Meal Planning Monday - the why is not half term yet edition!

Even going back to school later has made no difference, and we're all feeling a bit tired today. Maybe it's the 400 mile round trip to Buckinghamshire for a party this weekend that is at fault, but I'm thoroughly looking forward to the children not having anything to go to for a week (although we do, just not school stuff).

This plan was kind of cobbled together (as it always is, it gets rejigged so many times!) before and after my weekend. I expect it to fail! Eyes down, look in, here we go. 

Monday - Thai chicken and sweet potato soup

Tuesday - Beef and mushroom meat loaf

Wednesday - Sausage and bean crumble

Thursday - Butties

Friday - Spiced rice and lentils with cauliflower

Saturday - Prawn and coconut curry

Sunday - Roast pork

So, that's me for the week. Can I sleep now? 

Meal Planning Monday - the moving into February away from snow edition!

So, as we established, blogging to say we had no snow backfired on me in a big way, with two lots of snowfall, the second a significant amount that arrived in the space of a few hours and took everyone by surprise (hence the M6 being closed nearby and several people got stuck there overnight).

The snow's gone in a flash though and we're now looking forward to some warmer, but wetter, weather. And it's February - hoorah. It may be my birthday, but January is not my favourite month so I'm always glad to see the back of it. I can feel the days getting longer and the warmer temperatures will help me feel that little bit closer to spring.

What's going on this week? Well, husband is off work for two days as I have got some governor training on Tuesday night so he needed to take the evening off and decided to add Monday to that too. He will however be working the weekend so it's swings and roundabouts.

The recipes are a mix. Monkey chose two dishes from his recentish favourites, I've had some things on my list that I wanted to try making, and there's one carried over from last week because I couldn't be bothered going out to the garage to the freezer. And to complete the week, I fancied a lamb recipe cooked in the slow cooker so a search threw up a nice curry.

Here is the coming week told in our meals.

Monday - Cheesy chicken pot pie
Tuesday -  Slow cooker lamb and sweet potato curry
Wednesday  - Mini meatloaves and jackets with broccoli
Thursday  - Fish chowder
Friday -  Slow cooker veg tamale pie with cornmeal crust
Saturday-  Boerenkool Stamppot (Kale Hash)
Sunday - Cheese and ham toasties (just because my kids ask for them for tea, heathens!)

So that's us. What's on your menu? When you've finished here, mosey on over to Mrs M's for more lovely entries in this week's linky.

Meal Planning Monday - the December comfort food edition!

As we edge towards Christmas, I have that unerring feeling that I need to get more done than I already have. This week, the cards will get written and posted and family presents will get wrapped ready to send down to my mother, who hopefully will be coming out of hospital very soon.

I'm still trying my best to use up the freezer whilst remaining conscious that I am actually filling it fast with Christmas goodies. As much as possible is going in there this year in the run up to the big day with as much prep spread over the weeks beforehand so the last few days before Christmas can be enjoyed.

I put together this plan and looked back at it and it struck me that this was all just comfort food! I guess that's no bad thing at this time of year with dark evenings and cold weather. On Tuesday, Monkey has a friend coming to tea who requested burgers and Friday is the school fair, which husband will be heavily involved in so it's likely to be hot dogs there or butties.

Monday - Mini meatloaves with jackets and veg
Tuesday - Burger, chips and salad
Wednesday - Slow cooker rice supper (based on this)
Thursday - Sausages with yorkshires and mash
Friday - keeping free
Saturday - Corned beef hash with egg
Sunday - Indonesian curried pork with coconut rice

Is your menu all comfort food now? Do tell. And then, when you've done that, hop on over to Mrs M's to see what everyone else has got planned.

Meal Planning Monday

This week is a slightly cobbled together affair. With my husband away for 4 days and a Nearly New Sale on Saturday, time has been limited and my motivation deserted me yesterday. Luckily, I already knew what I was planning to do for hubby when he comes home from his epic run (which I think has turned into a lot of walk and was a lot, lot harder than he imagined it would be) as we're going to have a roast dinner after I got a cheap joint in the supermarket the other day. A couple of the things I'm making are kind of experimental in that I have no recipe but I have ideas how to go about them!

So, off we go for another week:

Monday - Roast pork, stuffing, roast potatoes, carrots, peas
Tuesday - Lamb and herb meatloaf
Wednesday - Gammon steaks and pea mash
Thursday - Sandwiches
Friday - Mushroom, broccoli and sweetcorn lasagne
Saturday - leaving free
Sunday - Noodle stir-fry

Now, why don't you tell me what you are having to eat this week? And don't forget to visit Mrs M where she'll have more MPM entries.

Meal Planning Monday

It's Monday so it must be meal planning time!  This week's is kind of rushed - I'd started putting together a plan on Saturday, and then on Sunday morning, I realised I would need to do the food shopping as I'm out most of the day. So, this week is slightly cobbled together as I only had written what sort of dish eg "fish" for some of the days so I had to do a hasty extra spot of planning in my head. Never good but never mind. 

So, here we go: 

Meal Planning Monday

Time to plan those meals again! I think last week went to plan, except Friday because I went to London at short notice and couldn't be bothered cooking when I got home. I was just going to make this week an "old favourites" kind of week but I changed this and that and before I knew it, I'm doing 3 recipes from Nick's book that I haven't made before!

Pork, sage and apple meatloaf

Meatloaf has recently become one of my faves for easy cooking. I really don't know why it's taken me until now to realise how easy it is. As family food goes, it's pretty perfect - easy and quick to make, and very satisfying. It also is great to make ahead, and the leftovers are great in a sandwich. It is also an inexpensive dish to make. And if you have kids and they like to "cook", this is great messy play mixing things together - although you might want to make sure they don't try to eat raw meat! Can you tell I love it?

Recently, I've made a couple of meat loaves which I've made for the rest of the family to have whilst I've been away. I've made meatloaves from beef mince and more recently, turkey mince so I thought about making one with pork mince. When I made the turkey and cranberry meatloaf from Nick's book, I noticed that he used sage and onion stuffing instead of breadcrumbs which was frankly brilliant. So, I've used that trick here, hope Nick doesn't mind. I got sage, onion and apple stuffing mix instead here from the supermarket - if you can't get that, just get a smaller pack of sage and onion stuffing mix and see if you can get some dried apple from a health food store.

Meal Planning Monday

I can't believe it's another week gone by. Last week's went very well, with more meals from Nick's book My Daddy Cooks. The creamy mushroom and parma ham pasta bake was a particular hit with everyone.

So, time to plan some more meals. As I'm away at Cybermummy this weekend (all thanks to my sponsor Seaworld Parks, I've planned in a few things I can prepare ahead and leave in the fridge. The Italian meatloaf is particularly good for this as it's made in 5 minutes.

Monday - Ham and sweetcorn pizza, carrot sticks, cucumber and tomatoes
Tuesday - Oven baked risotto (from Nick's book)
Wednesday - No cooking
Thursday - Goulash (from Nick's book)
Friday - BBQ ribs (from Nick's book)
Saturday - Italian meatloaf
Sunday - Kept free (possibly takeaway)

A reasonable mix, I think - but no fish! I really must rectify that next week as the children do actually love fish. And of course, I shall not be eating some of those meals - on Friday, I will be eating Italian at Sandy's Meet, Greet and Eat and on Saturday, curry in aid of Gemma's birthday.

Why not pop over to Mrs M's blog for more meal planning entries?

Meal Planning Monday

Lordy, these weeks come around so fast. Last week's plan went largely to it - so well, in fact, I had to scrabble around for something to make today which I managed (chicken and sweetcorn pie if you're wondering).

Onto this week's plan. Here it is.

Monday - Chicken biryani bake (from the freezer)
Tuesday - Sweet and sour lentil dhal with grilled aubergine
Wednesday - Italian meat loaf
Thursday - Courgette and orzo bake
Friday - Mini-burgers and homemade potato wedges
Saturday - Tapas tea (we'll be supporting Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Sunday - Chicken curry

Some new things to try and some easy things - having to make the meatloaf in advance because I am probably away on Wednesday night so I need to make something that can just be placed in the oven.  I am most looking forward to tapas on Saturday. There's no fish this week but I'm trying to empty the freezer to defrost it and have no fish left in it!

Why not pop over to Mrs M's blog for more meal planning entries?