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

LotsOfTea

@DigForVictory this is the recipe I use although there are plenty of others available online too.

I don't bother skinning and deseeding the tomatoes mostly because I never bother doing that and it's fine.

greent

We went out for afternoon tea yesterday (had voucher for Xmas) so didn't need much last night - I had some of the Xmas cheese and biscuits, DH a sandwich and we had the scones that we were too full for at lunch.

Tonight we are having a noodle stir fry - noodles, veggies (inc 5p Xmas shallots) and sauce from stocks, beef strips bought YS in A5da this morning.

Tomorrow we are having a roast - YS chicken from freezer, 5p Xmas potatoes (think it's the last of them!), 5p sprouts, YS carrots bought last week, red cabbage made at Xmas (with 5p? 15p? red cabbage) and frozen, YS pigs in blankets bought before Xmas, leeks from freezer (think they were bought cheap at Xmas, too) and yorkies from freezer. There is a steamed pudding in the cupboard if anyone wants dessert (bought for Xmas and not eaten, so needs using!) - will also use up some of the (last tub!) Xmas cream…

Cherryfudge

DH and I are forming an orderly queue for Christmas Dinner chez @greent 😊

greent

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81894058#Comment_81894058

It very much ended up like a Xmas dinner, we had cranberry sauce (with port), too 😊

I made soup with veg trimmings from the freezer (broccoli and mushroom stalks, a bag of salad leaves that were all wilted and the end of a cucumber - threw in some chicken crumbs from the carcass and the end of a (2 months ood) tub of creme fraiche. Made lunch for 2 days and was lovely!

Tonight DH and I have finished a pack of southern fried chicken fillets from the freezer in wraps with salad. Lunch tomorrow is from the freezer and most of a pack of tenderstem broccoli to go with it.

The remains of the chicken will make a risotto - but I need more mushrooms and broccoli to do that 😊

LotsOfTea

DH and I bit the bullet and did a freezer inventory today which was very instructive. There was loads of stuff in there we had no idea we had. We've grabbed some sausages out to have for for lunch today with some hm chips and veg to make a start but we're going to make more of plan this afternoon on how to use the rest up. The good news is I could take the bag of frozen spinach off my next grocery order as it turns out we had a spare one in the freezer already.

Highlights of the freezer stash included 7 packs of different types of veggie burgers, 5 blocks of butter and 4 packs of puff pastry. Looks like I'll be having veggie burger en croute for the next few weeks 😂

Cherryfudge

@LotsOfTea , well done on your freezer inventory! You have reminded me I had real butter on holiday and it was incredibly nice so I may well treat myself and portion up a block (I'm the only one who eats it) - so that will be a bit of freezer space taken.

We are back from holiday with a few ingredients to add to the pantry: pasta, dried basil, tins of vegetables and the like. Nothing we won't use. My best 'treasure' is a kilo of dried beans, as we don't get much variety of dried pulses round here. I've now to rediscover what we have in store, and have started by cooking up a batch of chickpeas from dried, to make up for T not having any cheap ones yesterday.

LotsOfTea

I used up half a cauliflower for lunch today roasted in lemon oil and we had that with some "shicken" tikka chunks from the freezer. DH has also got some bread rolls proving so we can make a start on using up all the gazillion veggie burgers for tea tonight. I'll probably do some hm sweet potato wedges and sweetcorn to go with that.

I've got a couple of apples in the fruit bowl that have gone a bit fluffy and not great to eat as they are so I'm going to stew them with a bit of stem ginger later to have with yoghurt or possibly on my porridge in the mornings.

LotsOfTea

We used up a few more bits from the freezer this weekend : 2 packs of crumpets for breakfasts, a block of butter to fill up the butter dish, a couple of slices of sourdough and a tub of soup that covered Friday's lunch and finally a pack each of meaty and veggie sausages which we had dinner of with chips and broccoli for lunch today. Good progress made and there's quite a bit of space appearing in the freezer now.

Cherryfudge

We had my birthday get-together yesterday (a few days post-birthday) and as usual that was a lovely lunch out, a bit of a walk then everyone who was available piled into ours for a pizza buffet and cake.

I may not feel the need to eat for some time.

Dinner today was leftovers from during the week: chickpea tikka for him and sweet potato casserole for me. Two containers emptied! We sent lots of cake and watermelon slices home with DS1 and his children, and cake with DD but the youngest and his partner escaped with empty hands by choice. I did try, and at least the multiple empty Qu'lity St boxes that I gather from every source at Christmas are coming into their own to send food out of the house!

There's a bag of pizza slices and two garlic breads in the freezer. No space for any more! Other than those we still have pasta, cous cous, one whole and two half bags of salad, baked beans, half a small watermelon, a bit of garlic bread, some fruit juice, soda and P3psi and about a third of a huge cake (DD offered to make it as she wanted to practise for her daughter's birthday cake - that's next month, by which time I hope to have finished this one!)

Also in the fridge from last week are ham, yogurt, a few slices of cheese and some bacon which really needs to go in the freezer. Not urgent but not to be forgotten is the fruit bowl with most of two bags of easy peelers and some very nice grapes.

I'm making inroads into the pasta, garlic bread and fruit for tea.

LotsOfTea

Have you finished eating all the cake yet @cherryfudge ?

I decluttered a pack of veggie mince from the freezer yesterday and made it into a keema-type curry with added veg and a tin of lentils from the stores. It was well-received by DH and there's some leftover for another meal too.

On the plan for today is making some more soup for lunch with whatever veg in the fridge looks like it needs using up and probably making wraps to do veg and halloumi fajitas for tea tonight.