Meal Planning - how do you do it?

zcrat41

Hi Stingy Rach,

Don't really know that much about batch cooking, I'm sure cleverer people than I will be along shortly,

but

your meatball and goats cheese sounds lovely, could you please share the recipe??!!

ZC

stef240377

As OH and i have decided we need a new car i have looked at finances and seen we have easily been spending in excess of £100 a week on food for 2 adults and 3 greedy teenagers. I looked through purely what we have in the 2 freezers today and have meal planned for the next 3 weeks easily, the final week may have to have a little imagination but it is all do able with the only things i need to buy being fresh fruit and milk. Bread i have enough flour to make the bread we need and all my veg has accumulated in recent deals in morrisons and all chopped and prep'd ready to use. I wont be batch cooking though as there is only enough for each meal and i am not repeating any of the meals through those weeks.

Household wise we have enough cleaning products to get by for a good month or two as stocked up the last time we went to Bookers. For bathing/washing we had so many items for xmas we will be lucky to have to buy any thing other than loo roll or mouth wash for the next month.

Im really looking forward to this as the prospect of having £400 in the bank at the end of the month is quite warming.

stingy_rach

Hiya,

Of course! i use this recipe as a base http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/baked-meatballs-with-goats-cheese
and just add roasted veg to the ragu. Serve with pasta one night and rice the next (assuming my DH hasn't scoffed the lot!).

nsimpson123

Sounds brilliant to me,it's the sort of thing I would like to do, please keep us updated how you are getting on.

zcrat41

Thanks, that sounds so nice I'm going to make it this week! Good job sticking to your £100. I'd love to be able to do that - I'm on about £150 at the mo for me and the other half

purpleivy

stingy_rach wrote: »

Hi guys

Today I placed an internet order with Mr T for a whole months worth of food. It came to the princely sum of £100 (two of us) and includes our household stuff and everything except bread, milk and some more fresh fruit in a couple of weeks.:eek:

However, although I am no stranger to batch cooking, in fact I am possibly excited at the prospect of spending the whole of Saturday in the kitchen, I am starting to get a little freaked out that this is a crazy idea and will go horribly wrong.

Has anyone else tried this or do this on a regular basis?

This month I have decided we will be mostly eating:

Chilli Con Carne (batch cooked)
Roasted Veg lasagne (gonna batch cook the ragu)
Pork & Mushroom Pie (filling already in freezer)
Meatball & goats cheese bake (ragu as veg lasagne)
Ribs & h/m coleslaw (can only really freeze the ribs for later use!)
Risotto (gonna use whatever is left over)
Potato, thyme & brie pizza (gonna freeze 1/2 pizza dough)
Crayfish pasta
Salmon & gnocchi bake (gonna freeze gnocchi in batches)
Salmon, mint & pea fishcakes (using leftover above & freeze 1/2)
Mushroom & potato curry (batch cook)
Thai prawn curry (batch cook)
Moussaka (batch cook ragu & roasted aubergine)
Paella (frozen seafood mix)


Anyone think I may be being overly ambitious - cooking not an issue - used to run pubs and am used to cooking for lots of people. Just a bit worried I'm gonna run out freezer space or end up with lots of leftovers?

Any thoughts?:eek:

Have you got room for one more? It soundsd delicious. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with my meal plan, but other peoples' always sound so more exciting!

stingy_rach

Well, am up at 5am tomorrow so off to bed but will keep this updated after my delivery on Tuesday - although not sure where it's all gonna go!

MrsBartolozzi

Were you planning to freeze and reheat the prawns? Normally I'd not have a problem - once cooked they are "bacteria free" and so will be fine to freeze but they can be a bit overcooked and tough when reheated. Maybe you could make the sauce and cook the prawns when you heat it up as they don't take long?

MrsFraggle

I do exactly the same thing

I do a meal plan for the month on a spreadsheet, it can be quite complicated in our house because all my children aren't at home every day for tea, so doing the meal plan makes things a bit easier and certainly reduces wastage. I can also tailor meals to whoever is home. I print it out and stick it to the fridge.

My asda shop for the month came on Friday and this weekend I've been adding to my freezer full of meals. Lasagnes, curries, chilli, etc. I work full time so having 'ready meal' type things in the freezer (and knowing what we're having on one day) really works well for us. If I make pizza at a weekend I make twice as much dough and freeze the rest etc.

I am a bit of a control freak though!!

Buddingblonde

Like you I am trying to get as much batch cooking done as possible so that I am not spending on takeaways when I am too tired to cook.
Over this weekend I have made a huge portion of mash (half in the fridge and half frozen in portions), a large pan of bacon and lentil soup (again half frozen), a batch of twinks hobnobs for packed lunches, a banana loaf, a dozen hard boiled eggs (for sandwich fillings) frozen some ham and pickle sandwiches, roasted 2 chickens, stripped them and made curries, will freeze some of the meat too, made stock from the carcasses.
The mash in the fridge will be used to make potato scones or possibly gnocchi (as I have a jar of pesto in the fridge) and I will suplement meals with veg and fruit. I have some mince in the fridge that will be made into spicy meatballs and I will make a cheese sauce for some veg and pasta dishes for me.
I am pooped but if it means that I am not cooking during the week then I am happy.