Meal Planning Monday #3

My third week of meal planning and it's going well! I'm finding that I'm actually considering the food that we already have in the freezer more, debating the easy days, making more of an effort with my cooking and am less consumed by the whole concept of food. And I've stuck to it so far!

• Sunday: slow-cooked pork (which I'd picked up the night before in Tesco in the reduced section!) in a honey and mustard sauce, with mushroom, carrots and leek. This was only for Mr. TBaM as The Boy doesn't like proper meat at the moment, and I'm veggie. It took three hours to cook on high and he informs me that it was cooked to perfection. I added some cornflour to the juices left over to make gravy. I had a red onion, leek and cheese plait (Linda McCartney in Asda) and The Boy had codcake and peas.
• Monday: Pea and mint risotto cake (Asda have expanded their veggie range lately) and what I call 'Bulgarian salad' (feta cheese, tomato and cucumber chopped. It was the regional dish when I stayed in Bulgaria on an educational programme a few years ago. In 4 days I ate 9 portions because there was nothing else for a veggie in rural Bulgaria to eat!)
• Tuesday: Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie. I'll be doing the mince and vegetables for this in the slow cooker. I'm told that veggie mince needs a lot of liquid in a slow cooker, which makes sense. I haven't cooked veggie in there before but I'm guessing that as the mince is reconstituted mushrooms and par-cooked anyway it won't need more than a few hours to cook. It'll mainly be the vegetables that will need the cooking. It might be counter-productive but I'll be doing the potatoes as normal.
• Wednesday: slow-cooked vegetable soup. It's a work day so I'll prep all the veg the night before and then ask mum or hubby (home on garden leave) to turn the slow-cooker on mid-morning. Hopefully it should be cooked nicely by the time I get in. I might try some red lentils in it, any tips welcome.
• Thursday: A work day so an easy meal needed: meatballs and spaghetti! Unsure whether trying this in the slow-cooker would be pointless? Maybe I'm getting over-excited.
• Friday: Butternut squash and spinach lasagne. Not sure if I've got any portions left in the freezer, if not I'll make a new one.
• Saturday: Chinese! This will be my last Nearly New Sale as the co-ordinator because I don't have the time or the inclination for it anymore. The Boy is coming up to nursery age and if I don't have another child then my time in the toddler group will be coming to an end. Aside from that I've now co-ordinated four sales and they are all encompassing and tiring. There's new blood in the group, they can do it! I'll be out from 10am to 6.30pm and will be shattered, so a take-away is in order. The Chinese we used to use had a 0 rating on food hygiene, and I can't find another one who makes dee-fried tofu like I like it, so last weekend I made up a batch for the freezer. Mr. TBaM can go and get the remaining egg fried rice, chips, crispy seaweed and spring rolls, yummy!

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I'm linking this up to Meal Planning Monday over at At Home With Mrs. M.