Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

For us, 'proper' roast dinner is the meal that just keeps giving!🤣  I always try to buy the largest piece of pork or an XL chook so that the effort of having the oven on makes it worth the while! - Also do massive amounts of roasted root veg as they reheat really well!  OH loves cold roast sandwiches which is so much healthier than the vast amount of ham slices he usually scoffs!

rtandon27

That roast dinner did us 4.5 meals (9 servings) in the end!

Lunch today was some rye bread toast with hummus and soft-boiled eggs. With it, I had 3 scallops that popped up in the freezer and OH had the last serving of roast.

Next on the use it up list will be some smoked salmon from the freezer - perhaps a quiche or as OH calls it a tart.

We'll be eating out of the freezer and stores for the next few days until bi-weekly shop comes so time for some creativity!

Suffolk_lass

Our little chicken did us a roast and then I have stripped the meat off and made a mixture with the stock (thickened) and frozen peas and corn to make a pie filling. I am cooking for 24 tomorrow and the two slab pies in my freezer need topping up with a third. Just need to make a bit of pastry and then I am set with a couple of bags of frozen veg to steam and a small tray of ratatouille for the one vegetarian coming.

And as it is 1st October the range gets turned on for winter today (hooray)

StickyTheStickInsect

Suffolk_lass said:

Our little chicken did us a roast and then I have stripped the meat off and made a mixture with the stock (thickened) and frozen peas and corn to make a pie filling. 

Do you have a recipe for the pie filling (and the pie), my littles can be convinced to eat anything if it contains peas and sweetcorn !! 

Thank you x

Suffolk_lass

Happy to share - it is very simple. Forgive me if it is too much detail - I never know what people know already

I part roast the chicken in stock in either a Dutch oven or slow cooker (I used a vegetable jelly stock pot with enough water to barely cover it) - I finish the chicken off to brown it when the potatoes go in but it's the rest of the stock I used for the pie. Because this is for others I used all of the rest of the chicken (we had used a drumstick with the connected bit and most of one breast for our roast).

Other times I cold-mix the shredded chicken pickings with the corn, peas and a can of condensed chicken soup and just cover with pastry. 

I thickened the stock with a tablespoon of cornflour mixed into cold water, then stirred in as the stock (with the added two handfuls each of frozen peas and corn) got warm. 

I needed it to get hot so it thickened so I also added the chicken and popped a lid on for a few minutes to thoroughly heat through (food safety re the cold chicken). 

Shortcrust Pastry - 150g (6 oz) plain flour, pinch of salt, half as much fat (mix of 40g lard and 35g stork here) mixed to a crumb (by my mixer so I do not over handle it or it gets tough) then about 2-3 tablespoons of cold water to just bring it together into a ball. Then wrap it and rest it for minimum 20 minutes in the fridge.

I made pastry but you could buy shortcrust.

Just roll it on a floured surface so it is a bit bigger than your pan - I flip the pan upside down and cut round with the knife at an angle so it is a few mm bigger then the pan and so you have the trimmings to stick on the edge of the pan (water on your finger works) then add the filling and stick the lid to the edge by pinching (or crimping with a fork) the edge all round and paint the top (egg and water or milk is best so you get a golden colour but milk on its own is fine).

A metal pan is preferable - I use a white enamel cheapie when it is just us and I'm doing top and bottom as it conducts the heat so well, but this was just a top - a 1" deep sheet-pan (baking sheet)

It takes 25-30 minutes at 180c (350f Gas 4) - I turn it round back to front after 20 minutes in case there is a fast corner in the oven so it doesn’t catch in one corner.

StickyTheStickInsect

Suffolk_lass said:

Happy to share - it is very simple. Forgive me if it is too much detail - I never know what people know already

Thank you and the detail is great, thank you ! I shall report back once it has been consumed by the littles 

dronid

I've just returned from seeing family abroad and now I'm in quarantine so planning on eating what's left in the house plus some additional shopping.
Cooking off sausage meat in the morning and have frozen reduced muffins in the freezer so I'm going to be cloning sausage and egg muffins. I'll turn the sausage meat into patties, cook them off and find them quick to microwave from frozen when I need them and they don't make my partner complain about cooking smells.
Got a cooked roast chicken and some lamb so I'm going to curry those up for take out nights as chicken Madras and Spinach and Lamb curries. Also I'll freeze off some of the chicken for fried rice and pan chicken kebabs in the future.

Suffolk_lass

Ooh @dronid I do a little "muffin" breakfast - mini muffin tin, coated with vegetable oil then a disc of sausage meat or a tiny sausage (twist chipolatas into three) in each with beaten egg then bake - the egg rises and sets round the sausage for a low carb option - they are great cold too (if you manage to keep some back).

I love the way we can make food stretch

Suffolk_lass

Proper roast dinner last night with a joint of pork shoulder out of the freezer (it left a big space...) - the first proper roast of the year is always a bit of a faff with things like the carving knife not being sharp enough at a time critical moment. All eaten though.

rtandon27

Suffolk_lass said:

...All eaten though.

No leftovers? Wow SL your's are a hungry lot!

Yesterday we tried out a new recipe for lunch - used up some of the weird and wonderful flour that we have making crepes & made a spicy potato to stuff them with.
Dinner was tried & true taco supper skillet - pasta & mince with fajita flavours - soooo easy to make & comfortably filling for cold autumn days!