Reverse Meal Planning

zafiro1984

Today and yesterday has been to use as much as possible to clear the fridge for two reasons, we have someone staying again this weekend and most of what is in the fridge has already been frozen once and therefore not to be frozen again.

Yesterday lunch was pate/bread and HM biscuits & flapjacks (the biscuit dough had been frozen) tea was pheasant-already cooked last April I added some spices, red wine, veg and made dumplings, mine was a pork and apple burger made last weekend plus salad. Pudding was some cooked apple already in the fridge and defrosting, combined with a 'smashed' flapjack and toffee sauce over it - toffee sauce was LO from a sticky toffee pudding made last weekend.

Today lunch:- bits of different cheeses and biscuits, mine was cheese on toast using the crumbled broken bits with Worchester sauce. Biscuits made from dough defrosting then bits of fruit, mainly a few grapes, an odd plum, shared apple and shared tangerine. Tea for me was the reminder of the pheasant meat from yesterday with vegs. DH had a sort of shepherds pie, with swede and pots as the topping. Pudding was the last of the defrosting frozen apple, with a couple of HM crumbled ginger biscuits and the rest of the toffee sauce inside puff pastry with cream over it. - that got a thumbs up. Its surprising what you can do with odds and sods and a bit of lateral thought. 

Fridge reasonably empty, nothing lurking needing to be used up.
It's hard when people come because I feel we all have to eat the same meal, whereas when there are just the two of us it doesn't matter if the meals are different. I love salad - DH not so. DH loves red meat I prefer whiter meat. We always end up with loads of bits and bobs after people have gone, I hate throwing things away but must say I do enjoy fiddling about seeing how I can use everything up.

rtandon27

@zafiro1984 - I'm always amazed that you manage to make two different meals at one sitting!

We had a burger filled week - but a) - they were posh so lots of good meat consumed b) - they were free which means food I'd paid for ended up staying in the freezer/stores for another day!

So in the end we had...
Monday - left over adobo & garlic rice
Tuesday - burgers & wings (added our own salad and cheese)
Wednesday - another round of burgers
Thursday - Ox cheek pie & carrots & beans
Friday - third and final round of burgers with homemade wedges (our budget stayed happy as we did not go out for the evening!)
Saturday - toast with jam and cheese for breakfast - free coffee & cake with coupons for lunch - bao & gyoza for dinner
Sunday - veggie omelet with chorizo - dinner will be a pork roast & veggies

I've had a freezer tidy & pulled out bits to make a veggie soup which will do us well during this cold weather and results in drawers that open and close with ease!

Also took out some crispy tofu with rice for tomorrow's easy win dinner - will probably have with steamed green beans from the freezer.

Off to have a think about this week's plan...

fionaandphil

@rtandon27 you sound just like me. I've also had a bit of a freezer clear and rearrange today. It's great when the freezer drawers move in and out easily 😄 

We are on lots of yellow sticker this week trying to have a clear out before Christmas. Today is roast chicken with lots of veg and blackberry crumble for dessert. Tomorrow is chicken bake made with leftovers and I'm going to make soup with the stock.

rtandon27

@fionaandphil - haha - yes indeed it is! - I've had another shuffle in the freezer as the roasted vegetable soup made 5x500mL, four of which are now back in there & one is in the fridge so we can have it during the week as a starter.

This week's reverse plan, based on what we have in-house
Monday - Crispy fried tofu & rice with some green beans
Tuesday - prawn & pepper stir-fry - possibly with noodles (this may be replaced with leftovers from today's roast dinner.)
Wednesday - chicken/mushroom/leek pie - this will result in leftovers for the weekend or more pack-ups in the freezer
Thursday - Meat pierogis with cabbage & onion and sour cream
Friday - Greek from the food truck at the brewery
Saturday - veggie omelet for breakfast and Asian bao/gyoza/noodles for dinner
Sunday - lamb biryani and some sort of green veg on the side

I also can't take anything from the freezer for lunch this week as I have four work lunches happening! - Two we are ordering as a group and the others I can be somewhat healthier as we can order our own - lunch money will be tight for the rest of the month though (or until I claim back expenses!) - but at least I now know there are at least 4 or 5 decent pack-ups ready to go for the rest of the month an even what drawer they are stashed in!

zafiro1984

Yesterday I used the wood burner for the first time since the summer  - cooked tea in its adjoining oven, sausages wrapped in bacon, mash and veg, followed by defrosted apple with a topping of LO crumbled flapjack and a couple of crumbled spice biscuits. Old fashioned but nice.

I must get back into the habit of taking something out of the freezer, defrosting it overnight in the fridge and cooking it in the 'Ironheart' (wood burner) the following day, - saves money on the electric. Takes a bit more effort in planning but last year I used slightly less electric in the winter than the summer.

Today:- lunch - soup - used the LO casserole stock from a pheasant casserole a couple of days ago, with veg, pulses/herbs and a couple of chicken drumsticks (yellow sticker) cooked slowly overnight in the Ironheart as it cooled down.
Tea:- Going to make a beef and mushroom pie,  Mushrooms from the fields, frozen pie beef now defrosting, the dregs from a bottle of wine, plus a few herbs, Just need to make the pastry and do the veg. Followed by old fashioned rice pudding topped with strawberry jam using LO milk from a meeting at the weekend.

EssexHebridean

I do love wandering in here and finding out what everyone has been cooking! Zafiro your wood burner and oven set up sounds amazing! Much as I love our open fire, I do have a bit of woodburner envy when I hear of things like this!

I was good and batch cooked again on Sunday - smokey black bean chilli this time, using various bits of veg from the fridge, mince from the freezer, tinned toms from the stores (and some which were in the Lil's £1.50 box the other week chopped up and thrown in) plus one of our HG chillies and one from that same box. Black beans also from stores - with FFoods selling them at 39p a tin I'm not inclined to mess about soaking and cooking currently! Towards the end of cooking I realised it wasn't quite as "spiced" as I wanted so it got a shake of lovely smoked chilli flakes as well - just the thing. Two portions of that were eaten last night (and pronounced delicious!) and a further 4 double portions have made it to the freezer. I also cooked a half lamb shoulder on Sunday and after lunch that day was taken off it, I have plenty for this evening for us both too, with the usual Tuesday couscous and veggies.  

I now have a meal plan that takes us a couple of weeks hence, and I will be intending to add a week to that each friday as we go on, so we are always a bit ahead of ourselves, and can better plan batch cooking. The freezer is back to being chock-a-block again, but that's fine as the last two week's batch cooks will take me through the next few and begin to see it start emptying out again. It's now cool enough to  make things like crumpets really appealing again, so I will be freezer-diving for some of those that I know are stashed in there. 

rtandon27

@EssexHebridean - amazing to have that many weeks planned - do you follow your plans to a tee? - we find that inevitably we end up chopping and changing as leftovers keep appearing - we never eat as much as we think we will!

@zafiro1984 - my OH would move in to yours if I told him what was on your 'old-fashioned' menu! He is constantly saying we don't eat enough good old British food and too much 'foreign muck' - The hilarious bit being that while I do the meal planning, he does 95% of the cooking so agrees to the adventure in advance!  Teach him to find a woman who grew up in what was the most multi-cultural city in the world & import her to England!  My tastes are eclectic!

So far so good with the meal plan this week - subbed fresh bean sprouts for green beans in last night's dinner - but there was a whole lot of crispy tofu rice left over so it's come to the office with me for lunch today! - Tonight will be leftovers from Sunday's roast dinner - again, we have much more left than we thought we would so anything left will be cut up and frozen for a future stir-fry!

[Must have a think about portion sizes - I think half the problem is on the days I have a full working lunch, I have very little apatite for dinner - have to figure out why OH is eating less these days! - his bottomless pit now has a bottom.] 

EssexHebridean

Good lord no - the best my meal plans usually are is a rough guide - and at worst it all turns into carnage and I just lift it wholesale for the following week on the basis that we ended up eating nothing that was on it!   

zafiro1984

rtandon27 said:

@zafiro1984 - my OH would move in to yours if I told him what was on your 'old-fashioned' menu! He is constantly saying we don't eat enough good old British food and too much 'foreign muck' - The hilarious bit being that while I do the meal planning, he does 95% of the cooking so agrees to the adventure in advance!  Teach him to find a woman who grew up in what was the most multi-cultural city in the world & import her to England!  My tastes are eclectic!

That made me laugh as DH also uses the phrase 'Foreign' He won't eat rice & pasta, says they have no taste.  At least your OH is a modern man doing the cooking, mine has trouble finding the kettle... but now retired, he's really good at DIY so I mustn't complain too much.

EssexHebridean

Morning all! Somehow we are still on track - a full scale freezer expedition was mounted last night to discover the  sausages - they were finally encountered at the base of a deep crevasse where they were lying upside down. Thankfully I managed to successfully find my way out again and they are now defrosting in the fridge ready for tonight. HG tatties and a tin of beans I think - winter food! 

I intend to continue the meal plan for another week tomorrow - that will probably incorporate the YS'd quiche and veggie burgers that are lurking in the freezer.