Meal Planning - how do you do it?

charlies-aunt

Have you thought about keeping a stock of tinned food ?? - my default c-b-a meal is chopping and lightly frying an onion or two in a deep pan, mixing in a can of corned beef (chopped) and a tin of tomatoes / baked beans / red kidney beans and a bit of chillipowder. Served with savoury rice done in the microwave whilst the pan is on the stove top - not cordon bleu but fast, filling and tasty

do_it_today!

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Have you thought about keeping a stock of tinned food ?? - my default c-b-a meal is chopping and lightly frying an onion or two in a deep pan, mixing in a can of corned beef (chopped) and a tin of tomatoes / baked beans / red kidney beans and a bit of chillipowder. Served with savoury rice done in the microwave whilst the pan is on the stove top - not cordon bleu but fast, filling and tasty

thanks for this tip!

Quenastoise

I'm meal planning on a weekly basis as I only have a small freezer and I want to have some flexibility with the plan if a whoopsie turns up.

I batch cook for all my lunches and usually have left overs for lunch or something in a spicy sauce with rice cooked in the slow cooker.

DH is home before me and has to eat as soon as he comes in so I tend to either prepare his meals the night before and he microwaves them, or I cook and freeze his meals for the week.

I also have veggies and herbs prepped up and frozen ready to be used as needed, as well as frozen slices of bread for HM garlic bread. The first drawer of the freezer is meats and DH's meals, the middle drawer is veggies and the bottom drawer is lunches, fruit purees and bread.

My ambition is to clear the freezer once a week, do the meal plan, the weekly shop and then the batch cooking and have the fridge empty at the end of the week. I am not quite there yet.

do_it_today!

That sounds like a really good system Q

Allegra

do_it_today! wrote: »

(no one everseems to mention making homemade pasta does anyone do it?)

With smartprice pasta at 20p and spaghetti at 28p per bag, for me this is something that is just not worth the effort If it's something you enjoy doing though, or tend to spend a lot on fresh pasta as the norm, I don't see why not. I have made lasagne sheets on occasion if I've run out of basic stuff, rather than popping to the shops just for that.

Psykicpup

I like to have building blocks in the freezer .. not the kiddies ones lol ... so when my big sack of Potatoes were getting a bit sprouty, I had a peeling session & now have lots of part cooked roasties bagged in 5's in the freezer (cos I can only eat 2 but he likes three..same with daughter & her significant other etc). I did the same with Onions .. although they were just finely chopped & frozen flat in the bag cos they dont seem to stick in a hard lump that way ... I can just grab a handful when needed. We also have carrots out there. sliced & julliened. At Xmas I stocked up on other frozen veg from Iceland .. not my 1st choice but with the weather we had I didnt want to risk not having Veg for xmas day.
Add to this, ensuring there is always no thaw meat such as sausages, mince maybe even lamb chops, I can knock up a meal fairly quickly when I forget to get something out.
I also like to have some ready portioned meals that I can just microwave or heat from frozen in the oven for those cant be a**d days.
You could always freeze homemade pizzas for those too tired to do anything days....maybe some home made oven chips out there too - or even buy some but be strong & keep them for the 'emergency' days! :rotfl:

Psykicpup

Allegra wrote: »

With smartprice pasta at 20p and spaghetti at 28p per bag, for me this is something that is just not worth the effort If it's something you enjoy doing though, or tend to spend a lot on fresh pasta as the norm, I don't see why not. I have made lasagne sheets on occasion if I've run out of basic stuff, rather than popping to the shops just for that.

I make pasta too but I find it so time consuming ... all that kneading, not to mention the clear up after! (I seem to be a flour magnet when I cook :rotfl:)

fingersxed

Whenever i do cottage pie i always do double amount and freeze 1. Same with spag bol. I have been known to do cottage pie 1 night then following evening serve mince with pasta n call it spag bol.

Another tip i picked up was touse naan breads as pizza bases. just add Ketchup n wot eva u have available/fancy top with cheese n u have a delious pizza. My OH doesn't like pizza but he enjoyed these!

do_it_today!

Psykicpup wrote: »

I make pasta too but I find it so time consuming ... all that kneading, not to mention the clear up after! (I seem to be a flour magnet when I cook :rotfl:)

Hi
I saw a youtube video making the dough in a breadmaker dough left to rest then just put through the pasta maker :j

do_it_today!

Psykicpup wrote: »

I like to have building blocks in the freezer .. not the kiddies ones lol ... so when my big sack of Potatoes were getting a bit sprouty, I had a peeling session & now have lots of part cooked roasties bagged in 5's in the freezer (cos I can only eat 2 but he likes three..same with daughter & her significant other etc). I did the same with Onions .. although they were just finely chopped & frozen flat in the bag cos they dont seem to stick in a hard lump that way ... I can just grab a handful when needed. We also have carrots out there. sliced & julliened. At Xmas I stocked up on other frozen veg from Iceland .. not my 1st choice but with the weather we had I didnt want to risk not having Veg for xmas day.
Add to this, ensuring there is always no thaw meat such as sausages, mince maybe even lamb chops, I can knock up a meal fairly quickly when I forget to get something out.
I also like to have some ready portioned meals that I can just microwave or heat from frozen in the oven for those cant be a**d days.
You could always freeze homemade pizzas for those too tired to do anything days....maybe some home made oven chips out there too - or even buy some but be strong & keep them for the 'emergency' days! :rotfl:

this is what I have started to do with what Ive got at the moment, I have a couple of really big bags of veg so have started dividing them into meal portion bags. Cooked a batch of chili tomato sauce and chicken breasts/ some roasted some boiled -and chopped to be added to curry/ stew/ salad.

also like the naan bread idea!