Help please folks! How do you organise yourselves with shopping/cooking?

newlywed

One of my first meals from here was fish pie. Selection of fish/prawns whatever you fancy, cook it gently in the microwave till you can flake it up and put in a casserole dish, pour over parsley sauce (I cheated and got a packet mix) top with mash and cheese and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Easy.

Lizbetty

Thanks everyone for your tips! I feel like I'm getting somewhere already - I'm printing out what you've all said and I'm off for a lay down now as my bump is feeling a bit heavy (husband is out shopping with daughter for final time - I'm going to get it organised myself as it's dear when he does it...he always buys at least one very random thing 'just cos it's Friday' or 'just cos it was cheap', etc... )

I mentioned the idea of menu planning to Si and he doesn't seem so keen as he thinks it'll be quite regimented. He's been cooking tea though, as well as doing the shopping, if we can get properly organised he won't have to do either! I'm sure we can be a bit spontaneous about what we defrost though, lol! Plus it'll save a fortune on shopping when he's not able to come home with the strange ready meals and odd buns from the alledged 'bargain' bit that we wouldn't normally buy anyway. (Although they're sometimes very nice..)

Off to mum's tomorrow for lesson in baking armed with the ingredients for the teabread someone posted the recipe for, too, to make for presents for Christmas. Hoping that getting something basic right'll give me my mojo back in the kitchen, lol! (With mum's moral support.......) :j

Thanks again, I'll let you know how we get on!!!

Lucy

newlywed

Just remember, you will never know what you can accomplish unless you try!!

saving-grace

Lucyeff wrote:

Off to mum's tomorrow for lesson in baking armed with the ingredients for the teabread someone posted the recipe for, too, to make for presents for Christmas.

Don't know which recipe you're referring to but teabreads in general aren't "keeping" cakes (unless you were planning to freeze them?). I would hate your efforts to go to waste

Lizbetty

This is the recipe.. http://www.arkwise.co.uk/recipes/barabrith.html

I did find it on here somehwere but have lost it again!

I'm hoping it's the same as my mother in laws (I don't want to ring her and ask her, lol!!!) as hers keeps for quite a few weeks, it seems to get better, a bit like Christmas cake.

If they're frozen, do they taste ok when defrosted does anyone know?

(We didn't get any baking done btw, went through to mum's with all ingredients and she was painting ceiling so it's all delayed til next week. Though seriously thinking about trying all by myself....;) )

Lucy

Snich

My boyf was very reluctant to try menu planning but this is what works for us:

We decide on what meals we're going to have in the week. I don't give any of them a set 'day' because that doesn't work for us. This usually includes a couple of curries (one prawn, one chicken), something mince based, a pasta dish , maybe a soup. (This is less than seven because we have spares in the freezer - see below)

I go to the Supermarket and get a heap of veg as this is flexible (eg mushrooms / peppers / carrots / onions / corgettes / leeks / broccoli -> this is half the trolley!) and the bits and pieces for the meals. I use very little meat in anything because it's all veg!

We are a two person family so everything we make is in either 4 or 6 portions. This way we can freeze a couple of meals each time so that when we're knackered, we just get something out the freezer.

(Less old-stylee, I also keep in a couple of frozen pizzas for 'emergencies' - I do make my own wedges to go on the side (mmmm) if that still allows me on the board )

Good luck. It's really good for keeping the budget in check!
Snich x

miggy

Hi Lucy,
I did two things to get me started on menu planning:
Firstly, I made a long list of things I cooked, and asked the family for ideas too.
Secondly, I just listed what we ate for a couple of weeks.
I used the second list as a basis for a plan - after all if I know everyone's going to be in a rush on a particular day, I need to cook something easy. (We have plenty of busy evenings - I have teenagers!)
In other words, base your menu on what already works for you - you can add in other recipes as you feel ready.
I also put a copy on the computer calendar so I get a reminder the day before a big shop - for some weeks I also added a shopping list but never got round to doing that weekly.
You will be familiar with the idea that it's cheaper to plan shopping and do it once a week rather than seven times, I expect!
A useful-sounding piece of advice which I haven't tried but might work for you is: allocate a theme to each day of the week (Monday roast, Tuesday fish, Wednesday vegetarian etc.) (Ooh, I see Snich is ahead of me here :-) )
Two of us are demi-veggie so I shall be interested to see whether anyone comes up with good ideas there. I've only got as far as cooking whole bags of dried beans and freezing those I don't use immediately, so I can add them to casseroles.
HTH
Migs

lil_me

Lists lists and more lists is helping me. On the inside of the food cupboard is a list of what is in and how many which I check off when used, same with fridge and freezer, just add when needed from receipts, will replace with small whiteboards if I see them cheap somewhere. I made an 'essentials' list on things to have in all the time. I check all I have in before shopping. I find buying online better as I can check what I have in as I go instead of buying tomato ketchup just incase to find I already have 2 bottles. If I go to a shop I don't take much cash then I don't over buy. Meal plan but without being too ridgid or I get bored. My biggest BAD thing was throwing too much away, wastage, and to combat this I made myself feel totally guilty by listing everything I threw away.

Chubacheroo

We've always been meal planners..and we usually cook 4 portions (or probably closer to 6 as we're gobblers) so we have the same meals for 2 nights in a row...works well, as as we're both really busy, it saves us time too (plus our freezer is really just one of those tiny icebox things in the small fridge).

However, this doesn't seem to be working at the moment as we're expecting and most things I formerly loved now make me feel bleuch. I'm hoping that will all simmer down in a couple of weeks when I reach 12 weeks!

But we tended to not necessarily do "set in stone" things, but get general things such as prawns/turkey/mince thereby allowing us a variety of options each time we cook.

Definately recommend cooking for two nights at a time to save time though. We rarely if ever have readymades (always feel sick after even prior to bumpdom) - but it does save time, especially as I'm a fast cooker (things usually take no more than 30 mins).