Kitchen declutter and meal planning

This week it has suddenly felt as if Autumn is on the way. After a heatwave at the start of the month, we had some welcome rain. Now the weather seems to have settled into a pattern of mild, sunny/cloudy days, which I love. This week I have had a kitchen declutter and have been sorting all of the food cupboards.

Autumn always puts me in the mood to get into the kitchen and start cooking!  Now that I can see exactly what we have I have had no excuse not to.

Decluttering and meal planning

I had a huge kitchen declutter, cleaning and tidying the fridge, freezers and the food cupboards this week. It’s so good to get things in order. 

As usual, I discovered food that was buried under all the frozen fruit, so have put that into this week’s meal plan, below. I also found some odd flours that I bought on a whim and haven’t used. If anyone has any great recipes for chick pea  or coconut flour, please let me know in the comments!

Decluttering allowed me to see both what needed using up and what we were short of. Incorporating food you already have into your meal planning efforts, saves you money buying more food and stops what you have from going to waste.

I will be sharing the process on YouTube in an upcoming video, so watch out for that, and you can see my meal plan for the week at the end of this post.

Making jelly

We had a mass of redcurrants in the freezer that we grew in the garden. Because they are so tart, it’s hard to use them as we would other fruit, in crumbles and other desserts. 

As we were out of jam and I needed space in the freezer, I decided to make a batch of redcurrant jelly. The recipe is here if you fancy trying it.

I managed to get rid of 4lb of fruit in the first batch, but I need to make a second for sure. Just need to gather enough jam jars together first. 

I invested in a new jelly bag from eBay, as my old one was a bit past it. This one came with a frame that you place over a bowl to catch the juice and worked pretty well, although I was dubious to start with. 

You can see how I got on making my jelly on my YouTube channel here.

More foraging

At least once a week for the past few weeks I have come back from my dog walks with loads of blackberries. These have been frozen mostly. 

I also have apples coming from Mr Shoestring’s mum, so I will combine the two and make some pies and crumbles through the winter.

I love a bit of free food! Now we need to find a good supply of sweet chestnuts, as they seem about ready.

Plum crumble

To round off my fruity week, I finally got round to making a crumble with the plums that we bought on a little stall outside a house.

It was delicious! Annoyingly, we have a plum tree in our own garden but it hardly produces any fruit. What it does produce isn’t all that nice either. I need to do a bit of research to see if we can encourage it to do any better. Any ideas?

Frugal day out

In fine weather, we try to go on an outing together once a week. We usually go on a Sunday, and find somewhere suitable to take the dog. He still isn’t good left alone for long periods.

We have been to the coast a lot recently, so this time decided to do something different. Searching for dog friendly days out in Essex, I came across the Museum of Power near Maldon. They had a steampunk fair on, which sounded intriguing, so we packed up our flask and some snacks and off we went.

It was a small event but lots of fun, with silly games all day, lots of interesting stalls and some burlesque dancers. They drew the crowds, but were very tame!

There was also an adorable little model village- ‘where the faeries live’, we were told! It was very cute and if you are local or passing, it is worth a visit.

Archie was even allowed into the museum buildings, where, happily, he avoided peeing up any of the antique steam engines. It wasn’t a free day out, but it was cheap and fun.

This week’s meal plan

I did my kitchen declutter on Wednesday, so that’s when I started my new meal plan, as follows:

Wednesday: Simply Cook Peruvian chicken with spicy rice. I have several Simply Cook recipe kits that need using up.

Thursday: Vegetable and cashew nut stir fry with noodles. This was mainly to use some of the enormous white cabbage that I bought with last week’s shopping and have yet to finish.

Friday: Tuna and hard boiled egg salad with new potatoes. Salad and eggs to eat up!

Saturday: Kedgeree, made with the smoked bass fillets I found hidden under the fruit.

Sunday: Sausages with mashed potatoes and cabbage.

Monday: Chicken pesto pasta and veg from the freezer.

Tuesday: Omelettes with chips and peas.

Is anyone else in the mood for a good kitchen declutter and pantry sort out?

Have a great week!

I’m linking up with this Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s ‘Frugal Friday’ linky and  Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. You can see more of my favourite food ideas and recipes here.