Reverse Meal Planning

EssexHebridean

There has been a lot of reverse planning over the weekend - and the freezers do seem to be showing the benefit!
- a portion of chicken & sprout orzo bake got eaten for my lunch on saturday
- Bread for toast all weekend was supplied from the freezer too
- Yesterday's lunch used up various oddments from the freezer: Christmas leftover veg, bacon and cream, plus a chunk of chorizo. Pudding was a rice pudding with the addition of a couple of blobs of mincemeat from the jar in the fridge. 
- Yesterday's tea also used up freezer bits - a picky plate with the last half of a box of mozzarella sticks, the last of the christmas smoked salmon and one of the items from a charcuterie selection box we bought in Ludlow last autumn, along with some cheese, crackers etc. 

The meal plan is written up to the middle of February and is again heavily informed from the freezer contents - that in turn should mean that we are able to keep grocery spending low for another month too. I think my February aim is going to also be to start looking at the various storecupboard bits we have kicking about that need using too...

fionaandphil

Reverse planning has been going well here too and we had begun to see gaps in the freezer and cupboard using up lots of bits and pieces and the leftover Christmas veg. Then I went to the shops last week for bread and milk and came out with a load of 50% off meat!  Not complaining as we have restocked the meat supplies and saved loads but I am feeling like we might never have a clear freezer!

We used up a good bit of the Christmas veg last night as part of a traybake, it was a bit bland but I can see how we would flavour it up better for the future and will try it again before all the veg runs out.  Out for tea tonight and then planned up until the end of January with what we have in, other than bread and milk

EssexHebridean

I've long felt that efforts to get to the bottom of the freezer are invariably doomed to failure before they really even start, for just that reason! 

Suffolk_lass

Smug mode over here then - I removed everything from the large commercial upright freezer and turned it off at the wall, to defrost, yesterday. Admittedly the contents have not all been used, but enough have been used for me to fit three carriers in the chest freezer (meat, bread and SM frozen veg) and two in my bee freezer (in Mr Sl's workshop).

Ideally, I would like to move that commercial freezer out of the pig shed and into Mr Sl's workshop (a large wooden shed) so that there is no longer a major blocker to us removing the contents of that block built (structurally impaired) pig shed and demolishing it, ready to rebuild it.  In my head, we offer the large domestic upright bee freezer for someone wanting to use it to freeze frames (to kill wax moth larvae) or to convert it into a honey or jar warming cabinet. Then I can have another, larger chest freezer in the new building, which we will no doubt call the Pig Shed.

On the back of that, I found a bag of wonky forest fruits, two bags of raspberries and some SM blueberries that are out for breakfasts (with the homegrown raspberries in a jelly) - and the bag of courgettes that seemed half full of ice, along with some swede, have made two large pots of soup, for lunches this week, and into next.

I'm sure it was someone here that recommended keeping Christmas veg in a garage - well our veg is outside the back door, on a table against the wall, and it works better than a fridge. Cabbage, leeks and carrots out there now. Thank you for that top tip!!