Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

I agree @zafiro1984, @rtandon27's menus are much more exotic than ours, and I regularly look things up!

Here, we had roast half shoulder of lamb with mash, buttered leeks and carrots last night. All from stores. Today will be cold lamb, pickles, jacket potatoes and whatever salad there is. A bit of lettuce and coleslaw, I will cut up a window-sill-ripened tomato and try to save some seed for next year (Black Russian seeds are as rare as Unicorn horns)

EssexHebridean

Oh I love that about the crackling zafiro - how cheeky of them! 

RT your menus do always sound so nice - but boo to the sort of colds that put you off the idea of eating. Soup is an excellent plan in that situation. 

I'm sticking with the standard sort of thing for this evening - couscous with halloumi and assorted veggies. Tomorrow is going to need a trip into the freezer to find the roast pork chunks that will form the backbone of the stirfry that is on the plan - that will see off the last of a piece of elderly cabbage from the fridge, and some of our home grown chard too as well as peppers and mushrooms. 
Thursday is going to be a frittata style omelette again I think - quick and simple for an evening we're usually back a bit later. I may try to remember to boil some of our tiny HG tatties to bulk that out a bit, but if not I'll do a sachet of grains again I think - that worked well. 

rtandon27

zafiro1984 said:

Love reading your menu's RT, some of which I'll have to google , Pieogis, purple haze carrots and napa cabbage??

haha - I love that comment! ❤❤❤ - I've often g00gled turns of phrase that are not in my repertoire when reading the forums!  I find it such a place to learn from!

Growing up I thought Perogies were a quintessential Canadian thing, only after leaving home for university did I even discover they were Ukrainian/Polish in origin! Turns out I love a stuffed dumpling of any culture - am currently making my way through every flavour of gyoza and momo that our local international store carries!

Napa cabbage is called Chinese leaf here in the UK - our local grocery stores sell it - it stores really well just like any other cabbage, but somehow is fresher and brighter in taste when added to a meal.

Purple Haze carrots are courtesy of my bi-weekly veg box - some kind of heritage variety I believe.  They are purple verging on black and the core is yellow/orange.  I've taken to wearing gloves when prepping them as they stain like beets.  Somehow we end up with quite a few purple veg in our box over the autumn, purple sweet potatoes, purple/red cabbage, purple carrots & purple sprouting broccoli.  They don't really taste any different to the more usual varieties but they are rather fun to have on the plate.

@zafiro1984 - I just love the tale of the disappearing crackling!  It does not last long in our house either - OH just loves roast pork so I'll be keeping an eye out for a joint the next time we venture into a store.

joedenise

@rtandon27 - Sainsbury have half price pork joints at the moment.  I bought a good size piece today which has been cut into 4 pork steaks and 2 joints which will each do 2 meals for 2 of us.

They also have lamb leg on half price - bought a whole leg for just over £16 which DH has cut a thick chunk from the top (used a hacksaw to get through the bone!) which has been cubed and frozen to make a tagine at some stage.  The rest has been halved so 2 1/2 leg joints which hopefully will both do 2 meals for 2.

EssexHebridean

Joedenise did you happen to notice whether either of those deals were on British meat? 

redofromstart

EH, the pork says british, the lamb can be british or NZ (was looking earlier in case i need to go into the city to pay some cheques in)

Hello all, currently lurking. Great thread.

joedenise

To be honest EH I didn't notice but I'm hoping the lamb was British as is wasn't frozen!  I'm sure New Zealand lamb is usually sold frozen.  As redo said the pork is British.

rtandon27

@joedenise - fabulous, thank-you for the tip, OH will be might pleased to have pork rather than chicken for our weekend roast

@EssexHebridean - the pork roasts at MrS are definitely British - they are a regular purchase for us when on sale. - the fresh lamb on the other hand, while all packaged in the UK can be either British or from NZ - it really is potluck but you can tell by the stamp on the skin which clearly says NZ if it is from there - a shame really given the carbon footprint of imported meat! - the frozen lamb is all NZ & we avoid as we prefer to buy meat fresh and freeze ourselves

@redofromstart - happy to see you here - it's a great thread full of tips and tricks! - hope it helps you get your mojo back and at the very least keeps you entertained!

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, half price pork, thanks @joedenise. I need sugar and some chicken wings, drumsticks and thighs for the community lunches I do (wings and drumsticks for the buffet in December, thighs for a version of lobby in January).

We had the cold lamb from the half-shoulder I roasted, with pickles JP and salad, as planned. Finding half a jar of home pickled beetroot in the fridge that I had forgotten, and adding cauliflower to the coleslaw padded things out a bit. I really like raw cauliflower, and so does DH!

Tonight will be grilled bass fillets with mash and steamed veg, I think. I also got 2 lambs hearts out of the freezer - they are a proper old favourite with the hm stuffing my Mum used to make. I make them much lighter than she used to, with much less fat. They are a good, cheap meal and full of iron

EssexHebridean

Great - thanks Joedenise & Redo! Might see if I can find the time to head there for a look at the weekend, although that might depend on the traffic situation as our local store is the wrong side of some fairly grim roadworks. (It's all the way down the hill too, so I won't be volunteering to cycle there!) 

Happy lurking Redo!

I've started a list of stuff to add to the meal plan when I get home - for those moments where inspiration strikes!