Reverse Meal Planning

zafiro1984

A friend from Scotland is coming to stay Thur-Sun so I'm doing a few meals in advance to make life easier. Just making the meat part of a cottage pie and I think I'll do a fruit crumble plus some easy pate as well today - all will end up in the freezer. I just need to plan and get my head around what else I can quickly make.

Tea is yesterday's leftover stew/soup for me and I'll do a scotch egg for DH with my last two sausages. Pudding more of the apple concoction I made yesterday.

WELL that was an expensive disaster. I put the cottage pie meat in the oven attached to the woodburner and forgot about it. It's now cinders and in the rubbish bin - not pleased with myself to say the least.

joedenise

Suffolk_lass said:

joedenise said:

By adding a tin of mixed beans to the LO beef stew I now have 2 x 2 portions of beef and bean stew frozen to have later in the month.

I had planned of making a beef bourguignon but will leave making this until next month as there is now enough beef stew type meals in the freezer to use up first.

Out of curiosity @joedenise, are, or were you a slimming worlder? I notice your meals seem to align well with their ethos (as I recall it).

I have two packs of mince (one beef, one lamb) for this week's cook ahead suppers. Also a small cauliflower and 3 leeks - so that lot will do us at least five meals. I am running a zoom this evening, out tomorrow and DH is Zooming (all evening) on Thursday, so simple food coming over here

Yes.  I've been a member since about 2010.  I stick to plan most of the time but as we go on holiday quite often my weight is up and down like a yoyo but being a target member I don't go every week and if I'm out of target (like I am at the moment) I'll leave it another couple weeks to hopefully get back into target range so I don't have to pay!!!

Have got a decent amount of of chicken left from the weekend so tomorrow night's dinner will be a home made curry sauce with the chicken reheated in it - won't recook it as find it tends to get very stringy if cooked too long!  Will have it with some rice which I'll add some whole spices too so it's got a bit of extra flavour.

Suffolk_lass

I made a ragu with the defrosted minced beef (a pack of 5% fat that I don't know how long I have had, but some evidence of it beginning to deteriorate) and frozen leftover blanched carrots (Christmas veg wars), onion, homemade passata, usual herbs and seasoning, the last of a tube of tomato puree and half of a small bottle of wine that had been in the fridge (opened ), for at least a month - we had some with linguine for late lunch yesterday and I have layered more into two small lasagne dishes. Just the white sauce to make for two light suppers.

I will cook the shepherd's pie shortly to eat at the same time today, as DH is off out to bike club tonight. Got to love stretching a pack like that.

zafiro1984

Think I'm about ready for friend to arrive,
We've been living on bits and bobs the last few days in an effort to tidy up the fridge.
Cheese was turned into cheese on toast, as well as cauliflower cheese. A couple of sausages and a bit of cooking bacon did a meal for DH. I made a waldorf salad for myself using the last of the celery and a wrinkled apple - it was ok but I did add the last of the goat cheese to it.
Pork from the weekend did a not very interesting meal with veg. The 'almost over the top' milk went into scones, some of which we ate the rest was frozen. Green veggies weren't a problem. The outside leaves of the cabbage, cauliflower and a couple of lettuces went to the hens/geese, the insides we ate as normal.
I think I'm ready and looking forward to a good catch-up natter

EssexHebridean

Hope you have a nice time with your pal Zafiro!  SL your ragu sounds lovely - I really ought to get the enthusiasm for making lasagne more often as it is something that I absolutely love eating - it always feels faffy though!

The last of the veg-wars sprouts have been used up - I'm deeply impressed with how well they lasted in a stay-fresh bag in the fridge. MrEH found just one manky one as he was prepping them last night, and the remainder all proved good as I sliced them for stir frying. That also used a couple more carrots (come to think of it - also veg-wars ones!) and various other veg from the fridge, a pack of Al's 39p ready to wok noodles, and some of last weekend's chicken from the freezer. Sauce was peanut butter let down with some hot water, plus some dark soy for a sort of satay vibe. It was polished off with great enthusiasm by us both - MrEH even ate the carrots without flinching! 

My original plan to be out this evening has changed thanks to the weather forecast - so the planned omelette for MrEH will now become omelettes for us both, probably cheese, mushroom and chorizo ones, with jacket tatties. It's currently undecided whether tomorrow's pencilled in takeaway will remain as such, or change into something cooked from scratch. 

Suffolk_lass

Ooh omelettes, I have loads of eggs. I might go for a baked beans and cheese omelette as I will leave the minced lamb until tomorrow morning, as DH came down earlier than normal this morning (and I prefer to faff before he is up)

EssexHebridean

I bought a box of 15 mixed weight eggs last week SL so plenty available to us as well - I may even bake something tomorrow in fact as the christmas treats are now dwindling... (I'm alright though - I've still got two dark chocolate oranges and a Poundland rip-off Toblerone!) 

Suffolk_lass

We each had a baked bean and cheese omelette for supper and they were yummy! 6 eggs altogether, instead of 4 and I have 14 in hand with a dozen due tomorrow! Like you EH, I feel a treat of some sort coming along. I also found the last remaining courgette and lemon cake in the kitchen freezer this week, so that will stay there and I will make something that needs at least 3 eggs. It might have to be chocolate brownies... and I can add an egg into the white sauce topping for the small lasagnes, to make them rise a bit in the oven

joedenise

More reverse planning today!  Got out a stew yesterday for last night's dinner, knew there would be too much but obviously didn't want to add beans and refreeze so we're having the LOs for lunch today and I'll air fry some small potatoes as wedges  (haven't got any decent sized ones to use!).

I seem to be the complete opposite to everyone else with regard to eggs - we get through loads!  I buy at least a dozen every week and often have to buy more.  I got 18 reduced to half price on Tuesday when I went shopping and will need to buy some more today for the weekend as DH like to have a fry up and definitely not enough left!  Admittedly we've had scrambled eggs this week which always uses half a dozen and we've also had omelettes so another 4 and I also use one to make mash rather than milk and butter which we've had a few times this week so no wonder we use so many!

joedenise

Got a pack of spiced veg from the freezer which will be used to make a veg biryani.  To make it a bit more of a decent meal I'll be cooking a red lentil dahl (will use up a carrot from the fridge!) plus the usual rice needed for the biryani.