Reverse Meal Planning

JingsMyBucket

otb666 said:

This year we had a frozen medium crown from aldi. After xmas dinner I put all the leftovers (apart from turkey) in freezer. This left me with a lot of turkey to deal with. Yesterday we had sandwiches. Today will have turkey stew. Tomorrow was gonna do a pasta bake to hopefully finish it off. Keep forgetting we dont eat so much now. Just posting to check it’s ok to cook turkey in pasta bake tomorrow or is that too late?

@otb666 yes, that’s completely fine to use the turkey in the baked pasta. Alternatively, if you’re already sick of it, just freeze what you have left for another turkey dinner in January or February. There’s no rule saying you have to finish all of it now. 🙂

Suffolk_lass

My turkey is only being processed today after being stored cold, wrapped in foil. One of life's pleasures, finally processing it all! My aim (now on the January Grocery challenge) is to stay under £150 for January. We still have entertaining planned over New Year and in to 2026, but like @greent, I shop too much, over-cater and hate waste. Add veg in the garden (roots and brassicas) still to harvest and we will make do - definitely OK @otb666!

Suffolk_lass

More turkey today - I made a ham and turkey pie, another turkey pie, a turkey curry and an enormous pot of stock I need to strain and pick tomorrow.

We had turkey sandwiches for lunch and cold turkey with cold stuffing and pickles with salad for supper. All good!

Suffolk_lass

Picked the turkey, boiled the stock to reduce and concentrate it and had a bowl with all the turkey meat added. It was a lovely soup, if unthickened. I could thicken it with some veg. In the meantime I ventured out to the chest freezer. I moved lots of portioned meat into a carrier bag, separating it from the joints of meat and bags of veg. I shopped from home for salmon that will be used on New Year's Day, and after shuffling a few things between freezers, everything fits more comfortably. My treats pot did take a hammering in December and it turns out I have several boxes of orange ice lollies, two honeycomb and two vanilla pots out there. I just saw someone was freezing mince pies and I shall do the same with the emergency box of shop-bought. I still have a dozen homemade so shall try and get those eaten first.

I also froze some smoked streaky bacon in packs I can use for pasta, and some chipolatas in 6s - so perfect for our supper when it is just the two of us. In fact, we used up six yesterday with half an unsmoked streaky rasher wrapped found each and some of the honey and wholegrain mustard glaze, leftovers from cooking the gammon (in a jar). We used up the veg Mr Sl had over-catered when our friends came for the day. I don't think we have ever had leftover mash before but it was fine - a good set of use-ups.

rtandon27

Leftover mash? - absolutely unheard of!  that is a first for me 😁

Like you, I had the first bowl of bone broth on Sunday - light and clear - felt tasty and nutritious in a way tinned soup never will!  We did not have a lot of broth left for the freezer once I'd made chicken & veg noodle soup - but perhaps that is a good thing as there is not a lot of room in there!

joedenise

We went away for Christmas and I had quite a few potatoes on the verge of sprouting so I peeled, boiled and mashed them all.  I then used an ice cream scoop and put on a tray in the freezer.  Once frozen put into a freezer bag.

They can be defrosted and just used for mash or more usually I put them in the air fryer (or oven if it's on) and reheat until warmed though and turning golden - bit like Duchess potatoes.

Suffolk_lass

I'd often wondered what you do with them as you have mentioned frozen potato before @joedenise and if I recall, you follow a diet system and always seem super organised

joedenise

Thanks @Suffolk_lass.  I follow SW - very loosely now since stopping going to group a couple of years ago but of course that has meant that my weight isn't quite as stable as it used to be.  All Inclusive holidays also have a bearing on that!  Just come back from 2 weeks AI over Christmas and have now got about half a stone to shift just to get back to where I was before going away (and that was just over where I'd like to be!).

Hope you find the frozen mash works for you.

My DD2 said she air fried Brussels for Christmas and they were very good so I'm going to give that a try tonight.  Hope we like them as much as her family seemed to!

rtandon27

January 1st and we've been good about using what we have!  Have not ventured to any of the grocery store sales but we really don't need to with a full fridge, overflowing stores and lots of left overs.  We skipped the last shop of December so 25% of the grocery budget rolled back into the free balance.

Breakfast today was Korean steamed eggs with spring onions and bacon lardons - shared the last bagel toasted.

Lunch was a stir-fry - used up more of the twixmas roast chicken, leftover rice, frozen pepper strips, a red onion nd a package of stir-fry sauce from the stores - really delicious!

Tea time quickbread - banana with dried fruit - made in cake pans which tricks us into thinking it's less healthy than it is! - used up four overripe bananas - the ends of dried berries, currents & raisins from the stores, the last of the wholewheat and most of the white flour & the last of the rapeseed oil - I love a bit of use it up baking - a pioneer woman recipe - I love that across the pond recipes make enough that it's worth putting the oven on!  Two full size cakes - one for now and one for the freezer.

rtandon27

Another successful day of reverse planning...

BF - Korean steamed eggs again, OH had a bun out of the freezer & I had mine with 1/2 pack of brown & wild rice and the last of the chili crunch oil (I do prefer an Asian style savoury breakfast to just about anything!)

Teatime - coffee & homemade cake

Lunch - Chicken filet strips - OH had his with chips & I had mine with the rest of the rice

Fridge is now half empty in preparation for a small fresh shop next week.

Freezer is still rather full of portioned meals, but that means less cooking next week (just veg to steam) & we will use up some fruit for apple+berry crumble tomorrow.