Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Welcome back RT!

Utterly delicious fish pie here last night - honestly I really had forgotten how much of a treat that feels like! I was right about the three bags of various types of fish making three pies (feeding two) between them too - in fact I think there will be a single piece of the salmon left too to roll forwards to the next lot. Definitely not the cheapest of meals but one I’m very happy to work in every couple of weeks. 

happydenial

Lots of meals to be rolled forward and eaten from the freezer this week - I’ve still got a sausage casserole (the delicious Hairy Bikers recipe) in the fridge which I took out to defrost on Thursday morning. It hasn’t defrosted by 5pm so we had breaded chicken, mini potatoes roasties and veg (yes I could have microwaved it, but DH wasn’t in and eldest doesn’t like it). So that got moved to Friday, but then discovered that I didn’t need to feed youngest or DH again! I popped to M&S after work and got a Chinese ready meal instead 😁 Really must eat the sausage casserole tonight - will be served with rice, broccoli and sprouts.

Have run out of potatoes, so tomorrow will have to be an alternative carb. Was thinking of chilli as have a tin of mixed beans in the pantry, but that’s more rice, unless I make enchiladas - there are half a pack of wraps in the freezer 🤔

rtandon27

Awww - thank you EH - it's nice to be back with familiar 'voices' having a natter xx

SL - on the cheese front, my OH is much the same, cheese before bed is a habit he just can't give up!  Strangely, he's gone off mature cheese, and we are buying the mild stuff - cheese is also a staple for us.  We are lucky these days to have no less than 5 supermarkets within a 5 minute drive, so are currently nipping out once a day to the 'store of the day' to pick up staples and the odd yellow sticker bargain - I'm amazed by the vast price differences for staples.

L!dl wasn't all bad tbh - we picked up plain yogurt and olive oil, as well as our standard plain frozen pizzas.  We have these on Fridays dressed up with lovely store cupboard and freezer ingredients, including brined greek olives, pickled red onion, fresh mushrooms and basil.  While in L!dl, I noticed but didn't clue in quick enough to snag an enormous bargain box of ugly fruits and veg - We'll try next week to get one of these next week.

We've rather a lot of chicken in the freezer atm thanks to our lovely Ol!o lady so meal plan for the week will involve using up orzo, noodle stir fries, and one pot rice/veg/chicken - at least that's the plan

(Another) ETA - @happydenial - just discovered some sausage in the freezer, so may pinch sausage casserole from your plan - lol

Frugalista

happydenial said:

Have run out of potatoes, so tomorrow will have to be an alternative carb. Was thinking of chilli as have a tin of mixed beans in the pantry, but that’s more rice, unless I make enchiladas - there are half a pack of wraps in the freezer 🤔

How about chilli pasta casserole?

happydenial

Thanks @frugalista - I’ve gone with good old fashioned spaghetti bolognese in the end, but chilli pasta casserole sounds v interesting! I’ll have to Google a recipe x 

zafiro1984

Any one know of a tasty sausage casserole recipe that doesn't contain tomatoes or cheese. It's a pain to say the least as OH is intolerant to tomatoes and dislikes cooked cheese. I've tried googling it, but no luck. BTW he dislikes pasta/rice as well, but I can get around that one. Do I sound frustrated??

happydenial

@zafiro1984 - could you a sort of gravy based sauce? Maybe braised onions, stir in flour, then splash of red wine, Worcestershire, beef stock pot etc, fried off sausages? Sounds like it should work x 

happydenial

Used up some frozen baguette tonight to make garlic bread to go with our bolognese - cut it lengthways and toasted it in the airfryer, then mixed up butter, salt, garlic granules and oregano, spread it on baguette and toasted for another few minutes. Was delicious. 

Primrose

When my OH wasn,t on his current diet we used to make garlic crouton by freezing the crust ends of loaves until we had  a reasonable number of them.

then cut into small cubes, mixed with olive oil, crushed garlic,  sprinkled  dry herbs and roasted in oven until crisp.  Delicious but fattening! 

Primrose

happydenial said:

@zafiro1984 - could you a sort of gravy based sauce? Maybe braised onions, stir in flour, then splash of red wine, Worcestershire, beef stock pot etc, fried off sausages? Sounds like it should work x 

I rather like the sound of that, and it's a good excuse to open a bottle of red wine!