Anyone want to help with a week away menu plan?

[LemonViolet]

We’re off to a little cottage in the countryside tomorrow for a week just the 2 of us (and our dogs), a proper fire and a hot tub, with plans to do nothing apart from walk dogs and generally faff around the cottage with our hobbies, reading, watching movies etc.

I want to plan our menu!

Normally we work stupid hours and rarely cook properly as I would prefer to. It’s a lot of delivery food, freezer food and ready made stuff. But I can cook. And having time to cook proper meals will be half of the holiday to be honest.

However now I really need to plan our big supermarket shop to take with us and I am so burned out mentally I can’t think properly to create a menu.

Does anyone fancy helping with ideas?

Guidelines: we don’t like chicken, we like to eat veggie/vegan meals about half of the time, otherwise favourite meats would be lamb, duck or venison, maybe one fish based meal, love potatoes in any form, maybe pasta once or twice, looking forward to some nice hearty winter veg, would like to get a few different cuisines in during the week. Might take a few kitchen bits from home to make sure we have things we want at the cottage (like griddle pan or casserole dish, baking dish etc). I quite like spicy foods, OH doesn’t really do spice, but will tolerate eg. mild Thai/Mexican stuff with extra chillies for me/extra sour cream for him.

Help please!! Should have booked a Gousto box or something.

You are not too late to order a Mindful Chef box op - in my area you could get a delivery for Tuesday?

We really like mindful chef - lots of lovely recipes

Rack of lamb, with potato dauphinoise, greens and a lovely port and redcurrant sauce
A veggie tagine with couscous
Beautiful very slowly cooked ragu with pasta
Fish tacos
A pile of roasted veggies on harissa spiked yoghurt with pomegranate seeds

My holiday week meal planning usually involves choosing a different cuisine for each evening eg Italian theme - pasta if some sort, garlic focaccia, salad with olives; a curry night with meat or veggie curry, samosas, bhajis, nan bread, mango chutney; a fish night- salmon with lime rice and salad; a burger night ( meat or veggie burger) with fries, salad, gherkins and onion rings; a pie night - meat or veggie pie with all the trimmings. We usually eat out on a couple of evenings.

• of some sort

Veggie bean chille, tacos, book a box delivery of it's not too late in your area.

Jacket potato
Sandwiches
Salad
Pizza
Burritos
Pie of some kind
Bangers and mash
Bubble and squeak
Stir fry
Wonton noodles
Tuna and potato salad
Chinese food

I think I’d do something like:

Sat - tofu Thai green curry with rice and spring rolls
Sun - lamb roast with roast potatoes, veg, etc
Mon - sea bass pan-fried with a Cajun seasoning, homemade wedges/chips and peas
Tues - spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread (or tomato and veggie sausage pasta if you want a veggie pasta dish)
Wed - bean burgers, salad and chips
Thurs - pesto jacket potatoes and salad (microwave the potatoes, scoop out the middle and mix with pesto, put back in the jackets, sprinkle with cheese and oven bake)
Fri - would treat myself to a pub meal or a takeaway so you’re not having to cook and clean up the day before you leave!

Most of that would do leftovers for lunches but I’d probably buy soups and stuff for lunches

How about this simple but delicious butternut squash curry from Anna Jones.
annajones.co.uk/recipe/roasted-coconut-lime-and-tamarind-curry

Fish pie
Lamb Tepsi kebab with spinach dip
Lasagne meat or veg
Prawn stir fry, or just veg with noodles
Quiche and salad, make your own
Jkt spuds with a variety of fillings
Cheese board, to nibble at all week
Mushroom stroganoff
Roast dinner, use leftover meat to make a stew

Ooh some lovely ideas Thankyou!!! Going to look at recipes and make a shopping list, or at least try to, brain is still very low functioning it seems, just completely exhausted. If I didn’t have this time off I think I’d have to get signed off sick with stress.

Definitely Iike the idea of

Butternut squash curry
Cajun sea bass (actually have some spice mixes I got as a birthday present)
Everything squishedpickle wrote
Lamb tepsi looks interesting - how do you eat it, sliced up? In a wrap?

As long as I take equipment and spices/more unusual store cupboard ingredients with me, I can get other fresh meat/veg there during the week I guess. Have decided to take the nutribullet as well for sauces/blitzing things as needed.

Why not also take a couple of decent knives? Makes such a difference to enjoying cooking I think.

I really like tartiflette at this time of year, and also things like homemade pizza including the dough etc (but I don't know if that would be too stressful in a new oven?

I also do a yummy butternut squash salad where the squash is roasted with cumin and optionally chilli flakes, then served with toasted pine nuts, shaved parmesan and prosciutto on a bed of rocket with really good balsamic vinegar on top. Then eat with really good crusty bread and butter/oil and vinegar as preferred. I sometimes make a focaccia to go with it.

We use Simply Cook and have never had a bad meal, each one feels like a treat but is quick to make. They are just the spice mixes so you need to buy the ingredients.
Tesco do them, although I assume not all stores.

Good call on the knives!