Reverse Meal Planning

MissRikkiC

I have 1 portion of leek and potato soup left in the fridge for eating and another 4 portions in the freezer from last weeks veg. Does anyone have a trick for preventing the soups texture changing once frozen then defrosted? My L&P is all lumpy and whilst it does mostly look better once warm, its still not as smooth as when it went in the freezer. 

Lunch was a couple of sausages, butterbeans which i PC'd this morning as an easy go to for the children and salad veg dollop'd with sweet chili sauce. Swedish meatballs tonight using up a bit of stale sourdough and a leek in place of an onion. 

This week will feature ham a lot, since there is a 2.6kg joint currently soaking as we speak. I think ill to half it before cooking as im not sure i have anything big enough to house it!

EssexHebridean

Would blitzing the soup again sort out the texture problem I wonder MissRikkiC?  

We finally got our sausage and mash last night I'm pleased to say!

I'm reverting to "normal" and doing couscous this evening - MrEH was reminded earlier to get some chickpeas out to defrost, I'll use some mushrooms and one of the courgettes that's lurking in the fridge too, and the protein element will be hard boiled eggs which were boiled the other day ahead of them going out of date. 

MissRikkiC

I’m not sure maybe @EssexHebridean but I’ll give it a go 

zafiro1984

MissRikkiC said:

I have 1 portion of leek and potato soup left in the fridge for eating and another 4 portions in the freezer from last weeks veg. Does anyone have a trick for preventing the soups texture changing once frozen then defrosted? My L&P is all lumpy and whilst it does mostly look better once warm, its still not as smooth as when it went in the freezer. 

I have the same problem with L&P I refer to it as a 'felt mat'

I did a salmon and bacon quiche last night. I've seen several recipes for salmon wrapped in bacon so I thought a quiche might work - it didn't - DH struggled and left most of it. 
So tonight it's precooked pork steaks with creamy mash and veg.
I found some bits of cooked duck, plus duck stock when I was on a freezer dive yesterday so I'll turn it into soup as there isn't enough for a main meal. we can have that later in the week.

I've been making biscuits, using up all the bits and bobs out of the baking cupboard, dried fruit, cooking chocolate, chocolate chips, walnuts, various types of sugar, spices, coconut. I can't remember what else but the cupboard has a bit more space.  Thank goodness - now I must resist filling it up again.

2Scratters

Wel,l I have found this lovely thread and am reading up from the back. 3 years reading to do. It will all be relevant and the stuff I am reading is still applicable to where we are all now i.e pricing, availability - weird stuff.
It is all about learning, I'll see how long it takes me to catch this post of mine. 

2 Scratters xx

Soontobeoap

Have taken a chicken breast and some left over sweet and sour sauce out of the freezer for tomorrow's sweet and sour chicken with egg fried rice. That will also use up the 3 eggs we have left in the fridge. Sainsburys shop to be done on Monday so hoping I stay within budget tbis month. 

EssexHebridean

I've reverse planned this week with a view to "using some stuff from the freezers" - we had pasta yesterday which got another couple of cooked sausages eaten. This evening is going to be a stir fry (damn - mean to get the pre-cooked and frozen rice out, I'll need to defrost it when we get in tonight now!) using the other half of a bag of garlic prawns. Couscous tomorrow as usual - roast veggies plus some cooked lamb from the freezer, and I'm intending to use some mince later in the week too - as seemingly we have more of that lurking than I thought we did. We also inherited half a loaf of bread from Mum (she wasn't keen and we'll cheerfully nosh it for toast) so that got frozen and popped in to freeze last night. 

Need to do a proper freezer audit again at some stage - it's ludicrous how easy it is to lose track isn't it! 

zafiro1984

EssexHebridean said:

Need to do a proper freezer audit again at some stage - it's ludicrous how easy it is to lose track isn't it! 

Yep I agree, I lose track of what is in the freezers even though everything is labelled. Sometimes, I have a nice surprise when I freezer dive, but I think I'll leave doing an audit until I have more space.
Thankfully, I tend to keep fruit, veg, in one freezer, one tends to have uncooked items in it like meat and one has all the things I have cooked and frozen - that's the theory but the edges do get blurred at times and that when the 'surprises' occur.

rtandon27

Freezer surprise is definitely a theme in our house as well! 

We have a 5 drawer upright with a quick freeze area.  In general everything is labelled and themed (meat/veg/fruit/quick meals/dairy/soups/leftovers)...

...at least that is the theory, until we discover mystery blocks of frozen stuff & take our luck defrosting it!!! 

On that note - dinner tonight is Chicken & rice stir-fry - all bits from the freezer except the onions - which will make a nice dent in the stores & make room for some 0li0 bits!

EssexHebridean

MrEH gets very frustrated with me when he discovered something in the freezer unlabeled as that used to be a very bad habeit of mine. I'm an awful lot better now, but I confess there are odds and ends in there which I threw in thinking I'd label later, and never did... 

So last night's stir fry dealt with the rest of the bag of garlic & herb prawns, the remaining half a courgette, some of a large head of broccoli, some red pepper I froze last week, half of the remaining mushrooms and the last of a bag of kale, plus a couple of tubs of cooked rice from the freezer. It's rare I do a fried rice type stir fry like that but I really ought to do it more often, and of course pre cooked rice is perfect for it too. Your dinner tonight sounds not dis-similar RT - if it's as nice you'll be doing well!

While I was getting the rice and peppers out of the freezer I remembered to get the chickpeas and lamb out ready to go with couscous this evening - that will also see off the remaining mushrooms and probably the last of the broccoli as well. I also need to consult my note with the week's meals on to see what we're meant to be eating tomorrow and thursday - although I have a hunch that jacket tatties are going to be making their way on there somewhere whether they are currently or not. possibly just with the delightfully simple beans and cheese, perhaps with a savoury mince type topping...and cheese, obviously.