Reverse Meal Planning

rtandon27

Lunch today was a lovely creation from our stores.  A punnet of mushrooms from the veg box, a chicken breast from the freezer & some porcini flavour uht cream from the cupboard.  Shrooms & chicken sliced up and pan-cooked then the cream mixed in.  This mixture was used to stuff fresh crepes made from 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk & 1 egg (watered down with a bit to make a thin batter.  Served with some sliced cucumber on the side.  Yummy warm meal for a cold and blustery day!

ajmoney

Cans of baked beans etc, once they are open do you stick with the guidance on the can and eat within 2 days?

Baileys_Babe

ajmoney said:

Cans of baked beans etc, once they are open do you stick with the guidance on the can and eat within 2 days?

We generally would eat them within 3-4 days otherwise we would freeze them.

Suffolk_lass

Ooh @rtandon27 I might have to make pancakes now I've read your post. One of my Mum's friends used to substitute them for cannelloni pasta tubes and stuff them, pop them in a dish and cover them in béchamel and grated pecorino before baking. Much cheaper than pasta, back in the day when pasta was exotic!

When I came to make stuffed peppers the meat I was going to use was past it so I rustled up a macaroni cheese instead. We will have courgette soup for lunch today to redress the lack of veg yesterday. I have a little pang of guilt that I had to waste the meat.

joedenise

I've got a few slices of roast pork left from Sunday's joint so we're going to have them in a sandwich at lunchtime with some HM apple chutney (just hope the pork is OK after what you've said Suffolk_lass

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

I've got a few slices of roast pork left from Sunday's joint so we're going to have them in a sandwich at lunchtime with some HM apple chutney (just hope the pork is OK after what you've said Suffolk_lass)

The pork has gone - we had a couple of burgers out of the freezer (added some to hornet traps) that I was going to break up to add to some tomato based sauce but there was white fur on one side so rather than save them for the traps they have gone. A rare waste but a money-saving not realised

joedenise

Thankfully the pork was fine so had pork & apple chutney sandwich as planned and it was really tasty.

Got some chicken thighs out of the freezer yesterday and going to make a Fakeaway KFC, complete with chips, corn on the cob & beans - everything from freezer, fridge or stores.

rtandon27

Suffolk_lass said:

... One of my Mum's friends used to substitute them for cannelloni pasta tubes and stuff them, pop them in a dish and cover them in béchamel and grated pecorino before baking. Much cheaper than pasta, back in the day when pasta was exotic!...

Ah yes, I remember my Grandma doing this using a mince & onion stuffing for the tubes.  One of my all-time favourite comfort food meals.  I should ask my Mom & her siblings if any of them have her recipe for the stufffing!

Well our plans for a use it up lunch stir-fry were derailed by the contents of a lovely lock-down Thanksgiving care package received yesterday from across the pond.  OH was amused by the gussied up Lipt0n chicken noodle soup that appeared with some buttered toast for lunch.  His comment was that I'd never buy 'chemical' soup here as we always have bonebroth in the freezer to make our own.  This followed on from last nights amused looks when I cooked up some Swi$$ Ch@let dipping sauce from a packet to have with our oven chips.  I can't imagine what comments I get when on Monday, our Turkey supper is accompanied by B3tty Cr0cker mashed potatoes out of a box!  At least I know that there will be no complaints when we have T!m H0rton's coffee with breakfast tomorrow - after 15 years there are some things from across the pond he's acquired a taste for! 🤣🤣🤣

Care packages do make me reflect on how much my diet has changed from childhood!  There are a whole lot of processed foods I ate in my youth, with no real food value, that I'd never dream of consuming now!

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

Thankfully the pork was fine so had pork & apple chutney sandwich as planned and it was really tasty.

Got some chicken thighs out of the freezer yesterday and going to make a Fakeaway KFC, complete with chips, corn on the cob & beans - everything from freezer, fridge or stores.

Oh, that sounds interesting. Do you mind sharing what you do to the chicken please (DS loves them)?

joedenise

@Suffolk_lass of course I'll share!  I just cut the thighs into 3 or 4 pieces (we like fairly small pieces, about 2 bites big).  Then I egg and breadcrumb them.  You can add whatever herbs and spices you like to the breadcrumbs - I generally add mixed herbs, mustard powder, garlic powder and onion powder.  It tastes different every time because I don't measure anything.  As an alternative I sometimes use instant mash flakes (the cheapest Mr T ones) and use that instead of breadcrumbs.

I make my own chips as well and bake both the chips and chicken at the same time in the oven at 200, turning the trays after about 10 minutes; another 10 minutes and then after another 10 minutes.  They might need a little longer or a bit less depending on your oven.  I have to turn mine because it definitely cooks hotter at the back even though it's a fan oven.