Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

ruby_eskimo said:

...I'll have an entire drawer empty to fill with yummy Christmas stuff...

Oh so very jealous of the Christmas Stuff drawer!

I added a chicken curry to our meal-plan yesterday simply to use up the homemade sauce that had been taking up room in the freezer.  Only 1/2 way a success though, as one container of leftover dinner went back into the freezer for a future work lunch & a bit of leftover chicken curry (minus the chicken) went back in as well.  Cleared room in the soup and sauce drawer though; my future self will thank me both for the curry-in-a-hurry sauce & the lunch pack-up which will save me spending outrageous amounts at Pret for a healthy lunch.

Today we will be using up some H3ck pork sausages that have been languishing in the freezer meat drawer.  A pasta, leek and sausage dish is on the dinner for tonight, again I have a feeling at least one lunch pack-up will be created and put back in the freezer, so not sure how successful we'll be in making room for Christmas sale goodies!

joedenise

I've got most of my Christmas food now.  Just need to get some sausage rolls for DH but will just buy the mini frozen ones and cook a few at a time in the halogen oven.

Made a stew today using up one of the packs of skirt beef from the freezer.  Chopped loads of veg - used 1/3 in the few and made up 2 stew packs for the freezer.  Today's stew I've added a tin of mixed beans to make it go a bit further so think there'll be at least another 4 portions going into the freezer but good for the future.

ruby_eskimo

We could do that @joedenise but need to sort out the cupboard where the cool bag lives first to create the space 😆  Agree @EssexHebridean that the reusable cubes are good because they don't water drinks down but they also aren't as cold as traditional ice cubes.

Another freezer surprise of curry for lunch today with potato wedges.  Fridge is looking bare which is what I want at the moment and looking in the cupboards we have a lot of baked beans in!  

joedenise

joedenise said:

I've got most of my Christmas food now.  Just need to get some sausage rolls for DH but will just buy the mini frozen ones and cook a few at a time in the halogen oven.

Made a stew today using up one of the packs of skirt beef from the freezer.  Chopped loads of veg - used 1/3 in the few and made up 2 stew packs for the freezer.  Today's stew I've added a tin of mixed beans to make it go a bit further so think there'll be at least another 4 portions going into the freezer but good for the future.

There were actually 6 portions left of the stew.  Made leek and potato soup for lunch so there is loads of that leftover so that too Weill be going into the freezer later.

MingVase

Could somebody tell me how to make a sausage/veg traybake please

joedenise

This recipe is similar to one I do but I don't use the apple and just add whatever veg I have available in the fridge:

https://pinchofnom.com/recipes/sausage-traybake/

It's different every time I make it due to the change of veg!

EssexHebridean

I jut chop the veg, throw it all into a pan, drizzle with oil, season as wanted and shove it in until it's cooked! If I'm adding anything like cherry toms then I will add those closer to the end of cooking though otherwise you just end up with them going to a sauce. 

Last night's tea used a tub of spicy ragu from the freezer, and we do now have a meal plan from now almost until christmas. 

I'm planning in a curry night for Friday as that will get rid of more assorted bits from the freezer as well - daal, and a couple of curries, plus I will use pittas in place of naans I think. 

ruby_eskimo

I do the same @EssexHebridean with tray bakes.

The freezer is almost empty ready for the Christmas onslaught.  Lunch today was the last of the sweet potato soup and dinner tonight is a portion of chickpea curry.  That only leaves some leftover passata which is going into a bolognese on Friday and a mystery sauce that I'll defrost tomorrow to work out what on earth it is!

EssexHebridean

I have serious "almost empty freezer" envy Ruby!   

joedenise

EssexHebridean said:

I have serious "almost empty freezer" envy Ruby!   

Me too!  I've got hardly any room in mine at all but trying to use stuff up this week and next so that I can take advantage of the veg wars!  Have already got everything else for Christmas in the freezer - will definitely have a bit of space after that.