Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

I was wondering if you could find someone local who sells eggs. We get our eggs from a local person, who keeps fifty on a local farmer's land and they are excellent value and good quality from high welfare chickens - £2 a dozen. I have a dozen each on Monday and Friday and sell on at the same rate to three others as they need them, taking an extra dozen as needed.

Rather than meat delivery, the butcher lets me email our order and then DH collects at a time the shop is quiet (to minimise time queuing and in the shop) - we are both happy with that arrangement. I know other local butchers are doing something similar, with at least one linking up with a veg van that is visiting villages - a sort of cross between market and delivery. You buy the veg and dairy from the van and collect your pre-ordered butchers' order. Really saving some miles there too.

We had a busy day and almost collected a swarm of bees (but they left before we went back), with DH clipping lots of flowering shrubs. My cousin gardener was a bit appalled at the brutality of the prune but it works for us as they flower on the rest of this year's growth either a second time or early next Spring and they only look dreadful for a short time. - At the end of this neither of us wanted to cook so a baked potato with cheese and coleslaw was the order of the day (a household favourite). I think DH is coming down with a cold as he was out of sorts.

PipneyJane

Good question re eggs, @Suffolk_lass.  Until Lockdown, ours came from a farm beside the A40, via the Farm Shop at our local National Trust property.  I am hoping, with the easing of things, that the Farm Shop will reopen.  Everything is grown on the premises except for the eggs.  They gave up keeping chickens when every egg had to be stamped; the cost of the equipment made it uneconomic for a small flock.

- Pip

Suffolk_lass

Well a power cut again last night at crucial time meant we resorted to soup for supper. It was like a little message as we had been considering changing our gas hob to an electric one! It runs off a bottle as no gas to the house out here.The power came back just before 9pm.

Pyxis

Suffolk_lass said:

Well a power cut again last night at crucial time meant we resorted to soup for supper. It was like a little message as we had been considering changing our gas hob to an electric one! It runs off a bottle as no gas to the house out here.The power came back just before 9pm.

I always think it's a good idea to have a mix.

Apart from preferring a gas hob anyway, when I redid my kitchen, I decided to have a gas hob and electric oven. I had one shower fed by the gas boiler, and another which was an electric one, and deffo an immersion heater as backup if the boiler were to fail.

Having had a place that only had a combi boiler, so no hot tank or immersion, it was a complete pain when the boiler kept failing, so was determined not to suffer that again.

(To be honest, I've never really liked the electric oven, and if it gives up the ghost I might well go back to a gas one, if they still make them then!
The fan motor has been replaced once, several years ago, and a short while ago it failed again, so I can only use it as a convection oven, as I don't want to spend any more money on it).

rtandon27

Thanks for all those lovely shopping ideas SL!  I'm always quite thrilled to hear that others prefer to shop locally as well!

Pip - our neighbours usually buy their eggs from a stand on the roadside by the flat & are shocked at how much grocery store eggs cost!

In 'normal' times, we have a house up the road that sells gorgeous eggs but at £2 a half dozen - with an honesty box at the gate.  They are absolutely amazing in taste, but quite dear for the amount we eat (inhale)!  We tend to buy them when guests are staying or as special treats on birthdays, anniversaries etc.  Otherwise it's free-range with our weekly shop.

Again in 'normal' times, the farm shop down the road is a good source of meat for us, quality is better than anything else we can get and with careful purchasing comes out the same as grocery store meat.  Amazingly this old fashioned shop has managed to get themselves online for deliveries & will do a butcher's box & eggs, so as soon as we eat down the stores I think this will be the way to go.

The reason I refer to 'normal' times is that currently OH must shield, so that means we've not left the property since March 17th!  Lots of time spent outdoors (with each other) but no trips to the shop for us, so everything we eat has to be delivered. At the beginning of lock-down it was neigh impossible to get any delivery at all, so we relied on our stores for a few weeks until we managed to do a big (huge) delivery.  Our lovely veg box has come regularly & we have been so impressed with A&C's loyalty to it's loyal customers that I'm trying to buy as much as possible from them, within budget of course!

Wow - that was quite the ramble - back on topic - last night's (reverse) meal plan was right on track - pork shoulder steaks with mash& rocket champ - mmmm - so tasty & easy to prepare!  Tonight we will have antipasta & meze & houmous with pita bread.  Am going to make afters - cherry & dark chocolate traybake (yum - first cake in months!!!)

Pyxis

Yes.....re. A and C, I always was impressed with them, (been a customer for 15years), but during this crisis they have surpassed themselves. 
I don't know any details, but I think they have had the most awful problems since lockdown started, both with staff and suppliers, yet they have always managed to get fresh fruit and veg to me, even if the choice was severely limited.

I keep sending them emails telling them what stars they are! 🌟🌟🌟

Suffolk_lass

Another power cut last night but not until about 21.45 by which time we had eaten (lovely pork loin chops with broccoli, carrots and new potatoes - what a treat. We had another small chocolate brownie with strawberries, yogurt and stewed rhubarb - boy did that work!

In non-food news our friend who lives alone has asked if we will have him here on Saturday and we can have a little BBQ. Very exciting!

rtandon27

Oh SL - how exciting to have a guest so nice of both of you to include him in your bubble!
Dessert sounds lush - I may steal that strawberries & yogurt idea to have with our leftover traybake cake from yesterday! (it's not yet made it's way into the freezer😉)

Pyxis

I have strawberries, yogurt and rhubarb, so I will try combining them! 😊

teabody

Pyxis said: 

teabody said:

Hiya, found this thread while looking for ideas to use up my veg oxo's. Any idea's? Adding to rice to flavour but i have lots so trying to find other uses. Have managed to note down a couple of recipes so thank you all! I generally meal plan this way normally but I am not disciplined enough to do it over a long period. DH gets involved in the cooking too and can interrupt the momentum. 
One of my go to meals is Chilli con carne ....BBC good food guide recipe. Adaptable when missing ingredients. Always tasty!

Could you use the Oxo cubes as  the base stock for soups?
If you have room in your freezer, you could make batches of different soups...onion soup, minestrone,  carrot soup (!), or any soup, really.

If you have any pearl barley, you could cook that in the oxo stock as well.

Thank you , great idea!