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Reverse Meal Planning
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I second turning leeks into leek& potato soup. Wr liquidise ours with a stock blender so it can then be poured into one pint size cleaned plastix milk bottles. These are ver robust, freeze well and store two generous portions.6
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Thanks. I've just put a beef casserole in the slow cooker to have next week. I will try the leek and potato soup. The milk bottle is a great idea. Does anyone have a particularly good / favourite recipe for it?
I am now going to have a good read of recent posts and see if I can steal some more great idea.5 -
I decided to start on page 1 then when I have to stop, I'll know where I'm up to
. I've already found some great ideas to use up lurking and out of date veg and notice suffolk lass' cheesy leeks' on page 8 which sound good. I think I'll be trying those next week with some cumberland sausage I bought reduced and popped in freezer. Although not a great cook, we get by ok and I'm inspired so will be back. Like so many now, I have to watch the pennies especially as I'm trying to save what I can so that I can retire in the next couple of years. [fingers crossed]
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Got a couple of TGTG bags today and had a cauliflower in each so there's definitely going to be cauliflower cheese on the menu plan this week!
I also got a couple of swedes and I have some carrots in the fridge which need using up so that will be made into swede and carrot mash and frozen in silicon muffin trays and frozen. Each "puck" is enough as a side for DH and I as long as we also have some green veg with it.
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Last night's dinner was actually in this week's Waitflower paper! Prawn/veg/pineapple/rice stirfry - we actually picked up the veg needed on yellow sticker from our Friday trawl through the bargains! The rest was from the stores - pineapple chunks from a can, the last of the leftover kimchi sticky rice (freezer) and frozen prawns marinated in pesto & gochujang to replicate the posh ones they asked for! It was super tasty, though personally I think the veg needed a blast in the microwave before cooking as it was mighty crunchy.
Tonight is our tried and true pork shoulder steaks with colcannon style mash and steamed carrots. Today's gravy made with redcurrant jelly as that is what we have to hand. Everything from the freezer and stores! We used to have it once a week, but these days our meat consumption is down while we watch our pennies so it's been a while since we had it!
Having a think about this week's meal plan. We may or may not have pierogis tomorrow evening - OH may be popping to the shop tomorrow morning, so if he does, I'll get him to pick up a cabbage, which for some reason we do not have in our fridge!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 -
gele said:Good morning lovely people.
I have been lurking on this thread on and off for a while and its amazing what you people can produce from the bottoms of your fridges and freezers! I've decided today to finally ask for help. I'm quite good at finding yellow sticker bargains, I buy them and then I don't know what to do with them. In my fridge at the moment I have, amongst many other things, too many green beans, too many sprouts, and leeks that need using. Unless something says 'freezable' on the label I'm never quite sure what will freeze well and how best to prepare them for freezing. Can anyone advise what's the best thing to do with these. I'd like to prepare more meals for freezer too so I'm not having to cook every evening, I am making a chicken roast dinner tonight so will use some but not all.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. I expect there might be more. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Green beans, top and tail as needed, cut into short lengths then blanche very briefly in boiling water. Drain, spread out of a piece of greaseproof paper or baking parchment and freeze on a tray. Once solid you can decant into a bag or plastic tub.
Sprouts - I've never tried, but I see no reason why you couldn't slice them then lightly stir fry and freeze once cooked? You could either freeze in portion sized "clumps" or again spread out and loose freeze?
Leeks - finely slice and again, lightly fry off. then deal with as per the sprout suggestion above.
As a general rule with veg most of it benefits from some form of cooking before home freezing in my view - herbs freeze well fresh albeit they will lose their structure when defrosted. I sometimes freeze a whole bunch of coriander and then crush it in the bag once frozen - you can then just shake a bit at a tie out into curries etc as needed.🎉 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/her5 -
Happy Monday all!
I'm flying by the seat of my pants on the meal plan this week - today is definite - omelettes and salad. Tomorrow I'm going to do the usual couscous - I think this week's will be with halloumi. I've got a couple of cooked sausages in the fridge so sausage pasta or a recreation of last week's baked gnocchi might be a possible.
The gnocchi was nice and fortunately did absorb enough liquid from the tinned tomatoes that it softened sufficiently too - thanks for the warning on that RT! I stopped in at the C0-0p on the way past and bought a ball of mozzarella to throw on the top, that also in turn meant we ended up with pizza on Friday night (to use the other half a ball of cheese) which we were both delighted with! (Garlic mushroom and a pack of YS'd chicken tikka pieces from the freezer - very tasty). the other half of the pizza dough is in the freezer - so more pizza to come at some stage). Saturday night was also a freezer raid - fish finger wraps and curly fries (The fries were Al's ones I think - and were really nicely seasoned BUT the thinner bits tended to overcook a little. I'd probably try a slightly cooler cooking temp next time).
I bought mince at the farmers market so that will need dividing up - I hovered over the big 2kg pack but then decided to go for her usual smaller ones - she does 2 for £10 which totals up to a kilo and that works well for us without taking up huge amounts of space in the freezer. Also got some more burgers - those have gone straight to the freezer. Lamb sausages, lamb shoulder steaks and lamb breast rings - likewise, directly to the freezer.
I'm of a mind to use the shoulder steaks for a slow-cooked curry I think - it's bone-in so should give a lovely flavour, and I'm thinking of using some black lentils I have in there as well... That will be a Friday/weekend job I think.
🎉 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 -
DH has just sprung on me that he fancies getting away in the motorhome for a few days so definitely going to be a bit of reverse planning going on as in finding things in the freezer which I can easily reheat in a saucepan or frying pan! Don't intend to do any starting from scratch stuff with not much prep room!
I'm sure that there must be a curry, chilli or similar in there. I've already got some beef out to make a beef bourguignon today so will definitely take a tub of that with us. Will just need to do some mash and frozen veg with it.
Tomorrow night's dinner will be the beef bourguignon and Thursday's will be either a curry or chilli with rice depending on what's in the freezer!
Friday night we'll be back home for dinner so will probably do something like a fish pie using some frozen fish pie mix from the freezer.
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Enjoy your trip JD - how fab to just be able to take off like that! Where are you thinking of heading?
The planned omelette last night meant I used the rest of the bag of salad as an accompaniment and also finished a bottle of salad dressing too. No more dressing in the cupboard so that has gone onto the shopping list!
I need a full-on effort back on the meal planning next week as my grocery budget is going to be in for a squeeze this month otherwise. I think I'll do a big list of all the options then I can slot them into various days as suited. I should probably plan to batch cook more ragu over the weekend though as that is a useful Monday meal. I've got a pack of burgers from the farmers market which will do 2 weekend teas as well - I'll just need to get buns to have with those.
I will plan either pizza or curry for Friday I think - pizza might work best and then I can plan curry for sometime over the Easter weekend by which time there might be more freezer space to make it worth doing a decent batch-cook of that, too.🎉 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/her1 -
We're just going to the Canterbury Park and Ride as it's only about an hour away and then we can use the buses to get around the Kent coastal towns for a wander around. It's where we usually go when we just want 2 or 3 nights away as it's really cheap at £4 a day (midnight to midnight).
Am currently cooking a beef bourguignon and a beef stew. Will be taking some of the bourguignon for dinner tomorrow night and have decided on a pea and prawn risotto for Thursday night. We'll be back for dinner on Friday night.4
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