The I will MEAL PLAN and not change my mind thread.....

JayJay14

My pizza bases are much better now I have realised that the BM recipe says 1tbsp yeast and not the 1tsp I originally read it as - 15 years later!!!!!!

coldcazzie

Honeythief wrote: »

I don't have any wonderful pizza base recipes but I'm quite happy with the one from the Takeaway Secret book (what a great buy that was!) and make it in the bread machine on the dough setting so it's nice and easy. The machine does everything but roll it out and bake it

I just got that before Christmas, don't have a bread maker but I do have dough hooks that came with our electric mixer so will give it a shot in the new year

Have constructed a lovely shopping list from my plan

WantToBeSE

So, the pizza base i used is from 'Jamies 15min meals' book (page 59/60 if anyone has the book and wants to look).

1 mug SR flour
half a mug of tepid water
pinch of salt
glug of olive oil.

in his book, he put it into the food processor, but i just mixed it into a bowl and it worked perfectly (so far)!!
Going to leave it in the bowl until its needed for tonight

Its one that you 'cook' in a fying pan and then finished off under the grill- Its aptly named 'Cheats pizza'

Mags_cat

I've just done a freezer inventory and stuck it on the outside of the freezer. (Useful free form to download here).

Crikey - I had more stuff than I thought...I hereby pledge to start using some of it rather than just buying more.

(Hope you don't mind me posting this here - I am now off to write a meal plan and a shopping list!)

Meat :
Stuffed chicken breast roast
Turkey crown (will need to be kept for visitors - it's huge)
Diced stewing lamb
Minced lamb
Minced beef (small)
Chicken breast x 3
Lamb chops x 4
Pork steak x 2
L/o roast lamb
L/o roast chicken x 2
L/o roast gammon
Pigs in blankets x 1 pack of 12

Home made stock :
Chicken x 1 (Just used some at Mum's for Christmas gravy)
Ham x 1

Fish :
Smoked haddock
Battered fish portion x 1

Home made "ready meals" :
Turkey curry x 3 (Mum sent me home with a lot of l/o turkey!)
Chilli x 2
Pea + ham soup

Fruit & Veg :
Blueberries
Cranberries
Peas
Oven chips (about 9 chips left in the bag...it's always the way!)

Misc :
Milk x 2 pints
Bagels x 6

Mags_cat

Right - meal plan time. I should explain there's just me, so I tend to have lots of leftovers as cooking for one can be more expensive and not so much fun as batch cooking.

Fr 28 L : Bubble and squeak (how many l/o veggies did I bring home from Mum's?!), D : Penguin pie (don't panic, it's haddock, potato and cheese really!) + fresh veggies

Sa 29 L : Bubble + squeak soup (l/o veggies + l/o chicken + stock), D : Pork stir fry + noodles

Su 30 L : Roast chicken breast, veg + gravy, D : Beans on toast

Mo 31 L : Shepherd's pie, D : Probably more shepherd's pie (Wot?! I like it )

Tu 01 L : Beef Yuk Sung (Mince, fine chopped crunchy veg + chinese spices, eaten in lettuce leaves), D : Pasta and tomato sauce with salami

Wed 02 (Back in the office) L: Chilli + pitta, D : Battered fish + chips + peas

Th 03 L : L/o gammon in pitta, D : Turkey curry + rice

Right - of that lot there's not very much to buy. This is good

karren

WantToBeSE wrote: »

So, the pizza base i used is from 'Jamies 15min meals' book (page 59/60 if anyone has the book and wants to look).

1 mug SR flour
half a mug of tepid water
pinch of salt
glug of olive oil.

in his book, he put it into the food processor, but i just mixed it into a bowl and it worked perfectly (so far)!!
Going to leave it in the bowl until its needed for tonight

Its one that you 'cook' in a fying pan and then finished off under the grill- Its aptly named 'Cheats pizza'

oh thanks as i used to have a similar recipie so will pop this in my cook book as desperate to meal plan and cut down on food shop like everyone else as price of living has shot up!

fri = bits and bobs from the fridge to use up whats there
sat = hm jamie oliver pizza and hm wedges
sun = lamb dinner
mon = nights so turkey curry from freezer and rice
tue = pork pots and peas (3 p's lol)
weds = cous cous and roasted veg
thurs = leek and pot bake

so dint have to shop really as they are all in fridge/freezer
i intend to meal plan every week

pinkypig

Thank you for starting this thread it is going to be so useful as 2013 is the year of the organised pink pig :rotfl:

I started meal planning a couple of months ago and I cannot believe how much money and time it saves so I am determined to stick to it.

Like everyone else we are are getting by on various left overs that need using up (although I have frozen what I could so we can focus our efforts on the perishables!).

I am going to go to Aldi later as we are low on milk but as we live a few miles away I thought I'd get what we need for New Year's eve/day (we have friends coming to stay) to save unnecessary trips.

I am hoping that this will get us through until next Friday when I do our first big shop of the month.

Today - LO roast beef dinner to use up the last of the veggies etc

Sat - HM pizza and salad

Sun - LO roast pork in HM rolls with fried onions, stuffing and gravy and HM wedges

Mon- Curry night. Have YS indian snacks and some AF naans in the freezer. Will also make a rogan josh with LO beef, a prawn korma and a chicken Thai red curry plus rice and spicy noodles. Friends are bringing desserts

Tues - Left overs from New Year's eve

Wed - Roast turkey dinner (LO turkey, bacon rolls, stuffing and gravy from freezer).

Thurs - pasta bake and salad



PP xxx

maman

Kittenkirst wrote: »

I've found that if I do a mix of easy and complex dinners I can shift the days around if needed due to a late night or bad day!

This is definitely the way to go! I find that although I plan 7 meals we can eat them in whatever order suits so the boredom/predictability factor doesn't stop me. I always have some 'cook from frozen stuff' on there for CBA nights and if we eat out unexpectedly then it stays in the freezer for another week.

I've been meal planning for years as I found when I was working long hours it saved me so much time to just whizz around the supermarket with my list rather than wandering about thinking what shall we have or (worse still) just throwing things in the trolley in the hope there'd be some meals in there.

For those of you specifically meal planning to save money then it's essential to have the family on board. It's the family budget that's being improved so (to coin a phrase;)) We're all in this together!!

E2006

Can I join in with this? Im currently 7months pregnant and due on maternity leave in a matter of weeks. Although I have meal planned for ages, Ive found that lately (throughout my pregnancy really) the meal plan has completely gone out the window, I forget to lift things out of the freezer, I dont batch cook like I used to because I just cant be bothered at the minute after a long day at work, and although we havent had takeaway for months (cant eat it at the minute thankfully), we have been bad for popping back and forwards to the shop to pick things up for dinner. I need to get more organised because once I go on maternity leave we will have so much less money coming in.

I tend to plan 7 meals then switch them around as suits within the week. Everything on the menu plan this week is already in the fridge/freezer and I have more left over for next week. Ive also stood tonight and batch cooked shepherds pies (x4) and bolognese (x2) for the freezer (and I already had all of the ingredients in) :T

1. Tonight:- HM pizza, salad, coleslaw and ovenchips
2. Sat: spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread
3. Shepherds pie & veg
4. Chicken pasta & garlic bread
5. Chilli with rice/nachos
6. Ginger & soy salmon with veg & noodles (me)/ chinese style chicken curry with egg fried rice (DH)/ Fish fingers, chips and sweetcorn (DS)
7. Bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms, wholemeal toast & potatoes

winniepooh

Second night and still going strong.