Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

I used the last of the coleslaw with the couscous last night - and very tasty it was too. 

Tonight will feature the last of the christmas sausage rolls - mainly because they were the first thing that leapt out at me when I opened the freezer. I'll almost certainly do beans and mash with them - and might do a double batch of the mash to allow for having it ready to top a cottage pie at the weekend too.

My plans for tomorrow have now changed, so I'll need to re-think a meal for both of us for tomorrow evening. 

KajiKita

Trying to make my now free time Friday lunchtimes ‘use it up’ time.
Today was the last of a head of cauliflower and Brussels sprouts, boiled up lightly, and then covered in a cheez and cheese sauce (used the last of the almond milk box to make the white sauce base) with the end of a packet of puy lentils mixed in), topped with a little more cheese and browned under the grill. I served it with wild rice. Not bad and better than chucking it all on the compost heap 😊

KK

EssexHebridean

That sounds rather good - our tea last night was in the vein of  “what needs using” too - the remainder of those chicken chipolatas, with whatever veg I could find to make a stir fry. Used up the last leek from before Christmas, the smallest of the carrots, the remainder of one red cabbage (there is still another) and the last of the cooked mushrooms. The sauce was soy sauce, the dregs of a bottle of spiced cranberry ketchup we got free after Christmas in Aldi last year (first time I have ever encountered a shelf edge label with 0p on it!) and a splash of spiced rice vinegar with a teaspoon of five spice powder, plus some ready to wok noodles. Extremely tasty! 

I pulled a couple of packs of mince - one beef, one venison - out of the freezer earlier. The venison has already been cooked up into the base for two cottage pies, I’ve topped one with the remaining mash from:the other night but I’ll need extra to do the second one, that’s gone in the fridge “naked” as it were!  The beef mince will be turned into nice chunky burgers for tonight - I’m going to top them with cheese and bacon and they’ll be served in two of the oven bottom muffins that have been lurking in the freezer. I will do the last of the oven chips with them too. 

rtandon27

Lunch used up two bagels some lurking philly and precooked crispy bacon.

Snack was some mozzarella fingers breaded and cooked I'm the oven

Dinner is a choice or freezer meals - OH agreed on the moussaka which is warming and has scented the house with red wine and tomato. Yum 😋 

Made another bit of room in the freezer - hooray!

KajiKita

I have a mild confession to make …
I cooked up the last two big tomatoes in the air fryer for my lunch and promptly forgot about them! 😂
I’m making a tomato and lentil soup tomorrow so I can hide my shame in that! 😉

KK

fionaandphil

Almost as if you planned it @KajiKita 😀 

We are also successfully clearing stores and using things up. Lunch was vegetable soup and also had some pate than needed finished.

Tea tonight was fajitas to use up wraps, sour cream, avocado, lettuce, peppers, salsa plus chicken breast from the freezer. Lots of veg packed in there and they were delicious. I do need to make up some more fajita seasoning but have plenty spices to do this.

Fridge clearing will continue tomorrow with him pizza using up more leftover Christmas cheese and cooked meats.

Lots of warm comforting foods required this weekend with all the snow and ice.

Suffolk_lass

I used a whole medium sized Guatemalan blue banana squash in the casserole I made for the community lunch. Several people (who I think, thought it was swede by the colour) said how tasty and warming it was. I still have the enormous one but I must schedule in its use. In the spirit of waste not... I saved and washed and dried the plumpest, ripest seeds to share with others in our community garden seed swap. I might toast a few too. I also used up four jars of homegrown stewed plum and apple to make the crumble. It meant I spent £25 on a tasty lunch for 20. We charge a modest £5 a head, with the first five effectively paying for the hall (£25!) - so I made a small profit yesterday. We ended up with Mr Sl running 7 take-aways to people's homes - either with bad colds or worse, or unwilling to come out in the stingy rain/sleet and cold.

Mr Sl and I have a pot of the sauce leftover that will go in the soup too!

itsthelittlethings

Need to make a batch of vegan Russian salad. I portioned up the vegan pasta bake. It's sub optimal but I will eat it up even if that means putting vinaigrette on it (secret way to make stuff edible).

I have chickpea curry to make. Somehow I have an aubergine in the fridge so I need to try and find my friend's amazing recipe for chickpea and aubergine curry that she gave me.

I really am not a very good cook.

EssexHebridean

The last two tubs of cauli, broccoli & Stilton soup just got polished off for lunch, along with the last two wholemeal pittas. Interestingly MrEH doesn’t seem to notice that it’s wholemeal if it comes in pitta form as there were no complaints - that might have been because the soup was distracting him though - it really was very tasty! 

I need to tackle some cooking tomorrow - the last of the 5p sprouts are going to get shredded and cooked with the half bag of chestnuts from the freezer, and the final few rashers of streaky bacon. I should be able to make space in the freezer for those once they are portioned up, although we’ll most likely eat some with lunch tomorrow too. While the hob is in use I may as well make a small amount of mash to finish topping the second cottage pie, which will be eaten on Monday evening. 

KajiKita

@itsthelittlethings, don’t be so hard on yourself! 😊 You are cooking and producing edible food which is more than many people can or will do … Also, cooking gets better with practice and also building your understanding of what tastes, textures and combinations you like 😊

Please tell me more about the vegan Russian salad … sounds interesting 😊

KK