Can anyone mealplan me until Saturday, with the food I have, and minimum waste?

[colditz]

I think there will be a fair lot left over but some things are getting very close to their use by...

I have about 300g cooked pork shoulder - needs to be eaten up.
400g raw mince - use by 16th
1packet of sausages - use by 16th
a scrap of bacon (1 sandwich worth?)
200g cheese (will keep)
9 eggs (will keep)
Carrots, potatoes, cabbage, leeks and half a cauliflower, plus frozen veg in freezer
Various dry pasta and rice

I just cannot think to organise myself to cook the food that needs cooking. There is only me and two children, so we eat as a family and they don't do spicy. Any ideas?

Mince, spuds, carrots - cottage pie?
Maybe make a carbonara type thing with the bacon, cheese and eggs (I've never made one so don't take my word for it!)
Sausages with potato wedges and stirfried cabbage/leeks

I'm assuming it's just dinners you need...those are my random suggestions.

Hi Colditz,

In our house, that would be enough mince to just about do two dinners for 3 (assuming your 2 dcs aren't enormous teenage boys?!).

So I would second the cottage pie (served with boiled cabbage?) suggestion and suggest maybe homemade burgers (with cheese) if you have an onion (although, you could do it without too, I think). Potato wedges to go with.

I'm not sure I've ever seen cooked pork shoulder (we only really do bacon from pigs in our house ), but assuming it's basically a meat you could cut into chunks, could you make a casserole type thing with the leeks, carrots, potatoes all chopped up and a tin of tomatoes and whatever herbs you have (fennel seeds always a hit here).

Make a cauliflower and pasta cheese thing, and serve with sausages.

You could use eggs for omelette with any leftover bits of meat and veg chopped up and cooked through first.

The cooked pork shoulder was a leftover roast.

I made a nice pork thing a couple of weeks ago, with apples and white wine and garlic - but the children wouldn'nt eat it (grr)

Ditto things made with tomatoes as a base - I love them, but fussy children don't.

The veg I have are the ones they will eat, unfortunately, and apart from broccoli which I have in the freezer, it's all they will eat.

I like the cottasge pie idea. I might put beans in it and freeze half.

I think I will casserole the pork.

TBH my problem is that it is toomuch food to feed us all. Between them they eat as much as 1 other adult.

I like the stirfried cabbage and leek idea!

I would freeze the stuff that is going to go out of date - even if it just for a day or two.

Make Toad in the hole with the sausages and eggs and serve with mashed potato and cauliflower cheese, or roast potato.

Make spag bol with all the mince and then freeze half of it (cooked) for use in an emergency and serve the other half with spaghetti or pasta and grated cheese.

Make a stir fry with finely sliced carrots, cabbage and leek and cut up the pork shoulder and add to this. Make a nice sauce for it using corn-flour, soy sauce and stock and garlic and ginger, and add some honey too. Serve it with plain cooked rice.

Cook the bacon and have it with an omelette for lunch.

Agree re freezing stuff

Sausgage casarole
Spag bol with loads of veg in
frittata with loags of veg, eggs and cheese
pork stir fry
cheese and potatoe pie with sasuages

chuck the sausages in the freezer if it is too much food for you to all eat.

or cube the pork and make home-made pork nuggets using a batter of flour and cold water and shallow frying them. Make some tempura cauliflower while you're at it and serve with rice cooked with grated carrots and peas and ketchup.

Slice the bacon up, have bacon cheese Omelete

mashed potatoes and cabbage with pork shoulder

meatballs with mince (do you have tinned tomatoes and herbs/spices to make a sauce - use carrots and leeks in this as well chopped finely?) and serve with rice or pasta. freeze leftover meatballs and sauce

cauliflower cheese (make it with lots of sauce) served with pasta

baked potatoes, sausages, leeks cooked in butter

bacon, cheese, leek and potato frittata/tortilla/omelette type thing

The cheese and eggs with keep forever so no need to ruch to use them up