Meal plan - w/c 23 May

So what's on this week's meal planner? This week it's National Vegetarian Week so in honour of that I'm going to include a few new veggie meals. I normally try and do a couple of meat free meals a week anyway so it would be good to widen my repertoire!

Yesterday, we went to pizza express to celebrate a friends birthday so this is what I'm planning to do for the rest of the week:

Tuesday - pork stir fry & noodles

Wednesday - vegetable goulash

Thursday - chickpea & cashew korma

Friday - chicken casserole

Saturday - mixed bean chilli with wedges

Sunday - stuffed lamb roast dinner

What have you got on your meal planner?

Meal planning - what we ate.....

All of last week, I kept on meaning to jot down what was on our meal plan but forgot!

So this is what we ate:

Monday - chicken risotto
Tuesday - salmon, corn on the cob & salad
Wednesday - burgers with wedges

Thursday - lentil spag bol

Friday - sausage tomato pasta

Saturday - fish pie (cooked by hubbie using River Cottage cookbook)

Sunday - dinner out with friends

Salmon, corn on the cob & salad

Homemade burgers (uncooked)

Fish Pie served with broccoli

New recipes books - bargains!

Look what I picked up yesterday! Two great sounding recipes books for £7!

Was really pleased - what a complete bargain?!

I'm really hoping that they will help with my budget recipe planning efforts.

I know, I know why does trying to budget always involve more spending?! With this though, I'm hoping that with great meal planning (so not wasting food or resorting to bought out food) that I'll recoup the £7 in no time at all.

Well, in the first week actually would be nice :-)

P.S. And that says "Bumper" in case any one was wondering.....!!

Meal planning

Meal planning is a great way to feel organised (I love lists of all kinds) and can help with budgeting (my other new big thing!!).

I tend to collect recipes from all kinds of places - online, magazines, supermarkets etc and have sort of a filing system to keep them altogether. Next on my list is to make a pretty recipe binder link the one on this fab blog.

But for now heres what's on my meal planner this week (with the emphasis being on cheap but healthy!):

Monday: chickpea curry with pittas

Tuesday: roast veggie moussaka with feta

Wednesday: grilled fish with wedges & veg

Thursday: pancakes filled with cheesy veg

Friday: chicken & mushroom pie

Saturday: lamb koftas in tomato sauce with rice

Sunday: lentil spaghetti bolognese

Veggie moussaka

The roast veggie moussaka with feta recipe is from the BBC Good Food magazine May 2008:

Serves 4

Prep: 10 mins; Cook 45 mins

Per serving: 223 kcals

2 yellow peppers, cut into chunks

2 red onions, cut into wedges

2 medium courgettes, cut into chunks

1 large aubergine, cut into chunks

1 tbsp olive oil

85g/3oz feta

1 egg

200ml tub Greek yogurt

700g bottle passata

2 tsp dried oregano

1. Heat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6. Scatter the vegetables into a large roasting tin. Toss with oil, season, then roast for 25 mins until softened.

2. Break up the feta with a fork, then mix well with the egg, yogurt and seasoning. When the veggies are ready, tip them into an ovenproof dish, then stir in the passata & oregano. Spoon over the creamy topping, turn the oven up to 220c/fan 200c/gas 7, then bake for 20-25 mins until the filling is hot and the topping is beginning to brown & bubble.

Enjoy!

P.S. You might notice I swapped out some of the veg...you can basically use whatever is in your fridge!

Welcome to my blog!

Welcome to my new blog - Meal planning inspiration.

Here's a couple of facts about me:

1. I'm married and mum to two great kids.

2. I can cook but not all that well! I'm really interested in healthy eating and feeding my kids home cooked food so I'm always trying to improve my cooking!

3. I eat my meals incredibly early!! I eat with the kids and they are early risers/early to bed. So my mealtimes are something like this - breakfast @6am, lunch @12pm and dinner @5pm.

4. I've started a couple of blogs before but never kept them going. I'm really going to try and keep this one going.

5. I love trying to be organised. I love everything that goes with that both offline (pens, paper, stickers etc) and online (apps, reminders, fly lady etc). But somehow, other than meal planning, I never quite make it at being organised especially when it comes to remembering birthdays :-)!!!

Hope you enjoy reading.