Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

My "Meal building blocks" in the shopping this week were turkey breast steaks and eggs - the turkey will do a stir fry tonight with the balance going to the freezer to make the basis of another meal next week. (Very possibly another stir fry, we'll see!) and the eggs have already done lunch on Saturday (omelette-stuffed flatbreads) and will do another meal through the week - I may well hard boil half a dozen tonight giving us hard boiled eggs to have with couscous tomorrow, and egg mayo for lunch rolls tomorrow too. There will be enough left for an omelette next week as well. The last two flatbreads from the freezer might well end up stuffed with fish fingers, tartare sauce and lettuce later in the week, and I may use the last container of ragu from the freezer for another meal option as well... (hopefully this one will actually BE ragu!)

After this MrEH has a couple of weeks  when he will have to do some thinking about both shopping and meal planning - I will be off to a big airshow from the middle of next week and not back until the following Monday evening - in theory this will reduce the hit on the grocery budget - but let's just wait and see if that is actually how it works out, shall we?! 

This week's spends were £33.96 in Lil's and then a further £5.xx in Al's. 

joedenise

I made a fake doner kebab a few days ago.  We had it that day as a main meal with some chips and salad, the following day as a pitta stuffed kebab with more salad.  That's usually as much as it makes but think DH must have sliced it much thinner than usual as we managed to get another pitta stuffed lunch today!  A good way of stretching a small pack of lamb mince (I used the 10% fat mince this time rather than the normal 20% one which might be why there seemed to be more meat once cooked).

Frugalista

joedenise said:

I made a fake doner kebab a few days ago.  

Can you post the recipe please?  That sounds lovely.

joedenise

Frugalista said:

joedenise said:

I made a fake doner kebab a few days ago.  

Can you post the recipe please?  That sounds lovely.

Rather than posting the recipe I'll post the link for it (far easier for me!):  https://www.slimmingeats.com/blog/doner-kebab-fakeaway-night#mv-creation-537-jtr

I did it in a loaf tin this week rather than just wrapping in foil as it suggests on the website and I think that also helped.

Not the cheapest of meals to make using the 10% fat lamb mince though (Sainsbugs £7 for 400g!).

EssexHebridean

Pretty sure there is a fake kebab recipe in the Takeaway Secret book that a lot of people have, too. I must drag that out again in fact, as I think there are some recipes in there worth me trying. 

Stir fry last night with some of the turkey - the rest has, as planned, been frozen - plus lots of veggies, and a pack of straight to wok noodles.  Sauce was homemade gooseberry ketchup mixed with soy and a splash of seasoned rice vinegar. Very tasty indeed - we've still got a few more jars of the ketchup I think, and if we do get a gooseberry crop from our bushes next year it will be on the list to make again. (River Cottage Handbook - Preserves, I think).

Tonight is Tuesday and so we will be eating couscous! I did indeed hard boil eggs last night, so those will be the protein element, I'll probably use the last couple of sweet potatoes, an then it will be veg from the fridge/freezer. MrEH tells me that he will be a little late away from work tomorrow as he has an event late in the day, so I think tomorrow will be salad now - easy to throw together and will suit another night when we eat at different times as well. 

rtandon27

The new Gurkha place on Sunday was absolutely delicious!  Not the typical curry house fare, but actual Nepalese food - a nice mix of Chinese ingredients and Indian spicing!  I had a pork and pak choi dish with a dry spiced masala - a real treat as we don't often go out for food in the normal course of affairs.

Yesterday was a cook from the stores day...
Breakfast - folded two egg omelets with assorted veg & fresh herbs and the last of the grated cheese
Lunch - Pan-cooked gyoza from the freezer
Dinner - An unusual M&S pizza (yellow-sticker of course) with fennel salami and of all things, sliced baby potatoes on a wood-fired base, accompanied by baby courgettes, oven cooked with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.  Afters were melon slices.  Despite the horrid weather, it felt like a summery Mediterranean meal.

Lunch today was a yellow stickered 'duck poke bowl' - delicious but not poke in the slightest - more of a cold bibimbap.  I'd have it again if it was suitably reduced, but someone needs to have a chat with the manufacturers and give them a lesson on cultural appropriation gone bad! 🤣🤣🤣

Dinner tonight will be leeks with Italian spiced chicken sausages, pasta and mushroom pesto.  Again produced from what we have in the stores so a success there!

This month is promising to be a five week one for grocery days & I'm already half way through the budget, so will have to join all of you doing lower the spends July!  We'll need to rev up the reverse planning as we do in fact have a freezer full of food and larder shelves that are groaning - just need to get the (reverse) planning mojo back in gear!

threepenny_bit

Hi everyone, I am in Canada now but born and bred Yorkshire! I always lurk and read this thread and feel like I know so many of you lol! I had a knee replacement 5 weeks ago and so hubby has been in charge of the menu. 

Joe Denise how is your husband doing after his knee surgery? 

I pre made loads of stuff before I went to hospital but have no clue what we actually have left; my trusty list of freezer and pantry stores has not been updated and I really need to do a big overhaul but that will have to wait. 

I had started the year with a very small monthly budget and did well to start with but had to abandon this when I couldn’t get to the shops and had to rely more on online shopping. I need to get back on plan and back to my budget as much as I can and always love reading your money saving recipes and ideas. 

joedenise

@threepenny_bit - thanks for asking about DH's knee op - he's doing well.  He's doing his exercises regularly and also walking around indoors with just a walking stick.  Outside he's still using crutches as it feels safer for the time being.  He's got a physio appointment the end of next week so no doubt there will be more exercises to add!

threepenny_bit

joedenise said:

@threepenny_bit - thanks for asking about DH's knee op - he's doing well.  He's doing his exercises regularly and also walking around indoors with just a walking stick.  Outside he's still using crutches as it feels safer for the time being.  He's got a physio appointment the end of next week so no doubt there will be more exercises to add!

Thats great! The exercises are key but tough. My first physio appointment was at 2 1/2 weeks after the staples came out. I can do walking stick on stairs but still have a walker for longer journeys due to arthritis in the other knee sadly. Hope he continues to improve.

Fionatritton

At the end of last week I got two humongous £1.50 waste not want not boxes from Lidl with a load of asparagus (7 packs !). i still had quite a lot left even though we had asparagus with everything over the weekend ! I usually make my own pastry but had picked up a pack of ready made with 30% off which I'd stashed in the freezer. I got a free box of 6 organic eggs from olio yesterday, had a 4pint bottle of full fat milk (yellow sticker obvs) so today I made a hot smoked salmon (again reduced) and asparagus quiche which will serve us for 6 portions of lunch. I reckon the cost of the quiche was less than £2 ! Had a couple of bags of crispy salad from the lidl boxes which I had a couple of handful of with it.

to Make the best of the oven while the quiche cooked I used up the end of the pastry on a sort of almond sponge meringue slice thing. I made a sponge mix with some ground almonds and grated lemon zest in it and as I had an egg white in the fridge I made some meringue with it and spread it over the top then baked it. It was really nice, I think I'll make it again. It will do us for something sweet this week. 

Tonight we had a chicken roast joint from the reduced to clear via the freezer, I did it with some baby new potatoes from a friend's allotment, some reduced courgettes fried up with some olio shallots and some sweetcorn on the cob from the lidl boxes. Followed with some olio strawberries. We've eaten really really well today for next to nothing