My Meal Planning This Week

Each week I share with Katy Kicker and others how I manage with meal planning. I find it quite easy to do because we literally sit and plan out everything that we will eat for the week ahead.

Ever since I got the first real insight into meal planning, we have found it useful because it saves us money, and cuts down on the amount of food that we were wasting.

There are so many other benefits and each week I learn more from the others who join in with the linky. I secretly try to adopt some of their dishes and tips too.

Here is how we got on this week

I must say that we had a full kitchen of everything we needed (ingredients wise) but on Sunday, although we had plans to do a whole roast chicken for dinner (and the chicken was marinating in the bottom of the fridge from Saturday night), we decided to have a Cheeky Nandos meal. Ok, let me explain. The kids had all gone out and we had to go on an errand which would see us out for a couple hours. So, instead of rushing home at the end of that, we decided to go out for a meal. Of course, we didn’t waste that whole chicken. We put it in the oven on our return home. You will see how we use it up in the week.

Sunday’s cheeky Nandos for the twins

For Leisa, a double chicken burger with plain chips and corn on the cob and for Jo, double chicken wrap with Peri salted chips and corn on the cob.

As the kids had already eaten when they got back home, we only had to cook the chicken and portion it up for storage in the fridge and freezer.

Monday: Roast chicken dinner with sweet potato mash, gravy, peas, and sweetcorn

Tuesday: Chicken and vegetable stir-fry with noodles

Wednesday: Beef and vegetable soup with Jamaican noodles and corn on the cob

We love making this soup with beef (and bones included) because it is so versatile. We always start it off in the slow cooker from very early in the morning so the bone and meat juices are infused into the soup. We then add dumplings made with wholemeal flour, carrots, pumpkin, celery, onion, thyme and Jamaican noodles (we love the Cock Soup flavour, lol)

Thursday: Steamed vegetables with salted codfish and potatoes and wholemeal dumplings. Have you ever tried Jamaican boiled dumplings? I must admit that the texture is quite unusual. We make it healthier by using wholemeal flour.

Friday: Pizza baguettes

Saturday: We have quite a few odd dishes from leftovers in the freezer so everyone will choose something. One of our favourite quick things to make is chicken frankfurters with noodles.

 

How did you do this week with planning your meals? I would strongly suggest you take up meal planning especially if:

• you want to save money
• you want to be in control of what is in your food
• you want to lose weight
• you want to avoid the fatigue of having to decide daily what to eat
• you want to use up what you have in your fridge/freezer
• you want to learn new cooking skills and tips

It is understandable to divert from your meal plan sometimes, isn’t it? The goal is to stay more on than off. Do let us know about how you are getting on and if there is anything we can do to advise you. By the way, what do you have when you feel like having a cheeky takeaway? Have you checked out my fakeaway recipes?