My first attempt at a meal plan - help me improve!

sali_mali

Hello everyone :hello:

As the title suggests I've come up with my first meal plan so that I could spend less on my weekly shop. After reading a lot of you regular OSer's plans though, I suspect mine is a bit rubbish!

I'd really appreciate some help for next week, but there's some advice from the other threads I can't follow because I'm only cooking for myself. This means I can't bulk buy (I've made a pasta sauce for six before and frozen the five extra portions, which was very nice, but I get bored of it and like cooking every night rather than heating up what I've made before) Also, I don't have some basics that everyone else seems to have in their cupboards like flour or... well anything at all! :rolleyes:

Sorry for the waffling but I'm a 19 year old student and would very much like to join the OS club! Here's my shopping list -

Tinned tomatos x 2
Onions
Mushrooms
Tinned tuna x 2
White potatos
Beans x 2
Eggs
Cheese
Quorn sausages
Pasta

It cost me just over £11, which is much better than my usually weekly shop, but it needs to be less! (I bought this in Tesco express today which I know ismore expensive but I had no time to go elsewhere. Asda next week :beer: )

This is literally all I have in my cupboard! (Except bread milk and butter) This was based on the following meal plan -

HM tuna pasta (made tonight, very nice and half the sauce is waiting in the freezer for another day )
Beans and cheese and jacket potato
Mushroom omlette with fried potato chunks
Fried egg, HM chips, mushrooms and beans
Mashed potato, beans and sausages
Scrambled egg, sausage, mushrooms and fried potatos.

Bit rubbish isn't it? :rotfl: I thought I was very clever at the time but readin it back I really need your help! Thanks in advance :T and sorry for the length of thread :eek:

tryhard_2

hi,
pasta bake - use onion/tomato for sauce, grated cheese on top
pasta in tomato sauce - add cooked chopped sausages and mushrooms make extra sauce and use with jacket potato
tomato soup
do you have bread? toasted cheese sandwich is nice

Penny-Pincher!!

Hey Hun

That sounds yummy:D Can we assume you are vegeterian?

It is a good meal plan! Well done!!

PP
xx

AussieLass

PP,

She's got a bit of sausage planned the second & last night.

Penny-Pincher!!

Think there Quorn though:D

Your not being rude are you Aussie:rotfl:

wigginsmum

Looks perfectly reasonable to me. You've got veg and protein there. I'd probably add in some fruit, and maybe some green veg (peas in the omelette, broccoli in veg curry etc), but that's it. What do you do for breakfast and lunch?

Chipps

Hi! That list doesn't sound rubbish at all. It all looks like good, healthy, well-balanced meals.
If you are looking for more variety, then take a notebook & write down this week's menu plan. Then look around, on this & other websites, through library cook books, magazines etc, for recipes you like. (if they are full of expensive ingredients - adapt!) as you try a few more recipes, add them to your list of possible meals for your menu plan. Within a couple of weeks or so you will have quite a varied list of ideas.
Another thing, especially as you are only cooking for one, is to factor in "planned leftovers". For example, if you are planning a meal with potatoes one day, plan one with perhaps mashed potato topping the next day. Then cook double potatoes on the first day, mash half & put them away in the fridge for day 2. I hope that makes sense.

tryhard_2

i forgot to say, well done for cooking yourself.
has anyone tried to make fishcakes with tinned tuna?

squeaky

There are all sorts of menu plans around the place, including one where you can get advice and support. Follow the links below and have a good browse, you're bound to find some tips and ideas that you can use

Menu Planning:
The Menu Plans Collection
Weekly Meals Plans Links

sali_mali

Thanks for all the replies! No I'm not a veggie, but meat is so expensive!

What mashed potato dishes can I do minus fish or meat? Actually, I do fancy making a shepherds pie but I don't know where to start if someone can help there?

I'll try and get more greens in next week, brocolli in everything probably, it's my favorite! I'll have a look around those other links for more ideas, but any more help on here would be great

I'd never done cooking from scratch before Uni, it's easy once you get the hang of it and all my friends are so impressed! :rotfl:

sali_mali

wigginsmum wrote:

Looks perfectly reasonable to me. You've got veg and protein there. I'd probably add in some fruit, and maybe some green veg (peas in the omelette, broccoli in veg curry etc), but that's it. What do you do for breakfast and lunch?

Sorry I missed your question there, breakfast is coffee and toast and for a bit of variation at lunch I have... tea and toast! I suppose I should be varying my lunch as well shouldn't I?