Meal plan: Week 4 (and £4 left!)

Meal Planning: Week 4

Last week:

I managed to stick mostly to plan this week.
Thursday Mr T and I were out at the cinema to FINALLY see Catching Fire (Did you know that Cineworld do this thing called Take2 on a Thursday: a second chance to see films a few months old. The deal is 2 tickets plus 2 small drinks and a medium popcorn all for £10. We're now keeping our eyes out for The Hobbit which we never managed either!)

Friday's Chicken Tikka Masala was yum but the minions had pizza instead as they had friends over for a playdate. Made my own naan bread for the first time ever. Was well chuffed with how they turned out. Minion#1 was totally fascinated watching them cook under the grill. In his words "They were AWESOME!", although everything is awesome according to him as he is still on a come down from his 9th birthday celebrations (see last week).

Saturday: We had my family over for lunch an rugby so I made Maple Mustard Pulled Pork from the BBC Good Food website, which we had with my sisters homemade coleslaw and some rolls. The pork is one of the yummiest things I've made in a very long time. I was going to take photos but it got demolished rather quick. Absolute result. Definitely making that again. With 2 tubs of soft cheese about to go out of date in the fridge it would be rude not to make a cheesecake so Lemon Cheesecake was added to the "to do" list. It was gorgeous.

Best part of Saturday though was Duncan Weirs last minute drop goal which took Scotland ONE POINT ahead of Italy. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! #backingblue

This week:

Monday morning and my hair straighteners have just died on me on a puff of smoke (and if I'm honest and not telling Mr T, there was a big flash too) so I know already its going to be a rubbish week.
I know I've already well and truly blown the chance to stay within the £200-£250 monthly food budget I set myself (probably due to minion#1s birthday). I'm currently sitting at £296. So I'm wondering if I could manage to go this week (well until Saturday 1st March) on just £4. We've LOADS of leftover curry from last week and quite a lot of bits n bobs in the freezer. The only food thing I may need to buy is a few bits of fruit for pack lunches. The challenge is on and thankfully the cost of my straighteners will NOT come out of this £4!

Monday:

Left over chicken curry & rice (fingers crossed minion#2 eats this)

Tuesday:

Smoked salmon pasta (Mr & Mrs T) (smoked salmon from freezer)

Hotdog & tomato pasta (Minions) (left over hotdogs from Thursday)

Wednesday:

Sloppy Joes (Mr & Mrs T) (from freezer)

Sausage rolls & beans (Minions) (sausage rolls from freezer)

Thursday:

Chilli (or maybe curry) (Mr & Mrs T) (from freezer)

Scrambled egg on toast and small bowl of lentil & bacon soup (Minions) (soup from freezer)

Friday:

Pizza (Mr T & Minions) (from freezer)

potato skins & chicken kebabs (Mrs T) (from freezer)

Saturday:

Blue cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in prosciutto, wedges & salad.

 Sunday:

Lasagne (Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food)

Have a look at the lovely Mrs M's blog for more meal plan inspiration

 

 

And for my first time I'm also joining in with MPM at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

 

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:

Meal Planning: Week 2

Meal Planning: Week 2

By Mrs T.

 

Last week:

I managed to stick to it all week (yey me!) and even managed to add extra veg to the enchiladas in order to have leftovers for Mr T's and the minions to eat on Saturday. Result.
I genuinely felt like I saved money as I was in the supermarket FAR less often. We'll find out at the end of the month though.

This week:

I'm aiming to use up some stuff from the freezer (baps, land chops and drumsticks). Mr T is away on Monday night so its just me and the minions and whatever we can scrape together from the fridge. Saturday is minion#1's 9th birthday so I'll need to be flexible towards the end of the week. Minions are of school this week too so I hope to get them involved with cooking/baking etc.


Monday:
Minions: Fridge Fried Rice (made using leftover boiled rice, 3 eggs, 2 left over hotdogs and half a yellow pepper)
Mrs T: Gnocchi (using left over half pack of Tesco gnocchi with some leftover Sacla chilli pesto, 2 left over slices of bacon, some peppers, some 'shrooms and probably some more chilli to give it a kick!)

Tuesday:
Sloppy Joes with toasted baps (from freezer), corn on the cob and salad.
(makes 6 portions so will put 2 portions away in freezer for a rainy day)

Wednesday:
Minions: Chicken Drumsticks, potatoes and salad
Mr T:  Lamb Chops, potatoes and peas/sweetcorn
Mrs T: Weightwatchers Quiche (I don't like chicken on the bone or lamb) with salad.

Thursday:
Toad in the hole - hopefully made by minion#1
(Recipe from Good Food Mag September 2011)

Friday:
Chicken Fajitas.

Saturday:
Birthday Tea (takeaway or possibly Beefeater)

Sunday:
Crispy Topped Cumberland Pie
(Recipe from Good Food Mag March 2012)

My First Meal Plan of 2014

So here goes my first blog:
I've decided to try and embrace blogs and twitter #mealplanningmonday to try and help save money by way of meal planning.  During January 2014 I saved all receipts and have calculated that I spent over £370 on food last month. Ridiculous.  I've figured if I just spend some time each week meal planning then I'll easily cut that down by £100.
My target during my first month is to get it to £200!

So here goes, my first meal plan of 2014. (for 2 adults and 2 kids, 9 & 6)

Monday: chicken breasts and peppercorn sauce with stir fried veg(me)/roasted peppers(him)/salad(them). Baked potatoes. (kids will have Richmond mini meatballs from the freezer)

Tuesday: Salmon fillets with Kwans Kitchen black bean & garlic sauce stuff on top, served with rice and stir fried veg.

Wednesday: Enchiladas and salad

Thursday: Pasta with tomato sauce with bacon, peppers, left over hotdogs

Friday: Pizza (ASDA)

Saturday: unknown as yet as I'm away so need to think of something easy for Him to cook for Them.

Sunday: Chilli and rice (from freezer)