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

greent

A YS joint of pork was slow cooked with spices, apple juice and then pulled and had bbq sauce added - there's still about half of it left. I gave DD a curry kit from the cupboard and some bhajis from the freezer when she was here last night. The huge risotto made at the weekend was finally finished up today. Still no space in freezers but fridge has some space and some of the cupboards are better than they were.

No idea for dinner tonight. Tomorrow's lunch will be from the freezer, though, to claw a tiny bit more space back.

Wraithlady

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81964914#Comment_81964914

I'm with Yorkslass - it's not failed flapjacks, it's granola!

Cherryfudge

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81965261#Comment_81965261

This batch would be wonderful over vanilla ice cream. DH had some on his tinned peaches!

I have plenty of yogurt to experiment with. 😊

greent

Just one portion of the vast quantities of pulled pork made last week left (I gave some to DD) - I'll eat that for lunch tomorrow with a big pile of crunchy slaw and a little ranch.

Definite progress in the freezer today- I'm roasting a large 2.6kg YS chicken, which we're having with some cheap Easter veg (a head of broccoli, a bag of potatoes, a bag of carrots and the last of a bag of parsnips), some bread sauce put in the freezer last month, the last of the red cabbage made at Xmas and some posh fresh cranberry sauce bought after Xmas and put in the freezer. Ooh - and the last pack of pigs in blankets from December!

I've also (drum roll...) finished the last of the Xmas alcoholic extra thick cream today!!

I had to ignore the 2 large YS chickens calling to me in A5da yesterday morning! 🤣

Lunches this week will consist mainly of salad (put weight on over Easter) - but one day might be any left over roast veg from today plus the last of the roast Easter lamb from the freezer - it depends what's left (although I have cooked with the intention of having leftovers)

I'll make a risotto in the week with chicken stock and chicken scraps from today, plus the scrappy stalks from broccoli and mushrooms that I keep in a bag in the freezer. Very busy week at work, so that plus some freezer kyivs and maybe some fajitas (which will use some of the excess onions, peppers and chicken breasts we have- plus an unopened ood pot of sour cream…)should get us through until Friday 😄

Cherryfudge

I bought a lot of bargain veg at Iceland the other day (saw on Olio that they had some good reductions). Today we've finished the tender stem broccoli and had some leeks and most of the remaining Easter carrots with some y/s salmon and some of the potatoes I got as my L1dl free veg the other week. Very nice, and healthy, too.

I found that some oats from the emergency store cupboard went OOD this week so overnight oats and flapjacks aplenty have been made. Some went to a family get-together, to which I also contributed a chocolate cake and a pineapple upside down pudding - but making those necessitated buying some store cupboard ingredients, so there's not really more free space.

You know your cupboards need a good sort out when you find the icing sugar in the bread bin.

Things to use up in the reasonably near future: a couple of carrots and peppers, potatoes, celery, leeks, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, yogurt, lacto-free milk, rice pudding, pate, chocolate fudge icing, eggs, ginger, chorizo, lamb stock, hummus, strawberries, grapes.

Eek.

rtandon27

Yesterday we ended up buying burgers and buns and chips, today after eating a couple of things from the freezer and shifting around the rest, I found we had both burgers and chips in there! If we persevered a bit in our freezer dives, we'd not have to shop for every ingredient!

Today have used up a jar of cheesy carbonara sauce, lardons from the freezer and the most enormous cauliflower I've ever seen, batch cooking a huge cauli-cheese pasta for tomorrow's dinner and a couple of portions for the freezer.

For dinner tonight we used up the last of the pork roast, some leftover rice and all kinds of assorted veg in a stir-fry. I'd forgotten how nice that particular use it up meal can be, and after initial chopping takes about 5 mins to cook.

Cherryfudge

I have started the pate, finished the rice pudding and turned the strawberries into a jar of jam. They were a bit past their best - bought to trim a cake a week ago, then plans had to change as someone was ill. I had to compost some of them but DH says the jam is nice.

Watty1

Rummaged through the freezer and cupboard to come up with a meal plan of sorts for the days ahead.

Also more decluttering kitchen cupboards. I think some years ago under stress I bought random ingredients to use up in found recipes and then never used again. I have found 3 more jars of tahini out of date, a couple of tins of some kind of Spanish spice - like a very sweet smoked paprika - a middle eastern spice mix and so on. If things went OOD three years ago I am being a bit ruthless now. There is no point in keeping them hoping I will "use up" as that is just taking up space and will probably involve buying random ingredients to use up and so compound the problem. I really need to lower the stress around food and so clearing the cupboards so I can find things will help with that.

My cooking at the moment centres around the slow cooker, tray bakes and quick somethings like fish with vegetables or salad and pasta. The cupboards need to reflect that.

LotsOfTea

I got one of the 2 half price gammon joints out of the freezer at the weekend and DH & DS had some for 'Sunday roast' while I had a veggie pie. They've had a bit more in sandwiches this week but there's still loads left so I might freeze some of the cooked stuff to use at a later date.

Meanwhile I've been making soups for our lunches again and yesterday's used up the end of a butternut squash, a big carrot, some harissa from an open jar that's in the fridge and a tin of mushy peas. All cooked and whizzed up with some veggie stock it was really delicious! The peas were best before 2020 so I think it was about time they got used up 😂

Wraithlady

We've resolved to 'shop from the freezer(s)' to try and get it down from 'rammed-to-the-density-of-a-black-hole' and I'm not allowed to buy anything more to go in it unless it's replacing something that's been used up.

With this in mind, we had a steak and kidney pie last week, I've used up a couple of chunks of home-cooked gammon in last night's carbonara and found some blue cheese from Xmas (unfortunately, not at its best but will use up in blue cheese sauce over pasta sometime this week). as well as using up one of the many containers of stewed plums on breakfasts and over icecream.

Also planning to use one of the large lumps of lamby rear-end in a curry this weekend, and the side of (probably) salmon will be marinaded then smoked next weekend.