Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

Morning all - I believe the phrase is “let the festive reverse planning with the leftovers commence!” 

I did the usual yesterday with our turkey (4.7kg for ours) - carved off the remaining breast from one side to leave with Mum (she and I both had the white meat with lunch) and the rest of the carcass came home with us and is now residing in our fridge ready for dealing with. Today will be leftovers - my lunch will undoubtedly be a Christmas dinner sandwich - always a highlight! I may well turn some of the sprouts and shallots, along with some red cabbage and some carrot into a winter coleslaw as that will be a nice addition and a good way of packing in some extra veg. No actual cooking gets done on Boxing Day though - the most that will happen will be shoving bits in the oven later. 

I will have parsnips to blanch and freeze at some stage - I bought 3 bags. It’ll have to wait until there is freezer space though! 

rtandon27

EssexHebridean said:

...“let the festive reverse planning with the leftovers commence!”...  

Haha - EH, never a truer word was said!

We havn't done a traditional Christmas meal for years, as Canadian Thanksgiving is turkey time for us - we do however have a fridge full of leftovers from our Christmas day Charcuiterie Smorgasbord & will be using all the bits and pieces up over the next week or so.  I may have overbought cheese for our Smorgasbord & we also rescued a Christmas Eve box of bounty from our 0li0 friend as she had 20 boxes of over 20 items each to get out of her living room & kitchen before she could start her own celebrations

Brunch this morning was a North American style roadside-diner special.  Grilled ham & cheese sandwiches with onion & sausage gravy & bottomless coffee on the side.  The sandwiches were quite poncy with grainy mustard, smoked cheese, peppery salami & ham, dipped in beaten egg and fried like eggy bread, with additional melted cheddar on top just before serving.  Mine was smothered in gravy, but OH, less of a fan, had a few spoonfuls on the side that he carefully dipped bites into before consuming.  Nothing like stick to your ribs food for Boxing Day!

Now to have a look through Tagine & Tapenade recipes as the plethora of olives needs to be used up!
 

Suffolk_lass

We were out all day Boxing Day so most of the food mountain remains to be processed. I've got to take DH out, to drop him off for the day but that and bread-making (ready for turkey sangers) are on the list for today, along with turkey stock making!!

joedenise

No LOs for us so will be using foods from fridge, freezer and pantry.

Today's dinner will be a Moroccan inspired chickpea stew with couscous.

I've got some cod fillets out of the freezer for dinner tomorrow night. Will probably have that with some HM chips and peas.

rtandon27

Dinner last night was vegetable tikka masala with rice for me and mushroom stroganoff with rice for OH - we baked a couple of chicken breasts liberated from the freezer, one to go with each of our meals.  Low. effort and tasty, using up the last of the 0li0 xmas eve haul.

Brunch this morning was a spanish style omelette with onions, peppers, and the last of the chorizo and the chili cheddar from the xmas charcuterie board.

Tonight's dinner, recipe courtesy of t'internet, mince pork, gorgonzola & mascarpone sauce with spaghetti pasta.  An interesting combination of flavours and very rich & tasty.  Only a small Italian-size portion was needed & we have rounded off the meal with some honeydew melon.

We are making our way through the cheese that needs to be finished & I'm staying resolutely away from the scales until it has been decluttered!

joedenise

DH has a hole in one of his teeth but has managed to get a dentist appointment this morning so means I need to rejig the menu a bit so it will be soft foods for breakfast and lunch!  

Will do cheese omelettes for breakfast and baked stuffed peppers for lunch.  Have got some chicken thighs out for tonight but not sure what I'm going to do with them yet!  Was originally thinking of doing Fakeaway KFC but will see if that will be too hard for DH to eat if he's had a filling; or I may turn it into a curry with some rice instead as that will be fairly easy to eat!

Suffolk_lass

The last of the cold turkey went to a plate of salad with pickles and a baked potato last night. Good, simple fare and the preamble to our post new year dietary reset. I am looking forward to it, to be honest. All the sweet stuff is starting to play havoc with my skin

joedenise

Decided on a butter chicken for dinner in the end!

Suffolk_lass

Ooh lovely @joedenise, how is Mr JD's mouth?

We used up the last of the chipolatas and streaky bacon. with mash and steamed veg. I need a few more for tomorrow's visitors and must get a wiggle on

rtandon27

Last night's dinner was a mash up of 'fakeaways' - we started with bao buns and gyoza from the freezer.  OH then proceeded to eat yellow-stickered mini pork pies and a scotch egg that jumped into the shopping basket while we were picking up milk and fruit from the store.  The remainder of my dinner was a reheated frozen lunch pack-up of Goan chicken curry, steamed rice and green veg.  It was just a bit too strongly scented for eating at work, so had been languishing in the freezer.

Breakfast this morning was a piece of seeded toast, a bit more of the Christmas cheese & some sliced ham.  We are headed out shortly for brunch/lunch at a local Turkish café that recently opened up in town - a lovely festive treat for us both!