The all new using what you have from your Freezer, Cupboard or Shed (Barn)

Cherryfudge

Good on you for trying, @RHemmings. I wonder if it's the ingredients rather than the recipe? Sometimes bottled lemon (or pre-prepared garlic, if applicable) just doesn't have the flavour of fresh. I had to throw out an unopened bottle of lemon once as it had sort of curdled, but you would have seen if your had done that.

Today we had lentil and chorizo soup from stores, and I've had yet more pizza and salad for lunch. DH has kindly finished the jelly from the other day. There are chicken portions defrosting for tomorrow to have with the rest of the mushrooms in a chasseur or other invention that will use up things that need using up. There's still a portion of the Moroccan-style stew, which I hope will be okay till I eat it, and some roast veg from yesterday.

And stop me if you've heard this before... there are bananas to use up.

carinjo

@Cherryfudge i got 2 bananas staring at me too! Already got several in the freezer. What are you planning to do with yours?
@RHemmings i have also found bottled lemon juice don't always work, normally just use it as a quick fix when doing fish or when cleaning cutting boards. Have another go with fresh juice and fingers crossed!
the joy of an almost empty fridge. The lettuce is being turned into a soup today and the spinach is for the guinea pigs. 
This was deliberate on my part, clearing out before left for portugal. 
The plan is now to start in freezer and cupboard first and then top up with fresh as needed.
Today out: potatoes, stock, onion to go with lettuce for soup. shared recipe with mum, it 40C there, so she doing the chilled version tonight.
In tonight: asked for some venison from my guy, cubed, shoulder, mince. 

Oh, someone asked about the w@itrose food app, yes it not the shopping one. You can either read just the recipes, or the whole magazine. 

Cherryfudge

Impressively clear fridge @carinjo! Wow to 40 degrees, it's -1 here.

London_1

I don't have to dig anything from the freezer today  DD made extra Moroccan chicken last night so I have a portion to pick up this afternoon for tonights dinner. Lunch will be I thinks cheese on toast with a poached egg on top as I really fancy it .
Tomorrow I will be making a trifle to take with me to DDs  for Sunday pudding. I actually make two small ones, one for her and I ,and one for my fridge for Monday and Tuesday's pudding

 A one pint jelly divided between two bowls makes enough for DD and I on Sunday as her OH doesn't eat trifle. He always cooks Sunday dinner for the three of us, as the boys are all off hand, two in London, one at his boarding school job in Kent, and the youngest at Uni so there is only the three of us.

Tomorrows dinner will be sausage and mash and veg all from the freezer. Using up what I can from my existing stocks saving me a good bit from my January budget as I have only done two shopping trips in 19 days so well within my January budget at the moment Total spent so far this month only £31.29 with only 12 more days left until the end of the month  

JackieO xx

RHemmings

I want to work on the mayonnaise flavour, as otherwise it's close. Fresh lemon juice is something to think about. I like quite tart mayonnaise, so I am thinking of adding citric acid as well. Also, many vegan mayonnaise recipes include mustard powder. I preferred Plamil mayo until it was discontinued, and since then have been trying to find the best replacement (Leon Aioli being the closest so far), so was thinking of avoiding mustard powder. Maybe I should try it. 

What I have is close enough to be 'OK', and refinement should improve it. 

Good to read of the good work of others. I've not been so good since coming back, but am eating some 'cupboard' meals cooked before and frozen, and as I clear out my frozen meal boxes, will open up opportunity for another chipping away at long term stuff. 

Cairnpapple

Finished up a bag of frozen sweet potato fries last night with some Mediterranean veg melt things. Have been eating homemade ready meals out of the freezer all week but it's going to get replenished a bit with a big burgundy beef that's currently in the slow cooker. 

Spouse is planning to make apple and pear baked oats for breakfast tomorrow to cook up some pears that never properly ripened.

Wraithlady

carinjo said:

@Cairnpapple, try this: it freezes really well and i have done it in a square tin, which is easier to portion.

Yoinked - I have the remains of the Xmas fruit box to use up, and a lot of ground almonds

Wraithlady

I'm working on trying to clear the freezers, as a/ we have a Musclefood delivery arriving next week and b/ we're hoping to move this year so, by starting now, I hope I won't have to bin perfectly edible food.

With this in mind, I have taken out 1 of 2 packets of chicken thighs for curry tonight, the last bag of turkey scraps for Turkey a la king for tomorrow (depending on which thaws first, I may have to swap these around), 2 tubs of soup (1 W8rose Thai green curry chicken soup, the other HM carrot soup left over from Xmas) for lunches and a tub of (I think) plums for crumble.

Moved burgers, chicken wings and sausages to the indoor freezer so I'm more likely to use them up.

I will have quite a lot to freeze come next week, especially as I ordered a fish box, and managed to get 4 packs of gammon steaks free - but on the plus side, our weekly shopping lists are really short!

Cairnpapple

Dinner was mostly fresh but used up the end of the garlic and a handful of little packs of salted butter that came with some scones earlier in the week. Spouse made an absolute genius substitution when we realised halfway through making a Persian lamb mince thing that we didn't have either pomegranate seeds or pomegranate molasses - used some of our friend's homemade blackberry and apple chutney to provide the fruity/sweet/sour notes. 

I think the big freezer now has enough space to take everything from the small freezer as long as we're fairly efficient with containers for freezing the burgundy beef. Hopefully will be able to defrost the small freezer this week or next weekend.

Tomorrow we're having a friend round for haggis which has zero freezer/cupboard impact, but I do plan to serve some sorbet that's been lurking in the freezer. 

oceandreamer

Defrosted a packet of beef mince and used half to make a shepherds pie, bulked out with grated carrots and some frozen peas and grated the last of some posh xmas cheese with black pepper in on the top. Very suitable for this weather.  There's enough left for me to have for dinner tomorrow and I will make the rest of the mince into chilli to use up half a massive courgette and most of a bottle of roasted peppers.