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

I made her supercharged tuna mornay (recipe online) a few days ago. It was delicious, though quite rich. I’m so pleased to have found her recipes.

I only did my plan this morning, but have had to switch it round already after I did our Riverford recipe box (crispy sprout quesadillas) for a very late lunch. As usual it was really enough for three, so I am stuffed as we ate half each. I made my son the beef and black bean stir fry we were due to have tomorrow and will snack later

Monday - Waitrose chicken breast roast for three, roast sweet potato, squash and garlic mash, green beans, broccoli (originally planned for tonight)

Tuesday - smoky chicken, bean and kale stew, garlic bread

Wednesday - baked salmon with fennel and tomatoes for me before I go out, sausages, mash and veg for husband and son to cook themselves

Thursday - Beetroot, chickpea and coconut curry

Friday - eating out 😊

I'm back to finding meal planning exhausting.

This week:

M: Creamy sausage and spinach pasta
T: Miso grilled salmon with green veg
W: Halloumi fajitas
Th: I might be out so will get something easy for the rest. Fresh pasta maybe
Fri: I'm thinking of trying "sloppy joes". I feel it's something they will all like and it oculd be a bit of a fun option for a friday.
S: Pizza as me and Dh both out all day

Kept to this week's plan but ended up mixing the days, so tonight is now shakshouka.

Tomorrow: Away for an overnight stay - possibly out for pizza
Sunday: Pick up something for a quick and easy dinner on the way back up the road
Monday: Beef stew, lots of root veg
Tuesday: Carrot and lentil soup & bacon rolls
Wednesday: Same as above but scrambled egg rolls
Thursday: Going to christmas markets with work colleagues so hopefully pick up something there
Friday: Spag bol

Today: baked feta pasta
Tomorrow: Indian feast
Sunday: pad thai
Monday: jacket spuds
Tuesday: Mexican rice bake
Wednesday; teriyaki tofu and veg stirfry
Thursday: mushroom stroganoff

I’ve been struggling to keep on top of everything, including meal planning, but trying to pull my socks up.

Tonight: stir fry with grilled salmon
Saturday: chilli con carne
Sunday: roast shoulder of pork, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, green veg
Monday: slow cooker chicken curry with a M&S veg curry for DD
Tuesday: breaded fish, chips and peas
Wednesday: root vegetable stew with cheese and herb dumplings
Thursday: probably pasta with broccoli and anchovy sauce

Tonight - prawn gumbo
Tomorrow - cheesy leek gnocchi bake
M - tuna meatballs
T - Moroccan lentil soup
W - Thai fried rice
Th - veggie moussaka
F - tofu massaman

Not sure of the order we'll be eating these!

One pot urfa chilli chicken
Spiced honey & scotch bonnet ham with rice n beans
Left over ham (with eggs and chips or into empanadas)
Green Mac n Cheese
Hake with sweetheart and anchovy butter
Slow cooked chickpeas with spiced crispy halloumi
Broccoli and stilton soup

Also in no particular order:

jacket potatoes and ratatouille
paneer and spinach curry
cheese, potato and leek bake
black bean soup and nachos - this is one of my favourites and we've not had it for ages

I can't believe this thread is nearly full! Don't recall that happening before.

Anyway, my plan is as follows:

• Black bean birria with rice and avocado
• Pasta arrabiata
• Turkish lentil soup with lots of lemon. That will be on Tuesday before we go to watch the final Twilight film at the cinema.
• Chickpea and tomato stew with couscous
• Frittata/tortilla with roasted veg
• Halloumi/potato/peppers/rocket warm salad

I have a touch of low level depression, so am going for easy, relatively nutritious food that I can also eat the next day for lunch at work.

S:lentil soup
M: going out for anniversary dinner (how has it been 30 years since that drunken kiss at a student party?)
T: tofu, broccoli and cavolo nero pasta
W: turkey chilli
Th: pizza
Fri: miso salmon with sweet potato chips and peas and salad
Sat: sausages and mash

Oops, accidentally posted that twice, so I'm editing this one out.

This week, is another busy week.

Thursday was southern fried chicken, chips and onion rings from the chipper en route from airport.

Friday was so unremarkable I have completely forgotten it.
last night, we had a tin of proper French confit duck roasted with roast potatoes (using some of the duck fat!), and sweated baby leeks. Which was really tasty!
I also made a beef and Guinness stew while the oven was hot - mostly for DH tonight and to freeze a few portions for him (I got 3 into freezer). But he also sent me back with 2 portions in my suitcase, for tonight and my freezer 😁 so I’ll make some mash with that (I left of pot of potatoes peeled and diced for easy mash for him).

Tomorrow, my Czech hosts are feeding us.
Tuesday I am back “home” late from the airport but I have an M&S Welsh rarebit in my case, so that’s easy with part baked bread.
Wednesday will be a curry (probably chicken vadagam but possibly the last lamb rogan Josh). I might do tomatoes and onion and black pepper “salsa” on the side if I have the energy.
Thursday I have a ready-made lasagna. With some olives, peppers and cherry tomatoes on the side.
Friday is the work Christmas party so pizza.

Saturday next weekend will involve a big supermarket restock of fresh things, and I plan a lot of meals heavy on fresh veg the following week.

I've just made sweetcorn fritters for lunch with salad and sweet chilli sauce. It was so delicious that I'll probably end up making it again before the week is out.

Dinner tonight is a supermarket tortellini bake, using a supermarket 'fresh' tomato and marscarpone sauce, a bag of baby spinach and some mozzarella. Garlic bread for mopping up the sauce, plus the rest of the salad stuff.

Has anybody got any other good ideas for turning supermarket tortellini or gnocchi plus sauce into a delicious bake/gratin?

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie What recipe did you use for your sweetcorn fritters?

No recipe - I just made it up.

Big tin of drained sweetcorn
some chilli flakes, paprika, salt and pepper
couple of spoons of flour
an egg
a load of chopped coriander

Shallow fried in dollops. Delicious - but they definitely need the chilli sauce alongside.

Remus I do a mushroom gnocchi one. Put some Porcini in milk, heat gently and leave to steep. Strain them off, reserving the milk and use the mushroomy milk to make a bechamel. Chop and add in the Porcini plus I add some mushrooms I've fried off a bit with a little garlic. Chuck in some thyme if you have any, if I've got any spinach I add that too. Mix in cooked gnocchi, put parmesan and breadcrumbs on top and bake. Quite heavy in a macaroni cheese way, but good with a green salad.

ETA - I buy those packets of panko breadcrumbs and use those, I'd don't bother doing them properly.

This sounds delicious, thanks. I'd probably be really lazy and just fry some mushrooms and use a 'fresh' 4 cheese sauce. Do you pan fry the gnocchi first, or just use them from the packet?

I fry them with the extra mushrooms, I like it when they go a bit crispy. Pot of sauce would also be great. It tends to be one to cook on the weekend for me due to the time it takes, though I often assemble it on a Sunday and then bake it on the Monday for a quick dinner.

Perfect. I'm definitely going to try some sort of lazy variation of this for an easy after work dinner. Thank you.

Only got a couple of weeks of meal planning left before I call it for Christmas and just go mad on Pringles

Tomorrow: taco pasta bake
Saturday: Thai peanut noodles
Sunday: Loaded fries
Monday: jambalaya
Tuesday: butter tofu curry
wednesday: Xmas meal with work
Thursday: mujadara

Friday- Firecracker beef noodles with cucumber and carrot salad.
Saturday - cooking for friends. Chicken tikka masala and rice, kachumber salad, bhajis and naan bread
Sunday- Scotch broth (non traditional version as I'm doing it with a ham hough) with buttered bread ofc. Vienetta for dessert as that's what my Granny used to give us after having this for dinner 😂.
Monday- Mushroom risotto with something green.
Tuesday - Chilli con carne boats (those stand and stuff taco things) with guacamole, sour cream and cowboy caviar.
Wednesday - Just me at home I'll probably be lazy and have Itsu soup dumplings, maybe a salad of some sort if I can be bothered.
Thursday- Bratwurst hotdogs with sauerkraut

Tomorrow: Tuscan bean bake
Sunday: MiL's for dinner - likely a Chinese takeaway
Monday: Out at a christmas light trail so likely pick up a bratwurst or similar
Tuesday: Minestrone
Wednesday: Jacket potatoes with some sort of easy filling
Thursday: One-pot veggie sausage rice thingy
Friday: Chilli chicken and cabbage noodles
Saturday: Sausage casserole with mash
Sunday: Pot roast chicken with mash

It feels like a lacklustre week. Two evenings out reduces the need for planning but for some reason I find this more difficult - not so much flexibility with ingredients bought for other meals. Also trying to use up freezer stuff. I always have intentions to eat light, healthy meals for most of December to counter the heaviness at the end of the month, plus occassional bratwurst etc. I always forget the need to create freezer space though. And only now, I'm realising how sausage-heavy this week is 🙁

Next week is my toughest work week of the year, so I'm planning either super-easy meals or things that other people can cook. And then the in-laws are coming to visit over the weekend.

Sun miso salmon and greens with sweet potato wedges
Mon lentil soup
Tues burnt aubergine chilli
Wed sausage traybake
Thurs jacket potatoes
Fri pizza
Sat Beef & Guinness stew

Tonight - Bombay fish pie
Tomorrow - smoky aubergine and lentil hot pot
M - Singapore style prawn laksa
T - cauliflower tinga tacos
W - Hasselback halloumi traybake
Th - Cajun cannellini bean stew
F - tofu katsu