Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

If the stock is very salty EH it's worth adding a whole peeled potato to the soup to absorb the salt - for some reason it seems to work better with a whole potato rather than chopped ones which will of course take some of the saltiness out.

EssexHebridean

That's also a good thought - and goodness knows, we have enough potatoes right now! (I must get them out to the shed though before all 7.5kg of them sprout!)

Suffolk_lass

I made a small ragu sauce and half was had with linguine last evening. The other half should get used tonight as we are both out tomorrow, as far as eating is concerned. I love that we can eat the same thing, for several days without tiring of it! I moved a bunch of portioned meat from the garage chest freezer into the kitchen freezer so we now have a good variety of freezer surprise options, in the (self-imposed, no buying until veg reduces) lead up to Christmas

EssexHebridean

Potato sack made it to the shed last night, I've just pulled out a couple of meals worth to keep indoors as I know they will sprout in spite of being in my dark-bag. 

A tub of roasted squash got added to last night's tea so that's another thing out of the freezer. 

I reckon I now have sufficient space created in freezer 1 to get freezer 2 emptied, which means we'll be able to defrost that this weekend ready to refill it again with christmas goodies and new year bargains! 

joedenise

Have had to have a rejig of my menu plan as a couple of things I'd planned on using (tomorrow was supposed to be carrot & lentil soup) aren't in the freezer - no idea when we used them but supposed we must have at some time!

Tomorrow we're now have a vegetable and bean casserole which is like a thick soup really so a good substitute!  Also got out a lamb & chickpea tagine for dinner in a couple of days time for dinner.

I'd managed to get enough out of the freezer over the last couple of weeks to get a lamb leg and pork joint from Mr Ts while it's half price but neither will be used until the new year as we'll be away from next week for a couple of weeks!  No Christmas dinner to cook, yay!

EssexHebridean

Mmmm...tagine, now there's something I used to make a lot but has slipped out of the rotation somewhere along the line! 

I've got my eye on a couple of the outdoor bred gammon joints from T's - I usually throw both in the slow cooker overnight then bake them with two different glazes on, then cut each in half and freeze - that way we get multiple meals off both without getting utterly sick of ham or risking it not getting used before it spoils.  I'm thinking the Christmas one this year might be honey and mustard... 

joedenise

Honey and mustard is my go to for roasted gammon.

JingsMyBucket

@EssexHebridean and @joedenise what are your recipes for the honey mustard glazes, please? I'm going to try glazing some ham hocks for Christmas this year. 

rtandon27

Dinner ended up being cobbled together with leftovers from my work festive gathering and what we had in the fridge! Bonus is that we now have room for groceries arriving today.

I do however have an enourmous tub of houmous to either eat or freeze. 

Also an eight pack of uncooked sausages that OH is eyeing up.  We ordered smoked cooked sausages for the office do and the substitution gods had a laugh at our expense.

Suffolk_lass

ooh, I love that expression. 
rtandon27 said:

 the substitution gods had a laugh at our expense.

Today's advent calendar links to an empty thread about weird flavour combinations at Christmas. I was wondering, what is the strangest thing you have contended with over Christmas. Ours was the several turkeys year. It was over twenty years ago now, but remains the stuff of legend in our house. Naturally none were thrown away!...

• I had ordered from Waitflower and the size when I collected was less than half what I ordered. After politely asking how I should feed fourteen people with a turkey no larger than a large chicken, the supervisor grabbed two free-range birds of about 5 kilos each (free of charge) and refunded me my organic bronze feathered bird, telling me to keep it. Unusual, but cope-able (3).
• Then Mr Sl went in to work the next day and the management gave every member of the contractor team a turkey. That was Friday. (4) 
• We went to a do on the Saturday (Christmas Eve) and won the turkey in the raffle (5)
• And of course, coming from my Mother's school of never knowingly under-catering, I already had a frozen turkey crown in the freezer from the previous year's bargains (6)

I mastered Tetris that year, but I think I also bought another freezer. That was a downhill slope. I have five now (although, to be fair, one is used for beekeeping equipment)