Meal Planning Monday

It's that time of the week again. Sunday evening, feet up - crochet ready to have ends darned in and I thought I'd get ahead of myself and pop this up now. We've got a busy week this week, I'm helping out at our church holiday club which I'm really looking forward to, but will take up most of the week. 

Breakfasts, I've just popped some overnight oats/ baked porridge in the fridge for me and Harry. It's a very simple one, just 100g of porridge oats, a grated eating apple and almond milk to cover. I'll add sultanas to Harrys and a chopped banana to mine. 

Lunches, I was going to make some soup tonight, but I'm absolutely shattered today so I'll pop that on tomorrow at some point. It's just going to be my Spiced root veg soup, with carrots and parsnips as the main veggies.

Suppers:

Monday - leftover pulled pork in burritos with rice and veggies

Tuesday - Sausages, potato wedges and veggies (most likely carrots and brocolli)

Wednesday - a veg packed Spaghetti bolognaise

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Homemade steak burgers, Slimming world chips, peas and sweetcorn

Saturday - Sweet potato, lentil and chicken bake. It's a dairy free concoction I'm currently trying to refine for the blog as it's a bit hit and miss at the moment. Hopefully this week will be more hit than miss!

Sunday - Tomato, veg and red lentil pasta. We're having a bring and share lunch at Church so that's a nice all rounder that should be OK for the more common food allergies. I hope.

I think that's everything - as always, don't forget to pop on over to At home with Mrs M and see what the other planners are up to.

Meal Planning Monday - 14th March

It's been weeks WEEKS since I meal planned, or blogged in any way shape or form. There's some very good and some less good reasons behind the hiatus. But in a nutshell, there has been lots going on and lots of it has been wildly stressful. I'm hoping and praying that the worst is behind us now, and one of my aims for this week is to get at least a couple of blogposts up to try and get myself back in the swing of things, and lets face it, this one is what's known as a quick win. 

Breakfasts: Harry's very much on a Weetabix kick at the moment, I've gone completely off porridge so am dithering around with toast or crumpets at the moment. I do need to find another cereal so that I can get some almond milk in me, but for now - toast, peanut butter and banana does what it needs to.

Lunches: Evidence of the recent stress is clear in the fact that I've been existing on sandwiches. It's unsurprising that my weight loss has completely stalled. That said, I was eyeing up some elderly looking carrots and half a swede in the cupboard yesterday and thinking about a big pan of my Spiced root vegetable soup.

Suppers:

Monday - tonight was a rather hopeless miss mash of leftover roast chicken, baked potatoes and veggies. A usual Monday night supper after a roast, but it really didn't sit well tonight.

Tuesday - Chickpea and sweet potato curry (post to follow at some point, possibly by next January at this rate)

Wednesday - Leftover curry

Thursday - Super speedy bolognaise.

Friday - Leftover bolognaise

Saturday - Sausages, sweet potato wedges and veggies.

Sunday - Chicken and butternut squash stew

Baking wise,  I'm yet to make our Simnel cake so that needs sorting this week and I'm desperate to make a batch of my Cherry and Almond buns

I'm going to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to try and get myself back in the swing of things. Wish me luck.

Meal Planning Monday

This week I'm doing something different with our meal plan. Writing it on Sunday for starters! But also I'm using Danni Martin, of Hungry Healthy Happy's new book of the same name as inspiration for our week's dinners. This isn't a sponsored post and I bought the book myself, I just fancied planning our week using a different inspiration and thought that was a good way to start.

Breakfasts: I made a highly experimental carrot cake porridge last week. As you can see it's not up on the blog yet and still needs some tweaking. Hopefully it'll be here next week - if I improve it.

Lunches: I didn't make soup last week, and ended up eating lots of sandwiches, so this week I have a pot of butternut squash soup on the planner. I'll roast the BNS with some red onions and garlic tomorrow morning before blitzing with some chicken stock and chilli.

Suppers:

Monday - Leftover chickpea curry, with brown basmati rice and roti. This is my recipe, and the post has been half written since the first week of January - this makes a lovely supper dish and I will blog it soon.

Tuesday - Sausage casserole with roasted garlic mashed potato from Hungry Healthy Happy and veggies. I'll adapt the mashed potato to be dairy free, and will be using Heck sausages for the casserole as we know they're dairy free.

Wednesday - Leftovers of casserole with baked potatoes and veggies

Thursday - Spaghetti bolognaise from Hungry Healthy Happy - sadly not with courgetti as we don't have a spiraliser (I've been meaning to splash out on one but just not around to it) but with pasta, and over broccoli for me as a comprimise

Friday - Leftover bolognaise on baked potatoes

Saturday - Chicken Tikka masala from Hungry Healthy Happy - but adapted to be dairy free, instead of yoghurt using coconut milk with brown rice.

Sunday - Roast chicken - we haven't had a roast since Christmas, and I could do with an easier week next week with leftovers as the basis.

I've got no baking planned this week as I'm trying to keep my snacking to speed foods (Slimming world jargon for  fruit and veggies) and resist temptation to eat all the cake!

As always I'm linking up with At home with Mrs M and Organising Junkie so be sure to head on over and see what the other planners are up to.

Meal Planning Monday

Another week, another meal plan. Shall I see if I can reach the giddy heights of actually managing to link up this week? Last week was a bit of a fail on all fronts really, Harry and I were both off our food which meant M was the only one who actually seemed to eat anything other than toast. All appetites seem to be restored for now, so it's time to look forwards again.

Breakfasts: I had Weetabix this morning, 2 are a Healthy Extra B (Slimming World) and I really enjoyed them. With warm almond milk and a banana, so that's me sorted for this week.

Lunches: I adapted a Hairy Bikers recipe this evening for a Parsnip and apple soup - they use oil, butter, and milk, I've used Fry light and will see if it needs a splash of almond milk at the end.

Suppers:

Monday - M and I are going out! It's St Dwynwen's day, which is Welsh St Valentine's so we celebrate then, rather than ending up with my birthday and Valentine's celebrations all mixed up together in February.

Tuesday - Spaghetti bolognaise that I made tonight. Syn free on Slimming World, packed full of bonus veggies and really tasty. I'm going to try and get a picture and blog the recipe, as although it's really simple I don't think I've blogged a bolognaise any time recently.

Wednesday - Leftover spaghetti bolognaise - possibly on baked potatoes.

Thursday - Butternut squash dhaal

Friday - leftover Butternut squash dhaal

Saturday - Frikadellen, homemade chips and veggies

Sunday - We might have friends coming for lunch after church so it'll be the casserole I didn't make last week.

That's us for this week - nothing too wildly interesting, although the squash dhaal is a new recipe to us, so I'll see how that goes. As always, pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday - our Aldi switch

My maternity leave (and pay) comes to an end at the end of this month. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the future holds, part-time positions at my level in my field are like gold dust. We have a lot to think about, but it's meaning a tightening of our belts. For a while, I've been doing our fruit and veg shopping at Aldi, making use of their Super 6, and planning our meals around it. However since Christmas 'Ive noticed our weekly, main shop creeping up. Even using My Supermarket I couldnt reduce it any more. So, Friday evening saw the three of us head to Aldi and in one fell swoop reduce our shopping bill by 33% - desite the fact that we bought meat, and randomly Swarfega (it's for M).  The only thing I couldnt get was my almond milk, and I can pick that up during the week.

It's half term this week, so there's no Hartbeeps or swimming, but there is Stay and Play on Monday which we're going to go to as Harry loved it last week. I think we'll try and organise an NCT meet up later in the week, and I'm excited to see my sister and nephew on Thursday. I think it's Thursday anyway.

Breakfasts - porridge with cinammon, ginger, apple and blueberries for me. Porridge fingers, fruit toast or a bagel for Harry

Lunches - I need to make a new batch of split pea and veg soup so that I can have something hot at lunchtime. I made Harry sweet potato and salmon fishcakes last week, and some chicken and veg casserole - baby portions of which I froze and he can have for lunches this week.

Dinners -

Monday - Leftover roast chicken with baked potatoes and veggies

Tuesday: Sausages, baked potatoes and beans

Wednesday: Freezer surprise (bolognaise I think)

Thursday: Gammon and wedges - is it bad that I really want pineapple on mine?

Friday:Breakfast for tea

Saturday:I think a casserole of some sort - perhaps my chicken, butternut squash and leek (let's see if I can make it Slimming World friendly)

Sunday: Leftover casserole

That's our week, 33% cheaper, and looking hardly any different... Have you had to trade down for your shopping? What are your money saving tips?

As always be sure to head on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: an easy one

I managed to spend last week on enforced bed rest - the sort of thing that when running around hell bent on organising myself, M, Brownies and Guides I thought would be a wonderful break from always having 'just so much to do!' It wasn't. It was painful, dull, scary as hell, tiring (who knew?) but most of all quiet. Faced with my body genuinely needing a week of rest I wasn't prepared for how difficult and painful something as straightforward as making a risotto might be. We ate from the freezer a lot, and I gave thanks for the food processor a lot.

This week doctors orders are to 'see how I go' so with one eye on my expanding waistline I'm declaring a slower version of business as usual.

We are without baked goods this week as the prospect of standing up and baking just felt painful this weekend, but neither of us will miss out I'm sure.

Breakfasts for me this week are yoghurt and granola with chopped banana.

Lunches are salads - with feta and olives in the first half of the week, and with halloumi in the latter half.

Dinners:

Monday: Cottage pie to my usual recipe

Tuesday: As it's my first day back at work and I'm not sure how I'll feel, one of the emergency packets of filled pasta with sauce, garlic bread and raw veggies

Wednesday: Baked potatoes with bolognaise from the freezer and grated cheese

Thursday: Chicken kiev, sweet potato chips and veggies

Friday: Homemade chicken curry - with naan bread

Saturday: we have some much looked forward to tickets to see Avenue Q in Greenwich (M missed it when it was in London so I've been hoping for a tour for a while now). We're planning on eating out as a treat - any suggestions on places to eat in Greenwich would be gratefully received.

Sunday: I'm going to say a roast - possibly my slow roast pork depending on what's on offer.

So that's us, a quieter week (in theory). What meals do you turn to, when you want an easy week? 

Meal Planning Monday:

We're getting married in less than a month. Holy hell that's soon.

I made the wedding cakes last week - 2 fruit ones using my slightly amended version of The Pink Whisk's Christmas cake.

At this stage I thought I'd be headless chicken-ing as I tried to make sure my dress fitted by dietting and exercising. I suppose an advantage to being 21 weeks pregnant is that as long as I walk for 20 minutes a day I'm not too fussed about eating or exercising at the moment. Baby ness aside I'm as flappy as I thought I'd be. Once the cakes are sorted I need to make some flowery decisions so will be Pinterest bound this week.

All of this means that food is really taking a back seat at the moment. Not helped by the fact that I'm really not fussed about what I eat at all at the moment so am just trying to eat healthily. I say this without thinking too much about what I'm cooking this week so that may be a complete contradiction to reality!

Breakfasts: Last week I was stunned and most happy to win an Easiyo set from Lakeland, so am enjoying playing with that. I'm using their sachets at the moment, but considering trying some experimentation (hello Pinterest again)

Lunches: Fairly dull, I've been either having ham and cheese sandwiches or tomato soup. I'm just not feeling in the mood for wild and exciting.

Dinners - I'm going to try and use up odds and sods from the freezer

Monday:  Pasta bolognaise (sauce frozen last week) with additional cherry tomatoes and cucumber as I'm on a bit of a crudites bent at the moment.

Tuesday - (if there's some in the freezer) Leftover chicken and mushroom risotto

Wednesday - As I'll be doing Shrove Tuesday at Guides the night before - M and I will do pancakes together on Wednesday

Thursday - It's Brownie night so M is in charge of a pizza and more crudites

Friday - Chicken kiev, sweet potato chips and peas

Saturday - will have been a long day as I'm doing wedding dress 'stuff' so I think I'll pop a brisket into the slow cooker before we go

Sunday - leftover brisket with baked potatoes and possibly cauliflower cheese as I've been thinking about it a bit lately, and clearly the only way to stop that is to make it

So not an exciting week, but it should clear the freezer a bit.

Remembrance sleepover, batch cooked bolognaise

This weekend heralds Fourth Friern Barnet Guides annual Remembrance Sunday sleepover, seventeen girls and all 4 leaders will be parading on Sunday as part of the local Remembrance service. As I type I imagine (hope) neckers and t-shirts are being ironed, extra layers for under uniform being packed, school shoes being cleaned. And that's just me. 

As the girls are willingly giving up their Sunday to participate in something important, we have a sleepover the night before - we're combining our Confectioners badge with giant jenga, the chocolate game, and making poppy brooches. 

Tomorrow we'll be bag packing in our local Tesco to raise some much needed funds for the unit - we're in desperately in need of our own, lightweight Patrol tents, and other things like new baking equipment, sewing kits and some camp uniform as well as subsiding tickets for Wellies and Wristbands next year. We're hoping that bag packing will help us towards those targets, and we'll also be using the day as as opportunity to raise awareness of Guiding in the local area and with any luck, recruit some new Adult leaders. 

If you've got people being that busy then obviously you're going to need to feed them. We had a Guide chat with the girls on Tuesday and pasta seemed to be the general consensus - most are having it with a traditional bolognaise, some with a vegetarian version of the same, and a couple will have theirs with cheese and butter, but supplement that with carrot & cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes. 

This meant, that while running a temperature and fighting off a fluey bug I found myself in Asda this afternoon with a list, a trolley and a single minded ambition to get the food for the sleepover sorted. 

In case you're wondering, to make Spaghetti sauces for twenty one people, your shopping list looks like this:

8 tins chopped tomatoes
8 cloves garlic
4 onions
1 large box (750g) mushrooms
12 peppers
12 carrots
Half a butternut squash
1 parsnip
Tomato puree
Oregano
Marmite
2 kg lean minced beef

Vegetarian Bolognaise

Dice 4 carrots, half a butternut squash, parsnip, 4 peppers and about 250g of mushrooms
Blitz 1 onion, 2 sticks of celery and 2 cloves of garlic in a food processor
Add oil to a large pan and heat up gently
Add the onion, celery and garlic and cook gently for about 15 minutes
Add the carrots, butternut squash and parsnip with a splash of water
Put a lid on the pan and let the veggies steam for about 10 minutes
Add the rest of the veggies, stir in and let cook down for 5 - 10 minutes (until the mushrooms start to colour)
Add 2 tins of tomatoes a large sprinkling of dried oregano, a tablespoon of tomato puree and a tsp of marmite
Leave over a low heat for about half an hour until most of the liquid has reduced

After this, I've put the sauce in a large foil tray, let it cool and will reheat in the oven tomorrow. I wouldn't usually use root veg in a bolognaise type sauce, but courgettes and aubergine are out of season and we work on a budget of £5 per head per day for food. The sauce I made today works out at £0.88 per head £18.49 in total. If you add the cost of the pasta in, it's £1.02 per head.

Bolognaise

Split the mince into 4 portions - for each portion, use the following quantities

Blitz 1 onion, 2 sticks of celery, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 peppers, 2 carrots and 100g of mushrooms
Cook down until softened
Add mince and cook through until browned
Add 2 tins of tomatoes, a large splodge of tomato puree and a teaspoon of marmite
Add a large sprinkle of oregano
Cook down until the sauce is thickened and the liquid reduced - for about half an hour or so

I did this 4 times, and working on the basis that one portion of that does 4-6 adult portions, I figure that we should easily accommodate 17 hungry guides and 4 hungry leaders. Please god let it, as there's now nothing else in my cupboards! 

And after all that... what did I end up having for my supper? You've guessed it

And if you've ever wanted to know what the shopping for 21 people for a 24 hour sleepover looks like...

Meal Planning Monday: another freezer based week

Will it surprise you, dear reader, if I tell you that last week didn't clear down the freezer? I didn't think so. So, another week of clearing down the freezers. Not thrilling I'm afraid.

But there is good news. I am without plastercast. After five months of incapacitation, my wrist is healed. Sadly I have the early stages of a pressure sore which was what alerted me to the need for the cast to come off last week. An acute sense of burning in a place about the size of a 50 pence peice. Alarming, but I have to say Barnet really did step up. Although they frustrate me at times, they did step up. Physio starts in a fortnight or so, and in the meantime in case I started to miss them I have another set of nerve blocker injections in the back of my head on Monday. Hurrah!

Initially I thought this weekend would involve much rolling out, kneading, and general kitchen activities that involve an unplastered wrist. And then it struck me just how much pain an unplastered, newly healed wrist can cause. So, in place of that I sat. Watched trashy telly. Slept. Generally broke the mould and gave my mind and body some extra time and space in which to heal. Which meant that this morning I practically bounced from my bed, wished M a good morning and promptly started work. At half past 7. I know.

The blue skies (albeit freezing outside) are trying to convince me that a run is imminent, and depending on how my nerve blockers go, I may try one later. At present I'm sorting out Diplomas and drinking coffee.

So, this week - M's mum (she of the WI and marmalade & jam coaching) has sent us back half a sultana and cherry cake which is my favourite, and some welshcakes. Which is a bonus as it relieves me of baking duties for the time being. That said, following the purchase and demolition of an epic sourdough from Barnet farmers market I think I'm going to kick start myself a sourdough starter this week.

Breakfast wise, I thought I'd try the Sainsbury's frozen fruit bags, they're 3 for £5 and I got peaches, blueberries and mixed summer fruits. I'm a big fan of a lot of Sainsburys basics range and although a bit more pricey than I would have liked I thought I'd try making these into smoothies with my 0% fat greek yoghurt. I've got some sachets of ground linseed etc that I think would make good additions as well. Any suggestions for other things to add to a breakfast smoothie?

Lunches: well the early morning has given me a kick in the right direction and I've got a pan of Lifechanging soup (TM), that is to say Skye Gyngell's Sweet Potato and ginger which I haven't made for far too long. I've got a little sourdough left to have with, and may make up some soda bread in rolls for the rest of the week.

Dinner: Largely freezer roulette again...

Monday: Bolognaise sauce, with grated cheese and pasta for Mark, just with steamed veggies for me.

Tuesday: Minced beef hash, with a poached egg on top

Wednesday: I'm out Leith's cookery school for the evening, so will be leaving M lentil ragu with chorizo I thing

Thursday: M is at Welsh, so probably his leftover lentil ragu for me

Friday: As yet I'm undecided, we're both in and the freezer will be mainly empty by then.... I've got some chicken and leeks in the freezer so I might make up some more of the butternut squash, chicken and leek casserole I've made previously. It's a simple really warming dish and the addition of barley makes it stretch further quite cheaply.

I do have some unearmarked courgettes in the fridge from last week's veg box, and I'm torn between courgetti spaghetti, and doing something different with them... Any suggestions?

Do be sure to pop over and see what everyone else is up to At home with Mrs M

Moving too fast? Slow down

The Last Five Years is one of the first more modern musicals that I grew to love. Jason Robert Brown's music caught my attention immediately, and having not seen it onstage until a few years back, had to ask my friend Claire to put the songs into narrative order for me. Whilst not the prompt for this post, I've embedded Colleen Ballinger singing Summer in Ohio below, just because it's one of my favourite songs and never fails to raise a smile, no matter how miserable the day.

Now where was I? Slowing down. The sheer length of this year's winter. Has it seriously not been the longest ever winter in the history of the world? The sheer length of this year's winter has meant that I feel like I've been eating casseroles for ever. Although at least twice a week I have a tendency to have to skip dinner as I just can't eat after Guides and Brownies - it's too late and I'm too shattered to start cooking. Certainly anything nutritous. I'm quite good at marmite on toast.

Just after Christmas, fuelled by decongestants and paracetamol I bought a slow cooker as my boyfriend wasn't having any of this toast and marmite for dinner business. What we took to doing was putting a casserole or similar in the cooker the night before and then switching it on low as we went out of the door in the morning.

I just thought I'd post about something simple and cheap I've been cooking at least every couple of weeks as Mark likes it, it's dead simple and the flavour improves if you eat it the next day.

Slow cooker Spag Bol

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
4 carrots
350g lean minced beef
1 tin tomatoes
Red wine (fill the tin of tomatoes up with wine)
Tomato puree
250g mushrooms (I say this as a quantity but only because I use half a packet of mushrooms when I cook it)
Oregano
a bay leaf

Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

Now I have to own up, I might be able to do the chef style onion chopping, but for this and the casseroles I've been cooking, I throw that, the garlic, the peeled carrots and mushrooms in the food processor and blitz them until they're all finely chopped. This all goes straight into the slow cooker. As do the tinned tomatoes, wine, a big blob (such a technical term!) of tomato puree, and of course the mince. I then give everything a stir and switch it on in the morning.

When I get in from Brownies or Guides all we do is cook the pasta in salted boiling water and grate some parmesan (some, when in conjunction with cheese, means lots in my book). Serve in a bowl in front of that week's episode of Glee cwtched up.