Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

I echo this @rtandon27, it was finding these threads that undoubtedly saved us from a life of ongoing debt. Over here, I am determined to live out of the freezer, but we have a few staples to top up. I also need to go into the butcher's to order meat for Christmas, so I will go tomorrow.

I have got two pork chops out of the freezer, along with a packet of butter, and with the tiny amount of remaining carrots and some cabbage and homegrown potatoes, we can manage until tomorrow, or maybe Tuesday 

rtandon27

@Suffolk_lass - your pork chop dinner sounds very autumnal!  Perfect time of year for it - do you have your Aga on yet? - we've not turned on the central heating at all with the unseasonably balmy weather - just using the small electric heater in the front room to take the chill off in the evenings.

Meal Plan for the week went very well this week - getting a better handle on portions!  I've got some leftover roast veg that needs to be turned into soup and bits of chicken meat to be used up in a stir-fry of some sort.  Tonight will be the shifted pizza from Friday so all meals will be consumed as planned!

This week is part planned already but I do have four days to have a think about...

Monday - Pierogi & cabbage & onion
Tuesday - Fish something - we have some whitefish & prawns in the freezer
Wednesday - Thai Green Chicken Curry & Rice to use up some tiny potatoes - this may turn into a Nonya Sambal curry as we picked up a jar at the local farm shop yesterday
Thursday - All Hallow's Eve! - a favorite memory from childhood & very luckily the local brewery will be hosting an evening which includes the Canadian food truck and hopefully autumnal drinks!
Friday - Pizza & wedges - TBC - or Waitflower yellow stickers - or roast pork on a bun if we can be bothered to go to the brewery for a second time 🤣🤣🤣
Saturday  - might be Waitflower bargains or quite simply bao & gyoza
Sunday - Roast something? - TBC

This week's plans are quite loose from Weds to Sun as we will be visiting with good friends on their way back to Canada from Portugal and want to be open to spur of the moment decisions!  They are not staying with us, but we will be out and about with them!  They funny thing is that the wife half is the one I keep in contact with even though the husband half was my boss for three years!  My OH & her husband get along famously as they'd both rather be sitting than doing & are what I categorize as properly grumpy old men!

Frugaliza

I have a bag of sprouts looking accusingly at me.  Does anyone have a sprouts as the main ingredient type dish?

Brambling

I like stir frying sprouts with bacon or pancetta, onion and garlic I've bookmarked this recipe to try which uses the airfryer

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/air-fryer-crispy-sprouts-with-lardons.html

i also shred them raw and add to a vegetable slaw to replace some of the cabbage 
 

Suffolk_lass

I shred them into almost fried off smoked bacon lardons and add them to my cheats creamy cheese sauce (half a tub of philly (other cream cheese is available), a teaspoon of pesto, and a couple of tablespoons of pasta (starchy) water, all mixed to a smooth paste) - it's fab with penne or tagliatelle as a quick supper

EssexHebridean

The mention of sprouts reminds me - I was given a TIN OF SPROUTS by a pal who was clearing out cupboards a while ago. Now, there are some here who will be smirking at the mention of a tin of sprouts...  

I do all sorts with fresh sprouts around Christmas, but stir fried is about the favourite I think - either with bacon bits and chestnuts, or just as they are with some garlic and a splash of lemon juice.  Liking SL's suggestion of turning them into a veg with pasta though. 

So I threw together a quick cheaty fish pie mix on Monday - white fish fillets, salmon fillets and the last of a bag of prawns, along with half a bag of frozen mixed veg. Had a panic before I started when I realised how short we were on milk, until I recalled Rick Stein's method using fish stock for the liquid instead...a quick rifle through the cupboard revealed a couple of fairly ancient fish stockpot jellies, so all good. That fed us on Monday night, with additional portions for this evening so hurrah for that. Monday's was served with the boiled tatties alongside, I think tonight's is going to have them roughly piled on top and then cheese sprinkled over the top before getting a final blast in the combi microwave to crisp it up.  In the interests of proper reverse planning, MrEH's cheese will be cheddar while mine will be feta which needs using. 

Current thinking is that tomorrow will be a tub of ragu from the freezer, with pasta. quick and easy for a night when we tend to be a little later getting home. 

Suffolk_lass

Over here, the slow-cooked ragu remains are in an old ice-cream pot in the fridge for redeployment in stuffed peppers. It is a little wetter than I expected. I'm tempted to make  rice dish so I can stir some through to thicken and pad it out. We have lunch out today (community lunch £5 a head) so this evening, if the need takes us, I am thinking bacon butties! Which reminds me... I must bake bread, and rolls

EssexHebridean

Rolls done this morning here by MrEH SL - I told him to get the sorted as there is a chinkof space in the freezer and if he puts rolls in it it will stop me being tempted to buy anything else to go in there! 😂

while the oven was on I roasted the squash I bought in Al’s last week - plan is to make that into soup with some coconut milk tomorrow. I also roasted the ripened tomatoes - there are still a few more green ones and those might yet get lobbed into piccalilli which I’m keen to get made before too long. The batch I did this morning just had the classic garlic, basil leaves and a glug of oil and will be used with pasta on Monday evening. 

Batch of scones made this afternoon - the excuse there is that we bought a pot of clotted cream back from Devon with us - it’s pretty much illegal not to make scones in that situation. 

Freezer diving has happened and we are having burgers this evening - bought burger buns earlier and I am hoping I still have a bag of oven chips in the freezer - if not though I will do something with the home grown tatties so all good. Also pulled out the remains of a pack of cured meat to go with a picky tea tomorrow - that will include HM houmous (as I want to try out my new mini processor to check it’s OK), cheese, crackers etc. 

need to make bread overnight ready for breakfast… 

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, piccalilli! which recipe do you follow? I actually have some green tomatoes to use. And you see, now all I can think about is scones with Devonshire cream. What are we like!

No butties last night, we made do with a packet of peanuts, a bag of crisps and some opened bottled, stewed garden fruit with the rest of a carton of ready made custard. My kind of supper!

rtandon27

SL - sometimes those make do dinners are the most enjoyed!

Our (reverse) meal plan this week went fairly well this week until today!  Dinner was meant to be pork chops with red currant gravy, champ & carrots.  Well I went to get the chops from the freezer and there were none!  Also no cavalo nero or kale in the freezer so no champ could be made! I'd also forgotten that our current jelly turned into a science experiment as OH used a wet spoon to fish some out a few weeks ago! We did however have carrots in the fridge.  So dinner ended up being posh peppered sausages with lingonberry gravy, steamed brussels, carrots and small potatoes from one of my grow bags.

I also made up some roasted root vegetable soup - used up some leftover roast veg and a pot of chicken stock - we had two bowls to start off dinner and have enough left for 4 more bowls.  Half is now in the freezer and half for lunch tomorrow.

This week's dinner is planned from what we have and what we need to use up this week,
Monday - veggie day - Squash risotto
Tuesday - fish day - prawn & chorizo pasta with rocket & tomato salad - we'll try out our farmer's market miso salad dressing
Wednesday - chicken day - Nonya lemongrass chicken curry with the teeny tiny potatoes from my garden - steamed pak choi & jasmine rice
Thursday - Beef burgers with cheese, lettuce & tomatoes with potato wedges or coins
Friday - Pizza!
Saturday - Canadian food truck - wings, poutine, burgers
Sunday - Sausage & Pumpkin Tray bake