wanted an opinion on last months meals.

ariarnia

I seem to be doing a tad pants when it comes to posting and keeping to meal plans/budgets. I'll persevere, but I've managed to keep track of dinner for the last month since Christmas.

It seems to have gone down quite well, and I was wondering what people thought of it as a general meal plan (with single meal in variations and not sticking to it like a holy mandate obviously) and I'll try and keep to it for next month.

We tend to feel not hard done to (as a family) if we get desert twice a week and if we get fake takeout on Saturday.

If this looks reasonable, then I can price it up and see how well I stick to it for the next 4 weeks. I've tried to spread out/vary the carbs, and the veg aren't specifically planned so I can take advantage of what they've got at the market/whoopsied in the week. if no bargains then I have a draw full of frozen to fall back on.

Monday
KFC + Chips - KFC, Curley Fries, Mixed Veg/corn on the cob. Banana Cake

Tuesday
Fish Pie - Fish x 6 pieces varied , Prawns/muscles, White Sauce, Cheese, 1kg peas/corn, Mash

Wednesday
Fish Pie

Thursday
Pork Chops + Rice - Pork Chops, Apple, Cheese, Rice, Green or mixed veg

Friday
Sausage + Mash - Sausage, Mash, Peas, Gravy, Bread + Butter Pudding

Saturday
Pizza - salad or coleslaw, Pizza (base and topping or cheap store), Chips, Dip

Sunday
Roast Gammon - Gammon, Mash, Roast Pots, Vegetables,

Monday
Gammon + Chips - Gammon, Eggs, Vegetables, Pineapple, Chips, Crumble

Tuesday
Cottage Pie - Meat Base (slowcooker - mince, oats lentils grated carrot, onion. 1/2 saved for next time), Stewed Steak, oxtail Soup, Tin of Mince, Vegetables, Mash, Cheese

Wednesday
Cottage Pie

Thursday
Lamb Chops+ Rice - Lamb chops, Mint, Vegetables, Rice

Friday
Fishcakes+ Wedges - Fish cakes, Wedges, Peas, Banana Cake

Saturday
Chinese - Cubed Meat, Vegetables, Peppers, Sauce, Rice

Sunday
Pie + Chips - Pie, Peas, Chips/ Mash, Gravy

Monday
Scampi+ wedges - Scampi, Wedges, Peas, Crumble

Tuesday
Curry + bajee - 500g/1kg meat chunks, Lentils, Oats, 2x value sauce, 1x good sauce, Carrots, Rice (half in freezer)

Wednesday
Curry

Thursday
Pasta bake - Tuna, Pasta, Vegetables, Cheese, White sauce, Cobbler

Friday
Pasta bake

Saturday
Burgers - Burgers, Baps, Chips/curly fries, Sweetcorn, relish

Sunday
Roast pork - Lump o meat, Pots, Parsnips, Vegetables, Stuffing,

Monday
Roast Pork Bread + Butter Pud

Tuesday
Chilli, 500g mince, 2x chopped tomatoes, Onions, Carrot, 2x value chilli s, 2x Kidney beans in Chilli sauce, Jar good chilli sauce, Rice (1/3 saved for lasagne base)

Wednesday
Chilli

Thursday
Fish and chips - Fish, Chips, Peas

Friday
Lasagne, Meatbase (from chilli), Lasagne Pasta, Cheese sauce, Cheese, Garlic Bread, White Sauce, Cobbler

Saturday
Lasagne

Sunday
Roast Chicken, Chicken, Potatoes, Peas, Carrots, Stuffing, Gravy

wssla00

It looks ok but I would think about freezing the mince base or the extra portions of food made eg the cottage pie and then you can change the days a bit more. It freezes pretty well and only takes a little while to heat up again. I would perhaps look at using less fish or cheaper types in the pie. One less isn't that much different and will save a bit of money

I always plan weekly as i find sometimes I am a bit flitty and i adapt what I am cooking depending on what is left in the fridge and cupboards.

I got the life book in the sale someone said about on the grabbit page and it is great as it has a space every day for a meal plan and it also has a detachable shopping list for every week which helps, but any wee diary might make things better

Enjoy your planning. It makes dinners a whole lot easier!

Butterfly_Brain

I don't want to sound critical but I would not have chips more than once a week - try jacket potatoes instead
KFC is expensive try making your own,
A few of the days are a bit samey and I would do as wsslaOO sugests and freeze some of the things for another week
Fishcakes are easy to make too
If you are cooking mince I would cook loads in one day and make lots of different things, such as cottage pie, bolognaise/lasagne, chilli, meatballs and burgers.
Buy a whole chicken and have a roast one day and use the leftovers for a curry or stew the next day and on the third day make a soup with the carcasse
HTH

ariarnia

Fishpie, I'm happy with, we only have 1 'proper' fish meal a month (breaded fish, tuna pasta and fishcakes don't really count with me in the same way). 6 fish steaks (normally 1 cod, 1 smoked haddock, 1 or 2 mackerel, 1 tin tuna/whoopsied steak, 1 salmon, and a couple of whitefish) makes it one whole steak per person over the two days and I think that's ok given I buy the packs of 6 or so from iceland or farm foods for a couple of quid a pack. It's the most expensive meal I cook, but it's quick, healthy and tasty.

Problem with the varying the chips is they're the only type of potato the MIL will eat ( I cook in exchange for board) without complaint so it's either chips a couple of times a week or rice and I can't really afford more of the microwavable rice that's also the only type of rice she likes.

She's resigned to some mash on some meals like cottage pie, though she doesn't like a lot of it, and a kg of chips/ fries or whatever does 9 meals easily and only costs £1 for those 9 meals, a pack of the micro rice is more than a pound a pack but is what she'd rather have with every meal, lunch and dinner. She doesn't like normal boiled rice, though we sometimes have it with chilli as she doesn't mind it then.

As far as meals like soup are concerned, that wouldn't go down well here as a main meal (stew occasionally when accompanied by LOTS of bread and cheese and big chunks of meat) I think it's just a matter of perception, but OH and I don't tend to do lunch or breakfast (piece of fruit or two normally) so want something to feel more solid for dinner, and MIL thinks of soup as sick food or summer lunch.

I do intend to vary the meals, but I figure that one of my worst problems with budgeting is keeping in line for the month as I shop weekly. If I can fix a monthly plan I can try a shop at the start of the month and nsd it the rest of the month (short milk, bread and veg obviouly) this should lead me away from the path of temptation.

If this month works then I can figure a different one for next month and maybe have two winter and two summer plans? or three for through the year.

This is more a knock together of what we like and what's easy to cook, comfortable as it's what we had when, after Christmas, MIL was home all day for 3 weeks nearly the full 4) with school hols and snow and we were all feeling a bit stir crazy.

ubamother

It sounds as if you are having to compromise to meet everyone's needs - and I'm guessing MIL's tastes are fairly traditional. Would maybe one meal a week being meat free be possible - that might save a bit? Would roasties be a change from chips that MIL might accept - these can be easily parboiled, parroasted then frozen and you can finish off in the oven from frozen?

lilian1977

Could you serve your MIL oven chips and then give the rest of the family jacket potatoes? I hate the idea that you're being forced to give your whole family chips so often!

Mr_Lahey

Whilst it looks great and you clearly have put a lot of effort and thought into it i think it looks slightly high on the carb and saturated fat side.
If this is not a concern for you then i apologise. If it is then by making a few small changes you could reduce both by a lot.
For example, rather than gammon and chips, try it with some steamed veg. Or instead of buying frozen fish cakes/burgers make your own.
Ensure you cook your food bases with Olive oil and any deep frying if you cannot avoid it in Rapeseed Oil.

Also, if you sacked of KFC that would add more to your budget so you could buy more ingredients which would enable you to make more things from scratch as opposed to frozen pre made nasty things.

ariarnia

I don't do any deep fat frying at all. It's all either oven or slow cooker. I also don't habitually use any oil - I'm not even sure if we have any in the house to be honest. If I'm cooking/baking I use butter and on bread we have pura or flora light. meat goes directly into the slow cooker raw. I buy lean and then it cooks in it's own fat rather than browning in oil and pouring off the excess.

KFC has been picked out by a couple of you and I might try switching it out for basic breaded chicken (though I should point out that it's not take out, it's store bought spicy breaded chicken that goes in the oven.) i'm not sure how to make this if I do for myself? The same way as breaded fish but with chicken breasts - that is to say egg and flour?

We do have carbs with each meal. I wasn't aware that it was a problem. We do also have protein and veg with each meal. My OH and I only eat a proper meal once a day - I know it's a bad habit, but it's what is, and so generally the protein we have with dinner, the fats and the carbs are all we have for the day - we eat fruit at breakfast and lunch and during the day rather than proper food so the veg is an add to.

I'm going to look into the one veg meal a week thing. My mum was a vegetarian so it shouldn't be to alien a concept, but all I can really remember her having as a meal was either fruit (where I got it from) with cereals or creamed mushrooms on toast (cooked slugs yugh!). I know she probably cooked other things, but I can't really think what they would be. She was a take it out the packet and cook in the oven type cook so no real problem with feeding the whole family something different and I never really paid attention to food to be honest.

Mr_Lahey

ariarnia wrote: »

I don't do any deep fat frying at all. It's all either oven or slow cooker. I also don't habitually use any oil - I'm not even sure if we have any in the house to be honest. If I'm cooking/baking I use butter and on bread we have pura or flora light. meat goes directly into the slow cooker raw. I buy lean and then it cooks in it's own fat rather than browning in oil and pouring off the excess.

KFC has been picked out by a couple of you and I might try switching it out for basic breaded chicken (though I should point out that it's not take out, it's store bought spicy breaded chicken that goes in the oven.) i'm not sure how to make this if I do for myself? The same way as breaded fish but with chicken breasts - that is to say egg and flour?

We do have carbs with each meal. I wasn't aware that it was a problem. We do also have protein and veg with each meal. My OH and I only eat a proper meal once a day - I know it's a bad habit, but it's what is, and so generally the protein we have with dinner, the fats and the carbs are all we have for the day - we eat fruit at breakfast and lunch and during the day rather than proper food so the veg is an add to.

I'm going to look into the one veg meal a week thing. My mum was a vegetarian so it shouldn't be to alien a concept, but all I can really remember her having as a meal was either fruit (where I got it from) with cereals or creamed mushrooms on toast (cooked slugs yugh!). I know she probably cooked other things, but I can't really think what they would be. She was a take it out the packet and cook in the oven type cook so no real problem with feeding the whole family something different and I never really paid attention to food to be honest.

Oils are broken down into different groups and some are actually healthy. Olive Oil for instance is a Monosaturate and actually reduces cholesterol, the bad stuff tends to be saturated fat like that on red meat which you have said you don't eat and trans fats like those contained in pre cooked frozen foods.
Carbs are only bad if you are already over weight or if you eat in excess and then don't regularly exercise.
It seems you certainly are very organised when it comes to cooking and deciding what you want. With what you have said since your first post then it seems you already have good eating habits and i hope they continue. There is nothing like a good home made meal

ariarnia

ok, I'm going to see if I can stick to this for the next month (feb) as that gives us a week off meal plan to use up the bits in the fridge and for me to see if I can work out any veg meals.

Bad of me but my first jump is bean feast... don't know the nutritional value, but I can do better than that.

If you have any suggestions I'd be interested in trying one of them as a carb free meal. I have no idea what one of those would look like, especially vegetarian.

I have the outlook of food with carb if you know what I mean. Veg and meat can be cooked together, or even just veg (I've cooked successfully for vegan friends before) but are always served with pots, rice, chips, mash, pasta, cuscus(sp), the list goes on. Even soup or stew goes with bread.

We don't like mushrooms or tomatoes as a family unless they're cooked into something. I have a nut intolerance, other than that, we'll try anything once. Thanks in advance.

lilian1977

Nice veggie dishes where you might not notice that there's no meat include ratatouille with pasta or rice, spicy bean and sweet potato stew, 5 bean chilli.

Have a look at this restaurant menu as well, it's Simon Rimmer's veggie restaurant, it's at the end of my road and I've known many meat eaters who've loved it!

http://greensdidsbury.co.uk/menus/menu.pdf