Reverse Meal Planning

redofromstart

Always the challenge here @rtandon27 which is why I generally why I generally plan the protein rather than the meal. 

Jacket potatoes here - with cheese and HM coleslaw. 

MissRikkiC

We were meant to have lamb casserole but I’ve swapped that out for chicken korma and rice and we will have the casserole tomorrow. I made it the same as I had with the beef but with less water this time (and less meat!)

Fridays dinner of chicken nuggets for the children made on account of there being a good amount of chicken in the poly bag I got out of the freezer. We used the rest in the curry. 

Just enough bread left for morning but will need to make another loaf tomorrow. Left over tuna pasta bake for lunch and then left over curry for lunch Friday. 

Can you believe I looked in the cupboard today and actually contemplated doing a few more days of my January challenge. Well I’ll complete January but then just buy the things we need rather than doing the huge shop we will need straight away. 

We are officially done on the 24th Jan which is already a week longer than the usual month because we got paid early for Christmas but because we did have a Christmas budget and we would have used some of that initially, I’ve just done it for the month like usual.
But I’ve got a meal plan for Friday and right through the weekend too, so I might just buy a few bits that we need and keep going a bit longer. 

Primrose

I do think that sometimes the urge to be economical with freezing/repurposing our leftovers  forces us to ignore our food preferences and occasionally we get guilt tripped into eating meals we really don't fancy.  I think the answer to this, when freezing some leftovers is to to be honest about our potential ability to face them a second time in whatever form.  Unless one is totally broke or without financial means one perhaps shouldn't feel too guilty about donating an occasional meal to he birds who generally appreciate it, especially in winter when food is scarce. It's rather pointless to use up valuable freezer space on foods which may never get eaten a second time.

StickyTheStickInsect

@Spendywendywoo thank you for the tip. We don’t have an air fryer but it might be time to get one. It’s first on my list of new kitchen things when we move and hopefully have a bit of spare money to buy things off the wish list!
Crispy and soft are what we are after!

zafiro1984

Primrose said:

Unless one is totally broke or without financial means one perhaps shouldn't feel too guilty about donating an occasional meal to he birds who generally appreciate it, especially in winter when food is scarce. 

I have hens and geese. I call them my 'mini dustbns' They like cooked peeling, leftover vegetables, the bits of pastry from a cooked pie, pasta etc etc. I'm just careful about salt. They do enjoy their 'tea' and I'm sure they share it with the robins which abound here.

We're still eating from the fridge and the shelves are starting to look empty.
Tonight is a venison and mushroom casserole turned into a pie for DH with veg and mash.- that's the last of the pastry used up. I'll probably have roast veg dotted with cheese. Hopefully if DH has cheese on biscuits tomorrow lunchtime that will be the end of the cheese. I'm basically left with natural yogurt, some pickles, and 2 sausages. The milk, fruit and veg will just get used as and when needed. Milk - rice pudding comes to mind and I know I have pudding rice in the cupboard. 

MissRikkiC

Thursdays are our vice. We went out for dinner. Probably only the 5th time in as many years so lamb casserole tomorrow now. 

rtandon27

@redofromstart & @Primrose - so nice to hear that I'm not the only one who can struggle with the plan.  I think is was a matter of being really tired combined with too much effort for that particular meal. 

We gave in to a whim that day and picked up burgers, a delicious rarity from our local grill place.  Yesterday we ate from home - reverse engineered our leftovers but into exactly what each of us fancied - OH had potatoes as his starch and I had rice.  Not a huge issue as all the ingredients for the two planned meals from the two past days will keep for another day!

EssexHebridean

Right - I know the effect of this next statement on the thread…

we had fish pie tonight! 😆 Y/S’d smoked haddock from a Mozzas visit before Christmas, a piece of Lil’s frozen salmon, and a handful of cheapy Lil’s frozen prawns. Sauce made with the last (elderly) fish stock jelly from the cupboard, and half milk half water, a big pile of frozen mixed veg thrown in, and some shallots fromthe pre Christmas 8p glut sliced and fried off gently until they were golden. Topped off with lovely creamy mash it was absolutely delicious - and best of all I have an additional portion for my lunch tomorrow which frankly I am already looking forward to! This evenings was topped off with some grated cheese and breadcrumbs that I had fried off in some leftover bacon and chorizo fat. 

Sorry for making everyone crave fish pie! 😂

I’ve not shopped yet. I was intending to pop to Al’s today but walked round there to find it closed - apparently for a refurb. They kept that one quiet! Currently I am leaning toward seeing what ai can cobble together for tea tomorrow - or just having cheese and crackers, come to that, and then heading to A’s on Sunday morning as I should get another £2 cash pot bonus there for being a new app user. 

fionaandphil

You are right - fish pie now on the menu this week, sounds delicious.

Our Aldi shuts on Sunday for refurb 

rtandon27

Hmmm - we have some prawns and whitefish in the freezer, potatoes in the stores, along with some leeks in the fridge.  Let's see if OH would be up for crafting it into a pie?!