Meal Planning Monday - 21 January 2013

I thought this week's meal plan might be a little, um, egg-based but thankfully the snow seems to have done it's worst and I was able to get to the supermarket yesterday to stock up on essentials like wine and fruit, so we don't all get scurvy (does scurvy still exist? I think that would be taking my youngest son's love of all things pirate a little too far)

Slow cooker pork stroganoff

Meatloaf with wilted spinach, cauliflower, carrots and new potatoes

Slow cooker beef and vegetable casserole

Chicken and crunchy veg stir fry with egg noodles
Honey lime chicken with basmati rice
Chicken Bacon Alfredo Pizza (because I have Alfredo sauce in the fridge and how good does this look!)

 Leftovers

I am most looking forward to the pizza because it just looks like the best combination of all that is bad for you and chicken pizzas are my favourite. I am saving this one for after a fast day - yum, yum! I made the condensed milk cupcakes but didn't get around to making the cinnamon roll one. I think I'll do it tonight because it's really, really good.

Editing this because I have just made the cake and it's even better now I've adjusted the recipe a little (original recipe too greasy for me, so I halved the butter used in the topping and now it's perfect!)

Remember to check out Mrs M for more Meal Planning Monday links. Thanks for all your comments last week. I love hearing from others and reading your blogs about food.

If you like this, why not stay up to date easily by following via Google or bloglovin', and thanks for reading! 

Meal Planning Monday - 22 October 2012

Oh my goodness, another Monday already. I can't believe I'm staring down the barrel of half term as we speak.Apparently we're supposed to have an Indian Summer this week which, going by the BBC weather forecast, now means 14C and foggy. Ho hum. Here is the plan for this week. I have only planned 5 meals because I am out one night (seeing the Hairy Bikers!) and the other is leftovers.

Mexican Chicken Stew and Quinoa (am leaving out the beans)

Honey Soy grilled chicken, wild rice/rice, and veg (inspired by Stina)

Home made pizzas

Slow Cooker Split Pea and Ham soup with One Hour Rolls

Fridge Frittata

So there you have it. Cheap, but a bit fiddly with two lots of dough this week (I got rid of my bread maker ages ago because I wasn't using it and it just took up space on the bench) but nothing difficult.

Let me know what you're eating and, as usual, check out more Meal Planning Monday posts on Mrs M's linky.

Random Likings

Phew! It's been pretty busy around here lately. I've seen some great stuff I've been meaning to share for ages and finally, thanks to my son's 5am wake up call (love you, Bear) I get a chance to do it. Dig in.

1.YouTube makeup instruction tutorials
I found this video by Christin Cook and quickly got sucked into watching other makeup instruction tutorials. It's great to try out new techniques and I've been doing my eyelashes like this quite a bit lately, even splurging on my first eye-lash curler (at the grand old age of 38). I think it works best towards the end of the week because I'm a bit sluttish when it comes to removing my mascara properly so it builds up.

There are heaps of other great beauty blogs and tutorials online so it's definitely worth a search if you're feeling a) stuck in a make-up rut and b) procrastinating about starting work and/or clearing out the cupboard under the sink.

2. James Bond Skyfall

Due out 26 Oct 2012. Can't wait. Love Bond.



3. My Slow Cooker

Fellow Meal Planning Monday-ers will know I love my slow cooker and with the weather shifting into autumn it's getting even more use. If you haven't got one then what are you waiting for?  You can pick a amall 1.5L one up at Argos for just £9.99 at the moment, or a 3.5L one for £11.99. Mine is just your basic bog standard, plug it in, 3 settings job and it's served me fine for years, but you can get fancy-schmancy ones with timers and stuff if you want. I can't rave about slow cooking enough but I will try. It saves time and washing up an you can use it for loads more than just pie fillings, soups and stews.

There are tonnes of great slow cooking recipes online that use proper ingredients (not just cans of soup) so search around and use the term crock-pot as well. Six Sisters have good tips if you're a slow cooker novice.


4. Eye bombing (eyebombing.com and www.flickr.com/groups/eyebombing)
Humanizing the world, one googly eye at a time.

Stuff like this makes me smile.



5. Apple Of My Eye
We can thank Josie and Rachael for this one. Picking up on their Twitter conversation about the singers in this Claims Direct advert and procrastinating about starting work and/or clearing out the cupboard under the sink (no change there) I found that one of the singers is in London based folk band Apple of  my Eye. I'm not a big folk lover, it has to be said, but I found a couple of tunes and really enjoyed it. Worth a listen.

Meal Planning Monday - 3 September 2012

Hello and welcome to what is, for one of my kids, the first day of year 6. The youngest goes back tomorrow and it can't come a minute too soon. I almost planned a week of salads in anticipation of the hot weather that usually arrives to mock us as school goes back, but have not.

I am sticking with the more veg, less processed food this week. My menu is:

Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Zucchini Boats

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili

Crepes with spinach, bacon and mushroom

Fridge Frittata

Crunchy Chicken Breasts

Left Overs

What is most impressive about this is that I actually planned this last Monday - kapow! who says I can't be organised?

Don't forget to check out Mrs M's linky for more Meal Planning Monday inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday - 27 August 2012

Happy Monday folks, or as I like to call it, 7 more sleeps until school starts Woo Hoo! This summer has been a little more miss than hit weather-wise and I am pretty much over it. Bring on September and autumn I say, and let's put this whole miserable farce behind us.

There is no doubt about, I have been gaining weight slowly for the last six months and reckon I've put on around 10lbs since March. It's weight I can ill afford so the focus is back on shifting the lard and eating more healthily (for now, anyway), which means lots of veg, as little processed food as I can manage, and my slow cooker for ease. Unsurprisingly I have left planning until the last minute so have taken inspiration from blogs found via Pinterest. It is not the most inspired menu, but then it is Monday morning so it was never going to be too complicated, was it.

Slow Cook Beef Fajitas from Ring Around the Rosies

Cumin Cinnamon Beef Stew

Ginger Cranberry Pork Roast

Thai Chicken Curry

Moroccan Lamb Stew

All from Mama and Baby's eBook

Slow cooker meatloaf 

Left overs

As usual, you will be able to find more Meal Planning Monday posts on Mrs M's linky. Happy eating.

Meal Planning Monday - 14 May 2012

Despite my best laid plans, last week's meals were a bit hit-and-miss (and may have included Domino's pizza). I made the chicken and wild rice casserole, which was lovely and comforting on a miserable weeknight. Instead of doing the gammon with grilled peaches, I improvised and made a sauce with peaches, cranberry sauce, red onion and Dijon mustard. It was really nice! I served it with roasted new potatoes (chopped up with skins on, olive oil, and salt). The enchilada casserole ended up being just enchilada's.

This week, I am aiming to cook:

Slow cooker Dijon chicken with spinach 

(this will get eaten as it is in the slow cooker now)
Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken
Quick and delicious weekday chicken
Sausages, brown onion gravy, peas, carrots, and Yorkshire pudding
Courgette, basil and goat's cheese frittata
Meatloaf (beef), mashed potatoes and veg

I have a glut of apples, some shortcrust pastry, and a tin of condensed milk, so I think I may experiment with some sort of caramel apple flan type thing. Even if it looks atrocious, it's bound to taste delicious with those ingredients.

I think I will also bake these no butter sugar biscuits for lunchboxes

As usual, check out Mrs M's Linky for more meal planning posts. I have taken a lot of inspiration from Pinterest this week, and you can see more recipes I have pinned on my Temptingly Tasty Family Food board over there.

Slow cooker teriyaki beef

This is a quick and very tasty dinner, and one which can be made with beef, chicken or pork. You can even use frozen chicken breasts if you want to. I started with this Six Sisters' recipe, but have gradually adapted it and now cook it differently ever time, depending on what I have to hand.


Slow Cooker Teriyaki Beef - serves 4
Put 400g of pork or beef strips, or 4 chicken breast halves in the slow cooker. The chicken can go in frozen if the breasts are separate, but I don't recommend the strips to be frozen as they will cook in  a nasty lump.

Add 1 jar/sachet of teriyaki sauce. If using marinade, use half a jar and dilute it

A slug of soy sauce

A tin of pineapple chunks and juice (make sure it's not the sort in syrup. If it is, drain the syrup and rinse the fruit)

a good handful of chopped pepper. I use frozen ones as they are cheaper and more convenient than fresh

Cook on high for around 4 hours, or low for 6 ish. Make sure the chicken is properly cooked, particularly if it was frozen when going in.

When it's done, remove a little of the liquid and add 1-2 tsp of cornflour and stir until smooth, then stir back in with the rest of the sauce to thicken it up if necessary.

Serve with rice, a sprinkling of raw cashews if you like a bit of crunch, or some chili flakes if you like it  hot.

January Meal Plan

The need to feel in control of meals and money again has led me to meal plan early. My aim for January is to bring each week's shopping in at £60 or less. I know I can do it if I plan and shop sensibly. It certainly can't hurt to try.

My handicaps are 2 fussy child eaters, 1 of whom won't eat potatoes or sauce in any form, and one whose likes and dislikes change on a whim; and a husband who eats a lot, but none of it pasta. On my side are my slow cooker, a love of baking, and a wealth of delicious and inexpensive ideas courtesy of all the lovely recipe bloggers out there.

Here are my 28 meals for January. I figure left overs will take care of the other 3 days. I have listed them vaguely order of shopping rather than order of eating. I have a big freezer so will either cook in advance (eg: beef stew will also be pie filling with a few tweaks), or cut meat into meal size portions and freeze.

I tend to use frozen vegetables in winter as they are cheaper and I can cook them in just the portion sizes I need, so where I have just put something like 'pot roast', it will be pot roast, peas and potatoes for example. I'll still be doing Mrs M's Meal Planning Monday linky each Monday.

1.       BBQ chicken fajita layer

2.       Meatloaf

3.       Fridge fajita

4.       Pot roast

5.       Beef stew

6.       Beef pie

7.       Chicken stew

8.       Chicken pie

9.       Chicken curry

10.   Chinese lemon chicken

11.   Creamy Chicken Casserole*

12.   Beer chicken (chicken pieces cooked in crock pot in beer)

13.   Sausage casserole

14.   Sausage plait

15.   Rissoles

16.   Gammon, chips, peas and egg

17.   Pesto baked potatoes and gammon

18.   Ham and Potato casserole*

19.   Chilli and rice

20.   Chilli fajita layer

21.   Pizza

22.   Make you own wraps

23.   Pulled pork

24.   Egg, beans and chips

25.   Cranberry pork*

26.   Quorn, noodle & veg stir fry

27.   Root vegetable stew*

28.   Fridge fried rice

Meal Planning Monday - 9 October

Happy Monday peeps. I just had a read back through last week's menu and I didn't cook either the meatlhoaf or the chicken pancakes. We had left overs one night, and I can't remember what else on the other.

I've been through the Food board on Pinterest for inspiration this week and have decided on:

Slow cooker Italian Meatloaf

Roast Chicken

Chicken and garlic mushroom pie

Frittata with spinach and butternut squash

Slow cooker ginger and sesame chicken

and baking:

Flapjacks

Easy Chocolate Cake

Caramel Apple Crisp

There's lots of chicken in there, but I have a lot of chicken in the freezer that needs using.

If you're looking for more inspiration check out the linky at At Home With Mrs M

Meal Planning Monday - 3 October

 

October? October! Can someone please tell me how it got to be October already? I am sure it was only April last week, though given the weather I could have been excused for thinking it was July. 

Here is this week's plan. I'm a bit confused by it all this week as I scribbled October's plan down and then randomly chose meals from it when I did the shopping (always online via My Supermarket). Stupidly I can't remember what I chose so it's a matter of trying to match ingredients to what's on the list.

Sticky 5 Spice Gammon

Moroccan chicken in the slow cooker

(same as the other week. It has been requested again). 

chicken and mushroom pancakes

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes

Quorn, veg and noodle stirfry

Egg, chips and beans

I don't know what, if anything, I'll bake this week. I have been eating far too much of what I shouldn't lately and little pickers wear big knickers.

I currently have a chicken in the slow cooker grossing me out. Naked chickens are so ugly. Half the meat will go for pancakes and the other half will be frozen for use another time.

Meal Planning Monday - 26 September

phew, a mental Monday, but I've finally managed to commit my meal plan to blog for your eatification (see what I did there? bad pun, I know). Here it is:

Quorn cottage pie with butternut squash & cauliflower topping

Turkey Burgers & salad

Chicken curry

Pulled pork sandwiches & corn on the cob

Toad in the hole

Diet Coke chicken

I didn't make the crab frittata from last week, but I vow to make it this week to have for lunches. I am not a lover of seafood and often resist cooking it even though I know I need to eat more. 

Chicken curry and pulled pork will be done in the slow cooker and possibly also the Diet Coke chicken, depending on how my week pans out. It's one of those weeks where I've got something or other every single afternoon or evening, which cuts into meal preparation time so it needs to be done in advance where possible. 

One thing I did make last week was banana bread in my slow cooker. It was the first time I've ever made a cake in it and it was mostly a success. It was HUGE and I had to cut half of it into portion sizes and freeze as there was no way it would have all been eaten before it went yuck. Next time I will lower the temperature with about half an hour to go as the outside has a crust. I suppose it's ok because it was a bread recipe, but I prefer it without. This is the recipe I used.