Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

I think I would be asking a friend to pop the Stornaway treasure in their freezer to ensure it all goes well @EssexHebridean. If you are taking your existing white goods they will need to stand for several hours to settle after moving them into position. SO many things to sort out before moving!

Suffolk_lass

We had a pasta bake, using the leftover pasta sauce, stirred through freshly cooked penne and topped with a cheese sauce, and in the dual oven and grill for 25 minutes to ensure the pasta sauce was heated. I might have slightly over-tipped lentils in the sauce (spot the mince! as DH asked if we were eating any meat this month).

I think we will eat light tonight, and have some cooked beef joint (joint 2 of 4) out to make sandwiches for lunch. It was end-dated when I bought it so I might suggest we mince the rest and I'll make a spicy mince topped with sliced potatoes. Or just soup and a snack. I made the bread on Friday so today's the last day to have it untoasted, even if it is a sourdough loaf.

Primrose

We are torn at the moment between trying to use up older freezer contents and enjoying fresh tomstoes and a French beans while we have the opportunity.  People who grow their own veg always seem to be faced with this dilemma every harvest time and we never seem to get the balance quite right
And as we,re getting older and everything becomes more of a physical  effort we,re finding it sensible to devote more of our freezer space to batch cooked meals to reduce effort.  But of course you can't throw all the other stored stuff out so it,s a slow process gradually using it up and the onslaught of freshly harvested beans isn  helping.  It,s probabky a blessing that our bumper courgette & cucumber harvest is incapable of being satisfactorily frozen!

Suffolk_lass

I chop and freeze courgettes (3 at a time) into bags ready to add to winter soups. I could chop and add the onions and carrots too but frozen chopped carrots that are not blanched have a slightly chewy texture (it doesn't matter in soup because I liquidise the cooked mix) so I keep them separately chopped and frozen when I have too many (TGTG bags might be the reason!). I have onions plaited at the moment but may freeze some when there is less pressure. It makes my regular soup making very straightforward as they go in from frozen.

My surplus cucumbers are going to the little girls next door as I grow the lunchbox sized ones.

It is beans here. I picked three seed-trays full yesterday so we had leftovers with a huge pile of plain steamed runner beans, with a dob of butter, salt and pepper and a small sprinkle of grated cheese. I'm going to follow @foxgloves advice and blanch them before bagging and freezing the surplus.

I also freeze tomatoes then cook them in batches and liquidise and jar them when hot to store for winter passata. This one is cheaper than freezing!

EssexHebridean

Suffolk_lass said:

I think I would be asking a friend to pop the Stornaway treasure in their freezer to ensure it all goes well @EssexHebridean. If you are taking your existing white goods they will need to stand for several hours to settle after moving them into position. SO many things to sort out before moving!

Ahhh - handily we're not - we're buying the big American style fridge freezer that is already at the new house from the sellers, so we'll just ask them to leave that switched on. We are taking our second freezer with us - that will go into place but not be switched on until we decide whether we need to use it or not. the stornoway puddings will stay frozen for several hours once they are packed into the bottom of our cold box with the gel-type ice packs and plenty of newspaper layered on top under the lid. 

I found courgettes can be very satisfactorily frozen if they are roasted first - I then loose-froze on sheets of baking parchment, tipped the frozen chunks into bags and could then dip in as needed to add to stews, pasta sauces etc. 

I actually added to my freezer yesterday as I batch cooked spicy ragu which will work well with either pasta or rice. That also used up the remainder of a bottle of chipotle sauce which we were given FOC at the food show a lot of years ago - some of it got used in a meal last week, and the rest was just the right amount of "spicy" for a big pot of ragu. The thrifty addition of red lentils also meant that a double portion of mince will now feed us for rather a lot more meals than might have been expected.

Meals are roughly planned for the week here - 
Today: Spicy ragu with rice
Tuesday: Couscous salad with halloumi and roasted veg 
Wednesday: Ham, mushroom and cheese omelettes (Ham from the freezer)
Thursday: sausage and mushroom risotto with wild garlic pesto (sausages and pesto from the freezer)

Friday is still open to consideration but may end up being a repeat of last week's super-quick curry which was delicious! 

rtandon27

EH - that wild garlic pesto sounds lovely, we've not had any since stopping our organic veg box over a year ago - not something that pops up in our very boring supermarket veg aisles

Yesterday's reverse planning success was a lovely dinner of parsnip & ginger soup, which if I remember correctly, @Fortune_Smiles recommended yonks ago!  We used up some of the self-seeded parsnips from the garden which no matter how had I try to eradicate (two years later), keep showing up, in the veg bed, in the grass and in the border on the other side of the garden.  I've been pulling them up as I find them, and if a decent size, peeling then chunking and popping them into the freezer.  There is still another pound or two that we will work our way through

The former residents of our 'new to us' house, pulled up a lovely patio area and green house and slapped in a very poorly planned & down right ugly veggie plot - LOL.  Oh well - this adds to the fun of redesigning it to my taste! (OH does not like gardening so it is entirely down to me!)

Back to the topic of meal planning...soup also used some of our recently made chicken bone broth & we accompanied the very tasty soup with some grilled cheese on the remainder of last week's sourdough loaf.  It is definitely a keeper of a recipe, as OH who is not at all a parsnip fan, downed every last drop and even said he'd have happily eaten more.

Our reverse plan for the first part of this week involves what's still lurking in the fridge/freezer/cupboard...

• Monday - spicy stir-fried tofu with pak-choi on jasmine rice
• Tuesday - fish finger bhorta - a nigella recipe - with some shelf-stable naan from the store-cupboard
• Wednesday - Leek, mushroom & chicken pie - an old favorite we've not had in ages, to make short work of some leeks kept in vases on the window sill that have grown an inch a day since we picked them up last week

OH will be kept busy as all three days involve planning and prepping so that dinner is ready as soon as I arrive home famished from the long commute.

On Wednesday we'll be picking up a very local veg box from a recently discovered farm with a lovely bio-diverse ethos.  We've committed to their large box every two weeks for 10 boxes which will take us into May/June of next year depending on any time spent away.  I'm curious as to what we will get, in keeping with the seasons, and am mindful that it may need to be topped up with veg from either the greengrocer or supermarket.  Also hopeful that it will produce oddities that will involve a bit of experimentation adding fun to my meal planning/recipe hunting and interest to OH's homemaking routine.

Tentatively planned for the rest of the week & subject to last minute change (LOL - in keeping with the reverse planning theme)

• Thursday - sausage and pineapple salsa flatbreads from Waitflower's most recent free paper - using up some mystery pork sausages from the freezer.
• Friday - pan cooked pizza - again from the same free paper - not sure what the toppings will be
• Saturday - our repeat favourite - pork shoulder steaks with red currant gravy, kale colcannon & carrots
• Sunday - something soupy made with homemade stock

Lunches eaten together this week will be using up various bits and pieces and the ones apart are a 'fend for yourself' creative activity

EssexHebridean

We're lucky with the wild garlic - a patch of woodland near us has a healthy amount of it growing there these days - we always try and make sure we harvest some each spring! 

I really do wish we had a local seasonal veg box option - I'm not in the least bit fussed about "organic" but local would be something I could firmly get behind. I'll be interested to hear how you get on with yours - and yes, the "oddities" are a definitely one of the best things about a veg box aren't they! 

rtandon27

Tuesday's reverse planned dinner was bumped in favour of leftovers from a leaving do I'd organised at work.  Antipasti for dinner is a rare mid-week treat - could have done with a baguette but crackers sufficed. OH was more than pleased not to be cooking and happily polished off 1/2 bottle of left-over red. Funny thing is I've never heard him complain about liquid leftovers.

Our Tursday dinner will now be had this evening & we'll keep watching the triffid leeks growing on the windowsill instead of being transformed into a pie!

Suffolk_lass

We had Fish Fingers, chips, peas and runner beans for supper. I must say those Sainsbugs TTD cod fingers are a total treat. The treat was because having sat with my ankle elevated for most of the day, I omitted to get anything straightforward out of the freezer in time. I have sausages out for tonight in the certain knowledge that DH will cook. I'm hoping I can walk the dog as a bit less hobbling after two days just sitting!

joedenise

Last of the Sunday roast chicken tonight.  Just going to make a curry sauce from pantry ingredients and quickly stir the chopped up meat through it so it doesn't go stringy!  DH always moans it's stringy if it's actually cooked in the sauce.  Hopefully that will work better.