Eating out of the freezer this week, need ideas for today!

[confusedofengland]

Having a very lean week this week, loads of money to pay out & not much coming in! We should just about be ok & I'm going to try to sell a few bits, too, but it does mean that we are eating out of the freezer for at least the rest of the week, longer if possible!

Today, 1 DC is out at a party & will have dinner there. The other 2 DC will have fish fingers, jackets, peas & sweetcorn. For DH & I, I have unearthed one portion of lemon sole, so I was thinking of doing a risotto. I have frozen leeks, peas, broccoli, sweetcorn, onions, mushrooms, carrots, parsnips, Swede, tinned Tom's. What should I use - was thinking leeks & peas? Any herbs/spices, I have most?

Then tomorrow we'll have chicken casserole, Friday will be hot dogs & Saturday cheesy pasta with various scraps of cheese that need using up!

Hoping to get to M&S food at some point for bread & milk as I have just had a £2 voucher through

Do you have eggs? You could do a frittata or quiche.

Risotto is good

You could also make vegetable soup

No eggs sadly. Think I will definitely do risotto. Thinking leeks & peas will go best with the fish?

Yes to leeks and peas. Thyme and lemon would work well if you have any. Risotto is very easy to bulk out, you could make double portions to have another meal from it by using more rice (could add normal rice to risotto rice) or lentils, anything like that. Grated carrot is another, so maybe cooked in advance frozen carrot and swede, mashed, would work to bulk it out.

Good tips, thanks @NotAPan.

I've also remembered I have some kale in the freezer, so I'll pop a little of that in.

You’ve got the making of a nice vege lasagne too if you have pasta sheets?

Or a hearty soup which you can bulk up with lentils, beans etc.

The soup and veg lasagna were my thoughts too. Save some onion and tinned toms to make a basic pasta sauce to go with your cheesy pasta.

If you have any SR flour, you can make a few dumplings to eek out your chicken casserole, and mushrooms would go well with that too.

I'd love a recipe for veg lasagne please. I made a soup for lunch today with some chicken bones & carrots. Ds2 is off school poorly & he loved it!

Any veg I chop into small chunks I lay on a baking tray covered with olive oil, salt and pepper and whole garlic cloves. Then roast till just catching.

Then i warm up some tinned tomatoes with a dash of vinegar, and some sugar, a bay leaf and a little bit of stock and simmer. I add in the roasted veg and squeeze out the garlic cloves.

Then layer up a the lasagne with a white sauce in the usual way. Put lots of grated cheese on top and bake. It’s yummy!

You can add lentils in too if you want it to be heartier/go farther.

Thank you Atalune, that sounds yummy & very healthy!

I've just had a bit of a boost to my store cupboards as I found a voucher for cheese so I bought cheese, milk, bread & party rings (DS2'S choice!) from M&S for the grand total of 30p. Should keep us going for an extra day - I have 3 Dses & food, especially bread & milk, is inhaled in our house!