Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Welcome to the gang Ellie79! Some of us here love a picky tea so you'll fit right in!  (And thank you for reminding me that I too have yogurt that needs using and garlic flatbreads are the perfect thing!) 

SL we do that a lot for a pasta sauce, except using a supermarket value range soft cheese instead. Very tasty. 

Managed to cook pasta to go with the spicy ragu last night, which means this evenings meatballs will come with rice and the sauce will be a chilli style one I think. In fact I may even break open a tin of kidney beans to throw in for the full vibe.

I'm thinking sausage, egg and chips tomorrow - and if so then it will involve using the air fryer for the sausages and the chips - cook the sausages through first, throw the chips in after, then shove the sausages back in for the last 5 minutes to heat back through while the eggs cook. On the face of it you wouldn't think it's cheaper, but not having to heat the oven for the chips means that in spite of a slightly longer cooking time, it definitely is. 

Hope your DH got home OK Joedenise and is now recuperating well. 

joedenise

Thanks EH, DH is now home and recuperating although he's struggling with keeping warm although that seems a bit better now than this morning.  He's got a blanket nearby to cover himself up if he feels cold again but he's OK at the moment.  Biggest problem seems to be the bruising around the groin area which means the only trousers he can wear at the PJ bottoms he bought to go into hospital!  All his trousers are a bit too stiff around that area at the moment!

I made us stuffed peppers for lunch.  Had planned on stuffing them with herby couscous and chopped bits from the fridge but when I went to make the couscous the tub was empty and I hadn't bought a new bag (that is now on the shopping list for tomorrow!).  Was really glad I cooked a whole pack of basmati and wild rice yesterday and portioned it up into the freezer, so just grabbed a bag out and defrosted it in the microwave before reheating to stuff the peppers.  Very tasty it was too.

I really need to redo my freezer inventory as I'm fairly sure some things have been used but not crossed off and new stuff put in and not added to the lists!

Suffolk_lass

I've been looking at getting some proper old style grey sweat pants (the thick "Rocky" film style ones that SS wore) with the knitted ankle cuffs and elastic and drawstring waist. I wonder if your DH might be little warmer in something similar @joedenise? M&S have some but a bit pricey.

Our plans went to pot last night so the freezer did not deplete, except by a loaf of wheatgerm bread. It was Beans on toast as we did not finish what we were doing until 8pm. Better than a takeaway with tabasco and Worcestershire sauce added to the beans!

rtandon27

Suffolk_lass said:

I've been looking at getting some proper old style grey sweat pants (the thick "Rocky" film style ones that SS wore) with the knitted ankle cuffs and elastic and drawstring waist. I wonder if your DH might be little warmer in something similar @joedenise? M&S have some but a bit pricey...

JD - if you have access to a large Mr. S or Asba, they both have those old style sweats in stock, as we were in both looking to see if there were suitable jeans for my OH - the last pair we ordered online from a more 'spensive store had the same code as his beloved pair, but were not at all the same mateerial!

Our reverse-engineered meal plan went to pot this week, due to trains out of the big smoke being a mess both Mon & Tues - this meant we popped into Mr. Als for quicky bits & ended up with a reduced ready cooked chicken to boot.  Said chicken has already done us 2 meals and will do us another one tonight.  We also have leftovers in the fridge from Sun & Mon, so tonight will be off the plan as well with all of those being cobbled into one meal!

joedenise

Thank you both but DH won't wear sweat pants - he hates them.  Fortunately he's feeling much warmer today and hasn't even needed the blanket.  

I buy my bacon bits from Home Bargains - quite often they are more like bacon chops and anything else.  The last pack I bought had 4 bacon chops, 4 rashers of bacon and a few bits.  So out of that we had 2 meals of bacon chops, a lunch with the rashers and the bits went into a quiche.  Not bad for less than £1.50!

joedenise

We have LO lamb leg from yesterday so going to turn that into a lamb and butterbean tagine (the recipe calls for chickpeas but I haven't got any tinned ones and didn't soak any overnight so butterbeans will do instead!).  Everything else is store cupboard things.  It's not a recipe I've tried before but can't see any reason for it to be much different to the tagine I normally make.  Will serve it with couscous.

EssexHebridean

Well we have been on FIRE with reverse planning over the weekend! 

The TGTG bag from Al's informed the meal plan in the end - and I reckon we got extremely good value from our £3.30 as well.
- Lunch on Friday for me was a big bowl of salad
- Lunch on saturday for both of us - more big bowls of salad! 
- The tub of baby chestnut mushrooms got thrown into yesterday's rather lovely autumn venison stew
- Brocolli & cauliflower floret mix was steamed and used in a pasta bake
- Tenderstem broccoli was steamed, some thrown in the pasta bake, some eaten with lunch yesterday, and some has been open frozen and is now bagged up in the freezer.
- The four little "chocolate pot" things were used for pudding after a couple of meals - they were very tasty but I suspect we will not be buying them at full price! 

I can't feel totally smug as I have just realised I have taken my eye off the ball around the two punnets of strawberries - those will need investigating this evening to see if they are still OK. I suspect some of the leftover salad will also end up in the compost bin - there is a limit to how much salad I want to eat at this time of year! 

So lunch yesterday involved the diced venison we got at the farmer's market last weekend - thrown into the slow cooker along with the mushrooms, half the pack of bacon bits (also FM), an onion, the bottle of uninteresting beer that's been in the fridge since a pal of MrEH's bought it for him ages ago, half a reduced swede, half a bag of reduced baby tatties, a slosh of pontack sauce and the usual-for-a-stew handful each of oatmeal, pearl barley and red lentils, plus a little more liquid. Also threw in a pouch of chestnuts towards the end of the cooking - and my goodness it was tasty! Yesterday's portions were eaten with a suet crust topping, there is another for the freezer, and a final double portion set aside ready for eating later in the week which will probably get the remining tatties added to it. 

While in the cooking vibe, I also used the broc & cauli pack as above to make a couple of double-portions of pasta bake with one of the two packs of tenderstem we got as well. That also used the other half of the pack of bacon bits, and the remainder of a bag of macaroni, all covered in cheese sauce. One of those is also now in the freezer - the other will be eaten this evening and is already covered in grated cheese and breadcrumbs ready for reheating.

Future me will be very content with all that activity!

So meal plan for this week looks like:
M: Pasta bake
T: couscous - probably with halloumi.(Could also end up being eggs - we'll see)
W: black bean soup (freezer) and bread
Th: stew & tatties

Last week's shopping totalled £28 plus pennies - so I am quite content with that as a final week of the month shop. I do have a few bits already on this week's list which come under the heading of re-stocking but needs must - will still be aiming to keep it down in cost and will be building next week's plan around the freezer again. 

Suffolk_lass

I always really like the idea of a tagine and then end up doing something much simpler. I checked with DH this morning and his preference is for cold meat (also leg of lamb) with pickles and a baked potato. Handy, as there are just two baking potatoes left in the store. I might make a slightly weird coleslaw (no carrot) with frozen sweetcorn and peas so we get a few vegetables in on top of the soup we are having for lunch. Tomorrow will either be the leftover stew or some frozen fish, to further reduce the stores.

EssexHebridean

Mmmm....tagine....! And in fact that is an odd coincidence as I did a first pass on an ongoing mealplan for the next few weeks - and as I was doing so having written "Roast lamb shoulder" I actually backtracked and added "could do as tagine" after it! I might even get out my fabulous tagine pot and use to cook it too - who knows!  

Last night's pasta bake was lovely - stuck it in the microwave on combi for 15 minutes and it came out piping hot throughout and with the top (covered in grated cheese and breadcrumbs) beautifully crisp. Added some sweetcorn alongside just to increase the veg quota a little more. 

I'm settling on couscous for tonight, which leaves the eggs free to use on Friday (probably eggs, chips & beans - that's proper "start the weekend" food that is!) - so will do the usual roast veg and halloumi with the couscous (and add halloumi back on to the shopping list!). It still makes me chuckle how the couscous dish that was originally made on the basis of needing very little cooking while we were having the kitchen at the flat replaced has become such a firm and regularly eaten favourite ever since! 

EssexHebridean

I've done it again - honestly, I should just avoid all areas where YS'd bargains might be lurking! T's yesterday afternoon yielded a pack of posh sausages, a loaf of posh bread, a pack of samosas and a pack of marinated chicken thigh pieces, all of which have gone to the freezer, and a pair of banoffee tarts both of which went into us yesterday evening! The YS'd bits came to under £4 total though so it would have been rude to leave them behind...

As a result of needing to shoehorn the new bits into the freezer, the second pasta bake made last week came out and will be eaten this evening. Tomorrow evening will now be jacket potatoes using single portions of stuff from the freezer to top them - I will check this evening what we have and make sure those come out to defrost. Wednesday will be a stir fry I think.

Planning a curry plate for Friday - hopefully I still have some portions of daal frozen so I will dig through and see, and the samosas will come out to join whatever else I come up with as well. That should create a little bit more space! That just leaves Thursday to make a plan for so I will get my thinking cap on about that.