Mealplan Series- Number 1

So here’s my first post about meal plans! I’ve sat down with my cookbooks and worked out what we’re going to eat for the next two weeks…. so here we go!

(Please note that as Ian is away Mon and Tues night I tend to stick to pasta or leftovers- sorry there’s nothing too specific!)

Weds 22nd- Lasagne (and pear tarte tatin pudding- will last all week)
Thurs 23rd- Prawn Laksa
Fri 24th- Pheasant Stew
Sat 25th- Homemade Pizza
Sun 26th- Lamb breast roast
Mon 27th- (Pasta putanesca, pasta pesto, sausages chips and beans, leftovers)
Tues 28th- (Pasta putanesca, pasta pesto, sausages chips and beans, leftovers)
Weds 29th- Sausage Cassoulet
Thurs 30th- Pumpkin risotto
Fri 31st- Baked Pork Chops with cabbage hash
Sat 1st- Sticky Chicken Wings (Nigel Slater Recipe)
Sun 2nd- Thai Roast Chicken
Mon 3rd- (Pasta putanesca, pasta pesto, sausages chips and beans, leftovers)
Tues 4th- (Pasta putanesca, pasta pesto, sausages chips and beans, leftovers)

 

So here’s my shopping list:

Meat:
Pork chops (for baked pork chops)
Sausages (for cassoulet)
Chorizo (for pizza!)
Lamb breast (for roast)
(I have mince, pheasant, prawns and chicken wings in the freezer, so haven’t put these on the list, and I will buy chicken nearer the time as there’s no room in my freezer)

Fruit and Veg
Carrots (for pheasant stew)
(I already have pumpkin, potatoes, garlic, ginger, onion, pears and cabbage, so these aren’t on the list)

Dried and Tinned
Caster sugar (for pear tarte tatin)
Pasta sheets (for lasagne)
Olives (for pizza)
(I already have noodles, tinned beans, coconut milk, risotto rice, pesto, tinned tomatoes, puff pastry, honey and mustard, so these aren’t on the list!)

Dairy
Cheese (for lasagne)
Mozzerella (for pizza)
Butter (for pear tarte tatin)
Milk (for lasagne)

 

I shop at Aldi, but for your convenience I also looked at the prices from Tesco and Sainsbury’s. I didn’t brand match, I took the cheapest that was the same weight or same style (sliced chorizo, for instance, rather than the stick type!) And here are the results:

At Aldi, these items came to £15.13

At Tesco, £21,71

Sainsbury’s came to £20.67

 

So there we go- some meal ideas along with a quick price comparison for the ingredients- sorted! 🙂 Some of the meal ideas above should have recipes available on my blog… I’ll link what I can, and more will be coming later!

Cheap Meals Series

I realised that I spend a lot of time writing, buying and making cheap meals, and I decided the world might like to read about these also.

Every couple of weeks I sit down with a piece of paper and make a meal plan for the next 2-3 weeks. It begins with checking the fridge, freezer and cupboard for what we already have, and what needs using up. Then I check the calendar for any events that I need to include- if Ian’s away, for instance, there’s no point making roast! Then I fill in the days on my meal plan, flicking through my recipe books as I go, and also thinking about what I can buy and when- liver always goes on the plan no more than 2 days after my shop, and cupboard-meals like tuna pasta bake go on later, when the fresh things start to run low.

So I’ll make a series of blogs of my meal plans, and how much they cost to buy. To make things easier for you, I’ll even compare prices on a few supermarket website so that you can choose where you want to shop!

The first in the series will be available tomorrow!

 

 

Yummy Chicken Tagine

Now this is really delicious!

The unusual Moroccan flavours really bring the chicken to life, and you can make it using any old bit of chicken- even cheap drumsticks! I bulked mine out with extra onions and also carrot sticks, but chunks of sweet potato or butternut squash work just as well! Some recipes call for preserved lemon, but I used curls of lemon rind stripped from a raw lemon, and this worked just as well!

You will need:
– 1-2 pieces of chicken per person. Try chunks of breast, thighs, drumsticks or whole legs!
– 1 small onion per person.
– Ground ginger (and/or grated root ginger)
– Cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
– Coriander seeds (or ground coriander)
– Dried apricots
– Enough chicken stock to cover (around 500ml)

Optional extras:
– Butternut squash or sweet potato (chopped into chunks and peeled)
– Olives, preferably purple.
– Carrots (matchsticked)
– Honey

Marinade the chicken in the spice mix for as long as possible.

If you are using brined olives, soak in hot water for as long as possible to reduce the taste. Better yet, buy olives in oil!

Fry off the onions, and place in a casserole dish. Then brown the chicken, and fry with the spice mix for a couple of minutes.

Pour it all into the casserole, along with carrots (if using), olives (if using), dried apricots and butternut squash.

Cover with the stock (and honey if using) and place in oven at 180C for an hour to an hour and a half. If you wish, the lid can be removed for the final half hour to allow some of the liquid to evaporate and the sauce to thicken slightly.

Serve with couscous, quinoa or rice to soak up all the juice. Leftover juice can be eaten as a soup the following day- it was delicious!!

Cabbage and Crispy Bacon Hash

Now this is a real proper cheapy meal! It’s from a very very old copy of my mum’s magazine collection… possibly a 1990s Good Housekeeping or something like that! It was one of my favourites as a kid, and I love it still today. It makes a fantastic mid-week meal, and all for less than 60p per portion! Plus, it has the perfect mix of starch, protein, fat and vitamins to make an extremely healthy meal!

Potatoes (5p)

Onion (<5p)

Cabbage (1/4 per person- 25p)

Bacon (1-2 slices per person- 15p)

Splodge of wholegrain mustard or teaspoon of mustard seeds (5p)

1. Slice the potatoes thinly (half a cm thick) and boil in salty water until soft.

2. Slice the onions and fry with the potatoes until golden-brown.

3. Add the sliced bacon, and continue to fry.

4. Boil the sliced cabbage for 1-2 minutes, until soft. Then drain and add to the frying pan,

5. Add the mustard or mustard seeds and fry for 1-2 minutes further, stirring continually.

6. Serve and enjoy!

So there you go- a fantastic mid-week meal that is delicious, healthy, and quick to boot!

Oh, and it’s frugal, so you’ve got no excuse not to try it!

Homemade pizza- the best way to feed the masses!

Pizza often gets bad press for being unhealthy, but this recipe is a brilliant way to make sure everybody gets their 5-a-day, and cheap and cheerfully too!

First, make some pizza dough. This doesn’t require too much! I like to make mine by hand in plenty of time and let it rise, but you can use a quick recipe, like this one here, or use a bread machine to do all the hard work for you! If you really don’t have time to do this, some shops sell ready-made pizza bases, but these aren’t nearly as delicious, or a bread roll chopped in half can be a good last-minute substitute!

Next, provide all the toppings you’d like to. Mushrooms, chorizo, sweet peppers and olives all end up on my plate, but the list is endless for what you could use should you wish to! Don’t forget to provide some cheese too!

Make a tomato sauce. I use passata sauce for 86p a pot… that’ll do about three pizzas thickly once it has simmered down! Add chopped tomatoes to it for that extra healthy kick! I usually add some herbs and/or chilli powder to flavour it.

Then all you have to do is get everybody to put their own together! Kids love getting stuck in and making faces out of their toppings, but its amazing how much adults love it too! Fussy eaters can pick and choose their toppings, and those with bigger appetites (like most of those I cater for!) can just eat it all!