Meal planning for the week, help please.

Wkdwill

Hi everyone.

Ive decided in an effort to reduce my weekly shopping I need to start meal planning, its shopping day tomorrow and I was lucky enough to have DH bring home a bag of meat from work yesterday (hes a butcher).

So here goes, this is what I have
5 chicken breasts
1kg Mince
4 pork loin steaks
1.5kg bacon
large uncut sirloin (probably about 8 steaks worth)
1kg mince (frozen)

Various herbs and spices
pasta
rice
baked beans
chopped toms
baking potatos

Ill be going out for veggies today, but the rest of the shopping will be done tomorrow.

There are 2 adults and 2 children (aged 2 and 4, so only small portions) to feed, im currently going through my recipe cards but any ideas will be fantastic.

Oh and I have a slow cooker.

Thanks

Allegra

Mince - bolognese (serve with pasta), chilli con carne (serve with rice or jacket potato), cottage pie (topped with mash), mince and dumplings, keema curry (with rice) I would make a big batch of bolognese in the slo-cooker, with plenty of veggies in, then separate out different portions - one leave as is, one add chilli and beans, one extra veggies (for the pie), one curry spices etc. Freeze what you will not use straight away.

Chicken - big batch of chicken and onion pie (one or two breasts will do for this, depending on how many meals' worth of pie you want to make), chicken curry, chicken casserole, pasta and chicken in tomato sauce (or pasta bake)

Bacon - bacon and onion steamed pudding, pasta amatriciana, risi e bisi. The rest slice thinly, fry up and use in sandwiches for the week's lunches

Pork loin steaks - sweet and sour, pork stir-fry, pork casserole

Sirloin - beef pie, beef curry, beef casserole, and save a couple of steaks for a properly decadent steak'n'chips

BTW, there's at least a month's worth of meat there if properly stretched - and more than a week even if you don't fancy stretching it out endlessly. Good luck !

Wkdwill

Thanks Allegra, thats fantastic.

I have a chilli con carne in the slow cooker, which will be for tea today, DH's lunch tomorrow and im going to do a chilli pizza tomorrow when I have family round for the day, will still have some left over too.

The rest of the mince ill do as you say and make up a bolognaise to divide into seperate meals.

Ive never been too good at batch cooking.

Allegra

I honestly don't believe anyone is born knowing how to batch cook Practice makes perfect as they say - the more you do it, the better you'll get.

I know it's not for everyone, and that's absolutely fine, but for me, learning to do it has been an absolute lifesaver. I spend far less time cooking than I used to, spend far less money, and never ever have to fall back on ready meals or takeaways if I don't fancy cooking from scratch on any given evening - there's always something in the freezer that can be ready in minutes if needs be