Menu's (Again - Sorry!!!)

Well, i'm delighted to report that I've managed to drastically reduce my monthly spending by being more price conscious, using up leftovers and most importantly planning what we're going to eat. However.... we can't seem to stick to the menu I've planned. For example, this week the menu centred around lots of salads and cold foods, however the temperature has dropped and both of us feel like heavier/warmer food. As a step in the right direction we're eating the stuff I've made and put in the freezer, instead of going out an buying food, but I can still see that I'll end up throwing food out later this week.

Do you all stick religiously to your menu, if so how!?! Where do you find your self discipline? What kind of things do you eat on a week to week basis? It may help to say that we don't buy any 'handy' meals, everything we eat is homemade from fresh ingredients. So our weekly menu is not a simple as take out chicken kiev and chips from the freezer, which I think ultimately leads us to wasting food. I don't like red meat so many of the cheaper 'marvellous meals with mince/sausages etc' aren't any good for me. I do eat lots of beans/lentils/chick peas, but could really do with finding recipes other than curries and bean salads for them. Suggestions gratefully accepted. :D

I feel like such a dunce, I just can't seem to get this basic part of our day to day living sorted out. I'm a pretty capable cook, but I seem to be unable to 'get back to basics' :sigh: :doh:
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Comments

  • nabowla
    nabowla Posts: 567 Forumite
    Cheer up, you're not alone! My menu plan for this week featured lots of salads and I thought I'd have a go at making tabboueh. However, it's far too cold for salads so I've got a whole lettuce sitting in the fridge (I discovered it was actually cheaper to buy a big whole lettuce than buying a small ready washed bag). I've also got piles of tomatoes and half a cucumber lurking in the fridge. I might well turn the tomatoes into soup or sauce but I can see the lettuce and cucumber going to waste unless the weather gets better. I'll be watching this thread with interest to see what the experts say about meal planning..............
  • Loadsabob
    Loadsabob Posts: 662 Forumite
    I think I'm at the point where I'd rather eat something that didn't fit the weather, than throw food out.

    But I think hearty soups or pastas are nice with a big side salad...or baked potatoes with something else warming, and a big salad on the side - so that it's not TOO summery, but you still get to use a lot of what you'd planned to have if the weather was nice. And I will tend to have a light salad / sandwich based lunch most weathers, with a main meal in the evening, so any salad stuff would be used up then. Or perhaps a warming hearty pudding to go with the lighter summery meals?

    That said, at the moment I'm struggling to use up my home grown lettuce and rocket before it bolts, due to bad planning of my morning lunch-making!

    I sometimes swap meals around within my plan, and if I can use the same ingredients to make something a little more suited to the weather, I will, as long as there's no waste. But I generally won't let myself buy food outside of the menu planner, so that's it, I figure I have enough food for the week based on my plan, then I have to work within it! I may sound harsh on myself, but it's not really caused any problems so far.
  • squeaky
    squeaky Posts: 14,129
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    I often have (what am I saying?)... I always have hot potatoes with a salad. If the weather is cool, instead of having a cheese sald or a tuna one I'll have a nice hot chicken one - so in essence I'm having a normal meal (with no gravy - but maybe melted butter on the taters :)) but am using up salady things as the vegetable portion.

    Lettuce left over? In sarnies - especially BLT's.

    Most salad bits work if added at the last moment or three to a stir fry, and lettuce does well shredded and chopped in any casserole.

    I threw a tomato out today - into the compost. The first bit of any food I've done that with for ages. It was hiding at the back of the fridge - the pesky thing! :)
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  • Stink_Pod
    Stink_Pod Posts: 38 Forumite
    squeaky wrote:
    II threw a tomato out today - into the compost. The first bit of any food I've done that with for ages.

    Wow, I am utterly impressed and deeply embarrassed at my own wastefulness. We throw out far too much food, particularly bread, occasionally fruit - less since I bought a juicer. Also my portion measures are a little 'generous' to say the least. :o

    I have such admiration for people sticking to meal plans, I find it so hard, particularly when Mr Stink gets home from a crappy day and really wants something he fancies to eat, rather than what's planned - to be fair, it is bad days at work or friends dropping by that results in us straying.
  • squeaky
    squeaky Posts: 14,129
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    Even if visiting friends or bad days throw your menu plan right out of the window that's no reason why the food itself should be heading right out there behind it.

    Most vegetables, and not a few salad things can be bunged into any sort of casserole, or curry, or spag bol as padding and then it can be frozen for another day.

    Or soup!

    If something's slipped off the "I'm going to eat it REAL SOON" list - just make something nice with it anyway and then stash it in the freezer. Next time OH has a bad day - you've got loads of frozen ready meals to choose from.

    Same with bread. Either keep it in the fridge full time or just freeze it. BEFORE it goes stale.

    If it does manage to escape and get stale- make breadcrumbs or bread sauce with it and again, stash them in the freezer for when you want them.
    Hi, I'm a Board Guide on the Old Style and the Consumer Rights boards which means I'm a volunteer to help the boards run smoothly and can move and merge posts there. Board guides are not moderators and don't read every post. If you spot an inappropriate or illegal post then please report it to [email protected]. It is not part of my role to deal with reportable posts. Any views are mine and are not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
    Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
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  • Loadsabob
    Loadsabob Posts: 662 Forumite
    Hi Stink Pod. I think a lot of people get into the habit of throwing things out, and it's not until you make a conscious decision not to that you realise how much would have previously been wasted. I thought I was pretty good, but I was still putting a lot of leftover veg in the compost. These days I chop and freeze anything I'm not going to use, ready for another meal (although my boyfriend says that roasting swede from frozen doesn't work, and he's not going to do it again! So I'll have to use that for something else). And bread always gets sliced and frozen as soon as it's made, used from the freezer, and any leftover crusts blended up into breadcrumbs for topping macaroni cheese and things. I feel great that I'm not wasting food, that really makes me feel uncomfortable these days.
  • Adrift
    Adrift Posts: 383
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    nabowla wrote:
    Cheer up, you're not alone! My menu plan for this week featured lots of salads and I thought I'd have a go at making tabboueh. However, it's far too cold for salads so I've got a whole lettuce sitting in the fridge (I discovered it was actually cheaper to buy a big whole lettuce than buying a small ready washed bag). I've also got piles of tomatoes and half a cucumber lurking in the fridge. I might well turn the tomatoes into soup or sauce but I can see the lettuce and cucumber going to waste unless the weather gets better. I'll be watching this thread with interest to see what the experts say about meal planning..............
    Hi,
    you can chop up lettuce and put it into stews and soups. Lettuce soup is a familiar item on Belgian menus. I believe that cos lettuces can also be braised but I've never tried that. Cucumber can also be cooked. It's pretty good chopped and used with other veg in a stir fry. HTH

    BWs Adrift


    Oops, just noticed a coupleof other people had mentioned about the lettuce already, sorry. :o
  • MATH
    MATH Posts: 2,941
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    As most other posters have also said I move meals around but stick to the overall plan. With salads (I eat them all year round anyway) I try to give hot or cold options so I can match the weather. We had salad last night with hot buttered new potatoes and hot honey and mustard sausages and hm bread. Had the weather been warmer I would have cooked it all in the morning and chilled to eat cold.

    If the weather turns cold here are some ideas to use salad up in hot meals:

    Layer tomatoes on the top of maraconi cheese and other cheese topped dishes. Scallions and Bell Peppers are great stir fried in savoury rice or cous cous.
    Cucumber mixed with yoghurt and mint and used as a dip to serve with a heart warming curry.
    Shredded lettuce tossed with crispy bacon and sauted baby potatoes makes a nice warm Winter Salad. - HTH
    Life's a beach! Take your shoes off and feel the sand between your toes.
  • Bogof_Babe
    Bogof_Babe Posts: 10,803 Forumite
    Salad rolls and oven chips - yumm, and so easy! We always have sliced hard-boiled eggs in our salads, which makes them into almost a meal in their own right.

    I know this thread is meant to be all about making things from scratch, but I honestly couldn't live without oven chips. We have them half a dozen times a week :o . Hubby doesn't mind at all what else I give him (provided it's vegetarian) so long as there are chips and bread available.

    Incidentally, you can almost always get some bargain or other on oven chips, so don't be too brand loyal, or fussy about whether they are straight cut or crinkly. The only ones we don't like are those thin things like matchsticks.
    :D I haven't bogged off yet, and I ain't no babe :D

  • dorry_2
    dorry_2 Posts: 1,427 Forumite
    bogoff babe i'm with u on this one, oven chips marvellous invention and lower fat than deep fried. i have been buying asda's own for 45p it last us all week!!


    oh and the menu's planning, i do like alot of you stick to it but sometimes i swap the weekdays around, depending on the weather and which way the wind is blowing!!!
    'If you judge people, you have no time to love them'
    Mother Teresa :D
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