Reverse Meal Planning

Primrose

On the question of tubs of chocolate for the Christmas season, one of our village oubs collects empty ones in January for recycling for charity fund raising.  And each post-Christmas period we see  a higher mountain of them piling  up  on the pavement outside awaiting collection day.  The quantity is unbelievable. A box of these items must be everybo,s emergency gift donation when thry don't know what else to buy for somebody's present  as so many households have one to donate!

Cherryfudge

Primrose said:

On the question of tubs of chocolate for the Christmas season, one of our village oubs collects empty ones in January for recycling for charity fund raising.  And each post-Christmas period we see  a higher mountain of them piling  up  on the pavement outside awaiting collection day.  The quantity is unbelievable. A box of these items must be everybo,s emergency gift donation when thry don't know what else to buy for somebody's present  as so many households have one to donate!

I don't buy them but I keep a look out for people throwing out the empties as they are very useful if visitors are taking food home after a meal with us, or if I take cake to someone. It doesn't matter too much if they don't come back and I was getting tired of losing mixing bowls to relatives!

How does the pub recycle the ones they collect? Are they turned into something else?

Primrose

Cherry fudge. I think the oub have come to some arrangement with Cancer Researxh for a recycling project.  They,ve been doing it for a number of years noe and it,s sort of become a village habit, but yes a few of the boxes can be useful or transporting cakes and leftovers.

joedenise

Just back from a weekend away in the motorhome and as we ate out a couple of times the meals I'd planned while we were away will be dinner tonight and tomorrow instead.  So tonight is a sausage and bean casserole (hunt the sausage!) and tomorrow will be pork steak, new potatoes and veg.

No idea what will be after that as haven't menu planned for this month yet!

rtandon27

Cherryfudge said:

...I put your ingredients list into a search engine and it gave me this (below), but I don't think either is quite what you're describing...

I just love your use of AI search!  A brilliant way to figure out what a random list of ingredients could possibly be!

Can't wait to share that one with my Mom, who makes a habit of waiting until our weekly call to ask me to G00gle various bits and pieces for her!  She's completely computer literate, in fact is a 10-yrs retired computer programmer, but somehow she can't cope with a search engine!

I will pop a note over to my Uncle and ask if he knows what the mystery pastry is called as I do remember one year we did an assembly line production of the pastries with him and my Auntie, before my cousins were born! So in theory he must know what they are if he knows how they are made - LOL

OH wants me to share with you my first experience of a mince pie, as his very English sensibilities find it highly amusing (and yes he's been known to eat a whole box on his own!)...

Back in my first year here in the UK, I was at OH's office when the boss came in and offered me a mince pie - my eyes lit up as my head though mince = ground beef - so I thought something along the lines of a mini meat pie.  Mind you that year I'd been introduced to pork pies, various types of pasties and the giant oggie and loved them all, so a mini pie was not completely off-piste.  It was mini - it was a pie of sorts, but oh my the look on my face when I took a bite and it was sweet - this prompted the boss's wife to pass me a napkin and say 'spit it out my dear' 🤣🤣🤣  All I could hear was my Gran saying "be polite, chew and swallow!" I dutifully did as the ghost voice instructed, but it was many years before I tried the sweet treat again!

rtandon27

Reverse meal planning is on the cards for today...

...but my every cell is resisting going back to the routine of the regular working week.

I've been trying to do my weekly pack-ups which come in handy on the commute and stop me from buying chocolate and crisps at 3pm.  They are still half-packed on the table and Oh has commented twice about the 'mess' 😂

I know what dinner will be tonight but not much else other than that!

ETA - @Primrose - tbh our sweetie "Tin" has morphed into a paper box or two as of late as we were not thrilled with the plastic tubs!  I have an ancient purple Tin on my shelves which currently homes tealights but closer to Xmas will be filled with sweeties - I think it was rescued from OH's Mom's cupboard at some point!  Also have a Carr's Tin which we refill with Waitflower own brand and a Jacob's Tin which holds 4 packs of cream crackers - one of the few branded things I still buy in our day-to-day shopping.

zafiro1984

Birthday earlier this week/Monday. DH can't/wont go out for a meal - allergies, so I always have to cook at home. I set aside the afternoon to produce a reasonable meal, however it didn't happen so I tried again on Tuesday.
The enthusiasm had sadly gone so instead of the 'posh' stuff seeing the light of day we ate if off our usual kitchen plates etc.
Wednesday and no doubt for the remainder of this week we will live on leftovers.

Wednesday lunch:- eggy bread curtesy of the hens. Tea:-  cold duck in wraps with salad etc, followed by a small chocolate mousse, infused with brandy.
Today lunch:- scrambled egg on toast with a tiny bit of smoked salmon. tea:- duck soup now happily bubbling away, rolls, then a few strawberries from the plot with meringue frozen a couple of weeks ago and a small amount of cream - again with brandy.
I have quite enjoyed not having to do too much in the kitchen apart from opening the fridge door.
Plenty still in the fridge - more salad, some HM black cherry sauce (I cheated in the way I made it and DH couldn't tell ) duck legs, some roast pots, part of a HM chocolate cake - which I think I'll freeze, the usual cheese, milk, some soft fruit, shortcrust pastry and salad dressings. 
The enthusiasm is back to stretch what I have as far as possible without having to resort to the freezer or worst still, shopping

Cherryfudge

rtandon27 said:

 somehow she can't cope with a search engine!

I'm sure search terms are an art form. My DH is very good at them and I'm not, but I suppose years of asking him things has bent my brainwaves in something akin to the right direction.

It's interesting your Mom can ask you but not ask a search engine. Perhaps she's trying to encourage you to practice your computer skills?  

I love your mince pies story! It must have been quite a shock, especially if you have a taste for savoury food. I've had mince pies so long that I anticipate them with glee (along with most of the UK, I expect) but when I think about it, they are quite a distinctive taste. Good for you, eventually trying them again.

And to my shame I admit I had to look up a 'giant oggie'. They look good. And do you mean to say the rest of the world doesn't have pork pies? Alas.

Yes, please see if your uncle can remember the pastries, they sounded lovely.

zafiro1984

Yesterday from the fridge was, parsnip/squash with a pinch of curry pdr soup - no more parsnips or butternut squash in the fridge. Also made cauliflower and broccoli soup - not as good as the parsnip soup -we  had that today. The geese had the rather solid bread that was left over from earlier in the week, plus the outside of a lettuce that was bitter. 
Last night was duck legs plus the thigh meat in wraps, used up the remainder of the black cherry sauce. It was rather tasty even when cold. DH wanted crisps as well as some salad. I just had it with salad, followed by chopped up fruit set in a no sugar jelly

Tonight - still using up as much leftovers as possible, -  I had to get a cooked cottage pie filling from the freezer and covered it with chopped up LO roast potatoes. We've not eaten it yet but it looks ok. Pudding (please don't laugh) from the freezer LO Christmas pudding from last year, just going to use a small amount as DH finds it very filling, there's a bit of cream in the fridge but I'll probably use ice-cream so it's not too heavy.

I'm starting to see the shelves in the fridge

joedenise

Had a tasty spicy courgette soup for lunch today using a recipe posted by @Sun_Addict on another thread.  Will definitely be making it again but will add chopped potato to it at the beginning so that it's a bit thicker as was a bit thin today.

Dinner tonight was keema curry from the freezer with some rice with the last of the mango chutney from the fridge.