Meal planning ideas?...

[Pheebe]

Hopefully to complement some other great threads on keeping the weekly shopping budget down I'm in search of meal planning ideas.

I have a 'stock' of meals but they are sooo boring! Looking for inspiration...

Cottage pie
Spag bol
Lasagne
Mince and mash
Chops mash veg
Fish mash/chips veg
Roast chicken portions
Lentil and lamb stem
Baked potatoes with various fillings (tuna, beans, cheese etc)
Omelettes with various fillings

see...told you I was boring...help I also have a semi weaned 9 month old so need to smarten up!

[HeadFairy]

My list is something like this...

Stir fry (dead quick if you're in a hurry and you can buy those pre prepared bags of stirfry veg)

fish cakes

Homemade burgers (beef or chicken ones)

Pasta with homemade pesto sauce, green beans and baby new potatoes. Saw this on Delia and it's a traditional Italian recipe, it's brilliant, although I do make my own pesto, not out of a jar like she did!

Roast chicken - I don't usually do a whole one but get some thighs/legs and freeze them and get couple out in the morning, but there's only 2 of us, if I was feeding a family I'd do a whole chicken.

Sometimes I'll marinade the chicken pieces in barbeque sauce (5 tablespoons dry cider or wine, 5 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée, 1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger, 1 fat garlic clove, crushed, 1 tablespoon light soft brown sugar) during the day when I'm at work and do them with oven chips or potato salad if it's summery and warm.

Pork chops with cheese and mustard (mix together grated cheddar and wholegrain mustard, grill chops on one side, then turn and cover the uncooked side with cheese/mustard mix and pop back under the grill - mega yum!)

Risotto

Fish pie

I'm sure there's more, I'll add some more as I think of them.

One night a week we'll have something like a shop bought pizza so we can just chuck something in the oven and not worry about it.

[lucysmam]

stir fry's quick and tasty & you can put loads of veggies in it. i tried dhal last night for the 1st time and was pleasantly surprised.

I agree with head fairy, risotto's very yummy and fish pies as well but much better home made rather than shop bought ones.

bangers n mash
fried brekky as a treat
pasta salad
tuna n sweetcorn on jacket spuds is tasty too
curries
chilli con carne
pasta bake

someone gave me a recipe the other night for spaghetti carbonara that looks tasty n im going to try next week on oh's footy night as it sounded quick

[Overmydeadbody]

When I got into a rut with always cooking the same old things, I decided to try one new recipe a week, from MN recipes or other random google searches, and it has added lots of variety with things I wouldn't have thought to cook myself!

Try that.

How about pasta weith various sauces? Your list doesn't seem to include and pasta apart from spah bol and lasagne.

Curries and dahl with rice? Not much rice on your list either. You seem to be sticking with potatoes!

How about couscous? Moroccan tagines to have with couscous are very easy to make.

[cheekychopsmum]

I buy the 'Sainsbury's' magazine every month and it always has loads of recipes that inspire me. I look forward to it coming out so I can make something new and tasty.

[HeadFairy]

waitrose always have recipe cards in their stores, I'm sure others do too, you don't have to buy anything, just be cheeky and nab them! I've always meant to buy a big scrap book and whenever I see a recipe I like, esp if it's something I can whip up quickly then I was going to paste it in there. I never have though, so there's always tatty old bits of paper pasted to the fridge which I eventually get frustrated with and bin without cooking them, or I adapt the recipe and it's not quite the same.

[lucysmam]

i've got a little book full of stuff from on mn over just the past few weeks and am always trying something new out on my oh. worth reading threads along the same lines as yours to see what's been suggested on them.

sainsbury's do the recipe cards too. student recipe sites often have quick and tasty stuff on by the looks of them, have been searching today but can't remember the name of the one i found, think its studentrecipes.com

try delicious magazine's website, there's some nice looking stuff on there but haven't actually had a good look as yet

[NormaStanleyBelcher]

I have a 2 week meal planner if anyone wants it?

[NormaStanleyBelcher]

Sorry - meant 4 week - with a slimming world alternative I think

[lucysmam]

me please Norma, always worth a look at how someone else plans

my email is

sparklepop at myway dot com

thank-you xx

[NormaStanleyBelcher]

OK - sent

it was one that was sent to me - not my own iykwim

[Pheebe]

Thanks all

I started this thread then had to go back to work! Thanks for the ideas

Headfairy - I love risoto, no idea why I don't make it more often!

OMDB - what a good idea, 1 new recipie a week, will definitely try that, and yes we are potatoes heads here a bit

Norma - me too please email is pheebelou at aol dot com

thanks again

[NormaStanleyBelcher]

will send it when I get home tonight - only have it at home

[lucysmam]

thanks Norma, much appreciated, will have a look when my email will let me in, can't get into the site for some reason [grr]