Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

We were just in MrL's and happy to report that they were stocking the shelves with some of the missing Alps items, including the frozen pretzels.    The frozen pork schnitzels were very tempting, so we may pick some up in a couple of days along with our free veg and free bakery treat.  As mentioned on GP's thread, there are also 1kg bags of various lentils and dried beans at really good prices.  Also super cheap bags of spices if you are looking to stock up or have a cupboard full of products with dubious dates that needs replacing!  Our local did not however have the bags of pistachios, nor the pierogi-style dumplings that I was after.

(not food related) - We also picked up some pretty bouquets of pink and purple mums to decorate the house as the gloom has been getting to us and we needed some cheeriness - the freshest I've ever seen flowers at our local, just in time for V-day tomorrow.

Tuesday's dinner was indeed the smoked tofu with rainbow rice - The colourful bowl was absolutely delicious and brought some cheeriness to the day.  I just love that small amounts of cheap veg and leftover rice can turn out such a lovely looking dinner!

Last night's dinner ended up being the pizza we'd planned for tonight but with the last of the frozen oven chips instead of homemade wedges.  I'd had quite a bad seizure earlier in the evening so anything that required more effort than that was not in the cards!  I'm so glad we have quick meals in the stores for difficult days!  A warm meal of healthy homemade food makes all the difference to quick recovery!

This evening we will be cooking the shake and bake chicken thighs and making the most of the oven by putting in some chicken wings we picked up on sale from Waitflower, probably with Korean BBQ sauce for flavour.  Will cook up some veggie quiche and reheat the colourful roasted root veg to go with the thighs.

Waitflower were out of the roast pork leg that was on sale (no surprise there), so we picked up some lamb steaks that were reduced and popped them in the freezer until Sunday.  Puts a damper on roast leftovers for next week, but we'll adapt and find some other protein to add to our meals instead!

redofromstart

I nipped into the university town and picked up 4x10 pretzels, should be able to shoehorn another 20 in tomorrow.  Sadly no pistachio kernels.  

Hope you are feeling better rtandon

Mrs_Cheshire

I've got a block of feta that I opened for a meal this week but didn't need it all - does anyone have any suggestions for ways to incorporate it into my meal plan this week?

Suffolk_lass

Over here it would be cubed, combined with olives and sliced peppers, coated in herby oil and snacked (with the aid of a cocktail stick) in individual little dishes and with a glass of something lovely at 6pm (and called cocktail hour). It can be frozen too

Suffolk_lass

We had most of the leftover chicken in a simple curry, half of which is left for tonight. I used my pre-cooked, frozen chickpeas (in a takeaway box, roughly a tin's worth), some frozen spinach balls, cauliflower, onion, celery, carrot, garlic and pepper, and I actually used some curry powder, some ground fenugreek and a teaspoon of Thai red paste. It was really nice with (pre-cooked, frozen) brown rice. Very mild (not normal for here) but really flavoursome

LotsOfTea

I'd use leftover feta crumbled over a smoky tomato risotto (tinned toms, smoked paprika plenty of garlic and a sprinkle of chilli flakes) or as a warm salad with roasted beetroot, walnuts and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. 

redofromstart

We tend to have Feta crumbled into roasted veg - med veg usually, but sometimes with butternut squash and then served with lentils.  It is also eaten crumbled into mixed bean salad and drizzled with balsamic syrup when the weather is a little better.

JIL

I made a savoury cheesecake with feta. Which was nice. I have looked for a similar recipe as I think mine was on a packet of food at least 10 years ago.  It was baked using crackers as a base. Unfortunately I haven't found the exact recipe or anything similar to post a link.

However something that I can recommend  was turkey, feta and spinach meatballs (or burgers) that the family loved. I'm sure the recipe would adapt.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/276450/baked-spinach-feta-and-turkey-meatballs/

Suffolk_lass

Ooh, some much more imaginative ideas than mine! Here we eat the other half of the chicken curry, and had the stock made into soup for supper. I am conscious that I slept better, having eaten our main meal earlier in the day, two days running.

Mrs_Cheshire

I was given loads of cheese yesterday that was leftover from an event - I'm planning on using the mature cheddar for a cauliflower cheese to go with the roast beef tomorrow. 
I need to think of a use for the wensleydale and double Gloucester.   
Been thinking about this weeks meal plan - kids are off as its half term so I want easy meals that don't take a lot of preparation. 

Mon - leftover chinese with rice (kids are eating out)
Tues - greek inspired meatball bake with roasted new potatoes
Weds - chicken pesto pasta 
Thurs - Prawn stir fry with noddles & crispy duck pancakes
Fri -  ready meals  (free from Ol!o) - (kids are out)
Sat - Garlic and herb chicken with tomato & herb risotto
Sun - pork casserole with mash and red cabbage