Meal planners...inspire me, please!

[lucysmam]

It's that time of week again where I'm randomly clicking through favourites online shopping & very conscious that the total is going up, up, up!

What's on your list this week? I need evening meals for three (one fussy) and pack-ups for two & am feeling uninspired, as always

Just had honey and mustard pasta salad with chicken. Yum.
Having Mince and Tatties, Chickpea Curry and Slimming World Carbonara this week.
This would totally out me if DH read this.

How about perusing some food blogs for yumspiration?

That could be a good idea, any suggestions where to start?

Your pasta sounds lovely, doubt any of my lot would eat it but sounds good!

Dcs had leftovers on Monday otherwise we always make one dish for family potato gnocchi with tom sauce
Dh and I had rump steak with stuffed mushrooms

Red snapper with potato & chorizo with a red onion and caper dressing
Chicken korma
Frittata with leek and smoked ham served with roast butternut squash, Savoy cabbage and oven chips
Friday - eating out
Saturday Spag Bol
Sunday lamb shawarma or lamb rogan josh.

Lunches
Pesto pasta
Chickpea bacon and tomato stew
Puy lentil tomato stew
Chicken korma
Puy lentil stew again or maybe a ham sandwich if I can be arsed making bread.

Mm slack, that frittata sounds good.
Food blogs - I like Smitten Kitchen, The Kitchn, The Curvy Carrot...
I know they are American (I must get into some UK food blogs) but I love browsing them for ideas and might tweak things a bit to fit what I can get here.

Our week starts on a Sunday, sometimes I don't bother planning for Friday and Saturday as we might go for take away depending on what the week has been like. So far the week looks like this:
Sunday- roast chicken, sweet potato mash and cauliflower cheese
Monday - spaghetti bolognese (meat sauce from the freezer) and green salad
Tuesday - chicken pot pie made with carrots, peas and mushrooms. Left over cauliflower cheese and mashed potato.
Wednesday - baked sweet potato topped with veggie bean chilli (freezer) sour cream and grated cheddar. Large green salad.
Thursday - pork chops, braised red cabbage (from the freezer) and steamed broccoli.
Friday - undecided - maybe take away
Saturday - again undecided!

Thanks MoreSky I'll get the girls sorted and have a look at those & do some googling for some uk ones too.

Thank-you for sharing, I think I'm going to get the girls to each pick a meal as well, bound to be something fairly quick and easy

So far we've had turkey tacos, spag bog, lamb koftas and tonight it's Moroccan lamb + beef from the freezer. Sausage casserole (slow cooker) tomorrow.

On ours is
Italian sausage, courgette and pasta bake
Pork, apple and mustard burgers with salad
Sausages and roasted tomatoes with rice
Roasted veg and goats cheese pasta
Creamy prawn and spinach curry with rice or maybe naan
Mexican lasagna made with leftover chilli from freezer
One meal out during week

Oh and tonight was sticky salmon with noodles

We're a family of three and DS is only 3 so doesn't eat adult sized portions. I always tend to cook for four and that way DH takes left overs to work for lunch the next day.

So far this week:

Tomato, spinach and chorizo risotto,
Spaghetti bolognese
Baked potatoes (topped with left over bolognese)
Omelettes (with left over spinach, chorizo and mushrooms from earlier in the week) and corn on the cob

always try and buy ingredients that can be used in two meals or make extra portions that can be used in another meal like bolognese or chilli that can be used on a baked pot or make extra fajita filling to have on a salad the next day.

I'll also make a vat of soup on a Sunday which we'll have a bowl of for lunch or dinner and then I'll freeze it into batches and have it for lunch through the week.

Before I learnt how to meal plan I was easily spending £70 a week on food and most annoyingly throwing food away at the end of the week. Now I rarely go over £40 a week. I just read Jack Monroe's cook book and there are some great recipes in there going to do her turkey meatballs tomorrow.

I work 3 days so I try and batch cook a bolognese / chicken casserole or soup on one of the weekend days, then store in freezer in portion sizes for the week. Ours is typically:
Sunday - roast chicken
Monday - pasta pesto with fresh cherry tomatoes and leftover chicken breast
Tues - steamed salmon steaks with corn on the cob
Weds - Spag Bol
Thurs - my ALL TIME FAVE recipe which is so easy, Nigel Slater's Chicken with Spices and Cream which the kids love
Fri - maybe pizza from supermarket as I'm knackered and can't be bothered. Might add a few carrot and pepper sticks for them to dip in hummous to appease my guilt...

Today- roast leg of lamb with cannelini bean mash and green beans

Tomorrow- lamb and chickpea soup

Monday- jacket potatoes with egg mayo

Tuesday- peanutty noodles with veg.

Wednesday- meat ragu with pasta

Thursday- lentil soup with soda bread.

Friday-roast duck with nutty ginger rice stuffing.

I do the shopping on a Wed so only a few days left of my "week"

Tonight we're having chicken with roasted vegetables.
Tomorrow we're eating out.
Monday it's yakitori chicken skewers and egg fried rice using the yakitori sauce recipe from this page.
And Tuesday night it's saucy sausage pasta which is a favourite in our house.

This week will be...
Tarragon chicken with mashed potatoes
Pork escalopes with new potatoes and cabbage
Chicken & chorizo paella
Home made ham burgers
Tuna nicoise