Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

Last night a quick dinner was needed after a bit of volunteering. Freezer dive yielded sausage, chickpea, spinach and pasta casserole which we had with salvaged wedges from disaster dinner the other night. After being zapped, they softened up nicely so no food waste there!

Tonight will be pizza cobbled together from freezer ingredients but I'm not ready to face potatoes of any kind, so perhaps some oven roasted broccoli or courgettes might make a nice side.

Soontobeoap

I want to make it to Sunday without spending more on food. I have run out of potatos and veg apart from a few peas. A a quick root around the freezer has found a double portion of hm savoury mince (with veg) to have with rice tomorrow. 6 fishfingers for us to have with beans and oven chips on Thursday, 2 chicken breasts for the next 2 days, Friday with egg noodles in a chow mein type dish and Saturday with sweet and sour sauce and hm egg fried rice. June budget will start on Sunday. 

MissRikkiC

You’ve got this @Soontobeoap

Tonight hub was back late so he had a freezer meal but on account of him taking the other for lunch yesterday, I had to make something separate. 

I was defrosting some chicken for a casserole tomorrow so pinched half the portion and cooked it up along with a tub of roasted veg that was cooked and frozen before we went on holiday a few weeks ago do It wasn’t chucked away. That with a squeeze of bbq sauce and some added bendy fridge veg, i packed it into as many pittas as I could find from the freezer and enjoyed it very much! 

We’re making the veg box from last week last us until next week (so a fortnight from a large Riverford box) and we have a lot of it left on account of eating from the freezer last week. We have meals planned but my goodness we are short on some store cupboard items! 

zafiro1984

I did a meal plan for the week, starting on Sunday, having cleared out the fridge. I'm keeping a note of LO perishables in the fridge and adjusting the daily meal plans accordingly. That's the plan...

To nights meal was flan using a piece of LO gammon, with coleslaw and crisps, followed by rhubarb and orange crumble with cream
The fridge now has 2 pieces of LO flan which will be lunch tomorrow. 3 egg whites to be made into meringues for tomorrow evening. I have some LO chocolate sauce from Monday  which can be used with the meringues.

That leaves, 4 anya potatoes from Sunday, some unused shortcrust pastry from the flan, and cream - which I don't really count as a LO.  
It will be interesting to see where this takes me.

EssexHebridean

Hey all - Soontobe that sounds all very under control there and great use of existing stuff to stretch the budget to the end of the month! 

MissRC I feel you on the shortage of some storecupboard stuff. We're mindful of wanting to eat through the stores a bit ahead of moving, but probably a bit too mindful allowing that we nearly ran out of bread flour at the weekend! (No - we're not that close to moving and in reality that was just an oversight on MrEH's part as he keeps track of the bread supply levels!) 

Zafiro that's what I need to get back to with fridge perishables - I always used to note those ahead of any other sort of planning to make sure I could work them into my plan. 

All under control and very reverse planned here at the moment. I am determined that freezer 2 is being emptied and defrosted/turned off so we've been noshing through freezer stuff as fast as possible this week. Inevitably some of the stuff I'm using up will need restocking - we're nearly out of fish for example - but I'm hopeful that will be able to fit into freezer 1 when needed! 

Tonight is the old favourite thai inspired fish stew again - using a white fish fillet, the last smoked fish filet and a third of the bag of mixed seafood, plus the sauce base for it that I froze half of a batch cook the other week. That'll be with rice.  Last night was pasta to use up a splash of cream, some veg that was needing used and some bacon from the pack I bought last week - there is still another meals worth of bacon in the pack so that has gone to the freezer. Tomorrow will be the last two portions of black bean soup I think which I'm thoroughly looking forward to!

I need to start thinking about the weekend's meals as well - I'll be aiming to have either curried parsnip or pea & ham soup at some stage as we have a LOT of soup in the freezers at the moment! the lamb shoulder I bought at the farmer's market will also get cooked I think. 

zafiro1984

EssexH.. Thai inspired fish stew, I like the sound of that. It sounds perfect for the few bits and bobs of frozen fish in the freezer.

Lots of good ideas on here at the moment to stretch the budget - many thanks

Lunch - Today was the last of the HM pate from the freezer, apples for me and muffins for DH
Tea - Some cooked mince with the addition of mushrooms and a bit of leek and chilli from the fridge to make it stretch further, covered with the LO pastry in the fridge.
Puddings, 3 x LO egg whites from the day before plus an extra egg white went to make coffee meringues, covered with the choc sauce from Monday and a bit of double cream. 

current left overs are.. 1 egg yolk, meringues, and the 2 pieces of flan from Monday. I need to tweak tomorrows plan slightly to help use things up.

EssexHebridean

Mmmm....meringues - yum! the fish stew would work really well as a use-up for various different bits of fish/seafood I reckon - I'm never too precious about what goes in! 

I was overly confident when I said things were going swimmingly as I forgot to get the soup out for tonight - idiot!! So I'll now need to decide whether to switch in an alternative (possibly couscous?) or get a different soup out to microwave defrost when I get home this evening. Still under control, just a bit less so than is ideal! 

Suffolk_lass

I went rummaging in the indoor freezer this morning and pulled out a pack of two SM steak burgers that we can have tonight with salad (and potato salad I will make, with added green chilli shreds). We are still very busy with bees so no time for anything more complicated at the moment

zafiro1984

Yesterday
LO flan used, plus remainder of meringues. I used the egg yolk in a rice pudding for pudding last night. So no left overs in the fridge - at the moment 

Lunch will be something to do with eggs and toast
I'm still trying to use everything I've precooked and frozen in the effort to make more freezer space so I'm about to freezer dive to find something that can be defrosted and possibly microwaved. Now the sun is out I rather fancy a little or no effort day  

EssexHebridean

Yesterday used a tub of pea & ham soup from the freezer, a tub of curry from the freezer, the last two pitta breads (from the freezer) and a tub of cooked yellow split peas (also, yes, you’ve guessed it!) I also extracted a pack of pork mince and a pack of beef mince ready for making burgers, and some slices of black, white and fruit pudding, sausages and the remainder of the pack of bacon from a week ago so an appreciable amount of space was gained! 

I’m not absolutely certain we will get away with getting freezer two switched off ahead of going away although I shall be giving it my best shot. MrEH needs to make rolls so we have a few days worth ready for when we return - and those of course will take up space. I’ll have another rummage later and see where I think we’re at.  allowing that it is so close to empty though it will be exceptionally annoying if we can’t get away with emptying it!