Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

ooo - loving the halloumi tips!

We have choices tonight! Burgers as the buns need eating, stuffed pasta and pesto - best check the dates on those, leftover roast and veg from sunday, soup and crackers! Will ask OH what he fancies and prepare accordingly!

EssexHebridean

Ooh that's a good tip on the cutting - I think I have one of those cutters somewhere too, although goodness knows where! Thank you!

Right - back to the chicken this evening - and Spanish style chicken, probably with rice I think. A tub of roasted home grown toms, garlic & basil has come out of the freezer ready, and it will get a tin of butterbeans thrown in as well. I've just realised it would also be a perfect candidate for some home grown squash - I'll have to see what we have in the fridge still. Cut small it will cook in the sauce.

I think I'll pop the remaining chicken after that into the freezer for another week. Tomorrow is likely to be Jacket potatoes with a tub of chilli from the freezer.

Suffolk_lass

Interesting about the Halloumi! It's too salty for my taste so we only really have it when out. I might try it if I see some in the reduced area! In the meantime, we also had jacket potatoes, with cauliflower cheese - talk about comfort food! I prefer it to adding any pasta to the veg. My Mum used to have cauliflower cheese with bloomer white bread and butter as a regular supper when my Dad was alive. I still make it to have with her, and she always says she enjoys it but she doesn't know why she doesn't make it for herself - I think we can excuse her not being able to be bothered - at 97 she has been cooking for a fair old while now!

Not sure what we will have tonight - I did use up one of the stone-baked marguerita pizzas that was in the way - two more in the chest freezer on top of the fruit and veg we have grown. I found a single lamb's heart in the kitchen freezer so I think that will be my Saturday slow-cooked supper, as Mr Sl is away for two nights.

EssexHebridean

It reduces the saltiness a bit too SL - something I hadn't really thought about until you said that.

I flexed a bit on looking at the electricity prices for last night/tonight - we still had the Spanish style chicken, but I did jacket potatoes with it - those were done in the combi microwave. I've got soup out for tonight, which we'll have with a pack of Y/S'd toasting muffins which were also lurking in the freezer.

Also had a chat this morning about our planned low-spend November on the grocery front - we have agreed that we will keep an eye out for Als TGTG bags on Thursdays through the month - as they can be a decent way of supplementing regular shopping although of course will also need a degree of flexibility. We've also agreed that we will put together a "big list" of meals that will work through the month which can then be picked from a couple of days ahead.

Suffolk_lass

Roasted a half shoulder of lamb yesterday (from 2 years ago, in the freezer) and had potatoes we grew (starting to sprout, despite being in a double paper sack), the last carrots, most of the remaining cabbage and two bits of broccoli. Baked apples (from my friend's garden) stuffed with sultanas and mixed peel. We will have the rest tonight with baked potatoes and some cold bits like onion, cucumber, coleslaw and pepper.

Plenty of soup a I made some when Mr Sl was away and I'm baking bread today. A short delay to the aga being turned on, thanks to the forecast temperatures this week

I also removed some beef shin to have slow cooked tomorrow but I shall need to replenish vegetables for that and I shall cook it in a slow cooker as the aga is still off.

EssexHebridean

My two Octopus Happy Hours yesterday were turned into a dish of mixed veg bake, and a massive dish of cauli & cheese pasta bake. The veg one has gone straight to the freezer, the pasta will feed us for a couple of meals this week with some form of extra veg added. I also took the chance to do a toad in the hole for our lunch yesterday which was very much enjoyed by us both! MrEH made a batch of rolls too, so we're sorted for those for the week. I cooked all of the sausages from the pack at the same time - the two which didn't go into the "hole" will get used this week at some stage.

My meal plan for this week will be adjusted to take account of two days being pasta bake - tomorrow will likely be couscous (probably with those sausages sliced up) and Thursday will be soup I think.

I'm keen to make best use of freezer stocks now as we are into the mini grocery challenge.

Suffolk_lass

Mr Sl declared himself to be cold in the morning and so last night, after I went to bed, he cleaned and cleared the top of the (electric) aga and turned it on. It's not up to temperature yet (I suspect it was after 02.00 when he turned it on). Anyway, I've been up since 03.45 (chest infection, choking, so got up) so have made a beef casserole (not stew, but could have been, but for the passata and squash I added. A pack of beef shin and a number of tiny shallots (we grew the latter). It is in the simmer oven. It is his birthday. We'll have it this evening.

Polished off the rather tough cold lamb, with a baked potato he forgot to time and a bit of salad. We used the last home grown cucumber up, and he had four windowsill ripened tomatoes.

rtandon27

A stew for using up all the bits sounds good!

I'm full of cold here so meals have been left overs or bung it in the oven which produce more leftovers.

I've lost track of when, but we used up the rest of the pork roast in a ramen style soup, ate the last of the turkish white courgettes with a half price Bingham pasta and meatballs. Had some posh ravioli and red pesto, again both on sale. Also somehow roasted a smallish gammon, again half price and had with steamed potatoes and a veg stew of sorta. More than half left over so have been slicing and eating as sandwich filling with some good seedy bread with butter. Remarkably the OH has his appetite atm and has inhaled all of it!

EssexHebridean

Lovely that MrRT is enjoying his food at the moment, I bet that makes a real difference to the way he is feeling more generally as well!

Somewhat surprisingly discovered that the big dish I cooked the pasta bake in does indeed fit in the microwave, so I extracted half of the contents last night and reheated the remainder on combi for 12 minutes. Took the easy option on veg and heated a tin of sweetcorn to have with it which was very tasty. The other half of the bake will be eaten tomorrow - I will need to consider what veg to do with that. This evening will of course - it is Tuesday after all - be couscous. The protein element will be the two remaining sausages from those I cooked on Sunday (they are, in fairness, huge!) and the veg will be whatever is in the fridge and needs used - from memory I think a chunk of squash, a leek and some peppers.