Help me meal plan for this week please, going shopping today!

[LoveMyGirls]

I'm a childminder with 5 children to feed aged 11mths to 9yrs, I'm after some inspiration for meals for this week, if possible it needs to also be something dp and I can re-heat or keep warm and have once dc's have gone home.

Needs to be not too expensive or time consuming (I'm not generally a recipe book follower as I don't do buying a jar of something for £1.50 to have a few teaspoon's out of it then throw it out because it has to used within 4 weeks of opening)

2 of the children don't eat pork

Needs to be healthy.

I'm on weightwatchers so needs to be low fat and filling.

Help please?

The meals I'm really fed up of are spagetti bolognaise, shepherds pie, curry and casseroles.

The dc's will eat mildly spicey food.

baked pots?

pasta and tomato sauce. i make a big pot of the tomato sauce and pull it out of the freezer when i need it. you can add roast veggies if you have any, or a can of tuna, or some chili flakes and borlotti beans, or cream, or some fried mushrooms etc. anyway, you get the gist. i can tell you my tom sauce recipe if you like.

oh, and beefburgers. i make mine with garlic (and fried onion if i can be bothered) and grated carrot just to lighten them a bit. i serve them in half pittas and make some yoghurt and cucumber and nutmeg dip for them to drip into the pockets. me and dh have a salad... but dd1 is yet to be convinced on the 'leafs' front.

i put a spoonful of harissa into the burgers as well, to give them a bit of warmth.

pasta, chicken and pesto sauce, me kids love it.
Chicken, sweet potato and stuffing pie hmmm yummy

One of my mindee's doesn't eat tomatoes, I have tried the pasta and tomato sauce before. Another one won't eat lettuce or pizza.

Baked pot's good idea i should do those more, thanks for reminding me.

Burgers are good, pitta's also good am putting those on the list.

We will have jacket pots once or twice a week with various fillings. Big pot of soup and a sandwich. My lot quite like that too.

Lisa do you make the pie from scratch?

(I've never been great at cooking from scratch, I've never been taught or had the time to learn, my mum was very busy with 5 dc's and working and at uni when I was growing up and also hated cooking) It is about time I learnt though I am almost 30!

so long as you know that it tskes onions at least ten mins on a low heat to cook, you can make anything imo.

I buy frozen pastry, roll out fill with stuff (cook chicken and potatos first, and i sometimes use sauages instead of chicken)

You can add a bit of gravey into pie or add after. Its so easy.

I like my slow cooker, it is my friend and mil has just brought me a slow cooker recipe book so I might try something out of that but as I said I'm not really into using a jar of something that has to then be thrown away.

There is chicken enchilada crockpot that looks good, really not sure if the dc's would eat it though because it would be spicy......It's so hard finding things they will all eat.

what jars do you use? i don't understand, there's no need for jars.

When they say chicken broth is that chicken soup?

What is french soup?

what is cornstarch?

Thanks Lisa, will try that though dp won't eat sweet potato so could I use normal potato instead?

Jars like little jars of turmeric (not that I have any idea how long I could keep that for as I've never brought it before)

glad to help. You know you can make risotto (sp?) ina slow cook dont you? Thats nice too

sure. get nice wee new ones and slice them into discs.

sounds like an american book. cornflour is cornsstarch, it's for thickening sauces. broth is soup i'd have thought. i really don't ;like yank recipes, they use a lot of proccessed stuff.

turmeric... i think my jar has lasted about five years now. spices don't go off, really, thry judt lose flavour.

Thanks for being so helpful

What kind of pastry do I buy? puff?

i love puff, jus rol do one ready rolled.

Chilli- onion, mince, tinned toms, cocoa, cardamom pods, ground cumin, any beans you have lying around and as much chilli as you like, you could add more for you and dh later later. You can do this in the slow cooker too.

Lovemygirls I know you said you don't tend to follow recipes but do try this soup - spicy with carrot and lentils it even went down a treat with my fussy nephew (I left out the cumin seeds on the top though as he doesn't lik e "bits"!). It's really low fat and so cheap to make but definately doesn't taste like it.

I agree with AitchTwoOh some of my spices are very elderly, I just have to use more of them!

puff pastry is best imo

If I make dijon chicken and spinach what could I serve with it?

steamed new pots?

what's dijon hicken?