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

greent

Very minimal shopping yesterday 1 croissant and 2 demi baguettes @ l1dl. Croissant eaten before getting home. Neither baguette eaten due to changed plans. Nipped into A5da and bought 2 packs on YS pork meatballs and a frozen GF pizza (ds1's gf is gf,) I ate a ys rm for lunch yrsterday that I had planned on earing for dinner on Fri, as DH was out but came home early with a takeaway. (Threw some of it not that nice, so didnt want to waste the calories) We then failed with dinner and had another takeaway.

Today i do need to do various shopping bits (mostly for packed lunches for the week) I have roasted a load of frozen tomatoes with some of the Easter garlic, so will make soup. I have no idea what to do for dinner tonight - maybe fajitas?

aThe crazy season at work has almost come to an end Im looking forward to having the energy to sort things and cook proper meals again!

Brie

Am considering putting some olives in the freezer. I got 2 packs, 1 kalamata and 1 black, both pitted and in fridge packs. OH likes olives on his pizza and opened the kalamata but not the black. I know I could make some pasta sauce with them but don't think I'll have the chance before they hit their BBD. So I wondered what knowledgable freezer users think of frozen olives. Likely be used for pasta, pizza or with OH's lovely roasted lamb.

Meanwhile I'll be having some tomatoes and mozzarella for dinner with basil and will pull out the lone greek flat bread that's in the freezer to mop up the plate.

rtandon27

I often freeze olives to use on pizza - slice them up first though! - flash freeze flat and then decant into a container or freezer bag.

Cherryfudge

I've never frozen olives but what a good idea! I've just opened a jar and generally can't get through them all before they become a bit 'suspect'. I'm the only one who will eat them, so a few, sliced and frozen flat before bagging up, would be perfect with an open sandwich. I think they would defrost quickly in slices.

So today we finished up some chicken with veg in a pie - it wasn't the best one but it had puff pastry, which makes up for a lot. 😊I also discovered the store cupboard is running low on tuna, and L1dl is offering me 250 points if I spend some amount that certainly won't be covered by a four pack of tuna, so that probably won't be happening.

LotsOfTea

I made a chickpea and pineapple curry yesterday that DS likes and, finding that the fresh ginger I needed had gone mouldy, I remembered I had some frozen ginger and managed to find out at the bottom of the freezer. While I was there I took out a lone bagel and a bag of butternut squash to defrost. I'll use the squash to make soup today and probably add in the rest of the disappointing black bean and barley stew to bulk it up.

I'm going to try another recipe from the slow cooker book I've got as I think the main problem was the barley in the last one and the other couple of recipes I've earmarked to try are just beans. If I can't find any recipes I'm going to actually use regularly then both the slow cooker and the cookbook are going to have to go.

Cherryfudge

That sounds like a good reuse of the barley and bean stew, @LotsOfTea . If you eat meat, I found slow cooked chicken is really succulent though it takes a while. I have found vegetable-based dishes take a really long time in the slow cooker, which is fine if you are more organised than I am and can put things in to cook in good time!

LotsOfTea

Thanks @Cherryfudge , I'm not a meat-eater personally but DH & DS are so that might be one for them to try.

The leftover black bean and barley stew was so much better as a soup, it rectified the horrible clagginess. I used up the butternut squash from the freezer and added some chillies and a spoonful of fig chutney to finish off a jar and the result was really tasty. There's enough left for today's lunch as well. I'm really pleased I managed to not waste anything but also not have to eat something disappointing. Win win!

I took 2 cookbooks to the charity shop yesterday after copying out the one recipe from each that I actually used and have sorted out another 3 I can get rid of. I've got so many cookbooks that this will take a while!

greent

Collected child no 3 from uni last week, so now have all of their food supplies added to ours. .. Argh! Also had a catered event at work last week which I was in charge of - i put some leftovers in the staff room, but still ended up bringing home 2 unopened pots of clotted cream, a large bowl of chantilly cream, jam, strawberries and various slices of cake. Most cake has since been eaten (2 scones are in the freezer) , along with all of the strawberries. I used the chantilly cream to make a posset for dessert yesterday. I also brought home a couple of bottles of soft drinks that had been opened and mostly finished (a glass left in each)

DH wanted a roast yesterday - so I did a huge roast chicken (making some space in the freezer) with yorkies, leeks, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and parsnips from the freezer and stuffing from the cupboard (with added sausages from the freezer) I had to buy some more carrots, as ours had turned to liquid 🤢 so roasted half of the new bag. I used up a bag of cheap Easter potatoes and shoved the spent remains of a lemon (from pudding), 3 dried up spring onions and a handful of thyme inside the chicken before roasting. It was all very nice - but I was very warm when cooking it!!

I had some of the leftover chicken with salad for lunch today and will do the same tomorrow. I might just snack on houmous and picky bits tonight- it's too warm for much else!

Cherryfudge

I'm blaming L1dl who gave me a £5 off £35 spend voucher… some of that went on two bags each of frozen blueberries and peas and some puff pastry - now all frozen, and I've also bought walnuts, pine nuts and mixed seeds as they were on offer and various things that I'd buy anyway, including rather a lot of tuna which wasn't on offer, but we get through plenty. At the till I realised something didn't add up so I asked if the vouchers had all gone through, and it turned out a bottle of cheap red (for cooking, honestly) couldn't count towards the total. I hurriedly grabbed a couple of boxes of sugar free sweets and a tiny bottle of concentrated squash as those are things I tend to carry in my work bag. That was enough to get me the discount, though of course I now spent more because I still had the wine.

Dinner tonight was southern fried chicken, which DH bought on the way home so no reduction to freezer stocks. In fact, as I'm working most evening this week, the freezer will probably remain much the same.

Rather annoyingly, a couple of items that we'd run out of were not in stock so I'll try again at some point.

Cherryfudge

I don't think I've bought much food at all this week, and we've taken fish and chicken out of the freezer to use over this weekend. It's been too hot for a lot of cooking, and I've gradually finished up the chickpea tikka while DH had bought supermarket meals to see him through.

Somehow, I've finished up the porridge oats - this never happens - through making a few jars of overnight oats which are good in hot weather.

I don't have much work next week and the temperature is supposed to go down to something that doesn't fry eggs on contact, so normal service may well be resumed.