2025 Meal Planners!

[Citygirlrurallife]

Here it is - all welcome, long termers and newbies, I imagine this week is leftovers leftovers leftovers and kicking off from Thursday onwards.

ive gone back to Oddbox and our deliveries now come on Friday nights so I’m going to try to force my brain to meal plan Thursday-Thursday and have delivery on Thursdays to make it happen. Won’t happen this week but hopefully from next

@DiggoryVenn I make them myself mostly but have used shop bought too in the past.

Must work through the frozen meat and fish as the freezer is pretty full thanks to Ocado flash sales.

This week:
Monday: Salmon bake
Tuesday: Roast duck
Wednesday: Sea bass
Thursday: Beef Rendang
Friday: Kedgeree
Saturday: Lamb keema
Sunday: Fajita beef casserole

Haven't got the recipe books out yet, but will do this week as there are a few 'as new' ones I never use so they may as well go on Vinted.

@IDareSay Fajita beef casserole sounds lovely. What do you serve it with?

No weekly plan done here yet. I'll do it tomorrow. I bought silicone freezer moulds for 300ml portions and reusable zip lock bags which I am excited about.

I'm going to make the 7 veg pasta sauce.

Does anyone else have this ridiculous thing where they are completely blindsided by effort? I did chicken tacos bowls this week. Looked online for some inspriration. Saw lots of posts about a popular, easy meal for families blah blah blah.

Well.... plus side: genuinely delicious, definitely healthy, and yes, it WAS easy.
Downside: I felt like I was on an episode of bloody masterchef becuase I had so many "elements". The rice. the chicken. The pickle. The mayo. The salsa. The avocado. The whole thing took HOURS. Possibly I just have to learn how to prep it so that it's more cleverly organised but bloody hell, I won't be rushing to do that agaain! I could do an entire roast dinner in the same amount of time

@TheLadyIsAVamp what do you cook your giant yorkshires in? I'm toying with buying those larger muffin tins for big ones but still those won't be giant.

We mostly just have some green veg alongside it but it would be nice with rice or a potato side dish.

New week.. Here we go!
Monday - butter chicken and rice
Tuesday - chicken and noodles
Wednesday - out
Thursday - chicken and Mediterranean veg
Friday - salmon and veggies
Saturday - roast dinner.. likely chicken,I've not had one for months!!
Sunday - chicken pot pies

Chicken heavy week 😅😅

Massive overspend last week so going basic this week:

Chilli con carne (a couple of dinners)
Fajitas
Sausage and mash
Pasta with something
broccoli and blue cheese soup with homemade croutons

And wanted to do it last week but the croissants were eaten! So I have opened and warned others away and finally have a few left over stale croissants so doing Delias croissant caramel bread and butter pudding.

@SpaceOP I shamelessly use Frey Bentos pie tins 😂. I watched a Tiktok where someone did them this way and they were the perfect size so I bought a few and washed them out. They've lasted well over a year now.

Also for fajita bowls I know what you mean but they can be as simple/complicated as you like. It's my favourite quick dinner. I'll sometimes use a pouch of microwave rice if I'm in a real rush but usually I'll use my microwave rice cooker using stock and garlic and finishing with some lime juice and coriander, I do my fajitas (usually chicken or steak on a flat plate grill ) whilst those are cooking I'll do a very quick sweetcorn salsa and a Pico de gallo, sliced/smashed avocado rather than a proper guac and then just a dollop of sour cream thinned out with a squeeze of lime juice, seasoning and a bit of garlic. Top with the pickled onions and jalapenos.

The whole thing start to finish is usually about 20/30 minutes max. If I have time I will do more complex ones but I enjoy the simple ones just as much and could easily eat them every day if I could get away with it 😂. Sorry for the long boring ramble of probably very obvious information I'm just very passionate about fajita/taco bowls and wish I was having one now 😂.

Interesting hack.... <adds to her online order>

I think the fact I was doing them for the efirst time probably made it more complicated. And I got all fancy and tried a different way to pickle the onions which was nice, but I think I'll stick with my old way - which is thinly sliced red onions, covered in lime juice, bit of salt, bit of sugar. Done. But you're right, if I was a bit more focused and a bit less faffy, it probably would have worked better.

I can't remember what I was making a while back but I do remember Sil being surprised I could whip up whatever it was in 30 minutes. So I guess it is just practice makes perfect? I'm about to go downstairs and do a pasta dish that will literally take 20 minutes. but I guarantee it would take DH an hour (he's currently on minute 15 of making DD nuggets and chip sin the bloody air fryer! )

Place marking. Can't believe I've missed these threads. This is exactly what I need.

Just finished planning next week

Friday - White mushroom Pizza 🍕
Saturday - Chicken shashlik salad
Sunday - Lamb chops, Mediterranean veg, roasted Chimichurri potatoes with a lemony yoghurt sauce (new recipe)
Monday- Beef pho
Tuesday - Adana kebap with Turkish rice and salad
Wednesday - Corn chowder
Thursday - Cheesey keema stuffed part baked baguettes (from Tiktok) Will probably have with a salad .

@TheLadyIsAVamp How do you do your white pizza, please?

So far next week:
dp wants to make a veggie chilli and I’ve given in, as we haven’t had it for ages

dp and ds are going to have fish curry using a Spice Tailor sauce and I’m having the same sauce with paneer and spinach

something with tofu - either a really simple tofu and green bean curry from ‘Dinner’ or something else tbc

I had a really good ‘coconutty noodles with crispy tofu’ from gousto, it was sort of a Malaysian curried noodle vibe

here is the recipe, personally I like them a bit spicier so added chilli flakes and hot chilli powder!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I cheat and use shop bought base and the sauce is basically ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan.
Like this

Looks great - a proper cheese-fest!

@TheGirlWhoLived Nice. Ds cooks something similar. I need a trip to an Asian supermarket because I’ve got a couple of recipes I want to try using wide rice ribbon noodles and can’t find the right ones in the supermarket.

It’s the solid coconut I’m struggling with, where can you find that?

@TheGirlWhoLived isn't it just called creamed coconut in supermarkets? The ones I've bought always come as like a solid block

I got some.wide rice noodles on Amazon Fresh a few weeks ago.

Chicken curry pie
Roast beef
7 veg pasta + sausages
Chicken stir fry
Bacon and potato cubes
Stew
Chicken and broccoli pasta

Yes - coconut cream or creamed coconut. It’s a solid block and you hack off as much as you need.

Thanks @SpaceOP I’m generally trying to avoid Amazon, but it I can’t find any in the local Korean supermarket, I might have to grudgingly use amazon.

Forgot to post last week... was very uninspired mind

This week
Tomorrow: Roasted med veg and hummus ciabatta
Saturday: veggie sausage Cajun pasta
Sunday: Chickpea and cauliflower curry
Monday: burrito bowls
Tuesday; noodles with Thai peanut sauce
Wednesday: left over curry
Thursday: jerk tofu with rice and peas

It's a birthday week around here so DD has been choosing meals for various events. We have:

Spaghetti and meatballs with the family
Steak, chips and veg for her actual birthday
Backed chicken thighs with veg, potatoes and yorkshire pudding for night of her party!
Pork mince massaman ramen bowls
Pea risotto (with some kind of chicken or bacon added for DS)
And then a breakfast for dinner egg/avocado/tomato thing from my new Emily English recipe book

Settled for:

vegan steak pies with roasted new potatoes, savoy cabbage, carrots

vegan hot dogs with corn on the cob

fish curry or paneer curry, both with spinach

bibimbap with tofu and kimchi

veggie chilli

black bean and sweetcorn salad with nachos