closing time!  Our nearest one actually closes at 8pm so they go live around 8.15pm but the one we used yesterday doesn't close until 9pm so theirs goes live at 9.15pm.

Good luck with getting a decent bag!

JingsMyBucket

@joedenise ah got you. Thanks for that heads up. 

EssexHebridean

Good tips on the TGTG bag timings - annoyingly our local Morrisons store is just one of the small local ones and their bags aren't brilliant - I'd love to have a proper full size store close by! 

Meal plan written for next week so I'll finalise the shopping list shortly. we won't be shopping until Sunday though I don't think. 

Tonight's tea will be using up the last of the green lentils in the tin - I will want to get more at some stage but it will wait for now. 

We are planning on swinging into one of the local co-op stores tomorrow morning to see if we can get MrEH's milk for the week - if we can then my app shows me offers of 50p off any milk, plus £1 off any shop, so hopefully we can combine the two things to get 4 pints of milk for 35p - we'll see if that works! In fairness even just the 50p off still makes it cheaper than buying anywhere else. 

I'm leaning towards doing wedges for team for tomorrow night alongside the boxed fish I have in the freezer - although if I can be bothered I might make fish pie again instead as we enjoyed it so much last week. 

Suffolk_lass

We spent all of yesterday tidying, cleaning, clearing and stashing so dinner ended up being half a jar of ready-made pasta sauce, with penne and grated cheese. Unfortunately we found a jar of the stewed apple I made had failed, and was fizzy, but not before DH dished it up with some Greek-style yogurt. That tasted finny too. He insisted it was ok but I was not happy. I checked it this morning and I could see green mould that he had stirred in. Poor thing has gone in to hospital to have the oil removed this morning, and it is clear he can't see properly at the moment.

Almost a whole pot of yogurt. I hate waste.

rtandon27

Hello all - after many months of unplanned & unhealthy eating, we may be happily back on track! (sometimes life gets in the way of plans!!!)

Dinner last night was all from the stores! Fakeaway chicken chow mein, chicken thigh, fine green beans, red pepper strips from the freezer - egg noodles and cooking sauces from the stores. Minimal prep was needed - chopping chicken and cooking noodles were both low effort!  We will be venturing out today for a leisurely shop at L!dl with a list in had to pick up some basics, but will base a loose meal plan for next week around what we have that needs using up.

Breakfast this morning was oatmeal with frozen berries, chia, flax and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg.  We usually add crushed nuts and a spoon of raisins, but somehow these got left out. Sides of boiled egg and a banana - filling, cheap and using up various bits we keep in the cupboard & freezer.

Not a clue what we are having for lunch or dinner today - will have to give it a think, while making a meal plan for next week!

ETA - L!dl shop was strangely manic, too many screaming babes - YIKES - no eggs to be had either! uht milk has gone up to 95p instead of 69p, basic cheddar cheese is now 9.97/kg intstead of 5.03/kg so will do MrS or Te$co on another day for these at a more reasonable price.  It's a shame that they don't list prices online as do the other two!  OH is now rethinking his grocery store loyalties - LOL

Soontobeoap

Dinner tonight is chicken chow mein using up egg noodles and mushrooms from freezer with a small amount of chicken and fried rice. Tomorrow will be some odd sausages from freezer with bubble and squeek and jacket potatoes. I made up a trifle today with left over microwave sponge and store cupboard ingredients. Going to make a coconut cake with left over coconut and stotecupboard bits tomorrow. 

Suffolk_lass

Gosh, @rtandon27, the extra mature cheddar I get (Lake District Dairy) from Morries is £5 for 800g (£6.25/K) and it used to be bigger blocks - I noticed last time it had moved to the deli counter instead of in the cheese area. We eat quite a lot of cheese as DH snacks on it before bed as well as cooking with it. 

I have made store-cupboard and freezer soup this morning, with frozen courgettes we grew last year, butternut squash (again, HG) with some onions and carrots from stores (still working our way through the 3k of onions in my last TGTG bag, and 2k of carrots. After frying off the root veg in sunflower oil, I add a handful of herbs, a veg stock pot and half a teaspoon of lazy chilli with the frozen veg and top up with water. Once it comes to the boil it goes in the simmer oven for 40 minutes. Then when it has cooled, I have been liquidising it and we have it as our go-to lunch with a little sprinkle of salt and maybe a stir of cream or one of those Boursin little snacking squares between us. I've also got bread proving, having woken up at 04.30 this morning. It is my best time for getting prep done!

I have defrosted a chicken for tomorrow and a stick of sausagemeat for us to have this evening , cut into disks and with mash and cabbage, and maybe Monday, as a roadkill toad (squashed flat toad in the hole). Then the chicken will do a curry and a pie, later in the week.

With DH still out of action it all needs to be easy food. 

joedenise

Virtually all of this week's meals will either by HM ready meals from the freezer or be made with chicken or fish from the freezer.  The only fresh meat will be tonight's pork schnitzels.

They will be a couple of chicken meals - sweet and sour and a butter chicken; a beef stew, a lasagne made using LO bolognaise sauce and a fish and pasta bake.  Tomorrow's dinner will be roast. beef in gravy.

Definitely a week of freezer use ups!  I really want to get my outside freezer empty before our holiday in mid April so it can be turned off.