fortnightly menus - any veggie suggestions please

[mimsum]

Now ds1 is at secondary school and comes home later, evenings seem to be much more of a rush. I have resolved to combat this with being more organised and cook and shop from a fortnightly menu. Does anyone do this and if so, do you have any suggestions to make it work without everyone getting fed up of the same thing each Monday>

thanks

Shall be watching this thread with interest. My best suggestion for an easy life is to make some kind of soup or casserole on a Sunday (whilst you are cooking anyway) which can be warmed up for dinner on Monday. It means that you start the week feeling healthy and virtuous even if you are knackered after work (as I always am on a Monday). And if you vary the flavours enough, you don't feel like you're always eating the same thing every Monday.

Another tip, if you don't have one already, is to buy a microwave rice cooker. It makes it really easy to get dineer ready quickly - bung the rice and boiling water in and it's cooked to perfection around 12 minutes later. You can bung all sorts of flavourings in too. That and a tofu and veggie stir fry make another, almost effortless, quick meal.

Do you want my bulk cooking suggestions? You sound prime for the converting, to me

Make up a load of cheese sauce in advance and freeze in pint lots.

On Monday morning, take one out of the freezer, and then in the evening you can just throw in some pasta, cauliflower, broccoli - or any other vegetable you like!

Bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes with some breadcrumbs/grated cheese on top to finish if you have time.

I don't do this, but veggie ideas that also keep/freeze well:

veggie lasagne - you can vary by sometimes doing spinach and ricotta, sometimes a tomatoey sauce

big pot of vegetable and bean stew (can be more 'red/yellow' with red peppers, pumpkin and tomatoes, or more 'green' with green lentils, broccoli and courgette)

potato gratin (layers of potato with well-browned shallots and cheddar sprinkled between)

vegetable crumble (veg/bean stew as above, baked with crumble topping, made as usual but without the sugar)

Simple non-freeze meals:

Potatoes (boiled or jacket), salad and creme fraiche

Tomato and mushroom omelettes

Homemade pizza - make the dough beforehand, children can join in chopping/grating cheese and veg for the topping, shove in oven for 20 mins

Can I have the bulk cooking suggestions too? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease.... am hopelessly disorganised!

It is quite long but I think I will just post it on its own thread, as I am bored of emailing it

I don't know whether it is useful to anyone other than me, but I think it should be, because it works very well when I am being organised

email it to me, franny... please.
and this is my veggie moussaka recipe and quite delicious if i say so myself.

Roast veggies, aubergine, courgettes, mushooms, onion, peppers, garlic (supermarkets do great frozen packets of peppers these days), blitz them, add some tomato pasta sauce, blitz again till no bits and then freeze in single size portions. Use for pizza topping (with invisible 5 a day in) or plain pasta sauce.

Will you link to the thread here when you do? I'll be eternally grateful!

it's here

comments welcome - I am never sure why more people don't cook this way, so I wonder if I am missing something

I have an "inspiration" list from which I do my menu-planning. ("Inspiration" is a bit of a misnomer because the ideas are not very. Anyway) Veggie things on it:

• corn-on-the-cob (dd & ds scoffing this as I write, with butter & a big soft roll to use up the spare butter)
• pasta w/ olive sauce or pesto (or, new discovery, Vonsudenfed's chili-roast-fennel topping, which is perhaps too spicy for children but divine)
• pizza
• macaroni cheese
• risotto, fried rice
• omelettes, scrambled/fried/poached eggs
• quiche
• baked potatoes
• cauliflower cheese
• devilled eggs/salad
• couscous
• humous w/ crudites
• soup
• toasted cheese, quesadillas
• falafel & pitta bread
• nacho spread

None of it anything you wouldn't otherwise have thought of, but useful all to have in one place.

Bink - what is nacho spread please? Sounds interesting!

the "spread" bit just means the presentation - as in big generous display - of nacho chips baked with refried beans & salsa & grated cheese, with sour cream & guacamole on side

Aha - feel very silly now! I love nachos and thought I was missing out on something I'd never had before! Thanks!

brocolli and red pepper curry
ratatouie
lentil and nut loaf
tomato and green bean risotto
roast pepper and spinach crumble
oven roast veg (freeze in batches and serve with pasta)

these are regulars here and all freeze reasonably well...some slightly soggier than when freshly made but OK

ooh fab, thanks everyone - I do/have done most of these things before but my mind went completely blank when I sat down and tried to think of a whole fortnight's food ...

does anyone else get really, fundamentally fed up with thinking about what everyone's going to eat, shopping for it, cooking the bl**dy stuff then clearing up after it? I never realised having three children would involve quite so much domestic drudgery

The thinking up the menu is the worst bit for me - I hate the mind going blank experience.

Once that's done = I know where I mean to end up, I do honestly enjoy the provisioning & the cooking, & don't even hugely mind the clearing up (so long as it is not all left for me to do alone!).

But then I only have two children, & they're quite big (8 and nearly 7) & old enough to take turns to be my sous-chef, which I love and they seem to like too.