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

Sun: Fish Pie
Mon: Spiced mixed mushroom pilaf
Tue: Summer salad with pan fried salmon
Wed: Venison steak & chips
Thu: Lasagne
Fri: Homemade Nando's chicken

Another week where I am expecting my adult DS to come back, but not 100% sure when.

Waves... Hi, can I join please? I post on the new recipes thread but would love to post on here to. I used to be really good at meal planning but in the last6 months have fallen of the wagon and I know I end up spending more doing daily shops!

This week our plan is
Sunday - lamb tagine
Monday - black bean tacos (Anna Jones)
Tuesday. Mapo tofu (Fuschia Dunlop)
Wednesday Dhal and fish (Nigel Slater)
Thursday thyme, goats cheese pasta (Nigel Slater)
Friday - beef/mushroom stroganoff

sun- pasta bolognaise
mon - veg/chicken burritos
tue - southern fried chicken,new potatoes and salad
wed - out for a meal
Thur- cheese pie, chips and beans

I thought life would slow down slightly, but it hasn’t.

So my stocks of pre-made sauces in the freezer are rapidly dwindling, along with my meat drawer.

Over the weekend, I did a pepperoni pizza, salmon/brocolli/potatoes; steak/roasted toms &garlic/roasted potatoes; feta chick/lemon and Parmesan courgettes and roasties.

Today, I plan sweet’n’sour prawns with a load of veggies on rice.

tomorrow is chicken fajitas with all the sides.

Thursday is possibly lamb bhuna or chicken vadagam curry on rice with puppodums. Or baked Camembert.

Friday probably my last portion of chicken and mushrooms, either on price or in vol au vents, or with pasta.

Saturday, I have no idea yet as my family arrives so I will go shopping when they are clearer about what they want.

A busy weekend for me!

Tomorrow: at a work do
Saturday: mushroom truffle pasta
Sunday: train picnic as will be travelling
Monday: soup and sourdough
Tuesday: that peanut noodle stirfy
Wednesday: freezer something
Thursday: dahl and naan

… will try harder next week!!

A short plan for me today as we're about to go on holiday. Next four days are all about using up the odds and sods from the fridge:

Tonight - breaded cod, potato wedges, braised leeks and peas
Tomorrow - pasta bake with peppers and courgettes
Sunday - Baked chicken thighs with garlic, lemon and oregano, roast potatoes and salad.
Monday - Cheese and broccoli quiche with salad

Just got back from holiday and the cupboards are bare.

Tonight - pizzas and salad

Order coming tomorrow -

Saturday - bean burgers with homemade tomato relish and salad

Sunday - dd and son in law coming for veggie lasagne and salad

Monday - jersey royals, fishcakes or a veggie substitute, green beans

Tuesday - pasta pesto with roasted veg and feta

Then we'll review, but dp is desperate to make a veggie chilli, as we haven't had it for months (I have to ban him for a while, or he'd make it every bloody week), ds wants Thai curry and I fancy making a quiche and/or cornbread (the latter maybe with a veggie chowder, with a fish option for the fish folk).

Remus I seem to recall you posting in here about veggie chilli-gate not that long ago! .

I'm in school holidays now and home alone so my meals are repetitive and boring - assuming I bother with much at all. I have got a vague plan if I CBA:
Paneer kati rolls (spinach sauce makes loads so will be 2 meals.
Halloumi, salad and grain pouch thing (again, 2 meals from the pouch)
Quiche and salad
Something with tuna mayo because it's my current obsession.

I did post, but it's a very long time since he's cooked it - he's just wanted to cook it a lot!

Please tell me more about the paneer kati rolls.

😂 at least he's the one cooking it I suppose!

Kati rolls are lush. I use Nadiya's recipe. It's kind of paneer saag in wraps.
Spinach and paneer kati rolls . The spinach is a bit of a faff (cleaning the blender bores me!) but if I've got loads of spinach I make a lot and freeze it.

Tonight - at a festival
Tomorrow - harissa cauli pilaf
M - sticky soy ginger tofu
T - caponata traybake
W - spanakorizo
Th - lentil moussaka
F - perinaise halloumi burgers

I pointed out to my family that I am currently the only household member who is going to work every day and that as I result I am taking a 2 week holiday from domestic work, so I'm not planning the meals. Nobody else seems to be doing so, either, so I will probably get in some emergency rations until everyone realizes that food doesn't just magically appear.

Sat veg biriyani

sun spinach and ricotta pasty

mon - spiced beef koftas/chilli halloumi fingers and flatbreads/salad

Tue -fish and chips

wed - tomato, pesto and mozzarella baguettes

thur - pasta bolognaise

Thank you. Looks delicious, but I agree re blender faff!

I've been quiet as we were away and frankly we "foraged" raided freezer/ordered takeout/did emergency run to Co-Op in the days before we left, and I did an emergency Waitrose run for the weekend after we got back. Now trying to get myself together while also catching up on work, sorting kids etc. I want to try a few new things over the next few weeks but this week needs to be tried and tested for convenience and ease.

So, mostly in no particular order:
Tuna jacket potatoes with salad
Mince tacos with trimmings for the hordes of teenage boys sleeping over at my house on Thursday to serve themselves! - if I heat the tacos in bulk, how do I keep them warm? A bowl/basket with a tea towel?)
Baked chicken pieces with new potatoes and veg
Halloumi and chargrilled greens with hot honey on flatbreads

I also have a small sirloin roast joint I got on sale before we went away which I want to use up. Usually I'd do that as a room temp version with salads at this time of year but that's not appealing for some reason (too many salads this week?) and I can't do a roast dinner. So need a new option. Might go for fancy steak sandwiches of some sort - mushrooms, onions, slaw, garlic sauce etc?

@SpaceOP if you did burritos instead of tacos, you could wrap individually in foil and put in a slow cooker on low?

good idea for another time eg after a sports event or something! In this case, I dont want to make them up myself. I want to just heat up the tacos then put the whole lot on the tabel for the boys to serve themselves, choosing what sides/toppings etc they add themselves. Of course, they're teenagers(see below) so a) they probably won't care if they're hot and b) they'll eat them so fast that they won't have time to get cold!

I'm under pressure from DS on this one. The last few times he's had friends over I've just defaulted to the easy pizza option. Before that, if I cooked something, it always went down well, but now DS seems to think it's pizza or nothing and I'm tired of being a pizza making machine for teenage boys!! So it has to work for me AND him!

++DS and all his friends are very sporty and active. They're all 14, and NONE of them are shorter than 5ft10 (towering over me) and a few (including DS) are starting to get close to 6ft! They have the appetites of starving wolves but, thank god, are not usually fussy or difficult and are normally happy to wolf down whatever I provide (with the exception of one being a bit hesitant with goats cheese as a topping for his pasta!)

Feeling more inspired this week

friday: west African peanut stew
Saturday: creamy gochujang pasta
Sunday: Thai green curry
Monday: harrisa roasted veg with nice bread
Tuesday: burrito bowl
Wednesday: Chipotle veggie meatball sub
Thursday: jerk tofu with rice and peas

Mind blowingly, I have to do the meal planning AGAIN. I have to get an order for delivery tomorrow before DH heads off camping so to be fair, while I have 2 more meals from the current meal plan, I'm now planning Saturday onwards.

Current list, with some flex depending on what the DC and I want to do while DH is away:

Sausages on BBQ (weather permitting)
Grilled salmon with miso and green veg (my favourite Jamie O recipe)
Leek and bacon tart with salad
Chicken schnitzels. Probably with chips and veg but possibly with pasta and a tomato sauce
Spaghetti and meatballs
Pork micne stir fry

I had complaints from DS for two veggie meals in a row this week!

I’ve been away for a while but have been lurking for the past week or so:

mushroom and fennel risotto
cod with samphire and new potatoes
breaded chicken baguettes with coleslaw and salad
sausage and veg traybake
Mexican black bean bake
Possibly some sort of roast veg gnocchi bake affair depending what the state of the remaining veg is on Wednesday

It’s been a surprisingly heavy “use up my freezer” week, despite visitors. So 3 portions of curry, 2 portions of salmon (whole DD got some fresh cod). I did a roast chicken with tarragon under the skin (and made chicken and mushrooms with the leftovers and the juices). Last night was chicken wings and cheese on crackers. Tonight is country sausage and red wine ragu with pasta.

So then I need something nice for tomorrow.

we’ll be on the road on Sunday.
clear out the fridge Monday night.

then heading off on the road properly after that for about 4 days.

Tonight - picnic on the beach
Tomorrow - upside down tomato tart and salad
M - halloumi and pepper oven-baked omelette
T - loaded baked sweet potato skins
W - courgette, feta and mint tart
Th - tofu satay curry
F - puttanesca baked gnocchi

@BiddyPopthe2nd I love a "use up stuff from the freezer" week!

I'm experimenting with going gluten free for a bit to see if it will improve some stomach issues I have been having. It's a bit of a learning curve. The plan so far:
Sat: Parsnip, leek & fennel curry with rice (from freezer)
Sun: Roast pork
Mon: Kedgeree
Tue: Lasagne (will do courgette strips instead of pasta for me)
Wed: Dinner at Ikea!

I am now away with DH, settling DD into a new uni city and residence. One night trip. So going out for dinner tonight. But I was trying to clear out fridge before I went and get sorted. But dd got antsy about going “now” so I didn’t get to freeze the leftover roasted veg from last night (tomato, pepper, onion and garlic - emptying fridge drawer but it’s great in pasta sauces) and also left my fancy raisin danish on the counter at home (as DH had used up all the coffee so I was going to bring it to enjoy with a nice coffee here instead). Grrr!

I know I have 2 portions of bacon lardons, about 3 mushrooms,3 carrots, a whole pack of sugar snap peas, half a pepper, an avocado, half a carton of yoghurt, half a carton of cream, 1/4 tub of pesto and a mini apple tart in the fridge, all to be used up somehow.

So tomorrow and Tuesday’s dinner could be…interesting!

Sounds like a risotto is in order! Or a quiche. Either would use up the bacon, cream and most of the vege,