MealPlans WB 22nd April 2007

froggergirl

Have been meaning to post for days - first attempt at meal planning and am determined to succeed. Nothing exciting this week - trying to use up whats in the freezer. Some nice ideas from everyone for other weeks though

Monday - Pizza and Pasta night with coleslaw and potato salad
Tuesday - Chicken in a creamy tomato and red pepper sauce with potato wedges
Wednesday - Chicken in Black Bean sauce with rice
Thursday - Fish, Chips, peas and sweetcorn
Friday - Turkey curry and rice
Saturday - Spaghetti Bol with Garlic Bread

isabelle304

newbiemum05 wrote: »

isabelle -any chance of any recipes ?? those meals sound fabulous !
Especially yummy sounding are : Spicy butterbeans and sweet potatoes, HM granola, Couscous with Roasted Peppers, Tomatoes & Mint & Couscous & Red Kidney Bean Stew - I'm always looing for new cous cous ideas

Hi NewbieMum - I'd love to pass on these recipes but unfortunately I cannot post them here because of copyright issues. They are all from a book by Anita Bean and Carol Vorderman called Detox Recipes (<--link ) (the follow-up to Carol Vorderman's Detox for Life). As you can see from the link it can be found on Amazon for as little as £1.50 secondhand.

tinkerbelluk

dannahaz wrote: »

Monday: Mexican Chili Chicken Piadines
Tuesday: Teviout pie (minced beef with suet crust top)

Dannahaz - Could you post the recipies for both of these please as they sound lovely

Melissa177

Melissa177 wrote: »

Oh my gosh, just found this thread. How organised are you guys?

I am single, and always homecook on an evening - except it tends to be veg/pasta with whatever fresh meat is reduced in the local Tesco Metro.

So I thought I'd get organised, and here's the result:

Mon: HM leftover turkey curry + broccoli + mini naan bread

Tuesday: HM vegetable chilli with rice and nachos, sour cream, grated cheese

Wednesday: business dinner in Antwerp (company paid!)

Thurs: whatever Eurostar is serving on the way back from Antwerp (also company paid)

Friday: Pastrami Penne with sweet peas and roasted cherry tomatoes

Saturday: Paella with prawns, chorizo, peas, and sweet red peppers

Sunday: Turkey laksa with veg, noodles, and spicy coconut sauce

The good news is that I won't need to go to Tesco Metro if I stick with this plan

Now it's Friday, I thought it might be useful to revisit this thread and see whether I stuck to my plan. This is the first week I've meal-planned, so bear with me:

Monday - nope! Got home from the office late, had a bowl of cheerios instead. Not good.

Tuesday - switched to Monday's meal. Also ate my sweetpeas, so none left for later in the week.

Wednesday & Thursday - very nice dinners out, glad I didn't have to pay, otherwise that would have been costly.

Friday - I've eaten my sweetpeas, so it looks like the pastrami pasta should have some broccoli instead.

Result: 50/50! Need more work on this, I think...

happyathome_withmyboys

Melissa177 wrote: »

How do you make your pesto, and do you find it cheaper than buying a jar? Good quality olive oil, pine nuts, and basil aren't that cheap, I find!

Melissa - there is another thread in the OS section with lots of ideas for homemade pesto - and it doesn't have to be expensive. I've been going pesto-mad for the last few weeks and have used:
flatleaf parsley (homegrown) & walnut,
jack-of-the-hedge and wild onions (completely free!) + pinenuts
wild garlic (also free) & pinenuts
parsnip leaves (free again!) and sunflower seeds

The wild garlic and parsnip leaves needed blanching before whizzing - but they all worked really well - the overriding difference between homemade and shop bought is the vibrancy and freshness. I'm coming to the conclusion that you can use almost any green thing with almost any kind of nut/seed with pretty spectacular results. Hope this helps...