Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

Goodness - where has the time gone?!

Last week was a complete right-off with regard to reverse meal planning - we had to resort to take-away on three days thanks to very poor train service & the exhaustion of having a pants commute!  To be fair, I also glossed over meal planning as we'd just returned from a mini-break and I was mentally still in holiday mood on the weekend.

This week has been (and will be) much better...

Saturday - brunch was bottom of the fridge omlette & sourdough toast
Sunday - leftover omeletee and toast for brunch - suimai for lunch - our old faithful recipe of pork chops, steamed veg and colcannon for dinner
Monday - mushroom & stilton risotto (steamed green beans on the side) - it's cold weather food and was much appreciated as the evenings have turned
Tuesday - a less than successful cod & prawn fish pie - we are in need of a smaller baking tin for when we actually cut a recipe down to 2 servings instead of 4
Today - the rest of the the risotto from Monday and our last two pok shoulder steaks from the freezer - another portion of green beans - we have a ton from our veg box!
Tomorrow - chicken/mushroom/leek pot pie - veg tbc
Friday - food truck & beer at the local brewery (what passes for a date night in our house)
Saturday - steamed stuffed bao / pot-sticker dumplings & steamed dim sum from the freezer
Sunday - Sunday roast of some sort

OH will be able to cook all the weekday meals before I get home - if I'm on time they will be still warm from the oven and if not can be reheated in the microwave!

A good plan certainly is keep to keeping those pennies in our pockets!
[ @foxgloves - I'm probably misquoting you, but it's one of those sentiments you repeat on your diary (see - you are an infulencer!) ]

Suffolk_lass

Back from our motorhome trip and in that short window before we go again; this time by car, to Scotland. A quick stop at my Mum's on the way up. Overnighter, then on to the Highlands for a week before dropping DH at the Station in Glasgow on the way back. He has a funeral to attend down south, while I have my Mum's birthday to celebrate and cook for, before coming home with dog. It's all go!

rtandon27

Our meals yesterday reverted to being reverse planned!  I'm always very pleased when this happens - it is budget friendly & saves the planned meal for another day!

Lunch was the last portion of fish pie for OH & the last portion of risotto for me.
Tea time was Prosciutto Cotto on rye toast with melted cheese and sliced gherkins - tasted a bit like a Rueben
Dinner was the last of the chicken, llek & mushroom pie.
This ised up what was lurking in the fridge, avoiding the dreaded frozen lunch box fate that is often the case in our house (and means our freezer does not have room for actual ingredients).

Rough plan for the week is in the works...
Mon - veggie
Tues - fish
Wed - chicken (veg box day)
Thurs - meat
Fri - yellow sticker hunt
Sat - food truck pizza & brewery beer
Sun - roast something

ETA - taking a lunch from the freezer for tomorrow - so room has been made - two drawers can open and shut easily now! - still have not firmed up the plan for the week 😂😂😂

zafiro1984

reverse planning in full swing here with the emphasis on budget control.
It does mean that I have cooked/produced different meals for the two of us over the last few days as LO's never seem to stretch to two meals of the same kind. I usually have salad of sorts with mine whilst DH has potatoes and veg.

Last Friday Lunch was egg on toast for DH,  mine was cheese on toast. Tea:-battered fish for DH and I found at the bottom of the freezer a (small) piece of smoked haddock so I had a poached egg with that.

Saturday: Lunch:- duck pate for both of us made from a Sains... special offer of half price duck livers. I managed to freeze quite a lot of the pate - I used small muffin cases as containers and managed to get 6 individual portions. Tea: pork/apple burgers from the freezer made at the beginning of the month - apples from the plot. DH had the usual pots and veg, salad again for me which is now a bit limp.

Today:- Lunch:- me - the rest of the limp salad, plus cheese in a wrap. DH scrambled egg on toast. Tea:-  I try to make an effort on a Sunday because the routine every day is much the same so it demarks a new week. A nice piece of thick venison shoulder steak done slowly with mushrooms/onions and finished with a splash of port, Followed by a very moist chocolate cake (I use oil not butter/marg) very morish but enough made it to the fridge for use tomorrow.

Fridge is looking less cluttered. 

zafiro1984

Back to normal today, Lunch was the last of the cheese in the fridge followed by the LO chocolate cake from yesterday and an apple for me.
Tea:- a couple of sausages wrapped in bacon from the freezer, salad for me, pots for DH followed by low cal jelly set very quickly by putting frozen blackberries into it from the freezer. I'm tired so it was a quick and simple tea after a hectic day

Suffolk_lass

We had the last pack of lardons, stirred into half a pack of garlic and herbs soft cheese and some pasta water, for a quick and easy pasta supper. DH had his shingles booster and it has wiped him out. 2 more leeks to use, I made a leek and potato soup (a little left over to add to the lentils and leeks I will braise with tiny new potatoes (from the garden) and we plan to have that this evening, if he is up to it.

EssexHebridean

Hey all - glad to see that other people are being better at reverse planning than I have been , albeit I'm now thrust back into it whether I like it or not thanks to a hectic weekend meaning no time for a "proper" food shop...

I did nip into T's after work last night and nabbed some top-ups of veggies at least - a decently priced savoy cabbage, bag of mixed peppers and a pack of leeks, which helped inform last night's tea being a seat-of-my-pants stir fry. Some chunks of roast pork were hauled out of the freezer, a courgette from the garden and some of the last of the home-grown runner beans got added to some of the just-purchased veg, home  made spiced plum sauce plus some rice. Very tasty, filling and thankfully also quick! 

This evening will see the last courgette for the moment getting used - although there are still plenty more on the plants assuming the weather doesn't scupper them. That will be chunked and lightly sauteed off along with some other veg to top off the usual Tuesday couscous - might open a tin of chickpeas for a change - and served up with some halloumi.

I am determined that we WILL start getting through freezer stuff - I have a bit of free time over the weekend and so intend to rake through it again before I meal-plan with a view to making use of what I can. A tub of curry and a tub of daal will be coming out for Friday for sure. I may also have scope for a saturday lunch that can involve some using up of odds and ends - so that's an incentive to see what tasty stuff is lurking...

zafiro1984

Fridge is looking quite bare, delivery coming around 8pm tonight - minimum cost amount - mainly perishables, salad items, veg, some fruit, bread, milk and cleaning items. You don't get much these days for your money but at least it will force me to use items from the freezer.

Lunch was cold LO quiche for DH as he had to do some CPD. Fruit for me.
Tea:- after the delivery  - HM scotch egg, thanks to the hens, followed by something to do with apples from the freezer - maybe just custard.
Mustn't forget - there's also still a couple of glasses of wine left in the bottle. 

rtandon27

Productive Saturday resulted in a stock take of the dry-goods, tins & bottles we have in house! 

There are one or two items that I need to use up as they distinctly fall into the category of 'what was I thinking?' Included in this category are tapioca pearls which I did not realize take days to get into shape for bubble tea!  OH also picked up a bag of them somewhere, so these two items might go to the daughter of a friend who has a bubble tea obsession!

Have also realized that we have been doing a really good job at eating down the stores when I found only one of most items!  One of any item has always been my goal, but sales and bargains are my downfall!  There are a couple of things I like to have two of, tins of chickpeas, green lentils and coconut milk are a case in point, so have popped these onto this week's grocery list. 

Somehow we have also got tins of C@mpbe11s 'cream of soup' that survived through the shortage from earlier this year, so I'm rather pleased that the ubiquitous green bean casserole will make it onto our table for Canadian Thanksgiving in a few weeks time!  We also have a tin of evaporated milk and pumpkin puree which I'm thankful to past me for stocking up on in the sales so that we can have pumpkin pie on the table as well. (As I type this I'm also thankful that very English OH loves me enough to eat both of these things once a year, as they 'are not his favorites'.)

Freezer dive today resulted in finding some yellow sticker turkey breast which I may save for Thanksgiving having searched the prices for frozen turkey crowns and found that they are ludicrous! (Neither OH nor I are huge fans of turkey anyway.)  Same excursion into the freezer resulted in just over a pound of cubed pork belly from many months ago that I know was prepped for a delicious Japanese stew we had made.  I quite fancy Pilipino pork adobo instead and OH did not find the ingredients objectionable so that is slow cooking on the stove instead!  The house is currently smelling quite garlicky so I'm glad we don't have the type of friends who just pop in!  It is however perfect for dreich weather food.  Rice cooker will go on later with some fragrant jasmine & there is leftover cabbage & onion from earlier in the week.

Our freezer could really do with a stock take and tidy as well, but it's a bit of a daunting task and current me is not in the mood! 🤣🤣🤣

Rough reverse-planned meals for the week...
Monday - veggie something
Tuesday - fish something
Wednesday - chicken something (grocery delivery day)
Thursday - Ox cheek pie with carrots and beans
Friday - brews & food truck fare
Saturday - frozen bao, gyoza & dim sum, possibly noodles as well
Sunday - pork roast & veggie & potatoes

Not really feeling inspired to figure out our Mon/Tues/Wed so off to look through some grocery store magazines and hope for inspiration!

rtandon27

This week has NOT gone according to plan!

Monday we ended up having leftovers from Sunday as the flooded train lines meant I was working from home and didn't fancy what we was planned!

Yesterday an 0li0 friend needed help with some rather nice bits that were in her freezer - A family pack of posh burgers and one of chicken wings came home, got defrosted in the microwave and then bunged in the oven.  We had a serving each but as there are only two of us, another two dinners await!  Tonight we do have some veg to cook up though so that will add variety to this evening's dinner.

Guess that is the beauty of reverse planning, the ability to adapt and chop and change as needed!