I usually have a good idea what we will be eating during the week, which might make me sound organised for a minute (I’m not by nature, I have to work hard at it!).
There are two reasons I meal plan most weeks: firstly, I’m obsessed with food, and if I didn’t write a plan down, the recipes I wanted to make would be spinning around my head all week until I cooked them! Secondly, I know it saves me time, money and hassle during the week to have it all worked out.
See my post on Meal Planing in 5 Steps here.
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This Week’s Dinners
- Toad-in-the Hole, with gravy, peas and carrots
- San Choy Bow, with noodles
- Tomato Soup, with cheese toasties
- Chicken burgers, made with chicken & vegetable patties that I made a while ago and froze, with spinach and grated carrot salad
- Pie, made with leftover Savoury Mince I have in the freezer
- Pan fried hoki with mashed potato, carrots and green beans
- Macaroni Cheese, with broccoli
I haven’t specified which day we’ll be eating these because I’ll move them around according to which ingredients need using up soonest, and if we decide to eat out one night, everything will slip down a day into next week.
Food Prep and Baking
Vegetable sticks – I chopped 3 carrots and 3 sticks of celery into sticks while I was making the kids packed lunches on Monday morning. I keep them stored in the fridge in sandwich bags with a little water to keep them fresh and ready to grab for lunches and snacks all week.
Shredded Chicken – I made a chicken and vegetable soup on Sunday and I poached 2 large chicken breasts in the broth. I shredded the chicken and used half for the soup. The rest will be for sandwiches or salads for lunch.
Popcorn – I made a batch of popcorn for a snack on Monday afternoon and put half of it in an airtight container. This will be enough for lunchbox snacks for 2 days.
Spreadable butter – I wouldn’t have dreamt of making this myself when I was still working full time, but I like knowing exactly what is in it. Some of the ingredients lists on spreads are scary! I’ll link my recipe when I publish it.
Wholemeal bread rolls – I am planning on making these mid-week (the kids are getting bored of sandwiches), but I’ll see if I have time.
Bliss balls – I have never actually made bliss balls before, so I’m trying a recipe out on the kids!
Banana bread – I bought extra bananas the other day so that towards the end of the week there will be some ripe enough to make banana bread with (once the popcorn is gone).
I don’t always make this many things, this is a good week for me! I haven’t made bread in ages, so I need to use up my yeast before it stales. I do always chop up carrot sticks because they are one of the few vegetable my kids like to eat raw. I try to make one snack for lunch boxes myself each week, usually muffins, banana bread, chocolate chip coconut slice or an experimental muesli bar (I haven’t found the perfect recipe yet)!
I’ve been organised and planned this week, but we’ll see what next week holds! I’ll do a few of these posts and see how they go. On my less organised weeks I’ll still tell you what I cooked, which should be interesting!