Veggie meal planner

[OhWesternWind]

Hi - I'm on a money-saving trip at the moment - aren't we all! - and was thinking a meal planner might help out. Are there any veggies out there who'd be willing to share their weekly meal plans (or a monthly one would be even better) to give me a start? I am really lacking in inspiration here and am finding it very difficult to get started with this. Thanks!

[stressedHEmum]

Don't have a veggie meal planner as such because the family aren't veggie, but I can give you a pile of veggie meals that you could work into a planner, if that's any good.

The first thing that I do is batch cook a load of dried beans and then divide them up for freezing. A 500gm bag of them should make 2 meals for a family of four. If you do kidney beans, chick peas, haricot beans and pinto beans, it gives you a good start.

Week 1 -
Chick pea curry with rice
chick pea, pasta and garlic soup, bread, pudding
roasted veg pasta bake
scrambled egg rice with peas
jacket potatoes with cheesy lentils
polenta with tomato sauce
spinach and potato pie, veg

Week 2 -
mediterranean rice and beans (using haricot beans)
bean and veg soup, bread, pudding
creamy mushroom pasta
scalloped tomatoes, salad
spinach quiche,
spicy potatoes with wraps
frittata, salad

Week 3 -
pinto bean chilli, cornbread
refried bean quesadilla, salad leaves
mac and cheese with peas
garlic potato and feta bake
toad in the hole with cabbage and carrots
veg risotto
spicy tomato and lentil soup, bread, pudding

Week 4 -
curried kidney beans, rice
spicy beans with cheesy baguettes
cheese and tomato eggy bread bake, cabbage and carrots
puff pastry tart (mushroom and red onion or roasted veg and feta) salad
veg stir fry with noodles
pasta with courgettes, tomatoes and mozzarella
nut roast, chunky potatoes, veg

Doing something like this makes good use of ingredients, for instance, polenta and cornbread means that you use a bag of cornmeal instead of having it hanging around in the back of the cupboard; a bag of frozen peas gets split between the eggy rice and the mac and cheese; a bag of lentils between the jacket potatoes and the lentil soup. It helps keep the cost down.

If you don't like the look of any of these, I have plenty more veggie recipes that I use.

[OhWesternWind]

That's brilliant - thanks so much for taking the time and trouble to type all this in for me, much appreciated. Some really good ideas there that will get me out of my rut a bit.

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

Just done a Sainsbo's order for next week and am planning on:

Thai vege curry and rice
Risotto
Homemade cheese and leek quiche with new potatoes and salad
Veggie sausage casserole and hassleback potatoes
Pasta arabiatta
Lentil soup
Quorn roast and all the trimmings

That will also give me the wherewithal to make at least one other pan of soup, veggie chilli, a chickpea curry, macaroni cheese etc using frozen vege to go alongside, so will probably be enough (other than bread, fruit, cheese, milk) for at least ten days.

[taken4granted]

Blimey you lucky people - I have a 10yr old daughter who went veggie last yr - she will ONLY eat chilled cheese (def not melted) plain pasta/plain rice sweetcorn and peas and a plain tomatoe pizza base nothing else - for breakfast its cheerios or hn cornflakes maybe some wholemal toast - Its a bit hard to inject a bit of variety into that limited diet - yet a dietician thinks shes getting everything she needs!

[stressedHEmum]

Taken - my DS2 lived for a few years on frosted shreddy things with milk, scottish crumpets and peanut butter, sausage rolls and apple juice. He wouldn't eat anything else at all. I feel your pain. Even now, he won't really eat anything green unless it's incorporated into a dish (spinach in curry/peas in fried rice kind of thing) in fact, he won't eat separate veg at all, really. Or many kinds of potatoes or cheese (unless it's on pizza or similar) which is a bummer. I made roast veg with feta last night for dinner, he had a plate of wedges. And he definitely won't eat stir fry of any description .

I have given up worrying about it, tbh. He is 18, 6ft tall and is almost never ill, so he must be getting what he needs, somehow.

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

My eldest was veggie until starting school, then dabbled with meat for a couple of years and then veggie again from about 10. However, in most of that time she refused to eat cheese, eggs or anything resembling a casserole. It was a nightmare - she existed almost entirely on fruit, bread, potatoes, salad and chickpeas for several years. Don't worry - they do get over it - she is 16 now and has even been known to eat the odd cheese sarnie and her favourite meal is veggie sausage casserole!