2023 meal planning thread

[Lastqueenofscotland2]

Very much looking forward to getting back on the bandwagon and not eating another Pringle for 11 months.

Tomorrow: Tuscan gnocchi
Saturday: pizza take out
Sunday: enchilada bake
Monday: Jambalaya
Tuesday: Thai peanut noodles
Wednesday: friend is cooking
Thursday: mushroom stroganoff

Pork in mustard sauce. green beans, roast new potatoes
Feta, leek, spring onion pie
Sweet potato & black bean enchiladas
Squash & cavolo nero pasta
Cardamom chicken & rice
Ginger & soy salmon, stir fried veg
Aloo gobi, dhal
Beef stew & parsnip dumplings
Jacket potatoes, cheese, coleslaw

Soup for weekday lunches (carrot & coriander & going to try the moroccan detox soup that's been posted on here)

I am out of ideas and interest in preparing meals. We had baked chicken yesterday. Tacos tonight. But little inspiration.

In effort to use what's in fridge/freezer, I guess:

Pork (mini roast or tenderloin) with veg (or maybe I'll do the tenderloin as a stir fry).

Some kind of mince dish - spaghetti bolognaise most likely.

Tomato and aubergine pasta sauce.

I'll have to figure it out later for the rest.

@MamaNewtNewt The Quorn parcels sound really nice. Do you have a recipe, please?

We've eaten well this week - lots of fresh vege; lots of hummus and vege sticks for lunch etc.

Today I'm doing a roast dinner with a nut roast from Waitrose (I think the brand might be called Clives; not had it before), roast potatoes, yorkies, carrots, sprouts

Tomorrow might be a veggie chilli

Another day will involve eggs, and then we will need to at least buy some fresh vege. I've got plenty of pasta, tinned lentils etc.

Hi Remus, the recipe is from the Batch Lady cookbook (this recipe was inc in a magazine here) I've not actually made them yet, but the book recipe says you can use mushroom soup if you are a vegetarian and I thought they sounded a bit 'saucy' so I'm planning on adding quorn pieces or mushrooms to the filling. If you make them first let me know how they turn out!

They sound really nice, but I can't see any quantities on the link, or any instructions on if the asparagus is cooked or raw. Using Quorn pieces is a good idea. I think they'd be better fried a bit first.

Thank you btw! I'd definitely like to try them.

Sorry I totally missed that the ingredients were missing! Here's the recipe copied from the book, I think the asparagus is uncooked:

2 sheets ready-rolled puff pastry
1 × 295g can condensed cream of chicken soup
½ cup (50g) grated Emmental cheese
8 asparagus spears, cut into 2.5cm (1in) pieces
1 cup (155g) frozen peas 1 egg, beaten, to cook

Unroll the pastry sheets and cut each in half, leaving you with four roughly square pieces. If the pieces aren’t quite square, trim the longer sides to even them up. Set aside.

Put the soup, Emmental cheese, asparagus and peas in a bowl and stir to combine. Now scoop a quarter of the mixture (about ½ cup) into the centre of each of the squares of pastry.

Bring up opposite corners of the squares of pastry and press them together to seal in the centre. Now work your way down the seams to seal the pastry and completely enclose the filling.

TO COOK: Transfer the parcels to a lined baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg wash. Cook in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 20–25 minutes, until crisp and golden. Serve with vegetables of your choice alongside.

TO FREEZE: Carefully wrap each of the parcels in clingfilm, then transfer to a labelled plastic bag and freeze flat for up to 3 months. TO COOK

FROM FROZEN: These can be cooked from frozen. Place on a lined baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Cook in an oven preheated to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 30–35 minutes, until golden. Serve with vegetables alongside.

Thanks so much. They sound really good. Let me know if you manage to give them a go.

Next week.

Mean plan - from Meat Free Mowgli

Aubergine Dhansak
Paneer, cashew and coconut curry
Spiced omelette with masala fried bread.
Egg, ginger and spinach curry
Mushroom tikka masala
Squash and black bean curry.
Also a samosa tart using puff pastry.

Not a full list but I'm just about to start making this and might add bacon. I used to make it fairly often but had forgotten about it.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/creamy-tomato-risotto/amp

Sounds amazing! Please report back.

Will do! I've not used this book yet (Christmas presents mainly comprise of recipe books), and trying to use one a week for inspiration, if that makes sense, using it for a week with give me an idea if it'll become a 'go to' one.

The mushroom tikka masala is one I've book-marked to try, along with the coconut/shallot one and the samosa tart thing.

This week:
S cauliflower cheesey pasta
M daal, veg pulao
T baked egyptian cottage cheese & baby tomatoes stirred through pasta
W black eyed bean curry
T slow cooker tomato soup, toasties
F fish pie, broccoli
S sausage & veg roasting tin

I'm boring myself already 😁 but it's Back to Skool week so....

How did this week go

Tonight - Left over slow cooked lamb with Ottolenghi's chaat potatoes - lamb so good and potatoes were fab!

Tuesday Left over xmas ham, leek and potato pie - done!

Wednesday Olia Hercules stuffed cabbage leaves -changed to lamb keema - delicious

Thursday Meera Sodha's Spring greens paneer - perennial favourite

Friday Angry cauliflower with salad and raita - veg box substituted broccoli so wasn't going to work and was knackered so got takeaway sushi/ramen

Saturday Ottolenghi's spiced mushroom lasagne - amazing (recipe posted on the weekly new recipe thread)

Sunday Medjara - no need as we have left over mushroom lasagne.

Monday celeriac and chorizo soup

Next week looks like this for us:

Tuesday Marcella Hazan tomato sauce and pasta
Wednesday spinach, tomato, chickpea curry (meera sodha)
Thursday smoked tofu, mushroom keema (meera sodha)
Friday cookhouse stew (on insta from local NE restaurant)
Saturday Sri Lankan style squash curry (Ed Smith - Crave)
Sunday Roast chicken curry (mezcla)
Monday left over chicken cannelloni enchiladas

The planned feta chick for tomorrow happened last night instead.

Tonight, DH wanted me to do the gammon I had intended for next weekend - but it was delish as I had time to do it right. I did lemony breadcrumbed courgette and steamed broccoli as veg, and a decent pot of mash.

Leftover mash became the topping on a "swineherder's pie" for tomorrow - sort of shepherds pie with gammon using chicken stock for the gravy, with peas and carrots mixed in.

I need to use the mussels before the weekend and still have enough gammon so that's probably 2 pasta meals (probably gammon and mushroom for the latter).

Never did the curry, but Dd used my spare chicken breast. So might do a prawn curry or stir fry. And I have salmon burgers and buns I the freezer and oven chips, and salad in fridge.

So less organised than I expected to be for going back to work week, but I have easy options to use.

First week of meal planning for me.

M: garlic honey chicken and rice www.theslimmingfoodie.com/slow-cooker-honey-garlic-chicken/

T: salmon, roasted veg and sweetcorn

W: vegetable pasta (will blitz some to hide some veg from fussy children)

T: chicken and salad (not v imaginative)

F - S - S: need to plan and shop for!

Tonight is now going to be bubble and squeak, because I actually managed to have leftover vege from yesterday's roast dinner (dp usually scoffs everything, but he wasn't allowed to this time!). Not had b&s for years, so am quite excited!

Oh I love bubble and squeak, I often cook extra veg for a roast just so I can have it the next day. Have you tried curried bubble and squeak, it is sooo good!

Ooh now we're talking... Stuffed in a chapati with mango chutney and mint sauce, perhaps? Sort of like the bastard child of a masala dosa.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Oh wow that sounds lovely - might have to add to my meal plan for next week!

I like switching our spag up and instead doing it as a pasta mince bake.its an added cheese sauce to the mix but that's no biggie and is a much tastier exciting dish.got so fed up of spag and this bake is deff a family favourite now.

Last night and tonight is just me so had steak chips and bits and bobs. Have the second steak this evening but want to do something else bar chips with it. Might buy a chiabatta on the way home from work and do a steak sambo smothered in the rest of the pepper sauce.

@kateandme thanks. Unfortunately, DD is lactose intolerant AND a fussy eater so spaghetti bolognaise or meatballs are one of the few dishes that everyone will eat.

We landed up having take out one night, the pasta last night. I'm doing an Amazon Fresh order tonight so probably do the mince today as DD needs something with more nutrition (I put all kinds of things in my bolognaise to up nutrition!)and I'm going out so I can stick it on stove this afternoon and they can have it later. So the pork is still on the table, probably tomorrow, and I'm thinking steak on friday before DS goes off to his activity.