Do you ever lose track of the food you have in your fridge, freezer and store cupboards? If you find you throw food away because you don’t use it in time or you inadvertently buy duplicate items when you go grocery shopping, reverse meal planning is for you. It will save you money, help you rotate your supplies, and prevent food waste.
What is reverse meal planning?
Reverse meal planning simply means that instead of writing a meal plan and then shopping for the ingredients, you create a plan using what you have already. This involves doing a stock take, noting items that need using quickly, and finding recipes that use up what you find.
You might have to do a small amount of shopping, but the idea is to be as creative and adaptable as you can so that you buy as little as possible.
With the price of food (along with everything else) increasing constantly, it makes no sense to cram your shelves and cupboards with foodstuffs that you don’t use.
I write a meal plan each week and always check what needs using quickly, but save a proper, buy-as-little-food-as-humanly-possible reverse meal plan for months when I know we will be a bit skint. January is a good time for this, when I do a no-spend challenge.
How does reverse meal planning work in practice?
As I write this, it is post-Christmas and a cold January. We have used most of the Christmas leftovers. I have made and frozen one batch of spicy parsnip soup and another of Stilton and broccoli soup, and I also froze a bag of sprouts as we are a bit bored of them.
However, my inspection of the fridge has revealed the following that need using:
Half a can of tuna, mixed with mayonnaise
2 bell peppers
A bag and a half of carrots (8p as part of Lidl’s Christmas veg offering)
A bag of parsnips (also 8p veg)
A swede (ditto)
A head of celery
Apples from Justin’s Mum’s garden
2 bags of 10p baby potatoes (these need using urgently)
A further bag of white potatoes that will last for the week
Fresh thyme and rosemary
In the freezer we have (amongst other items):
3 bananas, frozen in their skins in a hurry
The Christmas lamb bone (with some lamb attached)
Plenty of batch cooked soups (no hurry to use these)
A Lidl ready-made mushroom pie
Bacon
Sausages
Lentil bolognese sauce
Half a can of kidney beans
Oven chips
Peas
One portion of breaded cod
My reverse meal plan for the week
I am starting this on a Thursday, as that is when I usually shop. However, it does vary.
Thursday
It’s just me tonight, so I will use the tuna mayonnaise and some of the potatoes with this simple recipe from the BBC Good Food website (my go-to place for foodie inspiration):
Loaded tuna and sweetcorn wedges
Friday
I already have the lentil bolognese defrosting in the fridge. We will eat this with pasta and a Winter carrot salad.
Saturday
I have pretty much given up eating meat (apart from to avoid food waste, when I will), so I will do two versions of a meal, one for me and one for Justin. This means that I will have leftovers of each to portion up and put in the freezer.
Justin will have a sort of sausage cassoulet, using one of the peppers, the frozen kidney beans and the sausages. My version will use peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, celery and a can of chickpeas.
I’m going to use more of the potatoes to make mini roasties. In fact, I will prep them all in one go and freeze some using these instructions. I will chop up the thyme and rosemary to add to these.
I will take the lamb bone out of the freezer to defrost overnight for Sunday.
Sunday
I will remove any lamb from the bone, and then slow cook it with onions, carrots, celery, potatoes and any remaining herbs. The lamb will go back in to warm through near the end. We will have this with mashed swede. I will prepare the whole swede and freeze any leftovers into portions.
Monday
I am off to my Mum’s today to help her with a few jobs. As I am not sure what I will eat there or what time I will be home, I will keep in mind the last piece of fish in breadcrumbs and probably eat it with oven chips and peas. An easy, junk food dinner! (Yes, I am still occasionally eating fish.)
Tuesday
Tonight I will use the Lidl mushroom pie with some mash and maybe some broccoli and carrots.
Wednesday
I will defrost some bacon tonight and make a creamy mushroom pasta sauce. The bacon will go in Justin’s dinner, so he doesn’t feel too deprived! He is a carnivore…. Hopefully, there will be enough of this for lunch tomorrow, when I will prepare next week’s reverse meal plan.
Other foodie plans
The bananas have been in the freezer a while, so I will defrost them to make banana muffins for snacking. I will also use the remaining parsnips and some of the apples in a soup, maybe this recipe (although I might substitute milk for the cream). Anyway, I will freeze a couple of portions at least.
Hopefully, you can see how I tackle reverse meal planning from this example. My shopping list for this week is extremely minimal and consists of semi-skimmed milk, whole milk to make yogurt for breakfast, broccoli, green tea, soft cheese, mushrooms and eggs! That’s all.
What have you got in your food stores that needs using this week and what will you be making?
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