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 - A healthy start in February

Last week was a bit of a disaster on the Slimming World front - although I've not been weighed yet - but a combination of a few things just meant that the plan went out of the window. Today is a fresh start and to help, I've really focussed on some new recipes that are all free food. I'll be writing everything down to help me stick to my guns.

Harry has started having supper on the next step of his weaning journey, so we're now up to three meals which is very exciting. He's still getting nearly all of his calories from milk and seems to be doing very well. New flavours recently have included fruit bread, melon, rusk, plums, rhubarb, and cauliflower - all of which have gone down a storm.

Breakfast - porridge for me, with ginger, cinnamon, apple and banana and for Harry with a little of mixed spice and mashed banana. Alternatively scrambled eggs and mushrooms.

Lunches - we're sticking with soup, split pea for me.

Supper -

Monday - We've been visiting family so will be late home

Tuesday - Chicken and cauliflower 'rice' stuffed butternut squash

Wednesday - Leftovers

Thursday - Spanish chicken and cauliflower 'rice' (can you tell I got some caulifowers cheaply)

Friday - Pasta and meatballs with tomato sauce

Saturday - Sausages, baked potatoes and veggies

Sunday - Roast chicken (or whatever meat is on special)

Not too tricky a week - provided they're not dire, and I can get them photographed I'll blog them as I'm quite excited about their newnes.

That's us this week - be sure to pop on over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to. I'll make sure to link up. 

Meal Planning Monday: the dairy free edition

So far since June, our meal plans have focussed on foods that increase your breastmilk, food that should be gentle to digest, weaning, and now... now we're dairy free. It seems that the paediatrician suspects that Harry doesn't have reflux per se, but is in fact allergic to Cow's milk - probably the protein. As I'm keen to breastfeed him for as long as possible this has meant cutting dairy out of my diet. Which despite having done it in the dim and distant past is harder than I remember.

When I'm not bemoaning the loss of tea, going dairy free actually isn't too hard, I just need to be organised, which I wasn't last week so it was all a bit haphazard. M is out at a curry night tonight and the baby is asleep (for now *touch wood) so I'm doing our meal plan and online shop before turning in for an early night myself. My temptations are chocolate, tea or coffee with milk and cheese. I can do without all of them, if I have alternatives. Annoyingly from what I've been reading today, it looks as though soya could be linked as an allergen but I'm going to give dairy until the end of the month, and then if things haven't improved will take out soya too.

Breakfasts - I can have porridge made with water, or sourdough toast with peanut butter that's just peanuts and a banana.

Lunches - I've made some of Jamie Oliver's barbecue beans which I've been having either on toast or just as they come in a bowl. They would be amazing with cheese. Just saying.

Suppers -

Monday - Leftover chorizo and butternut squash chilli with rice/ or in burritos

Tuesday - Pasta and meatballs

Wednesday - Freezer surprise

Thursday - Pulled pork with baked sweet potatoes

Friday - Leftover pulled pork

Saturday - Baked potatoes with the aforementioned beans

Sunday - Slow roast brisket (and not just because of the leftovers. Ahem)

If anyone reading has any experinece of breastfeeding a baby with cows milk allergy, please do let me know what's been useful to you...