Menu's (Again - Sorry!!!)

nabowla

So many ideas, so little time! I'd never thought of putting lettuce in a stir fry/casserole, or of making a lettuce soup. I think I'll investigate the soup first as I've had stir fry already this week (using up leftovers....so I am beginning to get the hang of the OS lifestyle!). With any luck I'll find a recipe on the BBC website that only uses ingredients that I've got already.

Stink_Pod

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone, you reminded me of a dish my mother used to make with leftover chopped salad. She would stir fry everything with a little garlic and soy sauce, before piling it all into a homemade pancake. From memory it was delish, I'll pull my finger out and give it a try later this week.

Good point about the oven chips, chips and garlic bread are the only ready prepared things we buy from time to time. The sandwich and chips idea was a good one, useful when we've arrived home late.

I still think half our trouble is the fact that we have too much choice, this allows us to skip meals on the menu if we choose. At the moment we have a small freezer in the house - full to bursting point, a large upright freezer in the garage which is over half full. My kitchen cupboards are similar. However, I'm working on just buying fresh veg and using up what we have.

<sigh> I still can't believe that simple home economics is proving so challenging.

JAMIEDODGER

MATH wrote:

As most other posters have also said I move meals around but stick to the overall plan. With salads (I eat them all year round anyway) I try to give hot or cold options so I can match the weather. We had salad last night with hot buttered new potatoes and hot honey and mustard sausages and hm bread.

honey and mustard sausages sound yummy math...is it a glaze type thing? if so can i have the recipe pleeeeeeeeeese!!

r.mac_2

Jamie dodger :wave:

Not sure how MATH makes his honey and mustard sausages, but I do this with wee willi winkie sausages as nibbles with drinks at parties.

Spread the sausages out on a baking tray drizzle honey over the top and add a couple teaspoons of whole grain mustard over the whole lot. Cook in oven as directed on packet, giving a stir once during cooking.

et voila! For drinks, serve these on cocktail sticks.

HTH - MATH, would also love your recipe as not tried this with 'full size' sausages.

debtworrier

Stink_Pod wrote: »

Wow, I am utterly impressed and deeply embarrassed at my own wastefulness. We throw out far too much food, particularly bread, occasionally fruit - less since I bought a juicer. Also my portion measures are a little 'generous' to say the least.

I have such admiration for people sticking to meal plans, I find it so hard, particularly when Mr Stink gets home from a crappy day and really wants something he fancies to eat, rather than what's planned - to be fair, it is bad days at work or friends dropping by that results in us straying.

Could you budget for some little nibbley appetisers or something that Mr SP likes? That way you can pamper him without straying.

newlywed

squeaky wrote: »

If it does manage to escape and get stale- make breadcrumbs or bread sauce with it and again, stash them in the freezer for when you want them.

Mmmm bread sauce. Haven't made this for about 10 years. I usually use stale bread and the ends of the loaf (which no-one seems to want) for bread pud.

Squeaky, can you give me a recipe for bread sauce please? I remember it being a whole onion, loads of cloves stuck in it and a pan full of milk, but kinda need a bit more guidance? Might make a batch and freeze for roast dinners. Yum.

Pink.

Hi newlywed,

There's a tasty looking recipe for bread sauce here

Pink

Softstuff

Despite sticking to a pretty tight budget, and cooking everything from scratch (even bread etc), I've gone right off meal planning. Simply when I get home I've found I rarely feel like what was planned.

The way I do it is to buy enough food for the week, and to buy ingredients that would make 3 or 4 different things.

For example, today I took a large chicken breast out of the freezer.... so for dinner we could have had chicken and mushrooms in a creamy sauce with rice, chicken and veg pasta, cajun chicken with chips, roast chicken breast with mash potato, chicken goujons with potato bake.... in the end we had chicken schnitzel with chips and salad. None of those choices would have taken long to cook, the schnitzels, chips and salad took about half an hour from start to finish.
And it isn't like I have a heap of items in the house, just some storecupboard basics, potatoes, pasta, a few mushrooms, a tomato, bit of cucumber and bit of lettuce. I'll pull 200g of mince out for tomorrow... but we could have spag bol, gnocchi with meat sauce, meatballs rice and salad, burger... you get the idea!!

As for buying oven chips, I've found I don't need to... I just peel 2 large spuds, chop them into medium sized chips, toss them in veg oil, spread them on a baking tray and pop them in the oven for 20-30 mins (turning once) at 180. They turn out great, and a fair bit cheaper than oven chips.

overlykeensaver

Stink_Pod wrote: »

WI find it so hard, particularly when Mr Stink gets home from a crappy day and really wants something he fancies to eat, rather than what's planned - to be fair, it is bad days at work or friends dropping by that results in us straying.

Not sure whether you do this already, but we have our menu stuck to the fridge door so that we both know what we are eating that night. This acts as a reminder to get something out of the freezer and means that Mr overlykeen knows what is for his dinner and can dream about it all day at work :rotfl: (or something!)

obsessedwithmoney

just a suggestion about the cucumber and toms not getting used - i use them in couscous for a lunch, they are warmed up and comforting and add to your 5 a day!