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

LotsOfTea

We did have risotto yesterday for tea, DH made mushroom, pea and lemon risotto and it was delicious! We finished off the cabbage soup for lunch today which was good for me as it was nice and spicy and as I've come down with the stinky cold DH had last week it was much needed to unblock my nose a bit. I'm struggling to be bothered about tea but I think we might have some veggie chilli in the freezer that can be easily defrosted so that might do.

I've been looking through a couple of rarely-used cookbooks with the aim of decluttering both store cupboard food and the cookbooks if I'm not going to make good use of them. So far I've earmarked a couple of recipes from a slow cooker book which look good and I'm pretty sure I've got most of the ingredients for so when I'm feeling a bit less grotty I'll give them a go.

LotsOfTea

Yesterday I used up a packet of peri-peri seasoning that had been sitting the the cupboard forever. I used it to coat veg and halloumi before roasting them and DH and I ate it all up for our lunch. I made some unspicy roasted veg for DH as well to have mixed through couscous for his tea. DH was busy in the evening so he sorted his own tea out and had a spam omelette to use to more of the leftovers and I had fried egg and veggie haggis on toast with a drizzle of chilli oil - delicious!

DH & I finished off the last of the leftover butternut squash soup for lunch today so we're at soup level zero again. I might put the bread maker on to make pizza dough in a bit as it's Friday night, we have plenty of grated mozzarella in the freezer and pizza always feels a bit of a treat.

Cherryfudge

We are down to a couple of portions of soup in the fridge but no freezer space as MrT gave me 20% off sausages so I have bought three packs (best combination of flavours and discounts I could find - not the cheapest as sausages, like coffee, seem to be better if you pay more and we are blessed with the resources).

I also had a free vegetable from L1dl so I got a bag of sweet potatoes and intend to make a sweet potato stew soon. The other day they gave me 15% off certain potatoes and I'm in a baked potato phase so we have those to eat.

LotsOfTea

I made pizza on Friday night which went down very well with the troops. DS looks like he might be due another growth spurt because he ate his own pizza and then polished off half of mine which I was too full to eat.

Lunch yesterday was toasties again which finished off the spam and more of the veggie haggis and tea was burgers and baps from the freezer with roasted veg on the side. The baps were a bit hard around the edges so I lightly toasted them and they were fine.

I made some 'malt loaf' using the recipe from my bread maker instructions and it has come out a very tasty fruit loaf but it's definitely not what I'd call malt loaf. I had a toasted slice with butter for breakfast and enjoyed it very much but I might do a search to see if I can find a better recipe to get something more like a proper malt loaf.

I think I'm going to make some Greek style butter beans with pitta, hummus & salad for lunch today as it's easy and we have all the ingredients.

LotsOfTea

I made a double batch of the butter beans on Sunday so we have leftovers in the fridge. We were quite full after lunch so just had Marmite on toast for tea. Yesterday I used the last few wrinkly beetroot from the fridge to make soup with lemon, garlic and a little bit of chilli. We had that for lunch and as DH was out in the evening I fished some chicken nuggets out of the freezer for DS and made him chips with the last potato and served with broccoli and carrots. I used up the broccoli stalk, a few asparagus spears and some smoked tofu to make a packet of spicy noodles more exciting and that was us done for the day.

There's some leftover soup from yesterday so we'll probably use that for lunch and I've taken some chicken from the freezer to defrost for fajitas tonight. I've got a bit of leftover halloumi for me instead of the chicken and I'll need to make the wraps but it should be fine. We're low on veg as the shopping doesn't come until later this evening so it'll be pretty much carrot and onion in the fajitas but it'll do.

Cherryfudge

The soup is finished and I've discovered I like mango chutney in my baked beans. DH had some chasseur from the freezer yesterday, making a box's worth of space. Tonight's dinner was mackerel with peas, sweetcorn and couscous, so small inroads made into stores.

I know there are things to be thrown out from the fridge but I'm too tired after a busy day to do much now. The yogurt has gone and there's some OOD chicken which I feel bad about. DH and I are both in for dinner tomorrow but not Thursday or Friday so some planning will be needed: we've had sausages recently so they probably won't feature.

LotsOfTea

Ooh, mango chutney would be great in baked beans! I often add chilli flakes and smoked paprika and that's good too.

We didn't have fajitas in the end as DH decided to use the chicken to make a curry using a couple of curry sauces we had in the cupboard. He made a mild chicken one and a spicy tofu one, both with added carrots and cabbage and there's still some of the mild one left that DS can have for tea tonight.

I made soup again yesterday from half a tin of leftover tomatoes, a wrinkly beetroot I hadn't spotted when I made beetroot soup earlier in the week, a small potato, the end of a butternut squash, and a carrot. I bunged in a small handful of red lentils which was the end of the packet, some stock, and some smoked paprika and it was delicious! There's enough for lunch today as well.

I also tried a new recipe from a slow cooker for a butternut squash, barley and black bean stew yesterday and although it's tasty it did come out a bit over-cooked even though I picked the lower end of the time range so I guess it'll be a bit trial and error on the timings in my slow cooker. I haven't used it in such a long time that I need to get used to it again. There's plenty of that leftover as well and I made a big vat of cheese sauce with all the bits and bobs of cheese in the fridge (I'd been given a selection of cheeses for Xmas and some were still unopened, they were fine but needed using up). So all in all, plenty to be using up over the next few days.

greent

We have a small amount of space appearing in the freezers - I need to be careful not to fill it up. 4 kyivs have been eaten this week, alongside some frozen mushrooms (used in pasta), tomatoes (currently roasting for soup, along with several garlic cloves from the cheap Easter veg ), a pack of falafels, some mash and 2 ready meals (1 was eaten and the identical one put in food waste, as I 🤮shortly after eating the first one)

DS2 comes home from uni very soon and I need space for him - he's pescatarian and has a shelf to himself when home for a while, as he doesn't eat much that the rest of us normally eat.

Cherryfudge

Yesterday I used all the sweet potatoes in a sweet potato and lime stew: there's enough left to feed us another day and I had a bit for lunch too. That's used an oddment of coconut milk and some chick peas from the freezer.

I accidentally defrosted the juices from the chicken we cooked the other week, so I need to find a use for that.

Cherryfudge

Dinner tomorrow will be chicken pie, using stuff from the freezer and some pastry I bought today as part of a big shop.

The big shop was very MS, but out of proportion to how we normally shop. I checked Olio and found that Iceland had some useful discounts, and when I got there, lemons had been further reduced - 3 for 25p instead of £1! I want some to make elderflower drinks while the blossom is on the trees. Broccoli was 52p instead of £1 and 10 eggs were £1.55 instead of £2.

I had £5 off a £35 spend at L1dl, plus some coupons for things I usually buy there, which L1dl kindly informs me led to a saving of £7.73, then at the end of the day I went to Sa1ns as I was near there anyway. They have moved their main discounting recently, from 5pm to 7pm, and I timed it nicely - and I got extra N3ctar points if I spent £20 so I bought more of things that I had on N3ctar offers. However, I think that works out as 22p's worth of points, so it's probably not massively worth doing just for the points.

DH was getting a bit worried that the emergency supplies cupboard wasn't getting used so I've reassured him there is a turnover of stock, but when I got home I decided to tidy it all out and found we have rather a lot of light coconut milk, a bag of flour that went out of date last week and five bags of lentils. There is other stuff as well, but those and coffee are disproportionate. There are also flavoured hot chocolates and teas which I thought I'd used up but had in fact stashed at floor level.

The Sa1ns receipt is quite odd in that it says I saved 50p - presumably from the oranges that were on offer - but going down the list, nearly everything is either yellow sticker prices or on N3ctar promotion, meaning I've saved ££.

Their cooking bacon is only £1 so I got a pack to go with two packs of chicken liver that were discounted. I could have had about eight but I know there's already liver in the freezer. It's a favourite meal and we need the iron. I also got fishcakes and fresh hake so we have the basis of other meals, all y/s.

It was a rather crazy shop in regard to fruit and veg. DH gets through lots of fruit so we took advantage of a discount on L1dl's red apples (2kg) and bought two packs, also bananas and peaches for me, blueberries for both of us and large oranges as a treat for DH. Then Sa1ns had large oranges at a better price so I got a bag of those too - the oranges will all be eaten by this time next week. Veg were broccoli, a bag of green beans (25p, reduced from £1.40) and a bag of carrots. I've reminded DH that, stored correctly, apples last months! However, he really will get through a serious amount, and I can cook with some too.

So, as far as using things up goes, a bit of a fail really. 😁