Please help me make the most of my Morrisons Food Box!

[Summer15coming]

I had a bit of a disaster on Thursday night. Whilst I was amending my Asda food order, which had been set up for Friday (yesterday) delivery, a tech glitch on the site lost me my order and along with it my delivery slot for yesterday. Since my daughter and I are shielding because of her medical conditions, I am not able to get out and am dependent on deliveries. I then went on the Morrisons site, and was able to book a delivery of a box for this morning. Great service, Morrisons!

The thing is, I'm not a great cook, and whilst I can follow a recipe fine, I'm not able to look at a bunch of ingredients and pull it all into a set of meal plans for the next few days. (Morrisons say that it should be roughly enough for 2 adults for a week, but I'm not so sure!)

I'd love it if you could give me some pointers. There are some slightly weird ones in there - e.g. a lot of onions, despite there being no tinned tomatoes etc. I'm just not sure what to do with them.

Hopefully the photos will show up, but I'll also list out the items:

1 cucumber
1 white cabbage
1 kg baby potatoes
1 kg carrots
10 onions
packet of meat free mince
quorn cocktail sausages
ready made pasta sauce
plain cottage cheese
butter
cheddar cheese
1L milk
meat-free sausages
meat-free burgers
loaf of bread
bag of pasta
microwave pouch of rice
tin of mixed beans
2 tins of soup
tin of baked beans
2 loo rolls
1 kitchen roll

I made a lovely soup the other day if you have any stock and spices. It was an onion fried then some carrots and potatoes then stock and lots of chilli flakes, chilli powder and coriander. Not for me as I don't like that kind of thing but hubby (who has multiple allergies) hadn't been eating anything as we'd been struggling to get stuff and he really loved it. He said it was the nicest soup he'd ever tasted and I'm defo not a chef

I'd probably do a vegetable stew or soup with the mixed beans - you can add pasta to the soup to make it more substantial.
Quorn mince/bean chilli with rice. Or bolognese with the pasta sauce with carrots and onions in it.
Sausage and mash with onion gravy
Burgers and chips
Beans on toast
Cheese on toast
You have a few random lunches, cocktail sausages and cottage cheese, soup

Should keep you fed for a few days though.

Chopped onion and carrot gently fried, add the mixed beans or baked beans or any other veg that you have. Add the pasta sauce and maybe a drop of milk/ water to thin it a little. Gently fry the mince, maybe dont use all of it, and add to the veg. Serve with some rice or pasta.
What other things do you have in your cupboard to add ??

Not to eat - but if you have a garden, put the sheep’s wool insulation outside for nesting birds (obvs not in the plastic bag!) they'll really appreciate it.

1 cucumber
1 white cabbage
1 kg baby potatoes
1 kg carrots
10 onions
packet of meat free mince
quorn cocktail sausages
ready made pasta sauce
plain cottage cheese
butter
cheddar cheese
1L milk
meat-free sausages
meat-free burgers
loaf of bread
bag of pasta
microwave pouch of rice
tin of mixed beans
2 tins of soup
tin of baked beans
2 loo rolls
1 kitchen roll

Mince, pasta sauce, onions, carrots, mixed beans - bolognese & chilli (2x meals)

• make the base with carrots, onions, mince, add pasta sauce. Take out 2 portions for bolognese with pasta. Then add the mixed beans and serve with rice.

*Sausages, onions, potatoes, cabbage (1x meal)
Self-explanatory! If you have a stock cube you can make a lovely onion gravy by cooking the onion very long and low. Then, see below...

Onion soup
As above, cook the onions on a very low heat for a long time with butter, add stock cube and make a soup.

Cabbage & leftover potatoes, with cottage cheese - bubble and squeak-ish.

Cocktail sausages & tinned tomato soup, pasta
Tomato soup can sub for pasta sauce! Or eat as soup with cheesy croutons.

Baked beans & cocktail sausages - self explanatory!

Milk, butter, cheese - if you have a bit of flour you can make a cheese sauce very easily in the microwave.

Depends what else you have in, really.

I am not sure it is enough for two weeks tbh but Morrisons are shining when it comes to the situation we are in right now aren't they!

French onion soup without the French bread and white wine.

I cut onions into 8ths and slow roast them with potatoes and carrots with salt and pepper, adding herbs at the end. I would do that with two onions, all of the potatoes (quartered) and half of the carrots. Once its cooked you could stir half into pasta, adding cheese and half of the mince or burgers cooked and chopped in to pieces. The other half could be eaten with something else another day.

You could make coleslaw with half the white cabbage and a couple of carrots. Cook the tin of mixed beans with some spices/chilli and serve with the rice and coleslaw.

Make a small 'meatloaf' with the rest of the mince and serve that with the rest of the cabbage, buttered, maybe with pasta baked with a cheese sauce.

If you have got any flour this recipe is easy and the tortillas are great. You could have those with the cottage cheese, cucumber and coleslaw.

Minesteone soup

What do you have in the cupboards / fridge / freezer already? Do you have any tins of tomatoes, flour, sugar, herbs & spices, condiments, oils, eggs, rice etc? You could do loads with that lot, plus a few staples.

You could make mini jackets out of the potatoes and have with the beans and cheese or the cottage cheese
You've got the ingredients for coleslaw, you could have it with cocktail sausages,cucumber, carrot sticks and toast for a random lunch.

Stew with the sausages and veg.
Beans on toast
Pasta and sauce (I think that's the idea) - add the mince in if you like
Bean chilli or chilli with the mince & rice or add to mini jackets
Cottage pie
Cheese and potato pie - add the cocktail sausages chopped up if you like
Cheesy pasta bake - again, add the cocktail sausages if you want to
Soup and toast

Chop the onions up and freeze them, so you can chuck a handful each in something when you need it.

I'd make a chilli with the tomato soup, beans, onions - serve with rice once and some little roasted new potatoes for another meal.

Bolognese with the mince, onion, carrot and pasta sauce.

Fry some cabbage and potato and serve with sausages.

Beans on toast.

Burger and chips.

Thanks for your ideas, everyone. I do have a few dishes there which I think I can pull together.

I'm hampered by the fact that I have no stock (I've run out of vegetable and only have chicken left over from pre-vegetarian days!). I do have some herbs etc. but as I'm allergic to chilli it does make things awkward. I do have a few odds and ends still: eggs, olive oil, one tin of tomatoes, rice noodles, sugar, nuts and seeds that I can also use.

I'm quite enthusiastic about the thought of a cheese sauce based potato bake with added sausage. I never buy or eat fake meat (I really don't see the point of it!), so I was a bit surprised by how much was included in the box! It might taste better inside a bake or stew though, so thank you for that idea.

I'll probably have to throw out most of the cabbage unfortunately. My daughter can only have a small amount as it affects how the blood clots.

I'm off to look at use by dates and start tonight's meal . Thank you again!

The teams at Morrison’s are working on recipes to go with the boxes at the moment, for exactly this reason.

Roast onions are lovely - quarter them and turn them in oil, then roast them with potatoes and carrots. You could do that with meatless sausage.

You can make your own veggie stock with peelings and a roughly chopped onion - boil in water for 40 minutes, parsley included too (the stalks are best) if you do have any fresh herbs growing at all.

Braised cabbage is lovely and can be frozen, so you could work your way through it as side dish.

Shred cabbage (whole or half, as much as you like) and an onion. Heat butter or olive oil in a casserole dish, and turn cabbage and onion over in it to get coated. Add salt, pepper and maybe a tablespoon of vinegar (I use white wine vinegar, but whatever you have in).

Cover tightly, and cook on low for an hour. Check occasionally to make sure it hasn't dried out or is sticking.

You can make this nicer by quickly browning some sausages on the outside before starting, then putting them in the pot on top of the cabbage for the hour.

NB freeze the braised cabbage in portion-sized bags/boxes.

A boulangere potato dish
If you make a soup and theres some leftover intake some liquid, thin it down to use as stock or flavouring

If you go back on the Morrison’s food box site, and look at the box option you received, there is a little ‘click here’ for recipes and inspiration link.

You can buy stock on Amazon - I like Massel and even their beef and chicken flavours are veggie/vegan.

If you have eggs you could make a crustless quiche with an onion, cottage cheese and a bit of cheddar

Can you make veg stock with cabbage by boiling up then discarding the leaves or would your daughter not be able to have that either?

You can eat the cabbage. Or give it to a neighbour friend to collect from the door step?

Cottage pie. Fry carrots onions and mince. Top with mashed potatoes?

Soup: boil some potatoes. In separate pan: carrots and onions fried, add water ( and any flavourings you have left) add tin of mixed beans. Once potatoes are cooked, add to stew and serve.