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Help me find some inspiration meal planning!

5 replies

lizzywig · 27/02/2013 19:56

Yes another meal planning thread! I love cooking but it's starting to feel like an effort and very samey, we both work FT and have a toddler but we do cook from scratch. Budget is roughly £200 month and this consists of breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, toiletries, nappies, cleaning products etc. We try to have fish once (sometimes twice) a week, 5 meat meals and 1 veggie. At least 2 meals a week have to be pre batch frozen as DH also works 2 nights a week and only has 1hr at home between jobs for dinner.

I meal plan a month at a time and have a week 1 and 2 and then repeat, this means I can keep it slightly varied but also be wallet friendly, we feel like we eat well but are getting bored, so please inspire me. We're also doing slimming world at the moment but I can factor that in quite easily as it's such a flexible diet.

Recently I have been making lots of chilli, curried mince, chicken casserole, chicken soup, jacket, beans and cheese, fish fingers (help me think of a decent fish dish!), chicken thighs roasted with lemon and chilli, roast on a Sunday, spag bol.....it's just all so samey! DH is a chef but by the time he gets home he's fed up of cooking and I love it so he does other things while I cook. He is full of ideas but his 'chefy' ideas aren't so budget friendly!

OP posts:
shoppingbagsundereyes · 27/02/2013 20:01

You need to eat veggie more often. We only eat meat twice a week, fish twice and veggie three times. You'll save a fortune and make your menus more interesting.
Good batch meals - curries, anything with chickpeas ( Moroccan or curried), mushroom ragu.
I also love peppers stuffed with cherry tomatoes, feta and basil ( I have them just with salad, add a baked potato for dh). Roasted veg tossed through pasta is yummy.
We also regularly have 'big' soup with bread for dinner. Homemade minestrone or scotch broth type soups are cheap, filling and freeze well.

shoppingbagsundereyes · 27/02/2013 20:04

My favourite fish dish is cod or similar with Savoy cabbage and butter beans. Sweat an onion and some celery. Fry some chopped bacon. Throw in a glass of white wine and add the can of beans and chopped cabbage. Sit the fish on top and put the lid on. Turn the heat down fairly low so the fish steams in the winey juices. It's cooked in about ten mins unless your fish is really chunky.

lizzywig · 27/02/2013 20:13

Shoppingbag cod and butter beans with savoy sounds delish, that's going on my list!! I have a spreadsheet... Blush

Obviously it's always good to save money but I think £200 a month is reasonable, I'm not so much looking to save money as find inspiration. I also don't tend to enjoy meat free meals that much, don't get me wrong, I love them, but I find myself looking for the meat! Although maybe I should cook less of it and then buy some better cuts rather than just chicken, pork and beef all the time!

OP posts:
AlohaMama · 27/02/2013 21:39

watching with interest as I'm meal planning at work right now

recent favourites for us

  • any fish fried, with lemon/caper/butter sauce, green veg and rice
  • spaghetti with anchovies, raisins, pinenuts (in Jamie's Italy) - really quick, especially if you keep breadcrumbs in the freezer, our toddler loves it
  • Moroccan chicken with chickpeas and lemon (Delia) - we freeze this but rice comes out a bit mushy
  • moussaka (freezes well)
  • Moroccan kefta tagine (meatballs in tomatoey sauce with eggs baked on top) freezes really well and is delish here
  • any maddhur jaffrey curry, they're all great
  • roasted veg with feta or halloumi, served with couscous (just throw whatever you have in oven, throw in herbs, garlic etc, and leftovers can be used to make pasta bake)
pregnantpause · 28/02/2013 08:33

I use resourceful cook.Co.uk.they have good meal plans and ideas quite cheap.
I also have economy gastronomy, a cookbook essentially about meal planning, which I found really useful for ideas and better ways to meal plan (although the mince suggestion are uninspired)

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