Meal Planning Monday #3

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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.

Meal Planning Monday #2

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Last week was my first week taking part in Meal Planning Monday and it was a complete success. I managed to stick to the plan all week, and it worked brilliantly. I'd taken into account my complete lack of energy on Wednesday and Thursday evenings, therefore planning food which Mr. TheBoyandMe could reheat/cook from scratch with ease. Everything else was easily managed and I didn't have that flagging feeling come 5pm when I needed to start cooking.

This week is going to be a little less regular as we have a few interruptions with Mother's Day, Mr. TBaM's birthday, and his parents coming down to take us out for lunch on Saturday. That meal will probably be Pizza Express because The Boy eats the entire meal with ease, and therefore I'll do a lightweight salad buffet for tea that night. Therefore we're having a Chinese take-away meal for a treat on Friday!

  • Sunday: Slow-cooked gammon in cider for the omnivores, cheese souffle (from Asda) for the veggies, sauté potatoes, leeks in cheese sauce.
  • Monday: Spaghetti and meatballs (I have difficulty getting The Boy to eat meat other than chicken, I recently tried him on Ikea meatballs and he loved them!)
  • Tuesday: Mr. TBaM's birthday tea
  • Wednesday: chicken and cheese escalope for Mr. TBaM and The Boy, Linda McCartney Cheese and Onion Plait for me, carrots and chips! (Freezer food for the work night)
  • Thursday: Pasta and salad
  • Friday: Chinese take-away
  • Saturday: Salad buffet

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

Meal Planning Monday #1

by 21 Comments

I've never taken part in this before but have long read the contributions of The Five Fs and GeekMummy with interest and a note to try it the next week. However, this week I'm doing it. There are a number of reasons for this:

  1. I have recently lost my imagination and my desire to cook, therefore beginning to eat a great big pile of stodge and take-aways as a matter of course. This is not healthy for my body, my wallet or my fridge. The food waste bin is happily consuming the good food that I'm buying and can't be bothered to cook. I think this stems from being shattered when I come in from work and not having the brain-power to concoct something. If I plan it then I have no excuse (and neither does my husband! Hint, hint).
  2. As previously mentioned, I'm wasting food and money. I don't like wasting food, it goes against what I was brought up to do, is wasteful of the Earth's resources and, at a time when Mr. TheBoyandMe and I are trying to save money, is incredibly wasteful. On Saturday, I threw away; half a brie, a bag of salad, three carrots, a cucumber, five vitality health drinks, a block of goat's cheese and some leftover baked beans. That's ridiculous!
  3. I need to lose weight, and rather than diet (which never works for me), I'd rather take control of the content of the food we eat and monitor the fats and sugars going in. I need to eat more fruit and vegetables, this will help.
  4. Final point, my mother's complaining that she doesn't know what to give The Boy for lunch (when I work) because she doesn't know what he's had the night before or is going to have. Now she has no excuse, especially as I've written it on the blackboard in the kitchen!

I know that this plan should probably start on a Monday, but for me the week starts on a Sunday so that's when mine does. Work days are italicised. For those who can't read my 'teacher's whiteboard handwriting', it says:

Wish me luck at sticking to it!

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

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