Menu Planning Tips (merged)

MATH

When you make your shopping list write it in isle order, it saves you loads of time when shopping and the quicker you shop the less you notice the tempting displays/deals - the less you spend!

Penny-Wise_4

Lillibet wrote:

I would love your lemon chicken recipe, I've never been able to get it right but then I tend to make it up as I go along!
The white fish & avacodo sounds good too, will be trying that one out!

Lemon Chicken

Chicken

Cut up your chicken into bite sized pieces and coat in flour, beaten egg and then ground rice (you can use breadcrumbs instead of the ground rice if you like). Then fry until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper

Lemon sauce

Dissolve 2 tablespoons of shredless/fine cut lemon marmalade in a pan with some water. Add some lemon juice to taste (depends whether you like it sweet or tart), then thicken with cornflour.


Pour sauce over chicken.

Lucie_2

Out of curiosity I have just written out a list of the meals we eat regularly - all 21 of them! Enough food for 3 weeks without having the same thing twice. I've listed by main ingredient

Mince - Spaghetti bolognaise
Meatballs & pasta w tomato sauce
Chilli con carne
Shepherds/Cottage pie
Home made burgers
Mexican tacos

Chicken - Chicken curry
Spicy chicken pasta bake
Chicken fajitas
Chicken "muck up" - made with tin condensed mushroom soup served w rice
Italian Chicken - sundried tomatoes, cream & pasta
Breadcrumbed chicken - bash it thin, then flour, egg & breadcrumb
Chicken cordon bleu - stuffed with ham & cheese
Chicken Wellington - wrapped in pastry a la beef wellington
Coq au vin

Fish - Fish pie

Pork fillet - in a mushroom mustard & cream sauce served w rice

Bacon - Spaghetti carbonara

Sausages - Sausage & apple casserole served in giant yorkshire puds

Mushroom risotto
Spanish omelette/Fritata

Plus we will have occasional roast dinners, casseroles (beef or pork usually) as well as the good old piece of meat/fish & 2 veg as well

How come I can never think of anything to have for dinner?!

Will post up recipes if anyone's interested..................

chardonnay_2

a friends mum must have menu planned, except with no variety. every monday was the same, and every tuesday was the same etc. my friend would hate a certain day of the week as it was always something she wasn't very fond of. lol

beachbeth

Two things I cook regularly are Chili Con Carne and Macaroni with Sausagemeat and Carrots. I double the quantities and put what I don't eat in small 1-portion sized dishes in the freezer. I can then get one of these out of the freezer the night before and just reheat, covered in foil in the oven for an hour. 15 minutes before it is completely reheated I cook the rice if its chili and the macaroni if its the pasta sauce. Easy! You could cook them perhaps at the weekend when you've more time and freeze them for in the week.

Here is the pasta recipe. Dont let the carrots put you off, it doesn't taste at all carroty and you don't notice they're there!

8 oz pork sausages or sausagemeat
1tbs cooking oil
½ oz butter
½ medium sized onion, finely chopped
3 medium sized carrots, grated
14oz can tomatoes, pureed in blender
4 floz chicken or beef stock (water & ½ cube)
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried oregano
12 oz macaroni or spiralli
3oz freshly grated parmesan or cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

If using whole sausages, remove skin and slice. Heat oil and butter in a saucepan and cook onion until translucent. Add sausagemeat and lightly brown. Add the carrots and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, bay leaf and oregano and cook, covered, over a low heat for 30 minutes. Season with the salt and pepper. Cook and drain the pasta and mix with the sauce. Serve, sprinkled with cheese. Yum!

tiff

Never had sausages with pasta before, but sounds nice - will give it a try.

r.mac_2

definately going to try the lemon chicken. Sounds yum and very easy! Thanks.

Bogof_Babe

I am married to a veggie so that restricts our evening meals quite a bit. However some of the things we routinely have are...

Oven chips nearly every night (I kid you not. We are on Aunt Bessie's Homestyle at the moment and they are the best yet)

Bread rolls or sliced wholemeal or crusty bread - again every night, as it bulks the meal out, and most things taste better in a sandwich! Garlic bread quite often too, but only when knocked down to less than 50p! Or I make my own with garlic granules, dried herbs and leftover rolls.

Quiches or pizzas (when reduced or on special offer). I get a basic plain cheese and tomato pizza, and top with sliced mushrooms before cooking.

Dalepack cauliflower cheese grills or Vegetable Quarter Pounders (this is where the bread rolls come in - DIY veggie McD's lol) with breaded onion rings and chips.

Sainsbury's (or M&S when on 3for2) cheese and onion crispbakes - again with bread rolls and chips

Jacket potatoes with baked beans and cottage cheese. Don't have these too often, due to cost of gas to cook the spuds, but nice easy treat for a Saturday.

Home made veggie lasagne or pasta spirals (I don't make the pasta!) with Beanfeast sauce, tarted up with dried herbs, celery salt, mushrooms and tinned tomatoes, to make it taste of something! Not allowed to do this too often as I always make enough for two nights (justifies all that washing up!) and he gets fed up of it).

Sainsbury's frozen vegeburgers (8 for £1.99) or frankfurter style veggie sausages (they are delish) in rolls.

Occasionally Linda McCartney vegetarian pies, which are nice but take 40 mins in the oven from frozen.

Every night I make sure there is a decent helping of veg - something green and usually a sliced up carrot cooked with it "for interest". Loads of salads in summer, but often in winter too - basic but yummy one is little gem lettuces, cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced hard boiled eggs, and salad cress on top. Sometimes I finely shred a bit of onion to give it extra oomph.

Luckily we both tend to eat to live rather than live to eat, so the lack of variety doesn't really matter. I try to mentally work out the cost of each night's main meal, and it is usually around £2 to £2.50 for both of us, which I don't think is too bad.

We are further restricted in that I am allergic to Quorn and not very keen on nuts, and he isn't very keen on pasta and doesn't like rice! Still we haven't starved yet! I never expect to spend more than the time it takes me to listen to The Archers (15 mins) in the kitchen preparing the evening offering, so apart from making salads and the pasta conconctions during the day, that's my lot! Delia Smith - don't eat your heart out! If it was just me I could actually live on mashed potato and cheese.:o

tiff

Bogof, re the jacket spuds you could part do them in the microwave and then put them in the oven to finish off. Works for me if I'm pushed for time.

Do you really have chips every night? Wouldnt have thought that was too healthy, but then my vice is eating chocolate so what do I know lol

Lillibet_2

I always cook more jacket spuds than I need & freeze the spares for the following weeks. It takes no more gas to cook 10 than to cook 2 and they freeze perfectly or keep in the fridge for about 3-4 days. You can then reheat from frozen in the microwave or re-heat in the oven after defrosting (gives a crispy skin which you don't get in the microwave). Either way takes about 10 mins.
Oh, and my mother in law par-boils her jacket spuds on the hob for 20 mins before popping in the oven for another 20 mins & they come out fine too.

Hope this helps someone?