Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

JD - we are the same with eggs!  Often buying 2-3 dozen each time we do a proper shop.  OH eats them for breakfast every day, we usually have a weekend frittata or omelette & I take one or two boiled ones to work a couple of times a week to up my protein intake!

Last night, being National Pizza Day, we had pizza!  Crust was from the freezer as were the olives and cheese. Pepperoni from the fridge, shallots, artichoke pesto & olive oil from the stores.  The crust was reduced Marks&Spensive's - a wood fired one & very tasty at that - so good in fact that we may even have discussed paying full price for a replacement!😱

Tonight we are using up most of a leftover chook & root veggies, along with leeks & mushrooms, a can of cream-of soup with a sheet of reduced ready-pastry to make a pot-pie.  As it was a super damp & cold day today, we were both craving roasties, which is a bit odd with pie, but carb overload is sometimes needed.  We did have to pop out when we discovered a shortage of mushrooms, but did have fun picking up a great deal of our weekly shopping on yellow sticker, as well as some coffee pods for work, as it stops me from giving in to ridiculous coffee shop creations!

Suffolk_lass

We had the two small lasagnes I prepared earlier in the week - one each instead of half! I rationalised it that we had no snacks...

EssexHebridean

Your pie sounds amazing RT - and all the more so for having roasties with it too!

I have a hunch my meal plan is about to be derailed as I think MrEH's rugby team have a plan to swap their usual training this week for pizza and the quiz at the club...if so I'll have to have a think about what I might do for myself for tea as our usual Tuesday option is geared towards feeding up both, but separately. 

I've got ragu out for this evening anyway - remembered it once I'd got into bed last night and had to set in my mind a certain trigger to prompt me to remember it again this morning as I wasn't getting up again at that stage! I have no clue what the trigger was, but it worked, anyway! I'll do spaghetti with that I think. 

rtandon27

EH - our meal plan is constantly getting derailed!  Our Saturday 'roast' (pot-pie & roasties) was actually supposed to be our lunar new year feast, which we had last night instead! - The problem was that the roast chicken & leeks would not keep but the feast would!

So our feast turned out quite well even if a day late - it was cobbled together from various fridge, freezer & stores bits.  Starters were a prawn and fish version of shui mai that we had in the freezer.  Mains were white sticky rice with prawn/chicken/snowpea/ginger stir-fry and slow-cooker baby-back ribs.  Dessert a couple of fortune cookies - which meant two fortunes each, OH ended up having two of the same so he's decided it's his 'fate' to do travelling this year!

Tonight will be broco-nut & noodles for meatless monday and tomorrow will be the remainder of the pie with some steamed carrots and perhaps baby potatoes. Wednesday will be our pancake day and Thursday was to be our Hallmark Heart Day, but we have an evening gathering so that may be Friday!  Such an out of kilter week, that I wonder why I bother to make a meal plan!  No clue when we are doing Taco Tuesday, but at least all those ingredients will keep, except perhaps the avo, which will get eaten and replaced!

Suffolk_lass

I've made my pancake mix. Needless to say DS and his girlfriend will be round too. Having just had soup, then berry fruits and yogurt, that will be it for us tonight.

Suffolk_lass

Finally used the streaky bacon I had defrosted to make devils and pigs with, when our friends came for the weekend, they were generously wrapped round half a pack of chipolatas and we had them last night with mash, cabbage and carrots. A small batch of courgette soup is made this morning, and I wll whizz it once it has cooled a little.

The other half pack of chipolatas made delicious sausage and marmalade sandwiches on Thursday evening, as we were a bit shattered after a day slashing, digging and cutting up vegetation that was on its own re-wilding mission in the garden, and, I was out for the evening.

I have a pack of two lambs hearts from the local farm shop, ready to soak and stuff for a slow-cooked supper this evening. A much under-rated cheap and tasty option, I know offal is divisive. I have simplified and reduced the fat in my Mum's (or maybe her Mum's) old recipe. Shout if you want it

Frugalista

Suffolk_lass said:

. Shout if you want it

Yes please!!

Suffolk_lass

@Frugalista
Stuffed Lamb's Hearts (2)
Wash the hearts and get inside with scissors to cut down through the flaps and or tubes (preferably without breaking the wall of the heart open with the scissors) so you can turn it inside out. I then liberate all the stringy bits but I don't worry too much about removing them, it just loosens the structure. I do cut the white tubes out and I remove some of the solid white suet fat around one side at the top (Mum's recipe leaves the suet fat). The heart is in two chambers, sometimes I cut down one edge so it is one big chamber for stuffing, sometimes I leave it as two - the long cooking time means this is all lovely at the end. Then put them in cold salted water, still inside out while you make the stuffing.

Remove the hearts from the water, dry them and turn them right side out, then stuff them really full and use a skewer (or sew) the top shut-ish
Heat a tablespoon of oil (dripping in her recipe) heated in a tin dish or roasting tin, pop them in and baste them, cover with greased paper or similar and cook for 2 hours at 160c 325F. In the tin, she makes a sauce with a tablespoon of plain flour in the pan, stir and absorb the fat, cook it out then loosen with veg water until it is a thickish smooth sauce. Season to your taste (we add a little marmite and pepper).

Stuffing for 2
half a mug of breadcrumbs or broken up bits of bread
sprinkle of mixed herbs, salt, pepper (and optional chilli flakes; my addition)
grated zest of a lime or half a lemon, 
finely chopped shallot or small onion
optional dessertspoonful of suet (half what Mum's recipe says and can be omitted)
a small beaten egg to bring it together

We always have boiled potatoes, carrots and cabbage with this. Proper old-school

EssexHebridean

Right - we are freestyling this week as we shopped on the way back from our weekend away and I hadn't got round to meal planning. Allowing for still having plenty in freezer and cupboards though I'm not seeing this as an issue. 

Started by using up the eggs last night - a tortilla style omelette between us with sweet potato, red pepper and mushroom. Oh and some peas. Big pile of salad alongside. 
This evening will be the usual couscous - with halloumi I think. I'll need to ask MrEH to get a tub of chickpeas out to defrost, there are still mushrooms and peppers...
I reckon tomorrow will be spag bol using a tub of ragu from the freezer. 
Thursday is currently up for grabs then - I'm trying to recall whether we have any bacon in the freezer to go with the liver... 
Friday is definitely going to be curry as I have daal in the freezer and we've got some nice naan breads... 

Suffolk_lass

Mmm, curry. That decides it here. We had cold chicken, salad and jacket potatoes last night, and have a pack of smoked salmon I defrosted a fortnight ago that will do nice sandwiches for lunch (with bread I made yesterday). I have the second small shepherds pie defrosting for tonight's supper (with peas, and possibly brussels I blanched and froze).

The rest of the chicken I can easily remove will go into a curry and I have various frozen and stored homegrown veg to add to that, along with a tin of chick peas. DH might make some flatbreads, but there might be enough carbs with the squash I plan to roast to have with it (maybe a separate side dish with the chick peas, onion and (frozen) spinach). Thanks for the idea @EssexHebridean!