Kitchen revolution - meal plans for a whole year!

neural_swill

Having read advice and tips on these forums with keen interest, hopefully this may give something back. I was reading an article in today's guardian about saving money on meals and being eco friendly at the same time:

http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,2283543,00.html

The idea is to save you time and money and reduce your eco impact - with its seasonal shopping and cooking plans. The article refers to book, but the best part is it's all on their website:

http://www.thekitchenrevolution.co.uk/index.asp

and this means you can access all the recipes for free on a weekly and monthly basis (the book has some extra recipes, but I'm all for the free internet access!)

Stick to the plan set out and you should save money by using up all the food you buy; your food miles will go down because you're not wasting any and because the recipes are all seasonal; and energy consumption - yours and the cooker's - goes down because of all the recycling.

You do one weekly shop (shopping lists are given on the website) and cook a big meal from scratch on Night One (e.g. Sunday dinner). The next two evenings, you have leftovers, (nice ones - not just bubble and squeak!) the fourth night, there is a quick seasonal recipe ; on night five you prepare a feast using stuff from your larder; and on the sixth night, you make double quantities of something and freeze half of it. On the seventh night you eat something you made from the week before - the book provides 52 weeks' worth of dinners.

I'm going to see if my other half is up for this (he's very into the 'Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall seasonal eating' ethos) as it will make a welcome change to our usual routine of meals - fingers crossed might even save some cash! :cool2:

betterlife

very interesting, i think i will have a good read tonight when kids have gone bed, a good find by you even if its just for some new recipe ideas.

thriftlady_2

Good find Neural Swill :T I wouldn't follow the plans myself as I like to come up with my own ideas but I really like the framework they use for the week's meals. I do something similar and I particularly like the idea of using part of one day's meal to make something new.

Are you familiar with Rose Prince's books ? If you like Hugh FW you'll like her too;)

The New English Kitchen and The New English Table.

taurusgb

thriftlady wrote: »

Good find Neural Swill :T I wouldn't follow the plans myself as I like to come up with my own ideas but I really like the framework they use for the week's meals. I do something similar and I particularly like the idea of using part of one day's meal to make something new.

Are you familiar with Rose Prince's books ? If you like Hugh FW you'll like her too;)

The New English Kitchen and The New English Table.

Arghhhhhhhhhhh THRIFTLADY!!!! now look what you've done!! I have a shelf of cookery books 5 feet long - only yesterday I promised myself I wasn't going to buy any more and then you go and tell me that Rose Prince has published a book I don't have (I love the New English Kitchen). O woe is me - what shall I do???

tq16

has anyone looked through the shopping lists? the meals sound great but foods don't look cheap, think this would take me way over grocery budget? great idea though. may try and apply some of ideas.

neural_swill

tq16 wrote: »

has anyone looked through the shopping lists? the meals sound great but foods don't look cheap, think this would take me way over grocery budget? great idea though. may try and apply some of ideas.

I did think this at first, but you can play around and swop more expensive components - one recipe this week was crab, but prawns could be used instead. Next week uses neck of lamb, which is a really cheap cut and this week had mackerel, but we substituted herring (3 for 98p!).

Are you familiar with Rose Prince's books ? If you like Hugh FW you'll like her too;)

I wasn't but I'll make sure to check her out as the O/H and I are big fans of Hugh FW (went to one of the River Cottage events the other week...)

EmptyPurse

Rose Prince is absolutely fantastic - I can't recommend her first book highly enough. I haven't got the second one yet - will have to order it from the library for the time being as it's only in hardback so far. I might order the Kitchen Revolution too: it sounds great but I'm not sure how it would work for a single person?

competitionscafe

Sounds interesting, lots of the recipes and shopping lists are on the website http://www.thekitchenrevolution.co.uk/ and good tips in an article here:

How to cook without wasting food:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article4288766.ece

I would find it far too restrictive though, I like to pick and choose recipes from my large cookbook collection or sometimes I will just pick up whichever fish looks nice at the fishmonger and have that with a few different veggies. Sometimes I might meal plan a few days in advance so I can write a shopping list (amazing how many people you see shopping without one - do they have the memory of an elephant or do they just pick stuff at random!) but I like to be flexible too. Guess it could work well for some people though...

rosy

I was just about to buy this book - 'Kitchen Revolution' - ( recipes planned for a year, using leftovers from one meal for the next, plus some to double up for the freezer, all with shopping list for each week ) when I discovered it has a free website with the recipies for the current week - here
http://www.thekitchenrevolution.co.uk/index.asp?month=11

The recipes would probably suit somebody who would like to experiment a wee bit - they seem mostly straightforward but imaginative - also some of the ingredients are a bit on the expensive side but could easily be substituted. But if nothing else it's great to get a bit of inspiration for ringing the changes (it can be a real pain sometimes trying to meal plan without repeating the same things over and over again).

morganlefay

My daughter was raving about this at weekend both because it is a plan for ladies who don't/cant plan and is anti waste, and because it seems like sensible eating. Has anyone tried it ? I have just ordered book and can'twait for it to arrive, but wondered if anyone had any experience. (Apologies if there is a thread on this which I've missed)

MrsBartolozzi

There is a site with a few sample recipes here. http://www.thekitchenrevolution.co.uk/viewweek.asp?week=1&month=1
I haven't had much of a look, but it is worth a read. Thanks Morganlefey.

MrsB.