Reverse Meal Planning

StickyTheStickInsect

I've lurked a lot this year but have been reading along, I hope to contribute more in 2025.
Happy New Year everyone!

joedenise

We've got less than a week until we go on holiday so it's a definite use it up time!  Most of the gammon has been sliced and frozen for later.  The LO chicken was used to make a curry.

Today I've got some diced lamb out of the freezer which I'm going to use to make a lamb curry in the slow cooker and will just need to cook some rice later; there's also the remains of a jar of mango chutney in the fridge to finish off.

Lunch today will be a green lentil soup which I got out of the freezer last night so hopefully that will have defrosted in time!

Will need to get out a pack of savoury mince from the freezer to today to use to make a cottage pie for dinner tomorrow.  Planning on a kedgeree for breakfast tomorrow and we'll probably have burgers for lunch.

Just need to see what else I can find in the fridge/freezer/cupboards for the following few days!

lilian1977

Hello everyone

I am semi-starting today but am going to meet in laws for lunch, so can only do breakfast and tea.

Breakfast - used up some browning apples in the fridge and some wrinkled grapes, stewed them with a sprinkle of cinnamon and had with am OOD natural yoghurt! Got cinnamon swirls cooling now which were bought for Xmas Day but we didn't have them.

Dinner will be leftover snacks from last night - pizza, dim sum, chicken bites, salad etc. Them tomorrow will be a use it up day as going away for the weekend on Friday morning.

Have happy days everyone.

rtandon27

We are having bowls of porridge for breakfast this morning - perfect stormy weather food!  Have added the usual chia & flax along with use it up nuts (broken bits) - ginger and sultanas for OH & dried mixed berries for me - vanilla, maple syrup and cinnamon for flavourings.  A boiled egg on the side for protein.  I've nicknamed these british buddha bowls and had forgotten how much we enjoy this particular breakfast.  I'd estimate a grand total of 50p a bowl for ingredients I'll be replacing - the nuts and dried fruit are leftovers so not counting them.

redofromstart

Scrambled eggs, with some diced gammon, flat mushroom and the leftover beans for me.  I used a garlic flatbread from the garage freezer last night - small steps. DS has requested his favourite chorizo and cabbage soup, which would use up the chorizo from the freezer and an elderly savoy from the fridge.  It'll use some of the frozen chopped onions too.

The unexpected advantage of the small fridge is that there is no point me going shopping for something to do.  I can't actually fit anything else in.

Some not very sweet cherries that need eating - was thinking of making a soft jelly rather than just wasting them.  Plenty of sugar and a few empty jars. 

MissRikkiC

@JingsMyBucket could you share that banana bread recipe? I’ve these which are in desperate need of using and the children don’t want the muffins I usually make until they go back to school/nursery next week. 

Also. Can anyone provide me with their sandwich loaf recipe? I am in desperate need of trying to make my own bread a few times a week as we get through so much with the children. Thank you all. 

For lunch today I used up some rocket, olives and other anti pasti bits that were past their best, Cous cous and then some cheddar chunks, raw mushroom and a few other scant bits. Fridge looks bare nearly. Wahoo!

JingsMyBucket

@MissRikkiC  I used this recipe with minimal changes  https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chocolate_banana_bread/

4 bananas instead of 3 and the bananas were spotted not black; a little bit less brown sugar; added 1/4 tsp cinnamon; and totally skipped the chocolate chips because I didn’t have any. 

It is such a soft and moist bread without being too wet. I dropped peanut butter over the top of it after baking. I made it on Sunday and it’s still delicious. Hope you enjoy it! 

MissRikkiC

Thanks! I’ll give it a go tomorrow. 

rtandon27

@JingsMyBucket - I've also got frozen bananas & will give that one a go - my rice cooker has a cake function, so will bake it in there!  It looks to be such an easy recipe & I have both cocoa and chocolate chips lurking on the storage shelves.

Lunch today was sesame ramen noodles with pak choi, mushrooms, spring onions, a chopped up chicken breast, 4 lonely prawns that were lurking in the freezer and a boiled egg each.  When costing this up, I realized that those are all ingredients we buy and keep in the stores on a regular basis and will need to be replaced, so cost per head was a lot more than the last bowl of soba noodle soup we had! So a bowl of protein heavy soup with noodles cost 4 pounds a head which is less than half of what it would cost to get the same bowl anywhere near my office in the city!  So yes, cheaper than eating out, but about double what I aim for our meals to cost when eating at home!  That being said it kept us full all day & OH didn't even fancy anything more than some cheese for dinner.

On the other hand, I was hungry enough to brave a freezer dive and found one generous portion of chicken & squash thai red curry.  Used up a pack of some UBen's microwave jasmine rice that has been lurking as it is truly not that nice.  I'm going to admit to having some Waitflower lime pickle with it, which though and odd combo was really quite nice.  OH was not impressed with the mix and match scents emanating from my bowl, mainly as he was in one of his foreign food mindsets, despite having made the curry in the first place!  I'm going to count that as a free meal, as the curry was truly just leftovers and I will definitely not be replacing the rice. Food for the day cost us about 9 pounds which is at the higher range of what I like to spend but we were both satiated on nutrient dense unprocessed foods and did almost no snacking!

joedenise

The green lentil soup I got out for lunch was actually more like a stew and very filling so both DH and I decided cheese and crackers would do in the evening.  So the lamb curry lives to see another day!

We'll be having burgers and onions for lunch and the curry and rice tonight instead.  The savoury mince I got out and defrosted will probably turn into a cottage pie for tomorrow night!