Please give me your meal plans

[newrecruit]

We have a new term resolution to eat together as a family. Partly to cut down on work (cooking twice) and to broaden kids' range.

Currently it seems a never ending cycle of spag Bol, chicken fajitas, pasta with pesto and Chilli.

Give me some suggestions.

Is it worth getting a slow cooker?

Not a very exciting week but:

Mon: Pork chops, mash potatoes & veg
Tues: Burgers, chips & baked beans
Wed: Spag Bol (just batch cooked 6 portions of sauce yesterday!)
Thurs:Veg stir fry with noodles
Fri: Freezer meal (where I delve into the freezer & find something I batch cooked a while ago)

Picked up the Waitrose Food magazine and saw a couple of recipes to try Sausage, Apple, leek pie (will change pastry to cheesy mash)
Baked spaghetti pie with chorizo & tomato
Korean style pork

Currently reading delicious magazine for some new recipes to try. I love autumn/winter food.

This week we're having.
Toad in hole.
Cottage pie with veg.
homemade wedges beans and sausages.
jacket potatoes with cheese and bacon X2
hot pot.
pizza with salad.

Chicken in a slow cooker with best gravy ever:

Roughly chop a big onion and fry to soften with 6 cloves of garlic. Add a tablespoon of tomato puree. Deglaze the pan with a small glass of white wine if you have some, or stock if you don't. Add enough stock to make around a measuring cup full in total. Pour into the slow cooker. Put the chicken on top. Season the chicken. Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook for around 6 hours.

The chicken will be tender and falling off the bone, so be careful taking it out.

Stick a blender into the cooker and puree the stock/onion/garlic/puree/chicken juice at the bottom. It is the best gravy in the world.

Oooh Molly that sounds delicious. Sundays dinner planned

It doesn't look great, as the chicken stays pale and soft. But it tastes wonderful.

I never got along with my slow cooker. I plan on three big cooks a week, usually friday, Saturday and Sunday. Then we eat the leftovers Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is slack night. If we go to the ILs on a Saturday, I still do the big cook before I go, then put half in the freezer.

I alternate red meat (beef, lamb or kangaroo), white meat (chicken or fish) and vegie. The vegie one is good in winter - lots of soups - but frustrating in summer as the dc's will only eat baked beans or bean fajitas. Or pizza. But that doesn't do two nights in our house. Neither do most of the fishy things I cook, come to think of it.

So this week, we've had beef with mushrooms and coconut milk on rice, followed by lentil soup, followed by chicken fajitas. I froze rice from Sunday night so Thursday we'll have fried rice w just a bit of bacon and egg for the protein.

I do a fortnightly meal plan and theoretically shop twice in the fortnight, though my dc's are raving fruit-and-vegie monsters and I almost always have to go back for more. (Go on, ask me about the time I left a head of broccoli on the counter while I was prepping the rice and dd took and ate the whole bloody thing before I noticed! I know, I know, it's a great problem to have but at the time I was not amused...)

hth.

Not done my meal plan yet so am lurking for ideas. So far we've had spanish omelette and salad tonight and will probably do a roast chicken dinner tomorrow followed by leftover chicken pie and veg on Wednesday. DH has requested jambalaya one night and we are probably going camping at the weekend.i

Molly

Just wondering why you don't peel the garlic?

Thanks

Monday - szechuan veggies (courgettes, aubergine, mushrooms) and chickpeas.
Tuesday - Brown rice/ chickpea paella with chicken skewers
Wednesday - Salad night - leftover chickpeas with feta and spinach plus the usual salady things
Thursday - Fish pie
Friday - we have an evening wedding do to attend, so maybe a ham and cheese toastie beforehand
Saturday - Chinese
Sunday - DH's birthday, so cake and champagne!

Vintage jazz if you're crushing garlic you can stick the clove in the crusher with the skin on and it'll crush just the same. Requires a bit more pressure than without skin, but saves you a few seconds.