Reverse Meal Planning

zafiro1984

I'm trying to find more exciting things for tea. Unfortunately MrZ is very old fashioned, tea is meat and 2 veg with potatoes. He dislikes rice, pasta, cooked cheese, just to mention a few of the things on his list. He is ill if he eats tarragon or tomatoes, all of which I like. A very limited palette, but I'm used to it.  

Last night, with thinking cap on, I used the LO pork shoulder from the day before with mushrooms, a carrot, stick of celery, mustard, honey, cider and a splash of cream. served with puffed up crispy frozen mash. It went down well. I didn't tell him about the pinch of herbs, or clove of garlic - some things are best kept quiet.

Tonight will be mainly vegetables as I bought too many last weekend at the market. 

Soontobeoap

@zafiro1984. My husband used to be like this but slowly but surely I have added a new recipe roughly once a fortnight and he now thinks I am a much better cook. For years I was pandering to what I thought he wanted whereas now he enjoys the variety! Still prefers a good roast though if I am honest. 😂. I find that adding pastry to a meal every so often makes the meat go further. I dont need much leftover chicken and ham to make 4 tasty pies 2 for the freezer and 2 for now!
I spent so much in April that I am going to be using up freezer and cupboard staples as much as possible to get back on track!

Today we play crib in the evening and always want a quick meal so hot dogs tonight. Gluten free bread rolls for me from freezer as well as hot dog sausages. Just need to buy bridge rolls for DH. With fried onions and tomatoe sauce. Not exactly nutritious but a treat meal! 

EssexHebridean

We have a deal here. Things that MrEH actually doesn't like - genuinely really doesn't like - I don't cook. He does however have a seemingly ever increasing list of "not so keen on" things, many of which I really enjoy - and those absolutely DO get cooked from time to time. It's surprising how often things he's completely unaware of go unnoticed too - grated carrot in cottage pie is a prime example here - and don't get me started on things containing ginger that he'll cheerfully eat when out and about because he simply doesn't know about the ginger!   

I've had to reverse my reverse plan this week - MrEH has had to do an additional day in London today (and may yet have to do another tomorrow - shocking!)and so my well worked out plan to do fish, wedges and peas tonight has slipped to tomorrow...last night ended up as being chilli and rice, and last night's planned jacket tatties are now being eaten this evening instead and will be topped off with beans, cheese and whatever else I can find to throw in/on. Thank goodness for speedy potato cooking thanks to the microwave! 

Primrose

Men can b funnily pernickedly abiut food.  When I regularly visited and cooked for my aged parents my dad would like to sit at the kitchen table and chat while I cooked.  My mum, bless her, wasn't a good cook and for years Dad wouldn,t eat onions in anything, swearing he had an allergy to them so their meals were pretty tasteless.

He loved what I cooked, which usually  included onions.  I used to,pretend  to swish my cut ones briefly in water and dry them before cooking.  I ensured  they barely saw a drop of water but the action satisfied him that the "noxious substance in them" was washed away. Whatever, he never suffered the slightest stomach upset so I suspect a lot of his feelings were just in his mind.

Soontobeoap

A rummage in the freezer found a chicken breast. With the half pkt of noodles I have in store cupboard and veg in fridge I just need to get a carrot to make a nice chow mein dish for tommorrows dinner. 

Soontobeoap

Today we had the odd sausages from the freezer with more of the potato glut as mash. I served with peas. Not enough onion chutney for both of us so DH had gravy and onion chutney and I had tomato sauce. Yesterday was birdseye fish with oven chips and tinned beans. Tomorrow we are having a shepherds pie from the freezer with added mash left over from today. Pizza on thursday with salad bits that are left in fridge and maybe tinned sweetcorn if I have some. DH is lunching with friends on Friday so I will have a jacket potato. I will get around to that stock take of freezer and cupboards this week so that I can meal plan further.

joedenise

We had a half leg of lamb for dinner yesterday so used the LOs to make a shepherds pie. Tomorrow for lunch I'm going to make a "breakfast" hash - will use half tin of potatoes, the last of the mushrooms, some onions, some frozen peppers and either a couple of chopped sausages or burgers depending on what I come across first in the freezer! In fact must go and have a look.

For dinner I'm making a sweet and sour sauce from scratch which will have with a chopped up pork steak from the freezer. We'll have that with rice.

Off to Scotland on Thursday so no meal planning for a week - reverse or otherwise!

MissRikkiC

We we're away this weekend and so didn't get chance to use up all of the veg box ingredients before we went. Thankfully they're all okay still so no loss there however the new veg box was delivered today.

Yesterday used up the broad beans in a risotto with lemon which felt very summery and tonight's plan is bubble and squeak (something I've never made) with poached egg ans asparagus.

We have a cabbage still left from 2 weeks box's ago and another from last week plus spring greens arrived today so I've been finding recipes for cabbage hence the bubble and squeak. There will be a shredded greens dhal plus a cabbage and red beans dish I found on the recipe pages on this months grocery challenge. The children in theory should eat both of recipes and I'll make extra bubble and squeak patties for the freezer too.

There is spring onions, 2 red peppers and some celery left as well as a packet of sliced chorizo so a jambalaya should be good to use up those ingredients plus utilise the mountain of rice my husband says I'm not to buy again. In his defence, I made the risotto last night with said rice as I'd ran out of aborino and it was that stodgy it worked fine.

That basically takes us to Friday however I might freeze some of these meals if I get the chance to actually make them!

Lunch today was a pre cooked baked potato with a tablespoon of beans someone had left, tuna Mayo and cheese. I was so full after!

rtandon27

We were away for a mini-break at the end of last week, and since I've not been in any mood to meal plan or shop! We've spent our weekend resting and in the great outdoors instead!

So no meal plan means we've been using up bits and pieces from the freezer - successful reverse meals, even if not 'planned'…

Sunday's freezer dive produced two pork steaks, mash & braised red cabbage - OH pan cooked the steaks in a mustard onion gravy, while I garnered up enough energy to defrost and warm the veg in the microwave.

Monday's dinner falafel wraps with fresh shredded veg from the fridge, falafel from the bottom of the freezer meat drawer (not sure how they got there) and the last pack of long-life houmous from the stores.

Today we had chicken sausages with shredded cooked veg in pita pockets. Chicken sausages were a yellow sticker deal from the freezer, pitas had been lurking in there for a while & cooked veg was what was left in the fridge - some chinese lettuce, an onion, the last two mushrooms. Tasty buty not too filling, so we are contemplating microwave oatmeal mug cake for afters!

I've done a lazy plan for the next five days with broad themes based on what's in the freezer - chicken, mince, faskeaway pizza, roast something, soup & toasties - we'll see if I'm inspired at all by a walk round the grocery store tomorrow to stock up our empty fridge.

Suffolk_lass

We have returned from hols to find the door of the FF in the toolshed was open (drawer not pushed fully home) while DS was house-sitting. Almost as upsetting as the food waste (I posted on my diary so not listing here again) is the electricity it has used, trying to keep up. I had to shop as we were out of salad and veg but also, to restock a few things - quite a few! Fortunately DH is so relaxed about what he will eat, we had the RM pizza DS left in the fridge, then chicken thighs, jacket potato and salad (all left for him, albeit the chicken was still frozen). The salad included my cut and come again greens from the window box in the greenhouse.

Last night, the last of the jar of pesto I left him (untouched), slackened with good olive oil, and stirred through penne, left-over cauliflower and broccoli steamed and topped with grated sharp cheddar and black pepper. Yum!

Asparagus is coming so I will be picking today too!