Who wants to join my February challange - 28 nights, 28 meals, £28 ?

[stormforce10]

This is one for those food horders out there who like me have over stocked freezers and cupboards. The challange is to plan up 28 evening meals based on what's there and spend £28 or less on any extras you don't have in stock This is ONLY for evening meals so you can still spend on breakfast and lunch.

I will be posting my menu plan here later on.

Can't wait to see your mealplan OP, sounds admirable, don't think i could achieve it but maybe i will be inspired by your menu plan, well done!

May join in :D

Here goes. Not surprised there aren't a surge of volunteers Wish me luck.

I'm amazed how much stuff we have in stock. I'll mainly be spending my £28 on salad, veg and potatoes. I think a trip to the market is in order.

These meals are not in the order I'm planning to eat them by the way and I may change things round if I find something different in the depths of my freezer or cupboards. I've put the things I'll need to buy underneath. I'm expecting to get at least 4 meals off the chicken as its a big one but if I don't wil substitute something for one of the chicken meals

1. Pasta bolgonaise
2. roast chicken, roast potatos, leeks in white sauce, broccoli and green beans
3. Chicken curry, rice and naan bread
4. mini pizzas (weren't used at christmas party), potato wedges and beans
5. leek, bacon and blue cheese soup with garlic bread
6. smoked salmon, tomato and creme fraiche pasta
7. chicken and veg stir fry with noodles
8. baked potatos, tuna mayo and sweetcorn
9. roast lamb from freezer, boiled potatos, mixed veg and gravy

10. ham and cheese omlettes, salad and new potatos 11. chilli con carne, rice , salad 12. mini chicken satay sticks, cous cous and salad 12. fish fingers chips and beans 13. pasta with meatballs in tomato sauce 13. chicken and veg soup with bread and cheese 14. sausage and mash, cabbage 15. shepherds pie, broccoli and carrots 16. pasta in tomato sauce with chirizo, olives and sun dried tomato 17. chick pea curry and naan bread 18. macaroni cheese 19. butternut squash soup with bread and cheese 20. tuna hash 21. lamb burgers, rolls and salad 22. meatloaf beans and mashed potatos 23. fish pie 24. baked potatos, baked beans and cheese 25. mixed bean soup 26. chicken thighs, cous cous and salad 27.spanish omlette 28. cheese and onion pie, beans

Shopping list

cucumber x 2 (£1 in market)
tomatoes (£1 market)
lettuce (?70p market)
potatoes ( 10-12 large ones) - not sure budgeting £2 in market)
6 eggs (about 95p in aldi)
broccoli (£1 in market)
tin of kidney beans (about 20p in aldi)
burger rolls (£1.50ish)

£8.35ish so far though will put in real costs when I've spent it.

Remaining budget £19.65

hope no one minds me rambling on - no one has to read rhe demented ramblins of a 30 something on an economy drive

Just discovered Aldi have broccoli in their super 6 this week for just 39p so that will be in the basket when I do my shopping on Tuesday. Also fond a tin of kidney beans in the cupboard so no need to buy those after all. Have decided to add onions to shopping list (again in the aldi super six at 39p)

Am going to keep a spreadsheet of the shopping and cost.

Today is easy - we're having meal number 13 - meatballs, sauce and pasta and I will add the garlic bread we have lurking in the fridge as its on its use by date.

DP says I'm mad

Oh yes please I would love to do this. We are in ? though, I can try and keep it to 28? but will have to see. My freezer has more than it should and I still have some veg left over from the allotment crop last year that I need to get shot of.

My plan is:

Fri: Muscle & tomato stew
Sat: been invited out
Sun: Beef casserole
Mon: Either lentil curry or turkey chilli
Tue: Bangers & mash
Wed: Pasta & tomato sauce

Hmmm our other challenge was to eat 3 vegetarian meals a week, need to improve on that one.

Shopping list

carrots
potatoes

That is my plan so far I meant to say, am doing it weekly ish!

Oh I see you have done the 28 meals and just will pick random ones depending on what you fancy. This is a good idea I think I should do this on weekend.

Rambling on.

Welcome Bejeena, good luck. I think you should have more than 28 euros as a euro is worth less than £1 - about 87p I think.

Today we went out to lunch at friends and were fed huge amounts of stuff. Tonight I'm just going to make soup for anyone who wants it and freeze any left overs. So we're having meal 19 - butternut squash soup with bread and cheese if wanted.

Still have my £28 intact but it is only day 2

Tomorrow I'll cook the chicken

Off to pop the chicken in the oven and peel and parboil the potatos for roasting.

I have just noticed I actually have 29 meals in my list as I did number 13 twice

OK so I have been through the freezer and have a meal plan sorted I have 27 meals on mine, bearing in mind we are 2 days in and also next weekend think we are going to friends one evening. So I have some extras just in case.

Hubby and I have decided that we can do it on 50? for the whole month but this would be including our breakfast and lunches too. Also we have a fair amount of veg in our freezer as we have an allotment and couldn't eat all of last years harvest. It might be optimistic but we'll see, the point of this isn't so much the cost anyway. My aim is to be able to defrost my chest freezer before Easter so that we can start again with a fresh lot of meals and produce to freeze from allotment this year.

I have done an excel sheet and cross referenced it so we can filter into meals that are just already in freezer and only need to be defrosted/heated up, meals that hubby can cook (am 12 weeks pregnant so not always feeling 100%), meals we need extra shopping for and also meals that double up and we take leftovers for lunch (ie bolognaise, soup etc)

Am planning on making a lot of my bread in bread machine. I think at the moment only things I need to buy are

Fruit
Yogurt
Eggs
Cheese
Potatoes
Possibly some veg for roasts (our crops are only parsnip, squash and sprouts and allotment at the moment, need to see how long they last)
Flour

will post the meal plan later, when hubby is back from allotment and can convert it to text for me, am to lazy to do it myself and get frustrated!!

Today we are having casserole, will be putting that on in a bit and also making a marrow and potato soup for tomorrow so all we have to do is warm it up after work. Then I hope to go out for a run!

oh will also be putting a loaf on for sandwiches tomorrow for lunch.

What beats me isn't the main meals I can do evening meals and could definitely feed us for the month on what's in the cupboards, it's the packed lunches that scupper me.

Wow! I'm impressed stormforce, all your meals we would eat here, sounds delicious, i shall be watcing with interest

11Plustrauma I guess I am lucky there both hubby and I can take things to be warmed up in work so usually have leftovers and I freeze things in small containers for us to take. We are lucky we can do this, I guess if you have kids or can't warm up then it is a lot harder.

I forgot to post the meals last night and now excel sheet is at home will do it later.

I think tonight will be vegetable curry that just needs to be defrosted and warmed up, it's Monday and I feel lazy!

We had number 1 (roast chicken) yesterday. Today is number 17 chick pea curry

11plustrauma - do you have food flasks? Would your children eat things like bolonaise or chilli or soup from them (ie left overs)? Guessing from your name they or at least on of them is at the tail end of primary school so possible they wouldn't be too keen. Thankfully DD's school has quite reasonable school meals so she has those but some are not worth eating

Veg curry sounds good Bejeena. I've got various things frozentoo its nice sometmes just to defrost and heat

I actually have a fridge full of slightly bendy veg and a veg curry sounds like a great idea for tomorrow

That is how my veg curry started out about a month ago! I don't think I have ever planned to make a veg curry, is always one of those using stuff up things!

Foodflasks is a great idea - I don't have any and was looking at them the other day - do they stay warm enough?

I think the good quality flasks keep food warm for about 4-5 hours but not sure as have never used them. I have got my list together, seem to be 1 meal short not sure what I have done. There are some things double as we have enough for 2 meals.

1 Turkey Chilli
2 Lentil Daal
3 Gamon steaks, chips and peas
4 Bangers and mash
5 Bangers and mash
6 Anchovy pasta
7 Scampi & chips
8 Scampi & Chips
9 Vegetable curry
10 Beef, chickpea & butternut curry
11 Nigella meatballs
12 spaghetti bolognaise
13 roast lamb
14 lamb leftover rice dish
15 marrow potato & sage soup
16 pasta & arrabiata sauce
17 risotto
18 roast pork & trimmings
19 bubble & squeek
20 fish pie
21 shephards pie
22 kale & chroizo broth
23 spinach & sweet potato stew
24 lentil & beef madras
25 Veg soup followed by apple crumble
26 Pizza evening friends over (homemade pizzas)
27 Beef casserole

So tonight is number 9 veg curry. It was supposed to be 15 but I really don't think I can face making the soup on a Monday, so will have it tomorrow I think.

Drat apologies for awful formatting making it hard to read.

11Plustrauma Mon 04-Feb-13 14:54:06

Foodflasks is a great idea - I don't have any and was looking at them the other day - do they stay warm enough?

My DH has this one.

And it keeps his food hot from 8amish to at least 3pmish when he has eaten his lunch. But it is still boiling hot at 12/1 if he eats lunch at a normal time.

Just had yummy chickpea curry. The £28 is still intact. I don't know how long that will be the case

Chicken and veg soup tomorrow night. I think I'll bulk it out with dried pulses so it may be freezable for an extra meal as well

Bejeena your menu is lovely. You've reminded me we have a bag of risotto rice. I may substitute chicken stirfry with chicken and leek risotto. Choices choices :)

Ah I am sure to randomly switch things around too depending on what mood I am in! :-)

Chicken stripped. There was so much meat on it I've frozen it in 3 separate lots. It should do for the curry and stirfry already planned plus an extra meal another time. All the bones and scraps of meat that wouldn't come off easily are simmering away to make a broth which I'll add to soup broth mix, carrots, parsnips and onions to make a stew / soup type thing. Once I would have thrown the parsnips out as they were bendy and even a bit black and soggy in places but they were fine underneath. I'm aiming to make enough that I'll have left overs for lunch for a couple of days. So its meal 13 tonight - chicken and veg soup, bread and cheese if wanted :)

I was planning omlettes tomorrow night but dd begged for mashed potatos on Sunday instead of roast and we have some left so I'm going to try my hand at making tuna fishcakes with a big salad instead. Was going to be tuna hash but thought fish cakes might be more interesting (and might still turn into hash )

11plustrauma - tk maxx often have good quailty food flasks

Still not touched my £28 really hoping to keep it intact until I do a shop on Tuesday and then I plan to be very cautious mean