Reverse Meal Planning

Primrose

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! 

I guess you have to assess the value of the food left in the freezer versus the cost od running it while you,re away and work out which is the cheaper!

EssexHebridean

Oh definitely wouldn’t have been discarding anything Primrose - we’d have sucked up the cost of running it while away had it come to it, however, no need as I did indeed have a further rummage about this morning and managed to get the entire remaining contents of freezer 2 across into 1! We’ve actually created a fraction more space this evening as the other half of the ice cream we made yesterday got eaten! 

joedenise

Been away for the weekend so did a freezer dive to find something for lunch and dinner today!

Lunch will be some macaroni cheese and dinner we'll have steak with new potatoes, mushrooms & onions.  

Just need to have a look to see what I can find for tomorrow now although will need to do a bit of shopping as run most things down/out before we went away!

Had another look in the freezers and have decided on butter chicken for dinner tomorrow night and pizza for lunch.  

EssexHebridean

Freezer 1 is now packed to the rafters after MrEH made lunch rolls yesterday. I had been thinking about freezing the remainder of my bottle of milk but I don't think there is even the slimmest of chances that will work now. I'll have a further fiddle about this evening and just see... 

This evening will be curried parsnip soup. I was originally going to use the black bean soup but realised that the parsnip was in a far larger tub so made more sense to extract that from the freezer instead! I've not currently got any bread to have with it so I might either heat a sachet of ready prepared grain mix to have alongside, or cook some pasta and stir through to add a bit of bulk and some carbs. I've also got some mushrooms that need using so I'll probably cook those off in butter and garlic to sprinkle over the top. 

I'm really pleased with how well we've done using things up ahead of going away - the fridge looks crazily sparse! 

Suffolk_lass

Cooked a ragu yesterday morning, intending making a couple of pasta bakes but ran out of time so had some last night with linguine. The pasta and sauce don't stick together quite so well so DH grated some cheese to have on top - which meant I had cooked too much. 

I had to go and collect a ticket after University Challenge and returned to find DH having a third helping and polishing it off!!

MissRikkiC

3 portions @Suffolk_lass if must have been good! 

We used up, spring onions, lettuce, spinach, carrots and a red pepper to make a stir fry with the sauce being scraps from 2 1kg tubs of peanut butter and half a lime! It used up 2 red chilis and was served with egg noodles which I did but specifically to use up the other ingredients in the meal. It was absolutely delicious!

EssexHebridean

My fridge is now bare! (Apart from the usual jars/bottles of stuff, an unopened block of cheddar, an unopened block of halloumi and the last of MrEH's milk) - and I DID manage to get my milk in to the freezer as well which I'm pleased about as it was three quarters of a 2 pint bottle so more than I wanted to waste!  And that is now it for me on the reverse planning until we're back from holiday! 

rtandon27

@EssexHebridean - well done on operation 'get it frozen'!

ATM our freezer is stuffed to the gills with recipe ingredients and meals ready for those days when time is challenged. I'd be hard pressed to get anything in there, any excess milk would have be drunk - LOL

Last night was a case of making inroads into OH's bargainous mountain of fish fillets.  Sticking to the (reverse) meal plan, we had mediterranean roast vegetables from our fridge stores, sesame potato wedges made from the larder stores & crumbed basa fillets from the freezer. He had already prepped the veg ready for roasting when I got home late, or I'd have given in to the freezer meals after a challenging 2.5 hour commute back home from the big smoke!

At home today not working (as opposed to working from home) so will give some thought to a slow cooker meal - chicken and veg of some sort - am craving rice, so this might be the driving force! Off to rummage through the freezer and see what it yields...

joedenise

We were due to go away in our motorhome this afternoon but DH decided we'd leave it until tomorrow and drive straight to the port rather than overnighting somewhere on the way so needed to find a dinner for tonight (we had planned to eat in a pub) so after a freezer dive I lifted some white fish, smoked haddock and salmon and will be making a fish pie, will probably do it with pasta rather than a conventional one with potato on the top as would like to take some potatoes with us for the first night's dinner in case we don't get to the shops immediately after arrival in France.

zafiro1984

EssexHebridean said:

My fridge is now bare! 

Well done, I'm still working on mine