New To Meal Planning - What are good meals?

Tabby_Kitten_2

Ok, I'm in the middle of drawing up a meal planner that means we're not going to be eating the same things all the time, is easy to cook in big amounts (there are 8 of us, youngest is 15) and can be repeated every three weeks or so.

Most of the family eat meat but there are two veggies, we have a smallholding and most of the time have our own reared mutton and beef. I'm also in the middle of setting up the veg garden to be producing properly again instead of just bits here and there. From Feb we should also have all our own milk, etc. and the same should go for eggs when it starts getting lighter for longer again.

The meal planner will go in with the job router and I thought it would be a good idea to have one store-cupboard meal a week. It would also be good if they were meals that the left overs could be heated up for lunches the next day or taken into work for peoples packed lunches.

So far I have:
Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese
Soup - from whatever is around/in season
Roast
Chips with curry or musty pea fritters
Jacket potato's with salads, baked beans and cheese
Roast potato's with pies (and gravy depending on pie)
Pasta with cheese sauce and roasters

All of these would be made from fresh/scrach and we do most of our shopping at lidl but we'd like to start doing a monthly big shop instead of little weekly ones.

Can anyone help with anymore?
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]

pukkamum

Well when you make the cheese sauce for the pasta why not double your quantity's and freeze some for cauliflower cheese, do the same with the tomato sauce and use it for chilli/ pizzas, you have also then got a good base also with the cheese and tomato sauce's to make either a veggie (whatever veg you have lying around) or meat lasagne x x x

Uniscots97

What about Mince with dumplings (very cheap to make and very filling and freeze ok) and mash?

vanoonoo

just a few quick top of my head ideas

shepherds/cottage pie
chili (husband makes a great slo cooker one!)
lasagne
pizza
casserole
toad in the hole
sketti and meatballs
egg chips and beans (healthy style in the oven)
curry

I am sure there are veggie versions possible of most of these?

are you wanting about 21 different meals to batch cook and freeze or jsut ideas for planning?

Tabby_Kitten_2

vanoonoo wrote: »

just a few quick top of my head ideas

shepherds/cottage pie
chili (husband makes a great slo cooker one!)
lasagne
pizza
casserole
toad in the hole
sketti and meatballs
egg chips and beans (healthy style in the oven)
curry

I am sure there are veggie versions possible of most of these?

are you wanting about 21 different meals to batch cook and freeze or jsut ideas for planning?

Thank you, these are really useful, so are the other things people have said, I'm not looking at batch cooking (I don't think we've got a freezer big enough) I just didn't want to ended up eating the same thing every monday night LOL

PasturesNew

Corned beef hash: corned beef and mash squished together and put in the oven until the top is crispy.

Serve with: beans or peas
Put cheese on top if you want
Try putting onion in with the corned beef/mash if you like onion

- - - - - -
Cheese & Potato Pie

Served with: baked beans
Can put onion in that too if you like

- - - - - -
Spanish Omelette: Big deep omelette with sliced potatoes, onions, peppers, anything else you've got.

Good hot or cold
Serve with: baked beans, or side salad, or chips