A month of meals- a challenge

teaandcakeordeath

Hi Everyone,

I've been reading through some of the grocery threads which have got me all inspired to stop flitting into the supermarket buying a meal or two at a time (stupid & costly- I know! It's my aim to get organised this year though!).

What I'm looking to do is one big shop which I can then top up (only when required) with 'fresh' items (milk/ bread etc.)

Do any of you have any healthy, cheap, meal plans in place that you do which allow you to plan your food purchases/ meals in advance? If so would you like to share them with a new planner?

Thank you all!

E2006

Ive done this a couple of times and it really keeps the spends low. I plan 28 meals, then work out what I need from this, plan the shopping list then do one big shop for what I need...then do a mammoth batch cooking session. I usually do the following:-

Bolognese
Chilli
Shepherds pie
Lasagna
meatballs

Chicken curry
Lamb curry

Steak casserole (huge portion in the slow cooker then portioned up for the freezer)

I also usually do a whole large chicken, roast it, then portion it up to be thrown into stirfry/pasta/curry/sandwiches/salad/wraps/fajitas etc etc.

I buy a huge bag of potatoes, plenty of beans, cheese etc for baked pots at some point (quick and easy). I make sure I have tinned/frozen peas and I also boil, mash, portion up and freeze mashed potato to go onto the shepherds pie base, or with the casserole as well as mashed carot and swede which freezes well, then you have instant veg and mash for with your casseroles.

It depends on how many you are cooking for as to how much meat etc you need but you will already have an idea how many portions you can get out of your meals.

Hope this is of some help.

E2006

Just re-reading that, it looks like we eat loads of mince/red meat based meals, but we dont...they're just some examples of the things that I batch cook. I always try to make sure my weekly meal plans include at least 2 vegetarian meals like Baked potatoes/omlette/beans on toast etc, and a couple of chicken or fish based meals like stirfry, chicken pasta, salmon and veg/noodles etc.

Tink_04

I this a lot I find picking 5 types of meals that you can change week so for example we have:
*chicken
*mince
*sausages
*beef
*pasta

so can have:
*chicken stir fry
*spag bol
* toad in the hole
*beef cass
*pasta bake

then just change the meal but with the same meat or idea so swap spag bol for chilli etc we have hm pizzas or a treat on a stand a roast on a Sunday, if you get a bit bored then add other things in like fish, soup, jacket potatoes in too.

Hope that makes sense and good luck!

teaandcakeordeath

Thanks, there's some really good ideas there. I never even thought of cooking meals and then freezing (am not the best at logic in the kitchen!). So you can freeze cooked chicken/ mash/ carrot&swede etc.

Few stupid questions here:-
1. do you have to defrost your cooked chicken to reheat it or can it be reheated from frozen (if it can be reheated at all?) Can you use a store bought rotisserie chicken for this purpose?

2. How long does a batch cooking session take you typically?

3. Do you defrost then reheat you batch cooked meals or just reheat from frozen?

theshinyone

I do a lot of batch cooking as currently only myself and my son and I can rarely be bothered to 'cook' of an evening after a long day at work. Its amazing the amount of meals that can be made in just a few hours. I do the usuals, chilli, bolognese, soup, curry, casseroles and recently did a fish pie using reduced (end of day)fish pieces from the fresh counter which cost me £4.68 for ALL the ingredients, 3 fish varieties and prawns, leeks and sweetcorn and made 8 portions ...!!! Its delish!! My freezer(s) are rammed to the rafters at the minute but i plan to get through them before I start to restock and do any more batch cooking ... apart of course from soup, whih I am constantly making ... Aldi soup-er 6 :-D

Linda32

So you can freeze cooked chicken/ mash/ carrot&swede etc.

Yes to the cooked chicken, *see below for re-heating. I've never frozen mash but I think people on here do so. I just make mash as needed. I don't freeze cooked veg, but you can buy fresh veg, prepare and freeze that. So you can just get an handfull out at a time and cook that from frozen. Just like the bags of frozen veg you get from the supermarket.

1. do you have to defrost your cooked chicken to reheat it or can it be reheated from frozen (if it can be reheated at all?) Can you use a store bought rotisserie chicken for this purpose?

I wouldn't use rotisserie chicken for this, but then again I'm a wuss and wouldn't ever buy one in the first place. What I do is roast a whole chicken myself. Then leave to cool for 1/2hour or so. Then portion into meal sizes to suit you and freeze. I would defrost the cooked chicken and re-heat in Bisto. I re-heat at gas mark 6 for 30 minutes. You don't have to re-heat it if you want it cold. We have this during the summer with salads.

2. How long does a batch cooking session take you typically?
If you make a casserole, remember most of the time its in the oven so you don't have to do anything. Well you could do some flylady :rotfl: or you could read a magazine :T Especially worth it if you make two at a time. Then I portion this up and use it as the "meat" part of the meal and cook futher potatoes and veg to go with it. Defrost and re-heat as per chicken.

With regards to defrosting I take out on Monday and leave in fridge until tea time on Tuesday.

3. Do you defrost then reheat you batch cooked meals or just reheat from frozen?

Defrost first. My rule is if you froze it then you defrost it.

HTH

meritaten

I only have a vague 'meal plan' for a week - that way, if there is a 'special offer' on in the supermarket I can take advantage of that - and next weeks meals can be modified to take account of this.
I try not to 'impulse buy' but, some offers are too good not to miss - like greatly reduced meat that needs eating that day or the next - so something gets crossed off the shopping list! its when you buy in 'addition' to your list your costs creep up!

quintwins

I do this sometimes but i rarely batch cook unless you count spag bol, i buy all my meat and freeze it, 60% of my veg is frozen and the rest if picked up as whoospies and then usually frozen, i get sunday dinner at the inlaws so i only need 26 meals, i aim for my dinners to cost an average of £3 each, we usually have

-chicken dinner with all the trimmings, we have roatsies, and yorkshires which means 2 chicken breasts (good butcher ones not supermarket ones) do 5 of us
-chicken casarole- usually bulked out with reduced veg and again 2 chicken breasts
-sheperds pie- bulked out with value frozen mixed veg and sweetcorn
-mince and taties- if low oh meat you can do yorkshires or roasties with this aswell and add lots of veg
-gammon roast- i'd like to say i get 2 meals for a roast as i always plan to but acually my hubby loves it to much he picks at it til it's gone, it's his only vice so i'll forgive him, this is one of our most expensive meals
-steak and chips, i buy a full sirlion and portion it from the butchers it's so nice and i serve with chips hm onion rings, sweetcorn and peppercorn sauce, the kids had sausages chips and sweetcorn because they'd never eat a steak anyway, it won't be long til the big too need there own which will make it a much more expensive meal, the youngest is funny about meat so i doubt he'll ever eat a steak
-beef casarole, made with value frying steak and either reduced casarole mix or carrots and onions
-fish and chips, either reduced fish i can pick up or iceland fishfingers for a quick tea
-pizza and chips, again a quick tea
-pasta bake
-spag bol
-chilli and rice
-homemade mince pie, usually served with mash, mixed veg and gravy, also put lots of mixed veg in the mince inside the pie
-chicken pie, add a tin of sweetcorn to bulk it out, make with value philly as it's cheaper than making cheese sauce.
-pork shoulder roast, cooked in slowcooker, usually with all the trimmings
-pulled pork from the pork shoulder, lovely in wraps or served with mash gravy and carrots on the side


The unhealthy quick meals or for nights i have to work, but even if i didn't i do acually like our quick meals as a change from our usual, meat, carbs veg approach so i'd keep them.

Kathy535

I plan a fortnight's worth of meals and make double each time, freezing half where i can so that I have another week or fortnight's worth of meals in the freezer with very little effort. When I started, I built up a stock of frozen meals so that I don't get the situation where I am cooking for one week and not for the next! The BBC Good Food website is my friend, there are loads of very easy meals on there. A fairly standard fortnight would include:
Butternut squash and creme fraiche soup (one largish squash does about 8 portions) with cheese toasties
Cajun spiced chicken breasts with wedges / jacket potatoes (if not freezing I do double and use in a salad for lunch or as fajita filling for the next day with soured cream, cheese and lettuce)
Lasagne or moussaka
Lamb curry (use any leftover squash in this, it goes really well)
Chicken and chorizo pasta
Shepherds Pie (I don't like potato that's been frozen so I freeze the mince and make the mash fresh)
Herb crusted fish with potatoes
Chicken biryani
Veggie sausage pasta bake (I don't normally freeze this but it makes for three dinners and two lunches)
Cod with chorizo
Roast of some kind
Pie made with leftover roast
Stir fry with left over roast
Potato and cauliflower curry
Calzone / pizza with hm base
Fish curry

All this is made slightly less effective by my DD being veggie so i do have to make seperate meals for her if we aren't eating meat free - the same principle applies so theoretically i only have to get a precooked meal from the freezer for her.

Last year I set myself the challenge of cooking a different meal every day for 3 months, it was really good fun!

p0lly

I am quite new to all this too. For the last month I kept a record of all the meals we ate. That will become the basis for my meal planner for next month with a few tweaks to use up any bargains. I do make a couple of new recipes each month too. HTH P0lly