How to avoid being bored with food - monthly menu ideas?

sonastin

Corned beef hash is quite possibly the easiest meal ever! I reckon it was the first thing I learned how to cook. Thanks for the reminder - been wondering what to do for dinner tomorrow.

Another real easy one - chop sausages into bite size pieces and chop an onion. Fry them up in a big pan till they start to brown. At the same time, cook some pasta according to the instructions on the packet. Chuck a tin of tomatoes and a tin of baked beans into the pan with the sausages and onions. When the pasta is done, add that to the big pan. Season with whatever takes your fancy: worcester sauce, herbs, tabasco sauce, etc - tastes different every time.

Rmeek

BlushingRose wrote: »

How does one make HM pizza?

I use this really easy recipe to make dough. Takes about 5-10 mins to prepare, 2 hrs to rise then literally another 5-10 mins to shape the dough lay the toppings on and put in the oven! I make two 12 inch ones every Friday and my hubby, myself and our little boy love them. The dough makes a lovely fluffy base and the toppings are far better than the takeaway. I worked out it cost me about £2.50 to make in total for both and I wasn't easy on the toppings! (I use a mix of passata and pesto for the tomato sauce base)

You'll find the recipe here The girl that writes the recipe, even does a suggestion for a topping that I haven't tried yet but am going to this week. BTW I put the oven on at 220 for a fan oven and leave for 12-15 mins. I use a pizza baking tray as I don't have a pizza stone and they come out lovely. Good luck :T

Gracie_1827

I sometimes use Sainsbury's Pizza mix which is 57p or Wrights basic white bread mix...that makes a fabulous flammekuchen...with creme fraiche, onions and bacon yum

BlushingRose

Thanks everyone xx

The reason that we're trying a monthly shop is for finance reasons (we've recently started a DMP) and we're experimenting to see if this way works out cheaper or not.

*zippy*

BlushingRose wrote: »

How does one make HM pizza?

I often make pizza, but tried this recipe Sat and the family said it was the best I have made


http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4683/pizza-margherita-in-4-easy-steps

msb5262

Hi OP,

A couple of thoughts:

First, your list of meals is short but that's partly because you have stated "roast something" - if you put "roast chicken/pork/beef/lamb/gammon/turkey", you immediately have 5 dishes rather than one!

Also, if you like sausages, why not do a sausage casserole or a pasta dish involving sausages? Lots of recipes on the web.

Start with something you know you like, and branch out. If you like pasta, find a few different recipes. Find a new soup recipe and serve it with a different kind of bread - that's another different dinner.

Do you like traybake type meals? Just lob some chicken joints/sausages and chunks of onion, potato, peppers into a large roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil, season and bake in a hot oven.

I'd recommend making casseroles ahead (day or two earlier than needed) as the flavour improves hugely and you can just reheat them quickly when you want to eat them.

As to the menu planning...I sometimes menu plan for a month but generally I'd rather do a week or two at a time as it makes my brain hurt!

Easy way to do it...

First make or find a planner or calendar with 28 spaces.

Now list ALL the meals you could have. Don't forget simple things like beans on toast, egg and bacon, toasted cheese, pasta with pesto, pasta carbonara etc.

Now see if there are any meals you really like. Is there something you'd like to have every week? If so, put it on your planner each week. 4/28 gaps filled immediately!

Check your calendar and see if you've got any arrangements which will involve eating elsewhere. If so, put them on the planner now.

Now just start writing the meals randomly onto your planner (in pencil so you can swap them round) and fiddle it so you don't have 3 meals based on mince in a row, or a whole week with no fish, or any other glaring errors.

Now look carefully at the planner and see if you think it looks ok. You can make shopping lists from this, and save yourself doing any more meal planning for a whole month!

That's it...job done. Use the planner as you go along by scribbling any changes you need to make.

If you want to be very clever, plan each week's meals around one big item e.g. roast chicken, baked ham etc. and plan to have it hot with gravy and roast vegetables at least once, then maybe cold in sandwiches or with salad, then in a pasta dish, then hot in a curry or stir fry or risotto, then perhaps in a pie. In the short term I'd just use the simple planning method above. I do this on the computer using Excel, and highlight anything I need to buy/defrost in colour.

HTH

Good luck!

MsB

Memory_Girl

I meal plan - do I ever mealplan:rotfl:

What works for us is having a staple combined with something seasonal

S - Meat dish
M - Risotto
T - Pasta
W -Rice
Th - Pulse
F - Grain
Sat Bread dish

So this week is it

Beef with mushrooms, roasties, yorkshires and seasonal veg
Pea and parmesan risotto
Pasta with roasted tomato and basil sauce
New Potato and Red Kidney Curry, rice and raitha
Chick pea felafel with green pea hummus
Fritatta omelette with tabouleh
Pizza

I make sure I buy my staples cheap and keep them in my storecupboard - I know I have a years worth of pasta, basmatti, dried beans, bulghar wheat etc in stock so my "Weekly" shop is for fresh seasonal veg and that works out pretty cheap for us.

The other thing is that I can use my "staples" with whatever is ready in the garden - as it comes in :

Risotto with - pea shoots, courgettes, green beans, peas, broad beans and mint, fennel, lovage, parsley and lemon - so when the garden is in production it is fabulously cheap to eat.

You have had loads of great ideas on here - hope one of them works for your family

MG

GFN123

I'm sure you'll end up with a ton of brilliant ideas, Blushing Rose, but if as you say, you're not much of a cook at the moment, I think one of the best ways to start to reduce your food budget is to learn about different ways to make various food stretch out more.

Others on here are far more accomplished than me at this, and I'll happily admit pretty much everything I learned comes from the OS board, so I won't claim any credit for the following.

Check all your cupboards/fridge/freezer and make a list of what you have. Post it here! Start off by not wasting anything and think of ways to use up what you have. The BBC Food website has a 'search' box - you can type in up to 3 ingredients and it will suggest recipes.

Stock up cheaply on basics - lentils, oats, root veg is cheap at the moment. Do you have dried herbs? Could you grow any fresh ones in pots? Tinned tomatoes & other tinned goods?

Learn to stretch meat. Meat is the expensive ingredient! A whole chicken can make roast one day, then the leftover meat can be used in a variety of other easy ways - stir fries, pies, curry, wraps. The chicken carcass can be boiled up with veg scraps or peelings into a stock. This is a great base for soup, gravy, risottos, casseroles etc.

The same applies to other meats. Look around for recipes for cheap cuts. Pork belly (delicious slow cooked), lamb neck or shanks, beef skirt (as nice as steaks). Any cuts labelled as 'stewing' tend to be cheaper, and the clue is in the name. Cheaper cuts generally benefit from slow cooking. Make a stew from anything!

Bulk out your food with pulses. Red lentils dissolve into mince, I use pearl barley in casseroles. These just get chucked in as I'm cooking and it's all done in one pot. The benefit is this is also very healthy and very filling.

I think the key to eating cheaply is to go slowly. You may have to start by stocking up when offers are on for essential storecupboard ingredients and dried/tinned goods. Always shop around if you can. What supermarkets and stores do you have available to you?

A month sounds like it may be a bit overwhelming. I couldn't plan for a month! Why not start with the inventory of your cupboards, and add one new dish you haven't tried but know is cheap to a weekly plan? As you begin to expand you repertoire it will become easier to shop even more cheaply as you can take advantage of special offers & think "I can make XXX with that!"

Sorry for the long post and for teaching grandma to suck eggs if I have

Good luck on your journey! You'll get loads of invaluable advice on here. There are quite a few meal planning threads which may also be of use in terms of gathering ideas

Linz4383

BlushingRose wrote: »

Here's what I've got so far on my list that is starting to feel boring. (I'm not a cook, I need to learn!)

.

i too am not much of a cook and get very bored with the same thing BUT!! i have written/printed a load of recipes off and am tryin to do a new recipe once a week! so far ive tried a pasta tomato sauce for my DD but she didnt like it (shes very awkward) so ratehr than throwin it i added it to a jar a pasta sauce and you cant tell its in there , did some of the breaded chicken nuggets and they were fab!!! and did a flapjack yesterday which is yummy think my next mission may be a homemade soup with my chicken stock, there are some fabulous recipes and tips about on this forum (theres a list at the beginning of the grocery thread which is massive) ive also had a browse on the philadelphia website, its unbelievable what you can do with a tub of philadelphia :eek:
someone also posted this website on the grocery challenge which show lots of ways to use potatoes some lower fat ways to use them http://www.lovepotatoes.co.uk/recipes/

kacie

Remember that you can freeze portions, if you have cooked extra and don't want it that day or week, frozen portions a great for days when you are busy and don't have a lot of time to cook anything