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

Cherryfudge

Dinner was salmon from the freezer and I've managed to finish a tub of hot chocolate and some herbal tea from the coffee cupboard too. I've restocked some tins, nothing dramatic. For some reason there's less freezer space than there was a week ago.

Tomorrow we'll have more of the swede and lentil curry from the fridge. I'm still only half way through the spiced carrot hummus but I can't freeze and due to lack of space! It does make a good lunch, though.

oceandreamer

Made a curry last night using some of the leftover Christmas lamb which I'd diced and frozen, along with half a bag of frozen spinach.  Tonight it is shepherds pie from the freezer - more of the Christmas lamb this time in gravy and topped with mashed veg from Christmas day.

Cherryfudge

We fed some of the family today and they brought a delicious apple and blackberry crumble. Not a scrap of it left! Our contribution was nutty sweet potato and lime stew, which used half the remaining spinach thus creating a bit of freezer space. Most of it was from stores.

I've taken the citrus peel out of the freezer so tomorrow I'll (hopefully) make the marmalade, and I also took out chicken for dinner tomorrow.

There's a little bit of custard left for someone, and half a bottle of nice fizzy stuff. A bottle and a half left over from Christmas are used up so there's more space where they were.

greent

Still working my way through the cheese and crackers mountain for lunches... 2 boxes of crackers down, 2 to go...

Dinner today is a one-pot chicken thing - 6 chicken breasts from the freezer, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes from the cupboard, hm chicken stock from the fridge, 3 peppers from the fridge (1 was about 6 weeks old and very wrinkly), the ends of 2 tubes of Tom puree from the fridge (I have no idea why we had 2 tubes open... I suspect DH!), 1 bag of 5p shallots and a full tub of baby mushrooms. Oh - and about a large glass of wine (which is a mix of prosecco left from Xmas day and a cheap bottle of rose bought specifically for cooking - I very, very rarely drink) Will serve with rice (cupboard staple) and part bake mini rolls (bought for Xmas break and not yet eaten)

I'll take today as a success 😀

We did go to Lidl for some demi baguettes, crisps, wraps and bacon (bacon was eaten for lunches by others) but I think that's acceptable 😊 

Cherryfudge

Our dinner was a lot like yours, @greent. Chicken chasseur, using a pack of chicken from the freezer, two tins of tomatoes, a small bottle of wine, some bacon, etc. We opened a pack of wholemeal cous cous to have with it, so it's no longer haunting me as a good intention that got nowhere, and had half a bag of cabbage I'd frozen in the summer.

I also rarely drink but finished off a beer I'd opened and left in the fridge. Yes, it was flat, but the taste was okay. DH finished the custard from yesterday with tinned apples, sultanas and brown sugar.

Having created space in the coffee cupboard, I fetched a green tea with mint from stores (noticing it went out of date about last May!). I'm pleased to say I've got a bit of a taste for it with a smidgeon of honey, much better than my former endless coffees.

At the moment I'm putting off making the marmalade...

Cherryfudge

Cherryfudge said:

I found the marmalade recipe so I thought I'd share it: Shirley Goode's Misers Marmalade recipe made from leftover orange peel — MoneySavingExpert Forum

There's another version on the same thread, immediately below, which is the one I was thinking of trying.

Start by saving peel off grapefruit, oranges and lemons.

Keep in freezer till you have 675gm
(ask other peeps to save for you as well )
Flavour obviously varies with combination of fruits, always tasty, no 2 batches the same!
Makes about 10lbs

675g mixed orange, grapefruit and lemon peel, washed
450g whole lemons
225g lime flesh only(no peel)
300ml water
2.7kg sugar

Place the peel in the pressure cooker and cook for 10mins at 15lb pressure. Leave to cool to room temperature.
Drain, retaining the liquid, and slice the peel when cool enough to handle. Set aside.
Cut the lemons into quarters, remove the pips and place in a muslin bag. (I use the bags out of the dried pea box!) Remove and roughly chop the flesh, slice the peel thinly.
Place in the pressure cooker. (Usually do this the other way round -or even put in first stage-easier to chop when soft)
Add lime pips and peel to lemon pips in muslin bag.
Chop lime flesh roughly and add to pressure cooker
Add another 300ml water and cook for 10mins on 15 lbs. Allow to cool to room temp.
Place all the cooked sliced peel in preserving pan. Squeeze muslin bag to extract all juice
mix together all retained juice and add sufficient water to make up to 1.4 litres
Add to the preserving pan, along with the sugar.
Heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil until setting point is reached.
Remove any scum
Allow about 5 mins to cool slightly (stops peel floating up)
Pour into cooled sterilised jars, seal whilst still warm, label when cool.

All I can say so far is - eek! I need advice!

There are a number of things that aren't clear to me in the Shirley Goode recipe, but at least I've made a start. I braved the pressure cooker function on the IP and it behaved itself very nicely, not a thing exploded so far.

First attempt at pressure cooking, it beeped at me and said 'burn' so I had a quick look at the manual and reckoned the 300ml water should have gone in with the peel so I tried that and it seems to have worked.

Now I've chopped the lemon according to instructions, though I didn't have nearly enough but I reckon this project has been hanging about too long, why wait to do exactly as the instructions say? There was only one lemon pip so I hope I don't lose it.

When it says drain the pressure cooked peel, retain the liquid and set aside, do I set aside the peel and liquid (separated) and start the lemon and lime bit in an empty pressure cooker?

And about these limes - it makes it clear in the first part that lime peel isn't involved, then later it says to add it to the muslin bag, which is what I'm going to do. I'm already confused by there being lemon peel in the initial 675g, then more lemon peel later...

Suggestions please!

oceandreamer

Sorry Cherryfudge I feel your pain with that recipe - I can't make head nor tail either.  I think it mentions lemon peel twice because as well as the peel you start off with which could be orange, lemon etc there is also the peel from the two additional whole lemons.  I think you need just the flesh from some limes - I suspect that lemon flesh would do if you've no limes but I'm no expert.  Good luck hope it turns out ok.

oceandreamer

A few things used up today.  Last bit of hotpot from the other day for lunch with a sausage roll which I had bothered to make with one leftover sausage out of the packet the other day - very nice - could have done with more.
Leftover curry from the other night for tea.  
Have taken a turkey wing out of the freezer for tomorrow, I hope it's big enough,  Well it looks big enough but I'm not sure how much meat will be on it.  We like a turkey crown for Christmas, but I think they are so expensive compared to whole turkeys.  So I get a whole one, take off the legs, thighs and wings and cut the bottom part off the remaining bit to make a crown.  The cut off bit makes stock for turkey broth and I usually debone the thighs and cook them sometime, stuffed.  The legs and wings make pies, rissotto or (tomorrow) ramon etc. It does make a turkey very cost effective but it does fill the freezer up!

LotsOfTea

We had visitors over the weekend so I made a selection of curries and hm naan. It did use some chicken thighs from the freezer which was good but I've got a few left now as obviously I had to defrost the whole pack to separate them. We also have curry leftovers but we can have those for tea tonight. 

I shall shortly be investigating the veg drawer to see what needs turning into soup for lunch and checking the zombie apocalypse stores as I think I've got a big bag of red lentils in there and they're always good for adding a bit of heft to soups.

I really need to do some more baking to make some more cake for DS's lunchbox but I'm just not in the mood at the moment. I have still got banana and chocolate cake to give him so I can put it off until later in the week. 

LotsOfTea

I had half of a 2kg bag of red lentils in the under stairs sites stores so I decanted that into the canister in the kitchen and used a handful in some curried parsnip and carrot soup yesterday. I also found a packet of risotto rice in the stores which went out of date in 2020. It looked fine so I've brought it into the kitchen to give it a try. There's so much stuff in there that's been hoarded far too long. 2026 is definitely going to be the year of clearing it all out!