Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

Over here I have had some blood tests with abnormal results, more to follow up. My suspicion is that there are three things going on but I await confirmation. In the meantime I am walking with a stick and booked to see a physio on Friday (hoping it is "only" bursitis or housemaid's knee), and a Gynae consultant at a different location for a dreaded examination and snip of bits.  I won't go into it on a food based thread! The relevance of this detail is that some deficiency in phosphate could be related to inflammation (knee), some sort of cancer or undiagnosed diabetes.

Anyway, the reverse meal plan has cut out sugar in any added form (in case it is diabetes), and cheese is being rationed along with oats eaten (to help reduce my cholesterol). So, it's yogurt with oats, nuts, seeds and chopped strawberries (from the garden) for breakfast, (garden) veg soup for lunch and this evening it will either be stuffed pepper or braised little gem lettuce (I can't remember what it's called but @joedenise put me on to it and it's French with a little cream and peas). Off to take my stomach protection and anti-inflammatory with food shortly but I thought a quick post on here was appropriate. Ironic that the ultra low sugar diet is that of the lovely, late Dr Michael Mosley. He's in my head every time I consider eating something sweet, and then I don't.

I hope your awful animal-related day is not what I think it is @zafiro1984. Very hard and a big hug. You have given them a lovely life x

joedenise

The braised lettuce dish is called Peas a la Francais @Suffolk_lass - we've had that this week as I had 4 little gem lettuces from a TGTG bag so needed to just use some up with something which wasn't salad as DH is fed up with salad.

Had to reverse plan meals the last couple of days as DH has been in hospital to have a knee replacement but came home today but it was too late to do the planned roast pork so we'll have that tomorrow instead.  Tonight I grabbed a box of baked leek and bacon risotto with peas from the freezer.  Won't be freezing it again as the texture is awful when it's reheated!

Hope things settle down for you shortly.

rtandon27

Sending support to you over t'internet SL!  Hope everything turns out to be less than the possible possibilities iyswim!

Today we reverse planned a Mediterranean platter for brunch, from all the bits we had in the house and some long-life pitas we had in the breadbox.  Houmous, poached tiny eggs, sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, sliced gherkins, olives, pickled radishes & pickled pink onions.  Fun pickety bits meal had at the bistro set outside with a big mug of coffee each.

This evening we are having sausages with onion marmalade gravy/sauce, mashed herbed cheesy potatoes and steamed spinach - the sausages from the freezer & the marmalade in the fridge - both have been lurking around for a while - the rest is from our veg box and stores.

Tomorrow, lunch will be a pack-up - rice & Goan chicken curry put together from leftovers - will save the B00ts points for a meal-deal at a later date & have a zero spend day where I can!

Dinner tomorrow will be pasta with chorizo cubes and cheese sauce with a side of Chantenay carrots we picked up on yellow sticker and seem to be multiplying in the fridge as this is our third go at trying to finish the bag!

Past that our plans are a bit more vague, Tuesday = fish, Wednesday = chicken, Thursday = meat, Friday = pizza & wedges, Saturday = roast something.  I'm sure inspiration will strike at some point & we'll come up with a creative meal or two!

EssexHebridean

Virtual hugs to all who need them right now, it's always tough waiting to get results of tests isn't it, but hopefully it will turn out to be nothing too problematic. 

I am full on reverse planning this week as I STILL haven't got my meal planning mojo back in place. I had said on my diary that tonight would be omelettes but actually it won't - it will be stir fry I think, albeit still using some of the piece of ham I pulled out of the freezer on Friday. That was half of one of the large T's F1nest hams I bought at easter - it did us both for tea on Friday, lunch yesterday, and will do tea tonight plus my intention is to ensure there is just enough to add flavour to the omelette when we do have it which will be Wednesday, I think. 

The stir fry will be using some of the leaves from the (bolted) pak choi plants - I'm blowed if they think they are getting away without being eaten! 

joedenise

More reverse planning here!  After having the risotto last night which had been planned for lunch today I needed to do a freezer dive for today's lunch.  I found a couple of small portions of beef curry and chicken curry, a red lentil dahl and some basmati/wild rice so that was lunch sorted.

Was going to do a roast pork dinner but DH still doesn't want much to eat so I'm cooking the pork joint and he'll have his in a sandwich and I'll have mine with some salad.

zafiro1984

Suffolk_lass said:

Over here I have had some blood tests with abnormal results, more to follow up. 
Anyway, the reverse meal plan has cut out sugar in any added form (in case it is diabetes), 

Worrying times Suffolk Lass but think positively. It sounds like early days for whatever is wrong. I totally agree with cutting out as much added sugar as possible. I did this several years ago (just before my heart surgery) and now find some things so sweet I cannot eat them. The current advice from my busybody family is to cut out 'Ultra Processed Food'. It's a bit of a faff and time consuming to cook from scratch all the time so I understand why people buy UPF. They also say it's expensive to do, but I find using reverse meal planning with left overs works really well with the cost. My son said 'Cook like a grandma' I did point out that I was old enough to be grandma, maybe a great grandma - that shut him up.

Yesterday: Lunch: egg on toast, HM spiced biscuits
Lunch Today:- something with cheese as I've several bits in the fridge, probably cheese on toast, HM muffins or biscuits 

Yesterday Tea:- DH - LO pheasant casserole turned into a pie, HM rum n raison icecream. I had an egg salad and a couple of pears  - (I need to loose a few pounds before 1st July to fit more comfortably into a jacket)
Today:- I've a few mushrooms in the fridge so I'll probably fry them with an onion and stuff them into a large chicken breast and wrap that in bacon. We'll share the chicken and DH will have chips but I'll have a bit of salad. Pudding: cooked apple from the freezer with ?

EssexHebridean

Cooking from scratch is undoubtedly cheaper if you have the knowledge, the expertise, the time, and the access to the fresh foods to cook from. Unfortunately there are still huge chunks of society who aren't privileged to have those things - and for them, "UPFs" can be the difference between feeding their child and not. I agree that it's great to encourage folk to eat less of them, but the demonisation that is going on around them currently is just causing as many problems as the UPFs themselves do! (Not least when it crosses over into people talking about "processed foods" without realising that includes pretty much anything we might put in our mouths!) Ah well, the next fad will be along in a minute! (And don't get me started on small people lecturing those who's been feeding others perfectly well for decades about what they "should" be doing!)

HM rum & raisin ice cream sounds delicious - do you find any problems with it freezing solidly enough because of the alcohol content, or does the fact that it's soaked into the raisins mean that's not an issue? 

Our stir fry last night was extremely tasty and as well as pak choi I also nabbed some radish leaves from the garden to add a bit more green. 

My plan for this evening's couscous, veggies and halloumi is to add some carrot tops assuming I have any carrots ready to pull. I reckon I'm not far off our first home grown courgettes as well - so will use up the last of the shop bought this evening.

zafiro1984

EssexHebridean said:

Cooking from scratch is undoubtedly cheaper if you have the knowledge, the expertise, the time, and the access to the fresh foods to cook from. Unfortunately there are still huge chunks of society who aren't privileged to have those things. 

HM rum & raisin ice cream sounds delicious - do you find any problems with it freezing solidly enough because of the alcohol content, or does the fact that it's soaked into the raisins mean that's not an issue? 

I have sympathy with your comments. and understand where you are coming from. I can only speak for myself but, as DH and I became older  - we are much nearer to 80 than 70 - we have both become intolerant to quite a number of 'foods/ingredients'  and our son suggested  cutting out UPF as far as possible.  It seems to work for us as I find knowing exactly what's in the meals I produce, I can avoid bouts of .....&.....  hence I batch cook from scratch making good use of the freezers and microwave to reheat. Each to their own!!

Rum and raison ice-cream - I use the 'no churn 2 ingredient method', I use flamed raisons to soak up the rum and have no problems with freezing. In fact you get a nice pop of alcohol when you bite into one of them - it's rather moreish.

EssexHebridean

Oh the actual choice of doing it that way is absolutely "each to their own" where that choice exists - I couldn't agree more. I was more meaning that not all people have access to good quality, reasonably priced fresh food though, and many of those who do either wouldn't know what to do with it as they have never been taught even basic cooking skills, or don't have the means of cooking in the same way you or I do - because perhaps they live in a bedsit with just a single ring and a microwave, or in a houseshare where frying food or doing lots of prep is frowned on, for example.  Food deserts very definitely still exist - which is an awful thing in this day and age - and often they are to be found in quite affluent areas which also still have a fair bit of historic social housing. disheartening isn't it, to think that while the well off in their big houses are cheerfully heading out for nice meals or if they do want to eat at home, can easily order in tasty, healthy options and hang the price, while a single parent on a low income from the flats tucked away out of sight round a side street is left with only a "convenience store" within easy reach for shopping as the likes of T's and Sainsbugs etc don't want to know about opening a store there because the footfall would be too low, and the convenience store in turn jacks the prices up because of the perceived affluent of the area. Sigh! 

And acknowledging my own privilege entirely - I definitely think rum & raisin ice cream might be in my future - I will investigate recipes for the machine! Thank you for the idea! 

zafiro1984

EssexHebridean said:

- I definitely think rum & raisin ice cream might be in my future - I will investigate recipes for the machine! Thank you for the idea! 

You don't need an ice-cream machine the way I do it, an electric hand whisk will do or even a just a whisk if you are fit enough and like a work-out.
It's not low sugar but I don't serve large portions.

Ingredients :- 600ml double cream whipped to the stiff peak stage, add 1 tin condensed milk I find Lid..is the cheapest, whip until stiff, add flavouring - I also add HM broken meringues (eggs from the chickens/geese) to make it go further and lighten It makes a good litre for the freezer with some left over which I freeze and use first, just to test it !!!!   

Flavours I have made:- vanilla,  crushed ginger biscuits, brown bread crumbs toasted with butter, cocoa pdr + some melted chocolate drizzled through, mashed strawberries from the plot with either sugar or brandy - sieve the pips out before adding, same with brambles, currents and berries. I've tried peanut butter but didn't like it. If anyone has other unusual ideas it would be interesting to give them a go.  
It's not the cheapest ice-cream but it's also not the most expensive, I know what is in it and you don't need large portions.

Has anyone got any ideas what to do with frozen pears. 
The tree last year had a huge crop, too many to eat, I made chutney but froze the remainder in halves. When defrosted they are very watery and mushy. Apart from making them into a jelly or juice I'm stuck for ideas - help.