Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

Many years ago I had a visitor from across the pond who announced that I could just order takeaway instead of cooking!  Money was super tight in those days, and I had saved up to buy a pork roast and all the fixings so she could have a Sunday roast which she had been hankering for before she even arrived.  She wasn't offering to pay for the takeaway just making her demands!  The next night OH took us out to a pub which she declared she didn't like because it was a chain (it wasn't) - let's just say I was glad when she returned home to Canada & I've only spoken to her once in the intervening 15 years!

My favorite house guests are those who offer to rummage through the fridge and produce amazing things out of what's in the house! (I do know several of those type 🤣🤣🤣 - most of them relatives)

So today, our main meal was from a Canadian food truck!  It's been many years since I've had Poutine with proper squeaky cheese & I was very pleased.  All I can say is that OH must love me very much as he hates gravy on his chips and managed to eat his whole container full!  The craft beer/cider was also much enjoyed as it was a good 27'C in the shade!

Dinner tonight was bbq pork ribs that I bought on a whim with leftover poutine for me and homemade potato wedges for OH - we've not had much veg today, but it's on the cards for tomorrow & we'll be having watermelon shortly so we are not devoid of plant-based today!

zafiro1984

Trying to use what I have and not go shopping so today is by curtesy of my hens and out of the freezer

Lunch:- eggy bread for DH, celery soup for me - that's the last of the celery in the fridge, followed by orange and sultana buns from batter already frozen.
Tea:- pork and apple burgers. I still have to make them but it wont take long, pork mince from the freezer put in fridge yesterday to defrost. I decided to used some frozen apple instead of fresh as the fresh ones can be eaten as part of a meal, breadcrumbs frozen  from LO's when I made scotch eggs the other day. I may or may not need an egg,  No doubt it will be with some form of salad.
Pudding- HM icecream, I know I have a 'cookie' icecream made with 2 uneaten S.. cookies - well you can't waste them can you? 

It's so hot here, I've been getting up at 5.30am to do my outside jobs, sleeping in the afternoon and going out again about 6pm to finish off the things I need to do. I feel like I'm living in Andalusia. 

Suffolk_lass

I rather like that pattern, with the early rising and cool evening jobs. I think we will finish off the epic pasta I made when we had visitors at the weekend (and two people brought nibbles that filled them up too much to eat what I had made) and I will chop up the carrot crudites and make soup today.

EssexHebridean

No issue with folk being on diets if that's what they want to do, but when they then refuse to relax things even to enjoy food that someone else is going to the trouble of buying and preparing for them, that's simply rudeness. 

Allowing for how irritating I'm finding slugs, snails and squirrels in our garden, I can only begin to imagine how infuriating deer must be - you have my sympathies dealing with that!

The garden is finally starting to produce - last night we had a home grown cucumber and home grown tomatoes with a chicken salad. I'm hoping there might be a few more toms this evening, and will be harvesting some small courgettes as they seem to be reluctant to ripen well on the plants so we may as well eat them at the size they are. the chicken was portioned and cooked at the weekend - with the oven being used when it was to be on anyway for MrEH to make rolls. portioning the whole bird first made for far faster cooking, and it was dribbled with smoked oil and indian spices. It's fed us for two meals so far, with more yet to come. 

I'm going with our usual tuesday tea of couscous this evening, but will be including quite a lot of salady bits as well - even though we had rain earlier it's still very hot and sticky, and frankly I want to keep actual cooking to a minimum! 

rtandon27

I've completely forgotten what we've reverse planned for the past week!  We've had a mixture of using up what's in the stores along with some cheap to free meals courtesy of couponing as work was a mare so easy was the name of the game! 

This week we are on staycation, so yesterday was an outing with drinks and nibbles during the afternoon.  Last night we came home and cobbled together a dinner from leftovers and stores. Lemon herb chicken, grilled  halloumi, coleslaw, mixed salad, greens & mash and a few chips.  Dessert was munching on fresh fruit - the meal felt altogether summery.

Today we had honeydew melon, poached eggs and ham with toasted crumpets for breakfast.  OH made a chicken and pepper curry of sorts with a P@t@ks spice paste.  We had toaster naan on the side.  It was very tasty and fresh, a very different thing from the typical take-away.  The whole house currently smells like an Indian takeaway though, so I can't see us repeating the meal often, only when windows and doors can be opened to let in some fresh air.🤣🤣

No clue what we are having tonight, mince something perhaps? or veggie burgers with salady bits?  We may succumb to Staycation temptation and get an actual real life take-away as we've not been out of the house/garden all day!

zafiro1984

Help:- I used to use a website where you could ask for a specific recipe and then exclude items that you didn't have or were a problem. eg my DH can't tolerate tomatoes - he vomits if he eats them so if I asked for 'cottage pie' and then in the exclude box put tomatoes it would give me alternatives. I've tried several times to find this website but can't, maybe it doesn't exist anymore as I'm thinking it could be well over 10yrs since I've used it. Anybody know of such a website or any ideas.

Still living out of the freezers.   I'm trying so hard to get the contents down but it doesn't seem to be happening at any speed. I know why - I've just spotted loads of blackberries in a hedge, I know they will be ok as they are not near any vehicles, also there are some super big rosehips lurking in another hedge which will have to be frozen before I use them (orange and rosehip marmalade), and then there are the plums - they are going to be swops with neighbours.  

Lunch:- egg on toast, HM sultana and orange buns,
Tea:- Precooked and frozen venison/mushroom/chestnut casserole, dated Nov 23,  I've labelled it 'suitable for pie or dumplings' I think pie as I've some pastry in the fridge from yesterday.  Pudding - something to do with frozen apple slices, I'm thinking apple snow.

EssexHebridean

I remember the site you are referring to Zafiro but can't for the life of me recall what it was called!  I never use toms in a cottage pie type mix anyway though - just make up a standard savoury mince with lots of various chopped veg added in, then throw in a spoonful of flour and add water until I get the consistency I want. 

RT I've also been enjoying some really summery feeling meals this week! The chicken served us another portion each last night as I did another HUUUGE plateful of salad. Added boiled baby potatoes this time too for some carbs. There was a cucumber just about ready to pick from the garden, as sticking with a theme from the above I skipped the toms altogether as there weren't sufficient home grown, and I didn't want to use my last few bought ones. The final avocado from last week's Lil's purchases wasn't really quite ripe, although perfectly edible - in fairness though the other three from the two packs I bough have been utterly delicious, so the last one being a gamble that didn't quite pay off didn't spoil things much!  Pud was the last of the big box of cherries MrEH insistently added to the trolley last weekend (£5 for a massive box of British ones - but they've done up for puddings each day since we bought them, so a win!) and the final strawberries - very tasty indeed!

This evening will be a stir fry - I've got salmon out to use to go with that, and there is a savoy cabbage, broccoli, sugarsnap peas, a red pepper and probably some other bits that can go with that...the end of a salad bag involving spinach, watercress and rocket will get thrown into the mix, and probably the end of the bag of rocket as well. The sauce will be some of our homemade plum sauce - probably the spiced one we made at the weekend. 

On that subject, we set to last night and turned the last of the foraged plums into another batch of the plum sauce - this time done without chilli added so we will be able to pass a bottle of it to MrEH's Mum - she can't tolerate chilli at all. This batch made 5 bottles I think - perhaps 6, all for the cost of some storecupboard ingredients and a bit of time. I think I prefer the version with the slight background warmth from the chilli, but I have a suspicion that both versions will change in flavour profile as they mature anyway. 

fionaandphil

Was it Supercook @zafiro1984

joedenise

Got a Lidl £1.50 box yesterday which was mainly  fruit; the only veg was a few potatoes, couple of baking potatoes and an aubergine.  Think a jacket potato will definitely make an appearance this week.  Have decided to make the Hairy Bikers diet lasagne for dinner tonight to use the aubergine and will also use a couple of courgettes from the garden - this is a carb free lasagne as the aubergines and courgettes are used instead of the pasta.

rtandon27

@joedenise - that is a lovely recipe!  OH has made it a couple of times - one of the very few ways he'll eat aubergine!

Last night we had an easy dinner from the stores - a pound of mince, a large onion and 1/2 punnet of mushrooms turned into filling for a mince pie.  Pastry hadn't yet made it to the freezer, but is a staple in our house! (must pick up a replacement this evening from the shops...) Pie made four portions, so two left in the fridge for a meal on the weekend.  We had lovely farm fresh French green beans on the side & some reheated wedges from a previous meal.  The entire meal reminded me of my grandmother's weeknight cooking - yum & very comforting.