Reverse Meal Planning

QueenJess

Leftovers galore today as my fridge is rammed.  Lunch was more of the celeriac soup I made yesterday (it's the best soup I've ever made!  The secret seemed to be stirring one teaspoon of pesto through each bowl and a scattering of pumpkin seeds).  Dinner is leftover roast beef from the weekend with chips, roasted beetroot (also in the fridge to be used it.  It got roasted while the oven was on for dinner yesterday) and some frozen veg because I've run out of all veg bar a few onions.

rtandon27

Our leek & potato soup was soooooo boring that we had to tart it up - we added dried thyme, celery salt, coarse pepper and some shredded ham hock from the depths of the freezer.

As we are snowed in, the basics shop was cancelled, we may resort to having a grocery delivery if what we needs tots up to the minimum for free delivery - we can order up until 10 pm for delivery tomorrow.

Continuing the freezer dive produced some posh chorizo style sausage and a lonely chicken breast from an Olio haul along with 1/2 jar of tomato/basil sauce and some grated cheese. - We'll be combining this with the last of orzo which has been languishing since lock-down days.  Not sure what veg will go with it - we've got cabbage and carrots in the fridge, fine beans in the freezer and some tinned corn.  A hearty wintery dinner for & dark evening

Primrose

L&P soup can get a bit week especially if you don't have a good strong stock as a base.  We keep apacket of frankfurters or one of those Mattesons smoked sausages in the freezer to chop up and add to improve it.   It's worth keeping a bag of thin slices already chopped up in a zip lock bag in the freezer for emergency rescues like this. 

Suffolk_lass

rtandon27 said:

Our leek & potato soup was soooooo boring that we had to tart it up - we added dried thyme, celery salt, coarse pepper and some shredded ham hock from the depths of the freezer.

As we are snowed in, the basics shop was cancelled, we may resort to having a grocery delivery if what we needs tots up to the minimum for free delivery - we can order up until 10 pm for delivery tomorrow.

Continuing the freezer dive produced some posh chorizo style sausage and a lonely chicken breast from an Olio haul along with 1/2 jar of tomato/basil sauce and some grated cheese. - We'll be combining this with the last of orzo which has been languishing since lock-down days.  Not sure what veg will go with it - we've got cabbage and carrots in the fridge, fine beans in the freezer and some tinned corn.  A hearty wintery dinner for & dark evening

I add a vegetable stock pot and a bit of Worcester sauce to liven it up

zafiro1984

rtandon27 said:

Our leek & potato soup was soooooo boring that we had to tart it up - we added dried thyme, celery salt, coarse pepper and some shredded ham hock from the depths of the freezer.

I did leek and potato soup yesterday. I added chilli flakes, a bit of pepper and salt, and two organic veg stock cubes plus some fried off bits of crispy bacon which I added at the end of cooking- I use cooking bacon for this as it very cheap compared to rashers. Then I cut one slice of bread into squares and fried it in the bacon fat which made sort of crispy croutons for a topping. I've also been known to add a dessertspoon full of swirled cream to each bowl, but I didn't have any cream in the house yesterday.

Today is squash and parsnip soup, I always add a pinch of curry powder to that soup to give it a lift. Parsnip and apple soup is also quite good.

The sausage casserole was a success, it's now a keeper thanks to everyone's suggestions

EssexHebridean

Any soup involving parsnips almost always ends up with curry spices added in my house - such a lovely flavour! And that reminds me (somewhow!) that I still have a single serving tub of what I think was either sweet potato or butternut squash soup with coconut and thai inspired spices added in freezer 2 - I may just break that out for my lunch on Saturday when MrEH will be out! 

Last night ended up being a nice big wok of mixed veg lightly stir fried - sprouts quartered, a fennel bulb, the smallest of the two remaining leeks, a courgette and a chunk more of the radicchio - which then got the last two blobs of HM pesto from the freezer, the end of the chorizo, cubed, and a knob of butter stirred through, and was served with pasta. Really tasty, and pretty much approaching our 5 a day in a single plateful I reckon! We both agreed we preferred the raddichio lightly cooked than raw so I'll almost certainly repeat that option next week to finish it off. 

Tonight is the remainder of the stew from Monday - I've still not worked out how best to give it a bit of extra cooking but I'm leaning towards the microwave as the best option I think, not least as our two portions will need heating separately assuming MrEH's lot don't wimp out of their rugby training! 

rtandon27

Small victory - I've managed to do a meal plan dinners for the week based on what we have in - have had to switch up Tues and today as we realised the pakchoi needs using!
Sun - fish veg wedges
Mon - gnocchi mushrooms spinach
Tues - pork carrots kale mash
Wed - chicken chow mein
Thurs - taco supper skillet
Fri - pizza wedges
Sat - fakeaway korma and rice
Lunches will be soup and/or toasties - there is still a celeriac and two leeks to use up!

Suffolk_lass

I have pulled a pair of large chicken thighs out of the freezer for this evening. I plan to slow tray-bake them with onion, potato, carrot, cauliflower and maybe pumpkin. There is some broccoli to steam but the stalks might get roasted too. 

I am going to make a small rice pudding at the same time, which will mean I need to shop this week for F&V, dairy, and a few store-cupboard top ups. There is room in the kitchen freezer for some bits now so can at last cut one of the three (hg) Crown Prince Pumpkins I have in the larder. I gave away most but kept three and they need using or at least, prepping and freezing over the next month (before I plant the replacement seeds!)

rtandon27

SL - are crown Prince pumpkins the same as japanese Kombucha pumpkins?

zafiro1984

I do most of my shopping online and for some reason - and I'm not sure what - I was looking at old online shopping. I found one for March 2022 and worked out how much the same shop/items would cost today. In March 2022 the shop came to 72.84p today the exact same shop would be 89.21p. The interesting thing was convivence foods have gone up by the biggest percentage, and I also know dairy items have also risen sharply but surprisingly quite a lot of vegetables/fruit was the same price or had dropped slightly. 

i always try not to waste anything, sometimes I'm more successful than usual. On Thursday I put a large chicken casserole in the oven attached to the woodburner. it cooked slowly overnight. Friday was casserole with creamy mash and the remainder was portioned and frozen. However, I had quite a lot of sauce leftover which I usually throw away - not this time as it formed a very tasty basis for soup on Saturday with the addition of some frozen turkey bits lurking in the freezer from January plus peas and sweetcorn.
Today I've discovered a smallish piece of frozen cooked brisket which I'll turn into meat paste for toast at lunchtime. I'll tell DH it's pate, he won't know the difference.