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

Frugalistamama

Hello there! I'm back... Again .. after a year. Trying to reduce food spend again and stock.  Although I'm not as overly stocked up as I was before. Things are more organised and I haven't been 'fear' stocking. I still have plenty to be using up though, but I've got a different strategy. I have a 5 week rotating meal plan of about 4 meals a week as I can't be creative all the time as I'm working with 2 kids so it gives me a guide. In the plan there are all the things I know everyone will eat. I make sure I have the stuff in for those meals and use weekend lunches and dinners to use up stuff in the cupboard or leftovers. My 'creative' cooking, although my husband and me enjoy it, doesn't always go down well with the kids!! So I'm trying this new strategy to see how I get on. I've been doing it for a couple of weeks, I don't always make the set meals but I have the ingredients for when it comes around again. So it's very flexible. 

This weekend I had a lot of bits about so I made a minestrone soup with random veg, some rice, beans pasta and even some leftover chicken bits. One child hated it 🙄 
I had some really old dessicated coconut, I found a recipe for oat and coconut biscuits which were a big hit.  They will be turning up again when I have time as I still have more coconut. You couldn't tell they were well over a year past the date!! 

I also had some mince pork in the fridge so I have recreated a hello fresh taco meal which everyone liked for tonight.  I've bumped it up though willth some soya mince and a tin of beans to give me lunch for two/three days as well.

I also have a goal of not buying random things that aren't part of the meal plan. I'm a sucker for a Lidl 'special one off from around the world'! Or random treats. Lunch box and meal plan ingredients only!! This will need a lot of will power!

I hope you are all well and keeping those stores in order x

suzeesu2000

Went through my freezers this afternoon. Now have a list of exactly what we have so am able to properly meal plan around that. 

We seem to have a lot of Indian takeaway foods but not so much of, what I would call, dinner foods. 

No worries, I am up for trying stuff I haven’t had before and a bit of mix and match. 

This is the second week I am not shopping, doing a bit of Shelf-tember but in the freezer…
Night night all xx

Cherryfudge

Welcome back @Frugalistamama, I hope all's well with you and the family? I've found the same with desiccated coconut: it seems to stay usable for a very long time.

@suzeesu2000, I haven't come across Shelf-tember before but what a good idea!

Today we used some curry paste that's been in the fridge for ages but tastes good. There's still half a jar in to use and quite a lot of curry left over, though it did help with the yogurt surplus. I also spotted a couple of those spice mixes that are supposed to save you having to sort out your cooking - 'just add chicken etc.' (in other words it saves shopping for spices). I had these on a promotional offer and the meals were quite nice but to me they seemed overpriced. We've decided to use them up though.

We are still eating our way through the gigantic bag of spinach and it's still in good condition! The fridge needs looking at... let's see if I can organise ingredients into at least lunches for me.

Watty1

Tidied the tins and bags cupboard up.   Despite my earlier in the year "use up" I still seem to have way to much in there.   Should there be a national shortage of chia seeds dear friends do not panic.  I will mail you all a bag.  This is no idle promise - I have A LOT.  I think I might just add them to a breakfast smoothie in an effort to use them up (also found a chia seed pudding on line but tbh it sounds horrible).

The flour mountain remains, and there are many signs of panic buys.    I've done a meal plan for this week. I'm not sure how much of anything it uses up but it is a start. I've also made a list of what is actually in the freezer.

Cherryfudge

I've used up one of the mixes that I rediscovered yesterday - a mushroom/pasta meal. There's enough for a second helping but I don't think it's a thing I'd buy again as it's salty. As well as putting the small box in the recycling, two bags of mushrooms are gone from the freezer and one onion from the big bag of irresistible bargain onions that I've bought a few times recently. Also some yogurt from the big container of it that I made to save wasting the milk. Win!

rtandon27

Watty1 said:

...also found a chia seed pudding on line but tbh it sounds horrible...

@Watty1 - it's very similar to tapioca pudding, I quite like it, but tailor it to the season - apple cinnamon atm - a great way to have a 'not savory' breakfast without spiking the blood sugar!

LotsOfTea

I'm back home today from a long weekend with family and the weather is grim so I've pulled some spicy courgette soup out of the freezer for tea. 

I too have more than one pack of chia seeds in my cupboard which I've picked up when I've seen them cheap. I'm going to start chucking a spoonful on my porridge every morning and hopefully that'll see them off. To be honest I much prefer pumpkin or sunflower seeds but I think I've been suckered in by the super food hype. I don't think I'll buy any more when they're gone, they're not especially tasty and can go a bit slimy when wet which I'm not a fan of. 

Well done everyone who has done a freezer or cupboard inventory. I need to do that again but am summoning up the energy.

Frugalistamama

I don't want to cook tonight and have leftovers so the kids will have tacos with some salad and my husband and I will have some leftover chicken and potatoes from the weekend. I try to cook every other day if possible so make enough for leftover. 

greent

Loving the idea of Shelf-tember! 😄

Very slow progress here - any space I make un the freezers seems to be immediately filled by apples and pears (and I still have many kilos to process and pick - and I've given some awat)

I did get out 4 chicken breasts from the freezer yesterday to coat with panko (I bought a kilo bag at the end of last year- it's quie large!) - I split them first and then bashed them thin so there's now 2 tubs of leftover chicken in the fridge 🙄 as DH was unwell by dinner time (prepped late morning) along with a tub of baby roasted potatoes. I had a piece of chicken for dinner (not hungry) and will have some with salad for lunch tomorrow. I think DD is coming round to watch bake off tomorrow night, so will palm some chicken and potatoes off on her for the following day and see if DS1 wants to have chicken wrap for lunch tomorrow.

I also made a pear and apple crumble yesterday (so much fruit here!) and used ras-el-hanout (about 10 years old...) instead of mixed spice - worked well 1 portion of it left, which DS1 can have tomorrow night.

LotsOfTea

I've used up another pot of soup from the freezer and started a tin of prunes from the zombie apocalypse stores to have with my yoghurt and oats for breakfast. I bought a load of different tinned fruits back when I was worrying that Brexit would mess up food supplies and have been trying to use them up as they are all past their best before dates now. Some have been better than others as far as taste goes. Prunes are absolutely delicious! 

I've also made a huge pot of veg chilli which used up a load of fresh veg (peppers, runner beans, butternut squash, carrots, sweet potato and sweetcorn) as well as some veggie mince from the freezer and some tinned tomatoes and kidney beans. And a huge pot of curry which used half a truly enormous spaghetti squash and a tin each of chickpeas, lentils and coconut milk. I've frozen some of this as I don't think we'll get through it all otherwise but I'm just off to make some soup with the other half of the squash. Progress is being made although I'm not entirely sure I've got any more room in the freezer as I keep putting stuff back in!