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.

Apple and carrot dhaal - dairy free, soya free, CMPA weaning recipe

I love dhaal - as a quick lunch, or the more traditional accompaniment to a curry, it's one of my favourites. I've not made it for ages though, and was trying to think of some new meals for Harry's lunches when inspiration struck.

Lentils are a great food for babies - full of protein and iron but easy on little tummies. They mash up brilliantly if you're leaning more towards purees, and they give a meal substance if you're a baby led weaner.

For a baby recipe we don't want heat from our dhaal, but I did want to start to introduce some different flavours - the first time I made this I ignored my own notes and doubled up the spicing! Not a good idea.

Because the veggies are grated to start with, this is a really quick meal to make, and if you've got a food processor it takes minutes to throw it together. What's not to like, really?

Apple and Carrot dhaal
Dairy free, soya free, CMPA
Weaning recipe

4 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 eating apples, peeled and grated
750ml low salt veg stock/ water
2/3 cup red lentils
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4tsp ground cumin
2 Tablespoons olive oil


Pop the olive oil, onion, carrot, apples and spices in a large pan and cook down for a couple of minutes
Cover with the stock/ water, and lentils
Bring to a gentle boil, and simmer for 10-20 minutes
Serve as it is or with rice

Meal Planning Monday

I thought Spring had sprung last week - I divested myself of my winter coat, donned my sunnies and ballet flats, happily enjoying the sunshine. My thoughts turned to warmer days, lighter evenings and lots of time in the park with Harry. Then of course the weather caught up with me and it turned freezing again, and once again my attention was taken by baked potatoes, casserole and comfort food.

Harry and I are pretty much in our stride for our weeks, between Playgroup, Rhyme time, and Hartbeeps we have a busy time of it. Sometimes fitting in naps and meals mean things go slightly awry, but it's a learning curve. This week we have all of those things and Harry's weigh in at the Health Visitor clinic. It's a nervous time. Almost as nerve-wracking as mine, but for the opposite reason.

Breakfasts - porridge and fruit for me, Harry's having porridge or pancakes or toast at the moment as we're off eggs.

Lunches - I've got minestrone soup that I made at the weekend. Syn free and delicious. I really do like it.

Suppers -

Monday: Leftover ham and veggies with baked potatoes

Tuesday: Ham, egg and potato wedges

Wednesday: Ham, egg and mushroom omlettes

Thursday: Root veg dhaal (will blog this week) with rice

Friday: Leftover dhaal with roti

Saturday: Freezer surprise

Sunday: It's our first wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we're treating ourselves to a Dine in deal from M&S.

Baking wise I made Cherry and almond buns (post up next) at the weekend and those, plus some wonderful dairy free Welshcakes from Mark's mum will probably mean that I don't lose any weight this week!

Here's holding on for more sunshine next week - as always, don't forget to hop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: using what we have

It's a bit of a quiet one in the Pantry this week. Between one thing and another I realised I needed a quieter week cooking wise, so have hauled much of this week's meals, or the makings of those meals out of the freezer - the bonus of this being, most of our shop was veggies which made it lovely and cheap!

Harry's eating is going from strength to strength. He got to grips (quite literally) with pasta last week, eating fusili bolognaise from his tray with aplomb. We had our dietician appointment and his cows milk and soya allergy seems to have extended to eggs now. I'm hoping nothing else will come up, and the dietician was great, really helpful in terms of my calcium and iron levels. We've got a couple of suppliers for dairy and soya free yoghurts, cheese and cream to try, so I'll be reporting back on Harry's feelings about those. And mine.

I also baked bread this week - our normal bread now has soya flour in it and so M kindly hauled the breadmaker (I know, it's just easy) down from the loft for me, and a 50/50 wholemeal has already been made and heavily sampled.

I'm going to try and do an SP week as my weightloss needs a bit of a boost. My stumbling block will be the fruit I think, but the rest should be straightforward enough.

Breakfasts: Unsurprisingly mainly porridge for Harry and I - he's off eggs in their natural state, so the frittatas aren't going to be remade for now, but as he's OK with them in things I'll do a new lot of pancakes this week. There's always the new bread aswell.

Lunches: I made a split pea soup at the weekend, so that's me sorted. Harry likes it so we'll have it together (his favourite seems to be my Sweet potato and ginger soup) and he can have bread to dunk. Alternatively I've got some more tomato pasta in the freezer.

Suppers:

Monday - Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta for M, and with Kale for me

Tuesday: Leftover pasta

Wednesday: Butternut squash dhaal with rice

Thursday: Leftover dhaal with roti if I can manage to make them

Friday: M's parents are visiting so a Shepherd's pie (with a swede topping for me) with veggies

Saturday: Sausages, baked potatoes and veggies

Sunday: Roast gammon with lots of veggies, roasties and cauliflower cheese.

That's our week - a straightforward one, with lots of meals based on things I already have in. What are your go-to meals? That you always have ingredients for to hand and don't need to think about much. Let me know in the comments below

As always, don't forget to hop on over to At Home with Mrs M and see what everyone else is up to.

Meal Planning Monday: the wildly organised edition

Now of course, writing this does tempt fate hugely, but I do feel like I owe myself a little boast - it's Wednesday, 6pm and I've just done our meal plan and online shop for next week. Oh yes, I'm that organised.

I mentioned last week about the belt tightening that's going on to fund the wedding and the house redecoration - one of the things I've always done to help with this is to put our weekly shop through mysupermarket.com to make sure we go wherever is cheapest. However, try as I might I never seem to be able to make the total cost at the till come out the same as what I'd planned. Avoidance of temptation to 'just add' must be key, so this week I did the same and have pressed the button to checkout with Sainsburys.

This week is ours to get back to normal. Both Brownie and Guide terms kick off properly and M and I are both working around and about a fair bit.

Breakfasts: Either vanilla porridge or fruit toast or a smoothie for me.

Lunches: I've got the dhaal I made up the other week which is in the freezer happily waiting to be defrosted and heated up.

Dinners:

Saturday - Roast chicken, roast potatoes, stuffing and veggies

Sunday - Leftover roast chicken with baked potatoes and veggies

Monday - Chicken and mushroom risotto

Tuesday - leftovers

Wednesday - M is eating elsewhere so fish and greens for me

Thursday - Brownie night so pizza from the freezer

Friday - A lazy night for me, the standby chicken kiev with sweet potato chips and veggies.

Nothing overly exciting, but a week that helps us to stay on budget and fed - what more could you ask for? If my brain reminds me, I'll be linking up with Mrs M over at At Home with Mrs M... be sure to pop over there for inspiration with other meal plans.

Perfect pulses - lentils 2 ways, and some thrifty tips

As we heralded in the New Year I had one of those dawning realisations that this year was going to be an expensive one - between doing up our house (which grows as a project each time we remove another layer of lining paper) and arranging a wedding, our available funds are, shall we say... depleted?

I know that January is a common time for people to be tightening their belts and when this is the case for us pulses become a staple not just in my storecupboard, but in more of our meals, bulking out dishes so that they easily do leftovers as well as using them as a meat replacement in meals such us bolognaise.

It was with this all in mind that I gleefully happened across Michelle's recipe for Root vegetable dhaal. It fulfills criteria necessary at this time of year - thrifty, healthy and warming. Ideal for my packed lunches - although the search for a functioning flask continues - and with some homemade soda bread (recipe on the link below with the soup) the perfect Saturday lunch for a break in the decorating.

Alongside that I'm also going to knock up a batch of a Nigella recipe I appropriated and adapted a couple of years ago, her Split pea and frankfurter soup (I've always called split peas yellow lentils). I have the frankfurters in the freezer as I pick them up when they're on BOGOF. 

These are just a couple of pulses centric recipes that I'm making now. of course, lentils can be added to soups - especially good for thickening as well as bulking out, stews, chillis, bolognaises and plenty of other things to make them go further. If in doubt I add a cupful of red lentils and add the same of extra liquid - be that stock, water or wine.

Other recipes I've blogged include:

Lentil ragu
Harissa lentil salad
Spicy lentils with sausages (both these posts link to Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, as they're her recipes)

I use pulses in lots of other recipes, including last night's supper - chorizo and cannelini bean chilli (I double the cannelini beans as a cheap way of making dinner go further. I do the same with kidney beans in normal chilli and my slow cooker chilli.