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

Cherryfudge

We did well for eating up today, too. Our guest has gone home so we used up the potatoes with onions and some corned beef from the freezer and had corned beef hash for our main meal.

I also defrosted some smoked salmon and had my share on crackers for tea, with cream cheese, which was delicious. Cake, ham and cheese have all featured as either dessert of a pre-work snack.

This afternoon I cleaned the fridge and there are lots of things needing to be used up. I'm currently baking two bake-at-home ready-made batches of pastries which have been in there since Christmas. Yes, they are out of date but they weren't damaged and they smelled good, so I'm risking it. Most of the fridge contents seem to be my jars of jam from a batch that didn't go as planned, assorted sauces and dressings that take a long time to finish and vegetables that need a plan.

LotsOfTea

My attempt to make a lovely pea, lemon & mozzarella tart last weekend was foiled by the puff pastry from the freezer having dried out to the extent that it wasn't usable. It just cracked into bits. Note to self : anything new going in the freezer will have a date put on it! All the other ingredients are still in date so I've bought some new puff pastry and will be trying again tomorrow.

I have continued to use up stores this week including making a lovely veggie shepherd's pie which did us a couple of days, a veg & chickpea Thai green curry and a veggie chilli. Although I'm mainly trying to empty the freezers I also have quite a lot in the cupboards too so I'm attempting to prune it all down to a reasonable amount. I've got a lot of tins, packets and jars lurking in the cupboards and in the zombie apocalypse stores under the stairs. I think I need to start pulling some of if the older things out and making a meal plans around them.  I can't face doing an inventory just yet, helpful though it would be, as I'm not sure I'm ready to see just how much is there! 

We've got leftovers of soup, curry and chilli in the fridge so no cooking required today at least.

London_1

Good Morning chums, boy doesn't it take a time to eat down a freezer ,especially if like me you live alone.
 Yesterday was cottage pie for lunch with veg all from the freezer then some stewed apples and custard that I had made for pudding, plenty left for a light lunch with some HM  soup from the freezer today as I go to DDs for dinner every Sunday and we eat in the evening so a light lunch more than does me until around 7.00 tonight.

LotsOfTea I agree I too am working my way through packets and tins from the cupboards.Interesting finds though I think I have an apocalypse supply of tinned sardines in the cupboard plus tinned pilchards and at least 4 tins of corned beef.

As for tinned tomatoes chick peas kidney beans and baked beans well I thinkI could feed half the street. all bought long dated after I came out of hospital in November to save me going to do much shopping as I was then on two sticks and not driving.

Now mobile once more thank goodness. I have definitely reined in on shopping though as the food mountain has to go.
Roll on this Thursday as its the end of Lent and I will once more be able to drink my beloved tea again and collect from DGS the fiver he bet that I couldn't hold out for 6 weeks:)  its been tough but almost there now  

 The bottom basket in my freezer is full of batched baked meals  in containers so this week will see beef curry, lasagne, chicken provencal and chilli all on the menu and all from the freezer with sweet chilli salmon for Friday's dinner.

I still have a good bit of chicken breast and pieces still uncooked and frozen in the top basket along with 750 gms of beef mince, but no point batch cooking it until I have some room in the bottom basket for the ready batched cooked new ones to go in.

It will go, and I'm pleased that my shopping is virtually down to milk, fresh fruit and the odd bits that I have run out of.

So my monthly food budget has dropped considerably buy the left over cash gets stashed into my 'Happy Cash Stash' which goes for an occasional treat, or as last week £20.00 went to my youngest DGS Mikey at Uni to help get him some extra groceries.
He tells me he has 1001 winning ways with pasta bless him I'm glad I taught him to cook inexpensive meals before he went off to Uni thee same as I did for his three brothers before him. 'Every little helps' him a bit

Right enough chit chat time to do some veg prepping for this week as I have some carrots and broccoli in the veg basket to use up before I use the veg in the freezer

   JackieO xx

Cairnpapple

Some sausages and black pudding out of the freezer today, we were staying in a hotel last night but I didn't have enough energy to go and eat a big breakfast (and it was expensive!) so spouse promised me some nice breakfast rolls for lunch instead

LotsOfTea

Yesterday I grabbed a handful of tins at random from the Armageddon stores under the stairs to put them in my sightline so I can use them up. This has furnished me with several bits of info : 

1) I bought some of this stuff a long time ago - it's several years out of date (no bother, I know tinned stuff lasts forever but it's time for it to be used)
2) I have no idea what made me buy some of the things e.g. tinned ravioli (nostalgia for my childhood?)
3) I was clearly worrying about a possible fruit shortage as I have pretty much every variety of tinned fruit available

I made a start and used up a tin of sweetcorn - half went in a sweet chilli fried rice we had for lunch yesterday and the other half went in some sweet potato mash which accompanied the leftover veggie chilli that we had for tea. 

We used the last of a packet of wraps today to have veg and halloumi fajitas for lunch and tea will be leftover veg Thai green curry. 

Cherryfudge

You are making progress there, @LotsOfTea. It sounds like a proper prepping store: the sort of things you buy tinned against a real emergency (ravioli) or in case you can't get your five a day (fruit). Perhaps it's time to rediscover a taste for tinned ravioli?! (I bet it's nice with cheese over the top). The fruit is easy - crumble or overnight oats perhaps? If you have tinned peaches, I think Jack Monroe uses them in curry.

Yesterday we had chorizo and chicken from the freezer and there's salmon defrosting for dinner today. The bake-at-home pastries are finished up but there are some cake-type oddments to get through before we have another bake. I will try to inveigle green beans into the salmon meal too, as they've been in the freezer long enough.

Cherryfudge

Oh dear, I seem to have filled those freezer gaps already: 20 sausages, a pack of lamb mince, 2 pieces of salmon, 2 pieces of cod. I finished the cream cheese and replaced it within hours (mock cheesecake: digestive biscuit spread with cream cheese and jam - great quick snack). I've also bought more chorizo which will be sliced and frozen, some fruit loaf and some of the cheap pre-Easter potatoes that various supermarkets are marking down along with veg as if it were Christmas.

In my defence I didn't buy full price anything apart from sausages, if you allow cheapest brands to count as not paying full price.

mumf

last night used frozen fish cakes (  adore them and they now need replacement!) but will be replaced with now sliced black pudding and sliced mushrooms. We adore black pudding and bought plenty to stock us. We simply bought too many mushrooms! 

London_1

I'm not doing too bad on using stuff up but was tempted this week when I went to Sainsburys to get DD a leg of lamb.They had half sides of salmon at half price for just over a tenner, so I treated myself to one .I brought it home and it was portioned up into 8 portions which work out at £1.26 per portions. Definitely money saving and I do like fresh salmon so I felt justified in doing it .Then yesterday when I had met my eldest in Asdas for a quick coffee (she works in the building next door and I wanted to see her before she went away on Thursday )

I had a quick check on the reduced bit and there were lots of beef mince reduced to £1.34 a pack for 500 gms far too good to miss ,especially as it was their 5% fat only mince so four packets found their way into my basket so I came home with 2 kilo of best mince for £5.36 about £1.20 a lb, again far too good to miss so that too was wrapped and portioned for the freezer. Absolutely no further shopping to buy now for a good fortnight as I've checked the freezer and tinned cupboards and have enough now too just steer clear of any shops. I have sufficient veg in my veg box and more than enough fruit as well both fresh and tinned.

Today I have some steamed salmon for lunch with a small salad and for dinner tonight I have a nice cottage pie from the freezer 

 Both meals basically from the freezer apart from the small tomato and beetroot salad. I have some tinned fruit and custard for pudding.

Onwards and upwards chums my tinned cupboard is slowly reducing and its almost the end of lent so I shall soon be having my beloved cuppa back at last :0  

  JackieO xx

Cherryfudge

London_1 said:

 I shall soon be having my beloved cuppa back at last :0  

  JackieO xx

I was looking at the tea bags in the supermarket yesterday trying to decide what to get for the foodbank in your honour once Lent is over!