If money was no object - weekly menu, home-cooked?

[Inextremis]

I've been reading a few threads about essential budget cooking - not trying to be tone deaf here - because this is just a fantasy thread, not a 'what do you eat if you're rich' one. Having said that - if you could eat anything you wanted for all meals for a whole week, with no worries about cost, convenience, ethics and all that good stuff - what would your week look like - no restrictions, no calorie counts, no worry about price - just a week of wonderful food - BUT - you have to cook it yourself. YOU HAVE TO COOK IT YOURSELF (in case anyone missed that bit). What would you have? Will be back later with mine 'cos it's going to take a bit of thinking!

I wouldn't home cook. I'd have someone else do it. Levantine food would be my preference.

Fruit flown in from somewhere exotic, daily.

Hard question as I really do not like cooking

Id rather iron 😂

I would probably eat a lot more fresh seafood, prawns, scallops, sushi grade tuna etc. I would still make things like chilli con carne but I would be all organic meat and ingredients. And I wouldn't batter an eye lid at spending £5 on a loaf of sourdough bread, although I wouldn't be making it myself!

I’d probably do exciting lunches that dont involve cooking

So artisan breads, exotic salad ingredients, posh-poncey deli produce

I'd eat more meat and fish if I wasn't worried about ethics. So, grass-fed steak. Smoked salmon.

But what about health? Can i have unlimited alcohol and chocolates?

Fruit platter's magically appearing for breakfast, smoothie's again fresh and not me making them.

But for meals to be honest we buy what we want anyway, yes I suppose I budget in the sense we aren't eating freshly prepared beef wellington or lamb shanks nightly but we don't skimp for monetary reasons, I just happen to really like dal and rice, bean chillis, and various other low priced dishes. Household favourite by far is home made lasagna which works out at around £8 for 6 large adult portions (2 days worth for us, veggie girl gets a spinach cannelloni ready meal)

If it could be delivered I would appreciate shellfish like scallops but I have a dp allergic to them alas, also oysters if someone would shuck them

Interesting. I’ve not counted cost of food for the past few years (sadly I’m going to have to now), and I’ve never counted calories. Normally, I’d have to factor in our long working hours but say I was off for a week, for the two of us (both carnivores and over 50) a typical winter evening menu might be something like:
Sunday: roast dinner, beef/pork/chicken, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, oven roasted carrots and parsnips, one other veg. Cheese and biscuits.
Other days but in no particular order:
Lasagne, salad, coleslaw
beef bourginon & rice, or stew with bread.
homecooked Indian style chicken curry, rice, poppadoms topped with various stuff
pie and chips - we argue over the pie filling so sometimes a chicken filling, sometimes a beef one, peas if I can bothered.
Southern fried chicken fillets in a bap with salad.
we’d normally go out for lunch/have an evening takeaway on a Saturday, but in this fantasy world, and taking no account of the season, some sort of sea bass/salmon and new potato combo for him and a goat’s cheese, Parma ham and fig salad for me.

If money were no object I wouldn’t be cooking anything!

I think I'd be finally making everything I've ever saved on Instagram 😆 homemade French style bread etc.

In this week of wonderful food, do children magically eat everything lovingly prepared for them?

Please can you share the lasagne recipe @gogomoto

Spegetti bolonaise

Fish and chips and eggs

Hot dogs but with sausage rather than the hot dog sausage.

Meat pie and mash potatoes

Sunday a full roast dinner

Mixed Salads with kebab

Yes to all of this!

Oo love this idea for a thread. Do we have all the time in the world for cooking too? 😁
Breakfast would be salmon and eggs, maybe sometimes asparagus and /or avocado. Could rotate with other spready mashy things like butterbean mash etc. Followed by a smoothie with all kinds of healthy powders and stuff in. Snacks might be different cheeses with fancy crackers and grapes or apples. And fancy healthy crisp type things. Lunches would be loads of different grainy salady bits with lots of variety of veg, herbs fruit and nuts in them.

I'm not sure on dinner. Probably lots of ottolenghi recipes where I don't skip the expensive ingredients for once!

Honestly nothing extravagant!! I’d just like to have meals containing meat or fish for every lunch and dinner rather than replacing them for chickpeas/lentils/beans/veg/cheap sandwich to keep the cost down! Even though I do this our food bill is still £85 a week for 2 adults, I don’t eat anywhere near enough fruit and veg as can’t afford it!

My ideal weekly menu for lunch and dinner would be:
Lunch - Mixed salad with Chicken breast/Wild Salmon fillet/King Prawns with mixed seeds, feta/other cheese and olive oil dressing or Veggie Spanish Omelette with big side salad

Instead we’re having egg or peanut butter sandwiches 😢

Dinner would be:
M Salmon Thai Curry rice
T Spaghetti Bolognese
W Prawn, calamari and Mussel Paella
T Chicken stew
F Steak chips veg peppercorn sauce
S Lamb Indian curry rice
S Pork Roast dinner with all the trimmings

Instrad were having bean chilli, chickpea veg curry etc 😢

DS does all the cooking in our house. He’s only 14 but he really loves cooking! So can he still do the cooking, he can choose as he and I would choose the same things. We’d spend the whole week eating fish and sea food, plus a lasagne, lamb roast dinner with extra Yorkshire puddings and steak with homemade chips, peppercorn sauce and asparagus. DH wouldn’t be happy about all the sea food though. If calories don’t count, I’d just eat allllll the chocolate for snacks.

Sunday - Rib of Beef with beef dripping roast potatoes, mashed swede, cauliflower cheese, carrots, leeks, cabbage, Yorkshire puddings and horse radish sauce.

Monday- some sort of salmon with fennel.
Prawns, scallops, calamari etc.

Tuesday- crispy chilli beef, noodles, fried rice, deep fried prawns and sweet and sour sauce,

Wednesday- rib eye steak, Parmesan and chilli oil fries, coleslaw, mushrooms tomatoes, Diane sauce.

Thursday- crispy pork belly, dauphinois potatoes, vegetables

Friday- lamb cutlets, cous cous, flatbreads,

Saturday - deep fried spicy chicken and pepperoni pizza.

Can you wash your lovely food down with champagne? and yes to expensive fish (halibut, john dory, monkfish, etc) and seafood, cheeses, fruit, veggies, good cuts of meat. Probably go largely organic too. And those lovely expensive eggs with oodles of flavour. i also love more economical dishes so baked beans, sausages, tins of tomatoes and beans will still be used regularly too.

Beef roast dinner, yorkshires, horseradish, honey roast parsnips, roast potatoes, sprouts fried in butter with lardons, daphioise potatoes and baby sweetcorn with chatney carrots.

Homemade pizza with Stilton cheese, steak, red onion and a side dish of onion rings and double fried chips

Seafood linguine with garlic bread and a good white wine

Steak pie with mash, cream and bacon sautéed savoury cabbage and asparagus

Chicken in white wine sauce with mushroom rice

I cant think of anymore as its making me hungry and I want to eat my phone 😂it's a good job I'm not wealthy otherwise the earth would shake when I walked.

That actually got my mouth watering!

The only thing I'd change is having a curry on Saturday instead of pizza and I'd happily hire you as my personal chef with my unlimited budget!

I'd have a box of fresh, organic meats and fish delivered weekly which would inspire the menu for the week. I'd also have boxes of organic fruit and veg delivered. I hate food shopping!

The most expensive, delicious wine would also arrive with the boxes. It would be especially chosen for me to accompany the meat and fish box contents. I wouldn't drink it every night, probably just at weekends, so I'd build up a magnificent wine cellar with the rest.

I'd have all desserts pre-made. But I wouldn't want enough for every day. Got to think of the waistline.

One box would contain all the ingredients and instructions I need to make an amazing bake (cake, cookies etc) with the children.

Milk, butter and eggs would be from the organic, not for profit, dairy down the road. I might grow my own herbs but have the gardener tend to them. I can have a gardener, can't I? I might be getting carried away with this now.

Some really lovely replies here - I've been thinking (as promised) - my week would feature loads of curries, mostly made with chicken thighs - not because they're cheap, but because they're tasty. Dhansak, patia, garlic chilli chicken, Madras - all of them, with pilau rice and naan and pickles. Then loads of seafood/fish meals - lobster, plain and thermidor, smoked salmon, scallops, monkfish, plaice fillets, and smoked haddock with duck eggs. Maybe a pizza topped with mozzarella, artichoke hearts, black olives, anchovies, pepperoni, mushrooms, and peppers. Really good steak - ribeye rather than fillet, for the flavour, with garlic mushrooms, and black pepper and brandy sauce. Figs with Serrano ham and tuffle honey. Also, just because I really enjoy them, baked beans on buttery toast, and twice-baked potatoes with cheese and chives, black pepper, and sour cream.

Can I do a plan where DH and DD would eat something other than some sort of meat with some sort of potato please????

Steak, lamb chops, hunters chicken, joints of meat with crackling and homemade gravy.
I don't like fish or the smell of it cooking, so no posh seafood.
Dauphonoise potatoes, jersey potatoes, tenderstem broccoli.
All the side dishes would be premium veg or really nice salads with fancy extras. Fancy cheeses. Nice olives (not the cheap shitty ones) and those stuffed peppers
Loads of raspberries and cream.

Mon - Beef birria tacos with homemade salsas and guacamole and lots of nice salad

Tue - Ham hock with colcannon, buttered cabbage and a fried egg.

Wednesday- A spicy slow cooked lamb shank curry with pilau rice, poppadoms and fluffy garlic naan

Thursday - A whole chicken coated in a homemade peri peri marinade cooked on the BBQ, served with lots of salad, grilled vegetable skewers, corn on the cob and grilled halloumi.

Friday - Ribeye steak, triple cooked chips, roasted vine tomatoes , mushrooms, tenderstem broccoli and Béarnaise sauce

Saturday - Spicy chicken ramen with a side of gyoza and chilli and garlic stir fried greens.

Sunday - Lamb kleftiko with a side of cauliflower and broccoli cheese just because I love it 😂

Breakfasts would be lots of lovely fresh fruit or a Turkish style breakfast with cured meats and olives etc with a full Scottish breakfast on Sunday.

Lunches would be lovely soups and salads with maybe a cheeky cheeseburger thrown in.