Monday 17 February 2014

Meal Planning: Week 3 (and a cake)

Meal Planning: Week 3

Last week:

Hmm, didn't mange to stick to things as well as week one. My inlaws took the kids for a sleepover on Thursday night so Mr T and I had a Chinese takeaway (my fave!) that night. Friday I was decorating Minion#1's birthday cake ALL DAY that I didn't have time to pop out for the ingredients for the fajitas so we had some random stuff out the freezer. Saturday was takeaway again, but Indian this time as Minion#1 wanted a donner kebab for his 9th birthday tea.(!!!!!!!!!!!!!). The sloppy joes were a success as always, but I was a bit disappointed with the Cumberland Pie (although Minion#1 and Mr T SCOFFED it). Here's the birthday cake that took me FOREVER, and I must admit I'm pretty damn chuffed with it.
For those who don't know, it's a MINECRAFT cake, which is a computer game my 9 yr old totally LOVES. He totally LOVED the cake, thank goodness. He had a, and I quote: "the bestest birthday EVER!" doing woodland combat/laser quest up at Action Glen near Creiff Hydro and watching the Lego movie. Everything is awesome!

This week:

I am starting the week with leftovers of the Cumberland pie. Due to the Birthday last week I'm unsure how i'm doing with my aim to reduce my monthly food spend down to £200-£250 (from £370 in January) so I'm aiming to eat out of the tins/jar cupboard and also freezer this week so not much cooking from scratch :(. Fingers crossed we are all fed ok, but we do have plenty of left over cake to eat so I'm sure we'll be fine.

Monday:
Cheesey pasta bake with added veg and bacon
Tuesday:
Leftover Cumberland pie from Sunday (Mr T and minion#1)
Leftover pasta bake (Mrs T and minion#2)
Wednesday:
Sausage casserole and potato wedges
Thursday:
Hotdogs and salad (Minions)
Leftover sausage casserole for Mr T (if there is any) and I'll have chilli from freezer.
If no leftover casserole then we'll both have leftover sloppy joes that were frozen last week.
Friday:
Chicken Tikka Masala (fingers crossed minion#2 will eat this!) and pilau rice.
Saturday:
smoked salmon pasta (Mr & Mrs T) unless there is leftover curry......
nuggets, fish fingers, beans, waffles (Minions)
Sunday:
Steak pie and roast potatoes

Linky to Mrs M for other meal plans:
http://athomewithmrsm.blogspot.co.uk/


11 comments:

  1. Cooked up a fairly successful crispy shredded chilli pork using 'stuff' that I had in...
    Chopped up some pork
    Tossed it into cornflour and 'salt/pepper spice mix' (substitution for 5 spice)
    Fried in wok till crispy
    Sliced 2 onions and white leek as veg content, 2 cloves smoked garlic, minced chilli, minced lemongrass (as substitute for ginger)
    Sauce - balsamic vinegar (substitute for rice/white wine vinegar), soy sauce, ketchup, sweet chilli chip dip (substitute for sweet chilli sauce)
    Cooked veg added sauce till sticky then added crispy pork... all quite yummy! :-)

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    1. ooh sounds YUM Bellann. You should start a wee blog too. xx

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  2. Wow that cake is fantasic!! Well done, it the twins birthday this week so thats going to be my job this week! #MealPlanningMonday

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    1. Thanks. what type of cake will you be making?

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  3. Helen, I love the cake. I also like the idea of blogging your food/meal choices for the week. We've been cutting back on the food bills by planning and having more time to cook at home. Well done on the cake.

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  4. That birthday cake is fab! Well done!!
    Everything sounds fab x

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  5. What an awesome cake. Youngest son has request it for his birthday so I've pinned it for later. His birthday is in July so I might manage to get it right by then! Did you colour the fondant and make individual tiles, or make the tiles then paint them with colour? It looks sensational.

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    1. Thanks Kirsty, I bought 2 different shaded osf green icing from http://www.cakecraftshop.co.uk/ who were AMAZING (and reasonably priced I thought) as I needed it next day delivery so they processed the order v quickly. I also bought some brown (chocolate) fondant icing. I already had some blue sugerpaste dye in so didn't need to buy that.
      I cut out larger squares using a square cutter but then cut the larger square into 4 smaller ones. I just did a but at a time as I didn't want them to dry out too much when I needed to put them on the cake, I made some brown tiles lighter by adding in white fondant. I also had some black icing in so added a few of the (and grey).
      My method is certainly NOT the easiest or quickest way, but I think it looks much better than cakes done with an embossing grid thingy.

      I got ideas from pinterest and just embellished them. The waterfall was a last minute addition and really adds to it I think. The creeper and the TNT were my sons toys he had already.

      GOOD LUCK! and make sure you have a whole day to do it!!
      Helen.

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  6. That all sounds yummy Helen :)

    I see you have the same problem as me with having to do separate meals for different kids *sighs*

    xx

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    1. Thanks Vikki, I try not to cook separate meals but due to swimming, athletics, cubs, rainbows, gymnastics, etc etc Wednesdays and Thursdays are v busy and often run to a tight schedule so its sometimes quicker to stick a hotdog down them. Also Mr T usually isn't home till after 7pm so im quite happy to wait for him sometimes.

      Its more annoying when i'm following weightwatchers or slimming world 'cos then I need to cook 3 separate meals! x

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