Calling all meal planners. Can you share your monthly menus??

[VanillaPumpkin]

I am soooooo bored of Spaghetti Bolognaise and Shepherds Pie . I am only after evening meal inspiration really...
Any top tips for cheap meals also appreciated thank you.
I know this has been done before but having trawled threads I am still wallowing in unenthusiasm. Help!
I have ordered another cook book from the Book People but until that arrives I am miserably dreading my beef casserole for tea....

WOW these menus are impressive

I do mine on a weekly basis but judging by this should go monthly.

I have recently restarted menu planning and love it. I have two months of menus, shop every two weeks (milk top ups etc on a friday) and have a organic veg box on wednesdays. Dh and dd1 eat at home lunchtimes and the other children have a main meal at school (french have big lunches).

I cant type it all out here (zzzzzzzzzzz) but would be happy to send it to anyone that would like it. Am currently trying to cross link it with a shopping list which would be automatically generated every two weeks with the relevant menus....

Message withdrawn

Megg, not read the whole thread yet, but if you shop online at asda you can actually name and save shopping lists. I do (or rather dh did!) a 4-week menu planner and was absolutely delighted to see the "save shopping list" part! I now have 4 separate shopping lists, and just click on whichever one I need and add/delete things from the list as and when I need them.

The best way is to experiment with different countries altogether. I get bored very easily, but we eat a really wide variety.

indian
dosa - big rice flouur panckaes you fill with spiced potatoes
paneer - gently brown it like you would meat then you can do anything with it - jalfrezi, tikka, shahi, muttar or yoghurt
dhals - you can make curry with anything, urad (black) dhal, rajma (kidney beans), channa (chickpea), mung beans.

mexican
enchiladas, tacos, fajitas, cod carumba, mex style lasagne with salsa and balck bean filling

mediterranean/italian
paella, lemon chicken casseroles, salsa chicken, seafood tagliatelle, pizza/calzones, bean hotpot, spicy meatballs and spaghetti

then there is carribean, morrocan, african food - things like jerk chicken, tagine, durban style whole curried chicken, cajun chicken, sweet potato hash, jambalaya.

the kids also love it when we have chinese, if you have a chinese supermarket near you, they are brilliant for adding variety to your meal plans. They often sell recipe books too.

those pataks curry pastes are fairly good, they are a common chef's cheat even in top restaurants, but I'm not keen myself. Far better to ahve a really good range of spices in the house, then you can make anythign you want.

[in awe at overrated's list] How do you do your creamy salmon pasta dish?

carbonara home made
lentil curry with salad and handmade chapatti v cheap and sinfully easy.
falafel salad and pita and chili sauce
Thai salmon fillets and stir fry veg and noodles
Maple pork fillets broccoli and new potatoes
roast chicken and veg etc
chicken and prawn fried rice

we also make paneer. Love fajitas wraps kebabs etc we just change the fillings. Refried spiced kidney beans. Chicken - garlic, Cajun, tikka. Spiced lamb in cumin. Lots of options!

Piffle - Tell me about the maple pork. We have maple syrup at the moment from Shrove tuesday.....Is that involved at all??

I couldn't do a monthly ilst - I like just looking in the fridge and deciding to cook whatever needs to be used up. Like today, I've got loads of new potatoes to be used,(cooked usual amount for sundaydinner before I rememeber that 2 of the family are away so I will prob. do a Spanish Frittata with some froz veg and the slices of bacon that weren't eaten at the weekend.

woould love the creamy salmon pasta dish recipe too please

GGG I would love to see your list too you can email me at [email protected]

DT1 has dairy intolerence, he cant stand either goats milk but can get him to drink rice milk- which is also fabby i imagine for puddings but when we want a lovely MAc cheese what do we do for DT1?

should have put too that he can have babybel cheese only- strangely its the only 1 he aint intolerant too. He doesnt like the soya cheeses either lol

Jambuttie - there's soya cheese???My dh has high cholesterol so we have cut out cheese and he has soya milk/cream/custard but he really misses cheese. If there is a soya cheese I'd buy it!

(PS that doesn't say much for babybel)

I did the lettuce risotto today from the recipes at the top on here. I did add left over chicken to it but I have to say it was really yummy and would have been without the chicken! DH and the dd's agreed, and only one pan to wash up. Yay!

Chopster - how do you do your dosas please. I lurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrve dosas but the only recipe I have got seems pretty complicated (grinding up rice to make flour etc if I remember right). Is there an easier way for ladies who work full time but would kill for a dosa at times?

ggg - culd i have a copy of your list please? email addy is natdotlawrenceatntlworlddotcom. Thanks

A very big thank you to Overated and VanillaPumpkin - absolutely brilliant

kedgeree
veg goulash
chicken roast with med veg
risotto
homemade soup
fish and veg
sardines on toast

sparkybabe - my DS is allergic to milk so we use soya cheese. You can get it from health food shops. I've tried two types - SHEESE cream cheese and CHEEZLY hard cheese.

They're both pretty odd (cheezly tastes like bacon favour crisps) but work ok in sauces and melted on top of potatoes etc.

The other thing that has been brilliant recently is Saving Dinner - I've used their freezer menus where you buy all the ingredients for and prepare a whole batch of meals in one go. It's American, but haven't had much problem with the recipes and most are more than edible. Is very cost effective as you can buy the big bags of everything without worrying that they'll go off.

Thanks Ibblewob - cream cheese I make myself with plain yoghurt, and I think I've had cheezly. Also tried lo-col (?) cheese which is wierd, like really hard cheddar, but tastes of nothing.