Fancy helping plan my week's menu? (from my veg box!)

[OneDayWhenIGrowUp]

I'm having an inspiration black hole this week on menu planning, my veg/meat arrived this morning and I'm drawing a few blanks on what to create with it all! So I thought I'd throw it open to the resourceful foodie MNers - what would you do with this lot? It's just me.

Carrots
Butternut squash
Cavolo Nero
Cherry tomatoes
Chestnut mushrooms
Lettuce
Watercress
Rocket
Sweet Potatoes
Sprouts
Eggs
Mini chicken fillets
Lamb mince
Gammon steaks x 2
Smoked cheddar
Soft sheep's cheese

I have a pretty well stocked store cupboard with various grains, pulses, nuts & seeds, most dried herbs and spices you can think of, and onions and garlic. Today I had some of the lettuce and sheep's cheese with pear and walnuts, that was yum.

With a carrot, a third of the squash, ( or sweet potato) a few toms, and the cavoli Nero I would make a ribollata( with any beans you have- cannellini, butter, haricot etc)

I would roast half my squash stuffed with my lamb mince spiced with Harissa if you have it and pine nuts, and bit of cheese added in the last few mins.

Or lamb burgers with sweet potato wedges.

I would use a gammon steak ( chopped up in cubes) with halved sprouts and cubed sweet pot as a sprout hash/ bubble squeak affair - adding in cavoli Nero of any left

I would make chicken and squash fajita with some watercress/ rocket in the wrap.

Gammon and egg with a salad of rocket watercress lettuce

I would country veg soup left carrots / sweet pots/ that last bit of squash

As it's just one eating- If I had chicken left after fajitas I'd make a chicken and mushroom pie if I had a bit of ready roll to hand- when I cooked for one I'd get a roll of ready roll and cut into single sized squares to top pies and freeze individually. I miss having one person pies

If you did have the ready roll ( or can make your own) the chopped tomatoes, some cavoli Nero and cheese would make a nice easy tart.

With the chicken and carrots if you had some chillies, fish sauce, rice vinegar, mint, peanuts, and a lime- you could have lovely Vietnamese chicken and carrot salad.

And instead of soup with your leftover veg you could make a veg Bolognese if you have some lentils to hand.

For lunches I'd have to have a lot of omelette as I seem to have forgotten all bar one of your eggs

Look up butternut squash pilaf. It's a middle eastern dish and I love it.

Thankyou so much! Brilliant ideas, I couldn't get my phone to work last night to say but I did a gammon hash (with onion, sweet potato, sprouts and cavolo nero, and crispy fried egg on top!) which I would not have thought of in a million years. Love the mince stuffing the squash idea too. You've saved my week :-) !

Just to say thanks again! With this inspiration, my box turned into:

• Gammon & sweet potato hash
• Lamb koftas with leek sprouts & carrots (forgot to mention the leek!)
• Stuffed butternut squash (spiced lamb mince stuffing) with cavolo nero & rice (x2)
• Chicken, egg & tomato salad with honey mustard dressing
• Gammon with fried egg, sweet potato wedges & salad
• Shredded chicken/carrot/cavolo nero salad with sesame seeds and asian-style dressing
• Mushroom, green lentil & quinoa salad
• Ribollata (to be made tomorrow)

Foodie-veg box brain is restored!

I'd make a pasta sauce with the cavlo Nero and sheep's cheese plus garlic, chilli flakes and a bit of cream. And maybe koftas with the mince to serve with a root veg and chickpea curry.