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Reverse Meal Planning
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rtandon27 I tried your idea. It certainly was better but I was going to use it when there was someone staying for tea so I panicked and put it all in the freezer for another day. We had bread and butter pudding instead, with some HM mincemeat between the layers - that was safer and tasted fine.
I'd completely forgotten about using 'sweet' suet as a crust for puddings, so thanks for reminding me Suffolk Lass.
Yesterday was sausages with sticky onion marmalade and mash - simple, yummy and used the rest of the sausages in the fridge.
My fridge is overflowing, I think I had a panic buying session last Monday knowing I couldn't get out of here until the end of the month. At the moment I've put an embargo on using stuff from the freezers until I can see where I'm going. Todays lunch is meat paste on toast. I've used a small piece of cooked venison left from the other day which I blitzed with thyme and spices. Tea not sure yet.
The driveway is coming along quite quickly, they are down as far as the house.
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Ooh, homemade meat paste. I like that idea! I have about two thirds of the beef (topside) joint I roasted yesterday to plan in for this week. I will mince some to add breadcrumbs, onions and a little tomato to, but I might add herbs, spices and butter to another amount to make a sort of paste/pate. And I have bread proving so I know today's lunch will be a sandwich!Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here2 -
Dinner last night was cobbled together from fridge freezer and stores. Tricolour fusili with chicken & lardons with rocket pesto and a handful of fresh rocket - with a sprinkle of parsmesan on top. Low effort dinner with maximum flavour impact! Afters - a date & a kiwi.
ETA - contemplating making Kimchi 'fried' rice in the slowcooker - as found an unopened jar in the fridge - it's now been opened to taste & the verdict is to add some gochujang to liven it up - it's sauerkraut with a smidgen of chili and no more, so that brand is not to be repeated!4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 14 YEARS 10 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 15 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!1 -
Suffolk Lass:- How did you present your minced beef/breadcrumbs/tom/onions. I can only think of a plait but I'd be glad of any another ideas as I've got a joint planned for this weekend and it would be good to do something different with the LO's. Do you do anything that isn't 'foreign' - sorry
Lunch:- DH had the remnants of some HM chicken liver pate I made at the weekend, although I did manage to freeze some for another day. I had celery/apple/walnuts, added Greek yogurt not mayonnaise as I'm trying to stay away from UPF. I still have quite a mound UPF sauces/tins in the cupboards which I shall use but not replace.
Tea (DH) was pork belly slices, unfortunately I had to break my rule and get them out of the big freezer with veg from the fridge Mine was the last of a frozen stir fry veg mix - bought when on offer - added a sweet chilli sauce I'd clobbered together, topped with grated cheese and browned in the ironheart.
Pudding was a resurrected portion of a tea loaf I'd made last Friday. I put it in the oven on a timer and went out to do things but when I looked later it was cold and seriously undercooked but with a crust on the top. I would have thrown it out a few years ago but not anymore. I cut it into chunks, froze it, so tonight one portion ended up in the microwave for a few minutes and then presented covered in custard. No one said anything so I got away with that.
I have to say that having shopped for the month last week I'm very focused on using and stretching everything and quite enjoying the challenge. Hopefully it will also be reflected in my food budget.3 -
My determination to continue with easy teas on a Monday lead to a couple of single portions of curry being pulled out of the freezer for last night. One was labelled lamb - yep, that was as it seemed. The other was labelled as butternut squash & chickpea but contained neither, but did have turkey and broccoli, and a nice red-thai curry flavour! Very tasty regardless.
We had middle eastern spiced lamb shoulder on Sunday - cooked relatively slowly until it fell into chunks as I carved it which was exactly the plan. That yielded enough for two additional tubs of meat - one of which has gone in the freezer, the other will be used tonight along with our couscous and veggies. there is a stir fry on the plan for tomorrow so I will get some turkey chunks out of the freezer for that I think, and will almost certainly do it satay style again as that has been really tasty the last few times and it's a flavour that works well with poultry of course. That should use up the last of the savoy cabbage from the other week too, which will be handy.
It's farmers market this weekend and we will need to get on our toes to make sure we can get there as we also have an online meeting starting at 11am that we need to attend. definitely want to make sure we get to the market as I'm nearly out of mince which is a situation which clearly isn't sustainable!🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her3 -
Haha - EH - I love that even with careful labelling, freezer surprise still happens!
Last night I was in NEED of a piece of beef - steaks are few and far between in this house, never-the-less we had a 6oz rump each with a mushroom, carrot and cabbage stir-fry - nothing carby to be seen! A heavenly dinner for me, but OH is still moaning about the lack of potato!
Tonight we have had our own little freezer dive, and produced some salmon, which is currently in the oven roasting. An unsatisfactory kimchi has gone into slow-cooker kimchi rice along with a tsp of siracha in lieu of gochujang, some soy & rice wine vinegar. Sesame oil will be drizzled on top once it is cooked. This used up the last of some sushi rice & some thai sticky rice, neither of which we were keen on plain, but it smells delicious already! Half a packet of rocket has been placed on top of the almost cooked rice for some bitter greens & that will be dinner tonight.
Now will have to hunt high and low for some affordable salmon to replace the used up bag! The only two places that seem to have wild caught salmon are MrS and the Land-o'ice. I'm pretty sure they are from that large country that we import most of our BigRiver stuff from, so not very happy about that, but the more local stuff is twice the price per kg!!! !!!!!! we are an island - how hard is it to source affordable fish???
Tomorrow's dinner has already been cooked & cut into pieces for a quick & cheap dinner for tomorrow. An orange stickered posh pizza from MrL - who knew they did 60% off as well as the more usual 30%? I get off the commuter train and then we go straight to our evening meet up, so dinner needs to be scoffed on the way as only tea/coffee and the odd biscuit are usually served up.
Not sure what we will be doing Friday, as pizza is being had a day early! Maybe a Waitflower date night? Maybe another freezer dive or a bottom of the fridge special stir-fry rice?4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 14 YEARS 10 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 15 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!2 -
zafiro1984 said:Suffolk Lass:- How did you present your minced beef/breadcrumbs/tom/onions. I can only think of a plait but I'd be glad of any another ideas as I've got a joint planned for this weekend and it would be good to do something different with the LO's. Do you do anything that isn't 'foreign' - sorrySave £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here3 -
rtandon27 said:Now will have to hunt high and low for some affordable salmon to replace the used up bag! The only two places that seem to have wild caught salmon are MrS and the Land-o'ice. I'm pretty sure they are from that large country that we import most of our BigRiver stuff from, so not very happy about that, but the more local stuff is twice the price per kg!!! !!!!!! we are an island - how hard is it to source affordable fish???Save £12k in 2025 #2 I am at £4863.32 out of £6000 after May (81.05%)
OS Grocery Challenge in 2025 I am at £1286.68/£3000 or 42.89% of my annual spend so far
I also Reverse Meal Plan on that thread and grow much of our own premium price fruit and veg, joining in on the Grow your own thread
My new diary is here1 -
Suffolk_lass said:rtandon27 said:Now will have to hunt high and low for some affordable salmon to replace the used up bag! The only two places that seem to have wild caught salmon are MrS and the Land-o'ice. I'm pretty sure they are from that large country that we import most of our BigRiver stuff from, so not very happy about that, but the more local stuff is twice the price per kg!!! !!!!!! we are an island - how hard is it to source affordable fish???4 YEARS 10 MONTHS DEBT FREE!!! (24 OCT 2016)(With heartfelt thanks to those who have gone before us & their indubitable generosity.)...and now I have a mortgage! (23 AUG 2021)New projection - 14 YEARS 10 MONTHS LEFT OF 20 YEARS (reduced by 15 mths)Psst...I may have started a diary!1
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I feel your Morries pain there RT - we've got no fewer than THREE T's, an A's, Al's and Lil's (2 of those) and sainsbugs, plus countless mid-sized C0-0ps, but our nearest Morries is roughly a 15 mile round trip. Very annoying.
Some more of the christmas turkey was consumed last night in a stir fry that also saw off half a courgette and the remaining savoy cabbage from the fridge. Sauce was once again satay style, so that used another teaspoon from the everlasting thai red curry paste (I checked its alleged expiry date the other week. Trust me, you don't want to know, but we're both still upright and breathing!)
I'm planning on exploring the world of baked gnocchi this evening. A pack of the bargain tomato variety from Lil's Italian fortnight, which will be thrown onto a baking tray with red pepper, the remaining mushrooms, some chopped up cooked sausages from the freezer and whatever other veg I can find that we think will work, then drizzled with oil and shoved into the oven for 20 minutes or so. Will it work? Who knows! Got to be worth a go though.🎉 MORTGAGE FREE (First time!) 30/09/2016 🎉 And now we go again…New mortgage taken 01/09/23 🏡
Balance as at 01/09/23 = £115,000.00 Balance as at 31/12/23 = £112,000.00
Balance as at 31/08/24 = £105,400.00 Balance as at 31/12/24 = £102,500.00
£100k barrier broken 1/4/25SOA CALCULATOR (for DFW newbies): SOA Calculatorshe/her2
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