Meal Planning for the Cold Snap

So this week we have been having a cold snap! It’s been very bitter. This ‘Beast from the East’ seemed determined to have us living in conditions similar to a freezer! We have had to be really creative in thinking about ways to keep ourselves warm. This has included our meal planning as well. I’d love you to check out Katy and Naomi’s post too, to see how they got on with their meal planning this week. Thanks to them for letting us join this linky.

 

Keep it hot hot hot

Soups and spicy foods tend to give a feeling of warmth, so we have indulged in some of those this week. Of course, the kids have loved having hot chocolate with marshmallows after school almost every day and the adults have been having even more cups of tea (typically British thing to do).

One of our frugal triumphs this week has been a really warming home-made soup made really from scraps. I don’t really mean scraps but we have been able to use some items that most households normally put in the bin. In our household, we hate food waste. In our soup this week we had pumpkin from my own summer crop (was frozen), the stalk bit of broccoli, carrots, potatoes and leeks (which were purchased quite frugally directly from a  local farm) and some stock cubes. This was then blended. It was quite filling and warming.

One of the things the kids requested this week was a Chinese style stir-fry. We obliged. This was chock full of vegetables, some they claim they don’t like. We figured out that as long as they don’t see the vegetable in its natural form, they eat it. So the mushrooms, leeks, and peppers were finely chopped, and courgettes were grated. This was complemented with chicken (breast that I had cut off when I portioned a whole chicken), noodles and a spicy sweet chilli sauce. The stir-fry was chock full of vegetables and it was enough to be served for two days.

I did cook a portion of mince (Quorn mince) this week. To this, I added a lot of finely chopped mushrooms and celery. With my homemade tomato sauce, this was so delicious. I added some Jamaican spices to it to give it a kick and this too served as two meals. On day one with Jacket potatoes, we had the Quorn mince and on day 3 with spaghetti for a spaghetti bolognese. By the way, I did not let on to the children that I had been using Quorn for ages. We tried Quorn nuggets this week too and they were so good I had to write a complimentary email to the company. They sent a lovely response too. We are going to include more Quorn products in our meal planning. They are tasty, nutritious and have less fat. We all could do with a little less fat.

I encourage you to try Quorn products and I also challenge you this week to try and include more fibre in your meals by adding lots of vegetables and also by consuming lots of fruits. We’d all be better off with fewer incidences of bowel cancer, obesity and constipation. Do you make a consistent effort to make sure that your diet has enough fibre? Do you think our evening meals this week have enough fibre?

Spagetti Bolognese with Quorn mince

Hearty Vegetable Soup

Chicken and Vegetable stir-fry

Jacket Potato with Quorn mince

Quorn Nuggets and spicy oven cooked potato wedges

Related Posts

Meal planning 101

Make your own takeaway style meals

Simple homemade fish pies

Have a good week ahead. And do look after yourself.

 

Grammarly