Do you do a weekly menu? Show me yours and I'll show you mine! I need new ideas.

[FloweryBoots]

Have started back at work this week after mat leave with DC1. In trying to be organised I thought doing a menu for the week would help - then I would not have to think about what to cook for tea each night, and would do appropriate shoping at the weekend. But I'm totaly stuck in rut with what we eat and could do with some new ideas. I am veggy and DH isn't so trying to find stuff that is easy to do meet and veggy versions and quick to cook as usually don't manage to cook until after DS is in bed, by which time I'm REALLY hungry! I give DS tea after collecting him from the childminder so he generally has what ever we had the night before

In the interests of sharing, my menu for this week is:

Mon: Cottage pie/veggie cottage pie (cooked on Sunday ready for re-heating)
Tue: Beansprout stir fry and noodles with chicken for DH, cashew nuts for me
Wed: Green veg rissoto with bacon for DH and aduki beans for me
Thur: Cous cous and roasted veg with beef strips for DH and homous for me (cooked on Wed ready for re-heating - I have Wed off work)
Fri: Salad, new potatos and Salmon/veg sausages

[Esian]

It's a good idea to decide a menu for the week. I hate rummaging around the fridge at tea-time trying to decide what to have. Some favourites in our house are:

Pasta/sauce, smoked mackerel fillets, corn on the cob
Mushroom curry with rice and naan bread
Cheesy mashed potato baked in the oven/jacket potato
New potatoes, omelette and peas

Will be watching for more ideas.

[thefoodschool]

i've been doing a 'storecupboard challenge' for the past 3 weeks and feeding my family of 4 nice easy meals for around £30 a week. do-able in 1 easy shop and i have recipes and the shopping lists. i can send you further details if you wish as its too much to put here

[lou33]

saturday was roast ham with savoy cabbage pan fried with lemon juice, balsamic vinegar and toasted sesame seeds, and mash

sunday was spiced lamb steaks with an apple mango and cucumber salad

monday we had chilli and rice

tues was moroccan meatball tagine with lemon and coriander couscous

today will be lemon and sweet chilli chicken with noodles

tomorrow will be a spaghetti carbonara

i have made desserts a couple of times too

I havent planned after that as i will be shopping again on fri

[lou33]

I meant to add that there are 5/6 of us (depending if my bf eats with us), i often have to shop on a restricted budget (once or twice i have had to do it on £40, but i usually spend around £75 which includes household stuff as well as food)

I find menu planning helps loads, and i try and make as much stuff as i can rather than buy it (like bread, cakes, cookies, mayonnaise etc). I also use a lot of the sainsbury basic range.

[timidviper]

I have a cookery book, bought from Amazon, called Saving Dinner which works by menu planning. It gives you a week of recipes and a shopping list for each week and is seperated into seasons. I find it really useful

[frazzled74]

sunday- roast chicken dinner
monday- chicken enchiladas (leftover chicken)
tues- fishfingers chips and salad/beans
wed- jacket pots beans, cheese, coleslaw
thur-roast beef and roasted veg
fri- beef pasta dish (with leftovers)
sat- salmon,noodles and babycorn/mangetout

we are meat eaters but have learned that more economical to buy 2 large joints of _meat and use leftovers.

[frans]

We're all veggie, and I try to cook for two days at a time - saves time and money. A typical week is:
Sunday - full roast dinner with Quorn southern chicken style burgers
Monday - roast again
Tuesday - macaroni cheese with salad and wedges
Wednesday - macaroni cheese with peas/ other frozen veg and garlic bread
Thursday - quorn, kidney bean and mixed veg chilli with rice and sour cream
Friday - chilli with mozzarella wedges
Saturday - spaghetti with tomato sauce, cooked spinach and cold ricotta

We spent about £80 per week for two adults, a toddler and a baby and eat about 50% organic by using a local veg box scheme and baking our own bread.

[lou33]

I have been spurred on by this thread to plan what i will be cooking for the following week, so here it is.

Friday - bacon pea and basil macaroni

Sat - lasagne

Sun - home made fish fingers with chips

Mon - nutty chicken curry

Tues - creamy sausage and rocket linguine

Weds - leek and gruyere quiche

Thurs - burritos

[LizinFrance]

Hi there,

Great thread - especially as me and DD1 are veggie, and the others arent. Love the idea of cooking for 2 nights. What other meals could you do that with?

1st meal spag bolognaise/quorn
2nd meal jacket pot with bolognaise

Any other ideas?
Thanks, Liz

[FairyArmadillo]

I was inspired to Menuplan by a couple of American friends who blog and do Menu Plan Mondays (a blog thing). This week (for me and a toddler)-

Monday- leftovers
Tuesday - macaroni cheese
Wednesday leftovers
Thursday- rancheros pie
Friday- pineapple pork
Saturday- pasta with chicken and tomato sauce
Sunday- sausages and chips (DS's favourite)

[Jcee]

I meal plan since going back to work after DD otherwise it all goes to pot and we end up eating takeaways or rubbish. When I make pasta, curries and chilli etc, I batch cook and freeze so the following week(s) I have a ready made meal to save cooking.

I have found it so much cheaper meal planning as I only buy what I need, but I do find it hard not to get stuck in a pasta/mince/chicken stir fry rut so will be looking for ideas...here's mine for the week:

Sat - roast chicken caesar salad with croquette potatoes
Sun - spicy pork and veg noodles
Mon - chicken curry (using roast leftovers)
Tues - jacket pots and veggie chilli (this weeks freezer meal)
Wed - ham & mushroom cheesy pasta
Thurs - pizza & salad
Fri - out for dinner with friends

[lilacclery]

Ooh thefoodschool I'd love that store cupboard challenge stuff if you still have it? I'm new here so don't know how to pm you.

Did a menu plan this week
Sweet and sour pork with ready to wok noodles/baby potatoes last night
Mexican chicken bake with home made wedges tonight
Stuffed roast chicken tomo and going to make stock in slow cooker for first time with it.
Singapore style noodles with prawns or Prawn & lemon risotto
Lasagne
Traditional Indian Curry
Chickpea Enchiladas

[EverybodysCryEyed]

Cottage pie
Beef, rice, broccoli and parsnips
Omelette, potato, tomatoes and peas
Pasta with tuna and sweetcorn
Beef strips stir fried with red pepper and thick noodles

[Kaloobear]

TheFoodSchool I would LOVE a PM if you don't mind? I'm shopping on a newly very reduced budget and am also not the world's best cook so am always on the look out for ideas!

[Yama]

We batch cook at the weekend. For two adults and two children.

A bag of red lentils will make lentil curry for 3 nights.
Half a bag of soya mince will make spag bol for 2 nights.
Two chicken legs or 6 thighs will go into a tomato and olive based dish for 2 nights.

Lots of veg - fresh or frozen will be chucked in. Tinned pulses/beans too - aduki/cannellini/black eyed etc.

Dc favourite is the lentil curry. I just use the Chicken Curry recipe in a healthy eating cookbook and adapt.

[KnockKnockPenny]

BBQ pork burgers (homemade) in seeded buns

Paste pesto trapanese with chicken & salad

sweet chilli bangers & BBQ beans (homemade)

Aroz con pollo (a chicken & rice dish)

I have a food blog, so like to try out 3 or 4 new dishes each week.

[KnockKnockPenny]

The cost of those meals above, for 2 adults 1 child, was about £20.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

When the dc were younger and I was working full time, I found it useful to cook two meals on a Sunday with one being for Monday. So I might do a veggie lasagne for Sunday lunch for example plus a pan of soup or veggie chilli for the Monday (easy to make a double batch of tomato based sauce and then turn one into soup or chilli).

Then on the Monday, I wouldn't need to cook so would do the prep for Tuesday, perhaps cutting up a load of vege to have roasted with veggie sausages on Tuesday, or whatever. It really helped my state of mind to come home from work knowing that part of the job was already done.

Now I tend to cook each night because the girls are teens and we eat later. This week =

• Monday: vege and pearl barley soup with bread and cheese and probably some baked apples or plums.
  
• Tuesday: baked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob and spiced bean pasties (will buy these or at least buy the pastry)
  
• Weds: eating out
  
• Thurs: vege paella including broad beans, asparagus and artichokes
  
• Fri: chickpea curry with rice, salads, homemade dips etc

[bumpers]

Lots of inspirational ideas here!

[Doraemon]

I do a plan Monday to Friday dictated partly by what's coming in the veg box and partly by looking at the school dinner menu, guessing what the kids will choose each day and trying to avoid them having a diet consisting entirely of pasta....
Ds1 is veggie so there's not a lot of meat involved.

Monday - Sausages (quorn for Mr Vegetarian), roast potatoes and parsnips, broccoli
Tues - cheesy leek pancakes
Wed - Tortilla
Thurs - Courgette pasta
Friday - tagine for me and DH (although we usually have take away or some sort of ready meal), kids always have the same on Friday, fish fingers for DS2, fried eggs for DS1, potato waffles, peas and sweetcorn. I love Fridays.....

Dh is cooking roast beef at the weekend

[PestoSandalissimos]

I'm keeping an eye on some of these ideas too,

thanks for sharing

[AlohaMama]

Getting lots of good ideas here!

I have 18 mo ds and work nearly full time, so on days I work at home I cook extra for leftovers and/or freezing, and days I work in the office we eat last weeks frozen leftovers. This week's a bit different as I'm trying to save what is in the freezer for when my hubby goes away on business next week...

M - chickpea & spinach curry, pilau rice (make enough for leftovers and freezing)
T - leftover curry w naan
W - anchovies in tomato sauce with spaghetti (Jamie's Italy)
T - tomato, bean and chorizo stew w polenta (freeze leftovers)
F - Grilled fish, with rice and green veg
Sat - camping! grilled fish burgers and salad
Sun - something special to celebrate our wedding anniversary, or eat out...

As much as possible I try to make things that DS can eat the next day for dinner as he often eats before us.

[lilacclery]

Well an update on our menu plan, had sweet & sour pork and Mexican chicken bake as planned then used a voucher for meal out on Sunday so Monday we had roast chicken dinner and tues made slow cooker bolognese yesterday had traditional Indian chicken curry, am out myself tonight so early dinner for me Singapore style noodles I think with prawns and for every one else going to make pasties with leftover chicken curry in some and bolognese mixture mixed with kidney beans in fridge also leftover from chicken bake served with mash and veg.

Looking for suggestions for leftover basmati rice, cooked way too much last night thinking special fried rice?
Also I'm away Sat & Sun and dh just does easy dinners so prawn & lemo risotto shoved back to next weeks menu plan.

[AlohaMama]

I've seen recipes for rice omelettes before, but never actually tried. Like this

[lilacclery]

Sounds nice, might try that out we've an abundance of eggs too as have eight hens!