Reverse Meal Planning

Suffolk_lass

joedenise said:

Plenty of left over roast chicken here so going to do some in gravy for tonight plus 2 x 2 portions for the freezer.  The rest will be used for sweet and sour tomorrow night!  Such a bargain from a reduced chicken which I think was £2 or thereabouts!

Do wish my DH would eat things like quiche and frittata but he just doesn't like the texture of them.  He'll eat eggs most ways - fried, boiled, scrambled just not baked!

I love chicken for the leftovers - I was in the kitchen with the radio on at the weekend when someone asked the question, what shall I do with my leftover roast chicken on "the kitchen cabinet" on radio 4 and frankly their answers were cliched and unimaginative. I was literally shouting at the radio!

BTW we used to just tell our DS it was a chips omelette. He was happy! - I guess I "fry" things on the floor of my hot oven because that's what you do with a range like mine. I never think of it as actually baking, just reducing any spatter really.

We just had a lump of leftover moussaka for supper (always better the second time and less evidence of nutmeg which always tastes a tiny bit medicinal in savoury cooking to me). Soup for lunch (I can just keep eating soup indefinitely at this time of year!.

Might have omelettes of cheesy leeks for supper tonight

Lara

I am totally useless at meal planning.  No idea why but I’ve never been able to meal plan.  I’ll give this reverse meal planning a go and se what happens.  🤞🏼

Suffolk_lass

Welcome Lara - the idea is simply to look at what you have in and make your meals from that - there are some great stretch ideas - ie making your things like meat or other protein go further - and lots of substitutions. I think because several people receive veg boxes their contents are often a bit random, so not shopping for what you want to cook, but doing it the other way round works for many. 

ruby_eskimo

I keep finding that I'm accidentally making extra portions of things without thinking about it, which is great for saving me time in the future but not so great when I want to clear down the freezer so I can properly defrost it!  Made chow mein for dinner last night using the last of the noodles in the cupboard, a carrot, onion, mushrooms and the remainder of the beansprouts I had leftover from Monday's dinner.  It made 3 hearty portions so I have one leftover for lunch tomorrow probably.  Having the last of my veggie chilli for lunch today and making a homity pie for dinner which will use up some of the potatoes that are rolling around in my cupboard and an onion and leek from the fridge, plus some frozen peas.

rtandon27

Hello Lara & welcome!  Hope you'll be able to find some inspiration from the lovely ladies on this thread - I've learned so much from them over the past months!

This week we are trying to clear out as many extra portions as we can out of the freezer to make room for our bi-weekly shop next week.  From our shop, we freeze mostly meat & fish along with a pizza or two for lazy Fridays.

Last night's dinner was the oddly coloured fish pie (because of purple carrots).  Made some roast brussels & reheated potato wedges from Mondaý's dinner.

Today for lunch we made a stir-fry which used up a portion of frozen pork mince, frozen cooked leftover rice & frozen green beans from the end of summer glut as well as a fresh yellow pepper.

Monday, made up a vat of French-Canadian ham & pea soup in the slow cooker, using the cooking liquid saved from two weeks of slow cooked gammon.  The soup is quite thick so I've been measuring out slightly less than two bowls worth and letting it down with a bit of water while heating up.  (The gammon was used mostly for lunch-time cheese & ham toasties.)

Tonight we will have sausages from the freezer with colcannon & red onion gravy.  Using up some of the non-stop kale in place of cabbage - I'm not sure I like kale, but always feel virtuous when we eat it!

There also seems to be an abundance of frozen roasted vegetables from various roasts we've had - think I might bung them all in a pot & zizz it up with a stick blender and some bone broth to make next week's vat of soup - I'll need to think up a name for it, leftover soup just does not sound appetizing!

I still have a wheel of reblochon & a pack of smoked salmon in the freezer which have to make an appearance on the meal plan. (Any ideas gratefully received!) My lesson learned from their continued pressence is that posh ingredients, even on clearance are not something we can easily work into our menus!  Simple ingredients are so much easier to work into our every day plans.

joedenise

We sometimes have smoked salmon with scrambled eggs - very nice it is too!  I also like it in a sandwich with some cucumber, or on crackers - makes a nice change from cheese!

Suffolk_lass

Frozen sausages going in a pot with some veg and leave them to it today. We have to collect some sports equipment and not sure how long it will take so a casserole seems the way to go

ruby_eskimo

rtandon27 your meals sound so lovely (even with the purple carrots )  

Having leftover HM chow mein from Tuesday night's dinner for lunch today along with some miso soup.  Dinner will be a jacket potato with cheese, leftover coleslaw from the weekend and salad bits.  

Suffolk_lass

ruby_eskimo said:

rtandon27 your meals sound so lovely (even with the purple carrots )  

Having leftover HM chow mein from Tuesday night's dinner for lunch today along with some miso soup.  Dinner will be a jacket potato with cheese, leftover coleslaw from the weekend and salad bits.  

My absolute favourite Friday night treat!

joedenise

Have got a lamb and chickpea bake out from the freezer which I'm going to turn into a curry tomorrow for dinner.  Will have with wild rice/long grain rice mix.  May also make aloo gobi if I can be bothered as have about 1/4 large cauliflower in the fridge.