Tuesday 16 October 2012

A meal plan again

There's one thing about these meals - they keep coming round, everyday!  I read something somewhere along the lines that a woman spent the first twenty years of her life wondering who she would marry and the next forty years thinking about what she would cook for dinner!  Obviously that is a little old-fashioned in its views, but you get the point.....dinner comes around every night...

Today, Tuesday, I made a beef casserole, and cooked it this morning so that the folks could just cook some veg and heat up portions of it whilst I was at gym, and I have just scoffed my portion now.

Tomorrow is going to be a horrendously busy day - I am in school at 9.30 for a meeting, 2.45pm to do the gym after-school club and then again at 6.30pm for a committee meeting.  So they are having tuna pasta again.   You will notice a certain amount of repetition in this meal plan - we are in Stoptober, we are using up what we have got, and we have plenty of pasta!

(image from lidl.co.uk)

Thursday, the FH has a bee club meeting, and I have to take the girls to town to piano lessons, so there will be a small window of opportunity to get everyone fed.  Those that can eat FB pies [that's Fray Bentos, not Facebook!} will have one of those with mash and veg and those of us who can't will be getting small lamb steaks with the same.

Friday's plan from last week of hot cheese sandwiches and soup went down very well, so they can have those again!

Saturday, I am inspired by Angela at Tracing Rainbows to try Froogs' Fabulous Frugal Faggots!  They look lovely and I am hoping that there will be some for the freezer to enjoy later the next week too.  I have a little more time on Saturdays for cooking, so it is the time to try something new.

On Sunday, I need to invest time in making two batches of ragu sauce, and we will eat one batch on Sunday as a Shepherd's Pie, and sink the other batch in the freezer for a quick supper later in the week.

On Monday I will be at school all day interviewing, I hope, if we have some applicants!  So that night will be a quick veggie stew with herby dumplings.  Made in a few minutes and enjoyed by all.

Tuesday night there is no gym next week, so I am free to help at the Harvest Supper at the chapel so there will be no supper cooked here.  If anyone doesn't want to come to chapel, they will be having something simple at home of their own making - beans on toast, perhaps, or pasta.

(image from hopnews.com)

I plan to bring that other portion of ragu sauce out on Wednesday and make some Spaghetti Bolognese with it.  Fast and easy, but still home made.

Thursday's plan may change, but at the moment the YFG won't be here as she will be eating dinner at school and helping out at a new intake evening.  It is the ideal opportunity to have pork, so we may have sweet and sour pork that night.

Friday I think we can continue the soup and sandwiches routine, or perhaps I will make a home made pizza. No gym!

On Saturday we will be having a bit of a use-it-up meal as we will be going away the next day after chapel, and leaving UJ in charge.  Not fair to expect him to eat our leftovers, so we will take care of any odds and ends lurking in the fridge that night!

I found it very helpful last week to have this all planned out, and it was a good week, without me flailing about wondering what we could have!  I am pleased with the outcome, so I am going to attempt to commit to doing this every week.  Hopefully it will become less repetitive over time, but as I said, this is Stoptober, so we are using what we have in the freezer and cupboards.

2 comments:

Wannabe Sybil said...

The evening meal ambushes me every night. If you see a cheap copy of 'I hate to cook' cookbook, grab it - the recipes are okay but the writing is hilarious and the feeling that a years' worth of dinners are about to fall on you whenever you think about it is well expressed. I am impressed by your plans - good luck! WS xxx

Morgan said...

@Angela - this time I am planning to combine a packet of pork pieces that I bought cheaply with a jar of 79p sweet and sour sauce. Occasionally I have made the s&s sauce from the Slimming World books but not often enough to know the recipe off by heart, and I can't locate the book at the moment - I know it is easy but it is one of those recipes where you have to add little bits of this and that and if you leave one of them out, it doesn't taste quite right! I am sure I will come across it soon and then I can share but for now, the Tesco discount brand one is fine, and cheaper than dear old Uncle Ben. I am trying to get away from sauces in jars and have successfully weaned us off curry sauce from a jar to something more home made!