As requested: Monthly menu plan + shopping list + notes

Yategirl

thanks for your menu post it is so good to see other peoples ideas when planning.... I have been menu planning for 6 + years now and I *still* get stuck for ideas!!

*off to peruse your list further*

merchantofvenice

:DThanks very much for that, i would love to eat everything on your mealplan, and was looking for ways to be more creative with salmon ( i too, got it cheap at Tescos, and freezer is full!!) Have copied and pasted and will try it myself, if its not too weird, that every day in March I will be eating the same food as you...;)

lilmisskitkat

Wow! What a great thread Buffy, some fab ideas :T

I love lists too i have them for everything, plus the one that has OH rolling his eyes - my list of lists i have :rotfl: I prefer to call it a 'table of contents' actually :whistle:

I do meal plan but have noticed that we tend to stick to the same sorts of things so i'm on a mission to bring in something new once a week or so, yours all sound yummy!

Thanks for posting your plans/list - i always love to have a nosy at what other people eat/how they shop. Lol i'm a cyberspace curtain-twitcher :rotfl:

Kate xxx

windowshopper100

Well done Buffy for posting all that - it's really useful stuff.

I do my best to meal plan weekly, and as you say, it's not set in stone - things swap around and sometimes, just sometimes, we even get asked out to friends for a bite and I'm not about to say, errr sorry no, I've got sardines on toast and salad on the list.... It just annoys me if something else comes up and I've got something out of the freezer already. Still, there's always the next day.

I might try a forthnightly plan first before going for the big one!

I've been subscribing to BBC Good Food mag for some years, but that seems a bit pointless now since they've got a great website - also, there's just not enough days in the week to cook all the different stuff. I'll think I'll knock that on the head, plunder what I've got and save a bit more money!

WS100

windowshopper100

lilmisskitkat wrote: »

:rotfl: I prefer to call it a 'table of contents' actually :whistle:
Kate xxx

Love it! :rotfl:

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat

A quick very belated update - the Sainsburys shop came in at £70.35 - found a few bits in the reduced section that I liked the look of, plus a couple of other bits that I'd forgotten to put on the list. Tescos came in at £15.07 - a 24 pack of Pepsi Max was £5 and OH likes that, so a pack got added to the trolley...found a couple of nice incense sets in the sale too which I thought would make nice presents...only they looked so nice I opened one myself and have hidden the other one so I can't open it

Menu generally going well, would go even more smoothly if I remembered to get stuff out of the freezer before going to work some mornings! :rotfl:

pollyanna24

Love it, love it, love it! Only wish I could be this organised. I do a similar thing where I make bf drive me to Tescos on the first of every month and I try and buy everything I need for the whole month (hate running out of things).

I have what I call a grocery list which has everything on it I have ever bought from the supermarket and I go through it once a month crossing off what I don't need that month.

I have completely fallen off the wagon though as we have lodgers who just randomly take my stuff and wreck my plans, so as soon as they are gone, I plan to organise myself just like you.

I also have kept a meal plan of things that I have cooked, so I don't end up cooking the same thing over and over or so I can go back for inspiration.

bf does roll his eyes though when I go, did you know on (for example) March 6th 2007, we had Chicken Tonight for dinner? Teehee! (And yes, I did look this up to double check!) He thinks I'm crazy!

Benthosboy

Buffy_the_Vampire_Bat wrote: »

Another trick I have is to make a HUGE pot of tomato pasta type sauce (I usually end up using my big soup pot for this ) As well as being frozen in batches for pasta dishes, I also use it as a base for curries and chickpea enchiladas amongst other things, thus saving me time in the long run.

Excuse the hijack folks.

How big a soup pot are we talking about? Reason I ask is because I shall soon be living in my motorhome and I'd really love to get a stock of pasta sauce in the spare chest freezer that's going in the awning before I move out of the bungalow. The biggest pan I can find is about 10" diameter by 5" deep. Is that big enough and can you put the pasta in with the sauce before freezing or is it easier to cook it as and when required?

Much thanks.

Martyn.

Raspberry_Swirl

snagging for ideas. thanks

lilmisskitkat

Benthosboy wrote: »

Excuse the hijack folks.

How big a soup pot are we talking about? Reason I ask is because I shall soon be living in my motorhome and I'd really love to get a stock of pasta sauce in the spare chest freezer that's going in the awning before I move out of the bungalow. The biggest pan I can find is about 10" diameter by 5" deep. Is that big enough and can you put the pasta in with the sauce before freezing or is it easier to cook it as and when required?

Much thanks.

Martyn.

I dont have a stockpot *sob, sob* so i just use my biggest pan which is a 20cm one and that does the job fine. Pasta tends to go soggy if you freeze it so just make the sauce up into portions and then cook the pasta when you need it, quick cook stuff only takes about 6-7 mins if you're in hurry

hth

Kate xxx