September meal planning thread. For those either wanting to budget or just in need of inspiration

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Inspired by another thread, there are a lot of people on here who struggle either to bring down their food costs or who just don’t have the inspiration as to what to cook, so I thought we could have a meal-planning thread where people could perhaps set out their meal plans for the week/month.

If we start with a September thread, if it fills up quickly then we could do them weekly instead.

So, there are no limitations here. For people who want to budget or who already are, come and share what meals you’re making this week to fit into your food budgets.

For those who just like to cook and who have no issue with the amount they spend, come and share your meal plans for the week even if they’re based on expensive ingredients....

My meals depend on how busy work is. Some weeks we are full on, 7 days (self employed) and others, we can have afternoons off. This has been a full on week so

Simple pasta- while pasta is cooking, dice some ham, just before pasta finishes, add frozen broccoli to the pan. Drain, add ham, some grated cheese and some garlic butter.

Corned beef hash - diced onion and white cabbage, soften in pan. Mix with a tin of corned beef. Place mixture down the middle of a lasagne pan. Put mash potato down each side and bake in oven.

Previously frozen chilli with jacket potatoes

Spanish rice - slightly browned rice and onions, then add tinned tomatoes, water, chicken stock cube, garlic salt and a tiny bit of paprika. Cook for 10 minutes or until water absorbed and serve with fish or cooked chicken.

Large gammon joint as roast dinner

Leftover gammon with jacket potato and salad.

Thu: Chicken Tikka Masala, Basmatti rice and salad

Fri: King prawns, veg, egg noodles stirfry, Tempura prawns side. Might keep it plainish syirfry or a satay with peanut butter.

Sat: chicken shawarma, hummus with toasted pinenuts, potato chips, fattoush salad and pitta or wraps

Sun: teriyaki chicken skewers sticky rice and veg (broccoli, sweetcorn, carrots)

Mon: Fish finger tacos, guacamole, tortilla chips, salad and corn on the cob

Tue: chicken souvlaki skewers, potato chips, greek salad, tzatziki

Wed: Spaghetti with quorn meatballs, garlic bread, green salad

Thanks for the thread OP, lots of new ideas here and it'll keep me accountable!

Thurs: we had chorizo pasta

Tonight: brinner as we have fry up stuff to use up - probably fried eggs, sausages, bacon, black pudding, beans and potato waffles

Sat: steak with salad and baked potato

Sun: roast chicken dinner

Mon: risotto made with leftover chicken and peas (adapted from bacon and pea risotto recipe on BBC Good Food)

Tues: vegetarian shepherds pie (BBC Good Food recipe)

Weds: curry made with red lentils and leftover root veg from the roast, served with rice and naans (adapted from the lentil and sweet potato curry recipe on BBC Good Food- highly recommend, cheap as chips)

Place marking and giving my week's menus. We are all meat eaters:
Monday Roast beef and all trimmings
Tuesday Beef pie with stilton www.bbcgoodfood.com/user/731259/recipe/beef-guinness-and-stilton-pie
Wednesday Salmon with sag aloo www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/spiced-salmon-traybaked-sag-aloo New recipe to me and highly recommend.
Thursday Toad in the hole with mash, peas and onion gravy
Friday Chorizo hash www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/spanish/chorizo-hash-with-peppers-and-paprika
Saturday will probably be home made pizzas and roast again on Sunday.

Ooh Ladyflip that chorizo hash is going on my list of recipes to try!

Next week

Lamb roast dinner
Gnocchi with spinach, peas and pesto
Chicken and apricot tagine
Steak fajitas
Prawn laksa

Tomorrow: saag aloo with all the trimmings

^^.. Sorry, what kind of trimmings? Like you serve with a roast?

So food shop done today and from that decided On following meals next week or so
Chicken Fajita and Nacho
Roast chicken dinner
Salmon kebabs, rice and veg
Lamb kebab wraps, salad and chips
Sausage and mash / toad in the hole
Chilli and rice
Homemade burgers
Big breakfast, egg, bacon, plum tomatoes.
Jacket potato’s, cottage cheese, cheese and beans or tuna mayo.
Pizza, garlic bread and chicken Goujons one child won’t eat lamb and other salmon
Chicken curry.
Tomato and mozzarella quisadella.
Teriyaki chicken skewers and noodles.

Just made me realise actually got a lot more than I thought in this weeks food shop. Family of 5. I should write down meals more often.

Marking my place, good idea for a thread OP thank you.

I find that I tend to cook pretty much the same meals between October and end of March, with much more variety in the spring and summer, so definitely looking for inspiration. Some great suggestions here already.

Agree, the chorizo hash sounds amazing! I think I have a piece of chorizo languishing in the back of the freezer.

Well, thanks to online delivery not having everything I wanted my meal plan is going to have to adapt. So:

Today chicken schnitzel with dauphinois.

Tomorrow fish of some description

Tuesday chicken pie
Wednesday sausage and mash
Thursday fish

Friday pork loin steaks
Saturday stir-fry
Sunday cottage pie.

I have meal plan withdrawal 😂

I've done the plan for the carnivores but I ordered a surprise fruit and veg box for me and little veggie so I can't really plan until it arrives tomorrow!! I'm feeling a soups and stews week coming up. It's freezing here!!

Can I join! I meal plan every week, but I usually try 3 or 4 new recipes a week, so I'm always in search of new ideas! I'm currently obsessed with the Roasting Tin books, and have just got the Ottolenghi Simple book, so you'll probably see a lot of recipes from those on my lists .

This week, we're having:

Today Chinese five spice pork belly with sweet potatoes, pak choi, ginger and garlic (adapted from a recipe in The Roasting Tin because DD finds pork chops too dry - she LOVED the pork belly, so that's definitely one to keep on the list!)

Monday pasta with leeks, mushrooms, pancetta and crème fraiche (quick and easy meal as it's the DCs' first day back at school)

Tuesday Roasted carrot, halloumi, cannellini bean and walnut salad (from the Roasting Tin Around the World - it's so simple and delicious, we've made it about 5 times this summer)

Wednesday toad in the hole, steamed broccoli (and onion gravy)

Thursday butternut squash and sage ravioli (posh shop-bought pasta) with butter and green vegetables

Friday duck breasts with blackberry sauce, buttered new potatoes and Savoy cabbage

I definitely seem to have embraced autumnal cooking again - a couple of weeks ago it was all cold salads!

Am trying to cut down on meat and up our vegetable intake. Also cutting down on pasta and rice.

Yesterday: salmon chilli skewers, jacket potato, spinach and mushrooms
Today: Vegetarian shepherds pie
Tuesday: Sea bass, mash and veg
Wednesday: Prawn and veg stir fry
Thursday: chicken thighs (looking to try a new recipe)
Friday: Salmon, parsnip mash and veg

Love this thread
Tonight Quorn mince and veg chilli with taco shells
Weds (shopping day) Chicken and chorizo bake and veg
Thurs Toad in the hole with veg
Fri Homemade burgers,fries and salad
Sat Chicken pasta bake and garlic bread
Sun Roast dinner
Mon Curry,rice and naan
Tues Jacket potatoes, cold meats and salad
Will be following this thread for new ideas

Fish and chips
Turkey meatballs in tomato sauce served with spaghetti
Fishcakes
Pasta with chicken, leek & mushroom in creamy sauce
Chinese stir fry sweet&sour chicken
Roast beef with all bits
Veg traybake ( chopped pepper, new potatoes,courgette, red onion,mushrooms drizzled with oil,seasoned and baked)
Lasagne
Roast chicken
Scampi&chips
Pizza
Roasted butternut squash with spinach, cream and curry
Breaded Chicken goujons Served with rice
Pizza
Lots of different soups

This is an example of different foods we eat,still feeling stuck in the rut

Some of these things are eaten by different family members(DS2 has autism and hates roasts)
DH and DS1 are fussy buggers

I’m a weirdo from Eastern Europe taking pleasure in eating butter fried potatoes with lots of dill and kefir.

@mackerella (love the name) your food taste is very similar to mine, posted my list and then looked at yours 🙂

There’s an ongoing meal planning thread with of us old timers if anyone needs inspiration:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/food_and_recipes/3872694-Is-anyone-back-meal-planning

Some great ideas to add to my meal planning, thanks all

I'm not from Eastern Europe, FrenchBoule (although I have family who are) but I love the sound of butter fried potatoes with dill! (Funnily enough, my DF is from a completely different part of the world, but one that also uses a lot of dill, so I use it a lot in my cooking. It's funny how little it's used in the UK, apart from with salmon.)

@mackerella nearest Asda sells massive bunches of dill for £1. I have frozen lotsof it but keep using it.
Very underrated herb. Absolutely fab in soups and even baked cheese bread (sourdough) with tomato. Makes nice sauce with creme fraiche to accompany poultry meatballs.

Love this thread thank you, just what I needed to help inspire me! I meal planned last year which worked well as I was on mat leave and had more time. Since lockdown and then returning to work, I ditched the meal plan. But I need to get back on it now since the kids are back in school. This week I have done a food shop 3 times which is ridiculous! If anyone has any tips on where to start/how to plan/whether to use an app or good old fashioned pen and paper..

This week's dinners:
Pizza and salad (cheap small pizzas with veg on top)
Carrot and coriander soup and baguette
Roast - chicken legs, yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, cauliflower and broccolli cheese, carrots, gravy
Stir fry- stir fry pack, tofu, noodles, soy sauce
Veggie spagetti bolognese with cheese and garlic bread
Chicken salad (leftovers from roast chicken) with new potatoes
Egg and chips

We are me, DH and almost one year old DD eating together so our meals have to be low salt etc. This week we’ve had:

Bolognese (from scratch)
Chicken stew from scratch which contained veg and potatoes served with steamed cauliflower.
Sausages with root veg mash (bought) with broccoli and cauliflower and onion gravy (no gravy for baby and she had a few green beans as won’t eat broccoli).
Fish and chips from chippy (DD had a fishcake with tomato and cucumber)
Sausage pasta (tomato based sauce from scratch)
Quiche (bought), new potatoes, salad (DD had omelette)
Lasagna, garlic bread and salad

Next week the plan is (not in order):

Party food for DDs tea party (just a few family within Covid rules)
Posh Burgers, oven chips and DD will have something from freezer that’s more suitable
Creamy chicken penne with peas
Sausage pasta (DDs fav so we have it weekly and it’s so quick/cheap)
Lamb steak traybake (Hairy Bikers recipe) using lamb in freezer. It needs broad beans but will sub them.
Freezer fish and some sort of potato and veg. There’s some frozen homemade fishfingers for DD
Steak, onion rings and salad

Meant to add to previous post, looking forward to revisiting some recipes that contain honey as soon as DD past 1 next week!

We switched from Waitrose’s to Sainsbury’s and keep switching down on brands.

Sunday - roast chicken (roast lamb =>Moussaka bulked up with lentils)
Monday - left over chicken and tarragon pie (sometimes I make the same sauce serve with pasta)
Tuesday - “Freezer” paella with chicken stock, I’d like to try pasta paella
Wednesday - pork belly slices with fennel seeds, rice and greens.
Thursday - home-made gnocchi (I’ve not won my family over on this one yet, not giving up on this though)

I’m not working and have that time with my daughter after school. It’s so nice, and making the most of this time.

I’m going to try bean burgers and Swedish meat balls. And gnocchis (spinach and ricotta or potato) again.

Thank god for fish fingers and bake beans. Defo going to try taco fish fingers!