Reverse Meal Planning

happydenial

@Primrose 🤣🤣🤣 Yes, and it would be rude not to have a glass while cooking! 

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 said:

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??

My standard sausage casserole is onion, carrot, maybe celery (if I have a stick), chopped up squash, fried in veg oil, then chopped up (in seasoned flour) sausagemeat of sausages, veg stock pot, sprinkle of herbs, maybe a bit of worcester, tabasco and an oxo cube, and mix of water and dash of red wine. A squirt of ketchup (could use honey or sugar if even these tomatoes can't be tolerated) if it is too acid, and maybe a tin of baked beans if it looks too mean. If it is too runny, I stir through a tablespoon of standard bisto gravy granules at the end. I always arrange the sausage on top as we like it crusty and the seasoned flour helps with this. This works well in a slow oven/slow cooker and I typically serve it with plain boiled potato and steamed cabbage (but we often have it on its own)

zafiro1984

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Red wine seems to figure in some postings which prompted something in my head. I had a tin of Homepride red wine cooking sauce in the pantry, I looked on the bottom of the tin - expiry date March 2011??   Not sure if I'm brave enough to use it. 
However, I'll work around everyone's ideas and produce something which is hopefully edible. I also like the idea of 'crusty' sausages as a texture idea  and I always keep a stash of cheap red wine in the pantry for cooking so I know that will be something I'll use. 

Frugalista

happydenial said:

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 

@happydenial - no recipe needed - just cook your chilli as normal; cook some pasta til "al dente" (shells are good - but any shape will do), drain and then mix together,  Spread out in a fairly shallow dish (or roasting tin) and cover with grated cheese.  Pop in the oven until the cheese is melted.  Yummmm!!

It's one of those recipes that can stretch a smallish portion of chilli to do a coupe of meals and can also be made in advance and reheated when needed.

Coincidentally, guess what I'm having for dinner tonight.  LOL!

QueenJess

Lots of using up today.  Leftover Macroni cheese used up from Friday for lunch.  Dinner is chicken thighs in the slow cooker with all the dregs of the veg to use up - leeks, cauliflower leaves and stem, carrots, some celeriac.  Cooked in chicken stock with some mustard and I'll add butterbeans later.  If anyone is missing carbs we have bread and butter on standby.

Now just got a couple of leeks, some beetroot, onions and a large celeriac left before the new veg box gets delivered on Thursday.  I think celeriac soup will be coming up for lunch tomorrow!

EssexHebridean

Slow cooker day here too - I put together the makings for a mutton stew in the big SC last night and it ran overnight - albeit not for quite as long as I had planned thanks to the smartplug scheduling being wrong - thankfully when I got up in the night for the loo my nose told me that it can't have come on yet so I went and switched it on manually! It's been off for much of the day, and I just checked a few minutes ago to ensure that it has switched back on again so fingers crossed if I got the oatmeal/red lentils/pearl barley amounts right it should be all thickened and done ready for us when we get home tonight. That will do a second day on Thursday too - I'll probably add dumplings to that one as most of the potato will get eaten tonight.

@zafiro1984 you've got to at least open the sauce and see if it looks/smells OK! 

rtandon27

Dinner tonight is from fridge & freezer - ham & cheese tortellini with mushroom sauce from the freezer - tarted up with some frozen whole leaf spinach and sliced mushrooms.

We scored some organic leeks from our lovely Ol!o lady yesterday, so I envision a nice warming winter potato & leek soup over the next few chilly days!

Any creative ideas for celariac other than soup? One jumped into our shopping basket from the yellow sticker section earlier today - LOL - we were 'only' shopping for basics - cheese, ham, eggs & milk but the temptation of a yellow sticker was far to great!

joedenise

I like celeriac raw in a salad or could make into a remoulade - grated into some mayo with some dijon mustard and a little lemon juice.  Can use it as part of a salad or as a dip.

Suffolk_lass

Got about a third of the roast chicken to process today. I cheated and bought a roll of puff pastry to make a convenience pie but it might be for tomorrow as I need to be out earlier then. Tonight might be leeks au gratin with bread and butter.

Soontobeoap

Convenience pie sounds intriguing @Suffolk lass. Is it convenience because of ready made pastry or is there more to it? 

I found some birds eye lamb grills in the freezer and made a mini roast last night. DH said "I know I am old fashioned but this is still my favourite type of meal". 🤣. He is easily pleased and it warmed the kitchen up too so we didnt meed the heating on.

Tonight is simple cheesy sausage pasta. I do have a meal plan to fall back on but keep changing it slightly to use up freezer ingredients. When using something up at the moment I seem to be making one to eat and one for the freezer so the freezer is still full. Its very nice to see. I will need to try and clear some space for icecream in April. 🤣