Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

DH is in hospital for a couple of days for an op so the mean plan has gone to pot!  I'll be using up what I can and as quite a few of the things on the plan were for things from the freezer they can stay there for the moment and I'll be having things like egg and chips,  His op is today and he should be home tomorrow so I'm planning on making a curry today with some dried soya beans I soaked overnight and will reheat easily for dinner tomorrow night with some rice.

Will then get back to the menu plan again!

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

DH is in hospital for a couple of days for an op so the mean plan has gone to pot!  I'll be using up what I can and as quite a few of the things on the plan were for things from the freezer they can stay there for the moment and I'll be having things like egg and chips,  His op is today and he should be home tomorrow so I'm planning on making a curry today with some dried soya beans I soaked overnight and will reheat easily for dinner tomorrow night with some rice.

Will then get back to the menu plan again!

Sorry to hear Mr JD is in hospital @joedenise. Knowing how organised you are I cannot believe this was a planned thing. You and he are in my thoughts and my best wishes for a speedy recovery/recuperation and return to normal. I resort to beans on toast and soup, along with cereal, like porridge, when anything like this happens that impacts me.

I may have to include egg and chips on this week's meal plan now. Cauliflower and pasta tonight I think, as I have an online study group. We had chicken pie to polish off the small chicken last night, with DS here and with an appetite that has returned to the teenager levels

joedenise

Thank you for your kind words.  It was a planned op but they changed the goalposts at the last minute!!!  Originally told he'd have his pre op this week and then the op next week and also that it would probably be op in the morning and home the same night.

Last Thursday lunchtime he got a call to say his pre op was still yesterday as planned but to bring an overnight bag as they would be operating today.  We still assumed it would be op this morning and home tonight but at the pre op it turns out that he will need to stay at least until tomorrow so it's left things a bit up in the air.

He called me this morning and said he'd been told he was first on the list and as the morning wore on it became obvious that this wasn't the case!  Another call around 11.30 and it was going to be another hour before he went down, an hour with the anaesthetist before the op (he's having an op under spinal block).  He's going to call me once he's back on the ward and awake enough to talk.

Suffolk_lass

Oh goodness, we had similar rescheduling over a six month period from last November when Mr SL detached a retina. He ignored it for a day or two until mentioning it to me and then once we got him in to see the optician it all happened very fast. The receptionist didn't realise how urgent it was initially, then, presumably when the man saw his appointments for the day, they rang to say come earlier, then in for a hospital consult, operated on next morning, that procedure failed over the next few weeks but he was fobbed off by the registrar and triage nurse, in again after Christmas to have a more invasive procedure, then laser, then removal of previous, then cataract surgery.

In each instance, he was phoned to ask if he could come immediately or the next day as other people cancelled. We were happy to help with this but it did leave all plans on hold and meal planning was a bit of a nightmare. And both of us catching Covid that lasted over two weeks, when I caught it from Auntie who had been at a family gathering over new year and kindly passed it on when I went there while his second op was underway. Ironically to save fuel! While good for the waistline, less so for food waste.

I hope Mr JD's is more straightforward.

I added smoked streaky bacon to cauliflower cheese last night. That's a keeper. The rest of the pack will go in a tagliatelle carbonara tonight. We have an afternoon on hedge pruning so it will need to be something straightforward

rtandon27

Mmmm - SL - bacon with everything - I love your style!

EssexHebridean

Bacon in cauli cheese - or indeed macaroni cheese - has been a firm favourite in our household for a good while. Chunks of cooked black pudding work similarly well, I've found. 

JoeDenise - stressful times for you I'm sure regardless of the planned nature of things, to an extent at least. I hope all went well and he makes it home today as hoped. 

I stripped the remaining lamb off the bone last night - half was used to go with the traditional tuesday night staple of couscous and the other half immediately got boxed and transferred to the freezer. Whilst at the freezer I also got out the spicy ragu for this evening - we'll have that with rice I think. Tonight I need to remember to grab the meatballs out - those were frozen in their original packaging and as that is the final portion of them that will now free up a bit of space - with luck enough that I can rearrange things a bit and then decant some of my current 4 pint bottle of milk to extend its life.

Need to start giving thought to next week's meal plan - my challenge being to ensure that it focuses on stuff we have in already in terms of main components. I'm already thinking that sunday dinner might well end up being  a venison casserole or perhaps even suet-crust topped pie using the diced venison and bacon chunks I got at the farmers market. I reckon combining the two could mean that will stretch to two meals with sufficient veg added, too. That would possibly also mean I can use up the bottle of slightly uninteresting beer that's been lurking in the fridge for several years - it's Hobgoblin, so not really that grim, but not anything that either of us will drink voluntarily if there are any better offerings available!  

joedenise

DH will be coming home today but is currently waiting for blood test results!  He had a blood test this morning and results came back and the nurse who sent them didn't ask for all the necessary tests so he ended up having another blood test this afternoon about 3pm so once those results are back he can come home!  Looks like it's going to be visiting time by the time that happens at this rate (6pm-8pm).  Still if it is as late as that he'll get dinner and then he isn't going to want the curry and rice I've made ready for tonight!  If that's the case we'll have it for dinner tomorrow night instead!

Ellie79

Hello! I'm hoping to join in. Need to really knuckle down and sort our ridiculous food bill and my equally ridiculous hoarding of food. So here I am. Seeing this as a creative challenge rather than as a massive bill has needed paying and I'm skint for the next few months! Reverse meal planning I do to some extent but I have got to willfully engage now. 

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, do please join in @Ellie79, the more the merrier. 

I have just updated the meal plan for October, crossing through those completed and setting out the rest of the month and on into November.

I have at least 4 days of soup made from my courgettes stash (chopped and frozen in soup-batch sized bags). I do love it when the space emerges in the freezer and by rearranging so there is a bit more air flow and less space (but there if I need it!) I don't get my Suffolk Siege mentality triggered. We will have fish fingers tonight, with oven chips and peas, as we have a busy afternoon ahead and our bee study group this evening. Tomorrow was going to be Baked potatoes but DH reminded me he is away on Saturday so I might swap these and we can have the two portions of hm curry I froze early this year instead. I need to go and rummage in the chest freezer for this and a piece of meat for Sunday. The range (electric aga) is staying off until 1st November, so something smallish is good. It will still do Monday too.

Last night, due to a shortage of milk, I opened a small pot of Philly with garlic and herbs (£1.25 on offer), slackened it with some of the pasta water, and poured it over the crispy smoked streaky bacon and tagliatelle. What a cheat!

Ellie79

Thank you @Suffolk_lass. Glad to be here! Using up mushrooms today to make a vat of soup. About to go raid the freezer, I think that jacket potatoes will be happening but what we have to go with them is unclear. Always a tin of tuna around. Now, I fully intend to make pastry over the weekend to use up a tin of corned beef and some potatoes. Should do us a picky type tea on Saturday night. Also discovered some paneer in the freezer, tomorrow night shall be a chilli paneer type curry. Plenty of rice here too. I even have some yoghurt to make up some garlic flatbread. Small steps but thats how the bigger stuff happens!