Reverse Meal Planning

ajmoney

@Suffolk_lass how long does it take for your tomatoes to go from green to red?  This is my first year of growing any after being given a plant from a friend and I have no idea what the time frame is.

Suffolk_lass

It depends. I don't attempt to fully ripen them on the plants. I bring them in once they start to colour in the greenhouse and put them in plastic boxes (like you get soft fruit in, from the SM) on the windowsill and the light and warmth indoors brings them on. Others might use a banana near them to ripen them as the ethanol from the banana accelerates ripening (it's why they advise you not to put bananas in a fruit bowl). I don't leave them on the plant unless they are cherry tomatoes as these are the ones I use for salads - the rest I chop and freeze to cook with.

Mine are too crowded really and I have had blossom end rot during the hot weather because the temperature and humidity were too high and they stopped absorbing calcium. They are behaving themselves better now.

I have just remembered that either Gardeners World or RHS are suggesting ways to get the green ones to ripen as I saw this in a FB feed this weekend. I've got a feeling it mentioned Monty Don so GW (website, twitter or FB) might give better advice for ripening on the plants

joedenise

I've only grown cherry tomatoes this year and have got so many ripening.  I've got a big boxful in the fridge to use for salads and sandwiches.  Have made a couple of lots of tomato sauce so far and today have chopped a trayful which I am open freezing and once frozen will chuck into a freezer bag ready to grab handfuls to add to meals.

Have a small box to take to DD later today to use.  She doesn't use many tomatoes so a small box will be plenty.  Youngest DD came down yesterday and gave her a small pot with loads of tomatoes on.  I know she'll use them so happy for her to have the whole plant.  Her own tomato plants failed for some reason so she was really happy to have a plant to replace it.

There are still loads of tomatoes almost ready, ie orange rather than red which will probably need picking in the next day or 2 which will also be frozen.

ruby_eskimo

Trying to use up a few things tonight; pasta with prawns from the freezer, some mushrooms and green beans that have been lurking in the fridge and some pesto mixed through which has also been lurking for a little too long.  Really want to defrost the freezer this weekend so trying to get through as much as possible to help that cause.  This means that dinner tomorrow is LO lasagne and then Friday is LO chilli.  That will leave me with some peppers and peas that I can happily chuck in a cool box while I'm defrosting away.

joedenise

Got a couple of salmon fillets out of the freezer for tonight's dinner and will pan fry and serve on a bed of wilted spinach with a tartare cream sauce.  Will also boil up a few new potatoes to go with it.

Managed to get one of the Lidl £1.50 veg boxes this morning and there was a bag of spinach in it so will use half tonight and the other half will get used tomorrow night in a feta and spinach parcel (filo pastry) (think it's called something like Spinakopa!).  There were a couple of packs of lettuce in the box as well so will use some of that to cook some braised lettuce, spring onion and peas (also peas in pods in the box so that will use some of those!).

rtandon27

Wow Joedenise - that's a whole lot of veg for £1.50!

Sunday's dinner was a baked  Italian-style layered grilled vegetable torte - used up 2 yellow courgette, 1 Ramiro pepper, 1 small eggplant & a punnet of cherry tomatoes layered with cheese - also put in a layer of cooked turkey mince & red onion so meat-loving OH would be 'tricked' into eating it without turning his nose up - LOL
Lunch yesterday was eggs with toast & butter & jam & cheese - bit of this and that from the fridge.
We had our bi-weekly shopping delivered yesterday evening so this week dinner's are all forward planned...

• last night's dinner was a new recipe - tofu with stir-fried shitake mushrooms in a piquant sauce served with rice - surprisingly it was OH's idea - I think he's finally given in to meatless monday 😉 
• lunch used up noodles & roast pork from the stores/freezer & pak-choi from the veg box
• tonight is battered box fish, homemade wedges & some green beans from the freezer

joedenise

There was more than that @rtandon27!  There were black and green grapes, a mango, a pepper, a pack of 2 pak choi; a pack of 2 pointy peppers - think that was it.  The mango is absolutely rock hard though so it's in the fruit bowl; I'm hoping it will ripen and soften up a bit over the next few days as it's absolutely inedible at the moment.  Forgot, there were also 2 pots of curly leaf parsley but they are definitely not going to last long as they are already dying off.  Used some this evening and will probably use some over the next couple of days but think that's probably about as long as they'll last!

Used one of the pak choi at lunchtime as I'd got some chicken out to do a stirfry so chucked in one of them.

Have used half a pack of spinach for tonight's dinner.  Was going to make spinach and feta pies tomorrow but might leave that until the day after.  I already had some peppers in the fridge so need to think what I can do with them all otherwise I'm going to end up chopping them and freezing them for later!

The pointy peppers I'll probably stuff with herby couscous and top with some grated cheese to have for lunch with some salad.

Suffolk_lass

Finally used the duck breasts I bought over a week ago! They were is a vacuum pack so were fine. I just have two huge burgers left out from that shop - they can be tonight's supper with salad as I have an online meeting this evening. I need to do some prep for that...

ruby_eskimo

Continuing to try and use things up from the freezer so tonight we're having a couple of portions of lasagne that I froze last week with a nice side salad using up bits from the fridge.

rtandon27

We've got bulk sausages, pork & chicken from our Monday shop that needs portioning up & freezing - just waiting for OH to make tonight's dinner which will free up some room in the freezer for the meat stock.  I'm resisting pointing out that life would be easier if we were veggie - LOL