I have been inspired by Kitchen Gadget Girl and her menu planning. Not inspired to menu plan, we do that already! But inspired to blog about it.
It is one of those things that I suspect a lot more people do than actually talk about it. And although it is often done out of a sense of necessity: to save money, prevent waste, encourage healthy eating; it is actually quite a lot of fun. For me anyway, I may just be a little strange…
We really plan our weekly dinners for all three of those reasons. It always amazes me how easy it is to pop into the supermarket needing just milk and to leave with milk, crisps, apples, chocolate, some discounted meat…and so end up spending £10 or more where you only needed to spend 90p – and suddenly you have a glut of junk food in the house too.
So a while ago we decided that it would be a useful thing to do regularly. Not that we don’t still manage to overspend/waste food/eat junk sometimes, but at least we’re a bit more aware of what we’re doing!
So, having said all that, here is the dinner plan for the coming week! This week’s menu is brought you by trying to finish up a lot of fresh veg that is on its last legs and buying as little as possible over the week as frankly we have quite enough food, really, to eat quite happily with a few small additions.
Monday: Chorizo and vegetable stew (it isn’t a stew at all, but I never know what else to call it! Chorizo and veggies cooked with tinned tomatoes)
Tuesday: Pasta with peas and corn and pesto
Wednesday: Salmon with veggies and boiled baby new potatoes
Thursday: Takeaway night!
Friday: Cauliflower and bean soup
Saturday: Sausages and mash with fried courgette and roast carrots
Sunday: Leftovers
Depending on how other parts of the week go, and therefore depending on my stress levels, I also want to experiment a bit with some wheatless baking. It is a while since I’ve done any, and there is something galling about the price of wheat-free breads (which I don’t buy. They’re generally rubbish in terms of taste and texture, and even those that aren’t do a miserable job of making you feel full!) and of rye breads when compared to the price of wheat bread. So working on a viable home-made alternative would be great. Even if I was too lazy to do it more than occasionally!
I am a big fan of takeout night! Makes the whole week that much more manageable