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

Cherryfudge

Two portions of chicken and a small ice cream have been eaten today: the chicken went into a curry which was a bit too hot for me but never mind, one of the freezer drawers now has space. I'm also finishing the frozen cherries which I love but I won't immediately replace them.

It's amazing how hard it is to 'eat down' an over-full freezer, when it's at the stage when all you can actually find is frozen peas.

DH and I both had £5 off vouchers for Lidl. Mine was for a £40 spend and his for £30. We managed to use them, mostly on dried and tinned goods. I've saved receipts from when I've had similar, so I took those along to give me an idea of what to look out for and the prices. As a non-driver, I also have to have things I can carry home, but that's not far and it counts as good muscular exercise. My tip there is a string bag to carry cereals, and something tough to carry the inevitable weighty objects.

Somehow, the extra tins and packets have disappeared into the cupboards without too much impact.

I wrote the above ages ago and for some reason it's not posted, it was still in the box where I wrote it. That used to happen often when MSE changed format but it's clearly not gone entirely.

Very little extra progress: I baked some banana muffins yesterday but had to throw out some tomatoes that had gone over, and the greengages are going the same way. I've been under the weather so there's not been a lot happening unless it's urgent.

Today was fish in breadcrumbs and tomorrow we'll have chicken which will help with the backlog of potatoes and carrots. There's hummus and cottage cheese to finish too.

I have a new job which will involve being out of the house for two consecutive meals sometimes. I'm trying to plan ahead but I always seem to end up at the shops buying bits. I try to avoid wheat as I think it gives me reflux, so sandwiches aren't ideal. Overnight oats, a muesli bar, a piece of fruit, a carton of juice, maybe a portion of cheese… that's not quite enough. In colder weather I'll take soup. I'm wondering about yogurt with muesli, or crudites and hummus. Then all I have to do is be on the ball enough to prepare it and take it with me.

LotsOfTea

If you want to avoid bread @Cherryfudge then maybe oatcakes would be a good substitute? You can have them with all the kinds of things you'd put in a sandwich and they are actually quite tasty (unlike rice cakes!)

I've dragged a few things out of the freezer into the fridge to get myself to use them up - a tub of cheese sauce, a block of smoked tofu and some veggie meatballs. I'll be using those up in the next few days although probably not all together. I made some curried squash and lentil soup for lunch today which was lovely and I still have enough leftover for tomorrow which is good.

We also have leftovers of hm pizza, pasta in tomato sauce, and Greek style butter beans to finish off so I'll probably give DS the pizza and DH & I can have the pasta with added butter beans and veggie meatballs as the leftover portion isn't that big.

Cherryfudge

Good call @LotsOfTea , I have some and they are in little packs which makes them easy to shove in a lunch box. Thanks.

What are the Greek-style butter beans? They sound like my sort of thing!

We got a half chicken, pre-cooked, on Saturday night (marked down to £2) and shoved it (cooled) in the fridge, so we had a quick and easy Sunday lunch. I also had a large cauliflower, picked up for 50p when the market was drawing to a close on Saturday, so today I've blanched the remainder of that and frozen it.

Still eating my way through hummus and cottage cheese and still got both new potatoes and baking potatoes to use.

rtandon27

Now that we have a bit more room in the freezer, I've been able to have a shift and a sort, only to discover a pack of diced stewing beef in the fruit and veg drawer masquerading as frozen strawberries! So a vat of beef and veggie stew has been prepared which should provide meals for both of us for two days this week.

Today we used up some tortellini and fancy herb butter along with a piece of shredded pork shoulder. While the oven was on, baked up the last two sweet potatoes to go with the stew on one day, will steam some potatoes on the other. Used up the last of the fresh strawberries and rhubarb yogurt for dessert today. Feels good to see the space when bits and pieces get used up.

Cherryfudge

I'm so glad you didn't try to make an Eton Mess with that package, @rtandon27 .

LotsOfTea

You can find plenty of recipes for Greek style beans online, they're usually called Gigantes Plaki. I've always used this very simple one but I don't bother adding the feta and use more garlic because what's the point of only one clove of garlic in anything?

Cherryfudge

That looks good @LotsOfTea, thanks! And yes, garlic should be celebrated!

LotsOfTea

I've been making more progress eating down the stores. This week I've used most of a block of smoked tofu from the freezer in stir-fried veg and noodles and also used an old tin of refried beans in the soup I made for lunch today. I added it to a soup made of squash, sweet potato, onion, garlic and some smoked paprika. It was really tasty. Oh I've used a pack of veggie meatballs from the freezer as well with pasta and a tomato sauce.

I also managed to avoid buying a chicken ready for having family at the weekend as DH reminded me we have a gammon joint in the freezer from when they were half price after Xmas so that's a win. Just need to remember to take it out to defrost.

rtandon27

Last night consisted of a hodge-podge meal for dinner - OH had the last piece of quiche, I had the last cheeseburger from earlier in the week, we finished off assorted tapas from our time away and we found the last few biscuits in the tin for afters. Today he had an omlette and coffee for breakfast (I was partaking of a free coffee at the local coffee shop), we had steamed stuffed bao from the freezer for lunch and we also noshed some toaster parata's from the freezer that were bought on a whim. We could eat from the freezer again as there are at least 3 pre-cooked home made freezer meals, or we could splurge on a plain pizza base and assemble the toppings from what is in the freezer! All in all it's nice to have a mostly empty fridge and breathing room in the freezer to see what else is in there!

Cherryfudge

We are away for a few days but have spent a lot recently, giving added incentive to eat from the freezer once we're home! The Airbnb where we are staying has provided generously so we have tiffin, eggs, bread, butter, milk, cereal and the French good mother jam - though we'd bought bread and milk before arriving and various vegetables that needed to be used up and are still waiting.