[Food] Meal Planning

Way back last Summer I wrote a couple of meal planning blog posts and they were a real hit with people. So I've decided that I would share some more with you. Our weekly food budget isn't as strict as it used to be. We used to get our food shopping for the week for under £20. That was when I had a lot more time and energy to spend on doing it. 

Now our food shop is usually around the £25 mark and no more than £30. We've improved our diets a lot and they contain a lot more fruit and veg but we also buy a little bit smarter. Spending more money on meat one week, then freezing it for the next week or buying a whole chicken and using it over a couple of meals. By doing this we've added a lot more variety into our diet too and recently we've been trying lots of new dishes and we have both loved every single one.

We also buy fresh fruit and veg for Edith's food. She's been eating various purees for a while now and we have just introduced finger foods (Baby Lead Weaning Style). Edith is really enjoying food and coming up with different flavour combinations for her is just as exciting as cooking our meals. I'm in the process of writing her breastfeeding and weaning journeys for a blog post some time soon. This week we only had to buy finger food for her as we had enough supply of puree in the freezer.

This week our evening meals have been:

Monday - Vegetable Chow Mein

Tuesday - Roast Chicken, Homemade Flatbreads, Salad and Sweet Chilli Sauce

Wednesday - Roast Chicken, Cous Cous, Roasted Vegetables Covered with Chilli Flakes and Salad

Thursday - Slow Cooked Fish Balti with Lemon and Corriander Rice

Friday - Greek Yogurt Mac & Cheese

Ingredients required for each meal:

(Ingredients we already have are written in italic)

Monday - 200g chestnut mushrooms, 1 tbsp olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, 2 large carrots, a handful of chopped sweetheart cabbage, 2 nests of medium egg noodles, 1 bunch of spring onions, 165ml soy sauce, 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil, 2 tbsp  sweet chilli sauce, 1 tsp crushed chilli flakes.

Tuesday - Half of a medium roast chicken (breast meat), half a bag of leafy salad, 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 300g plain flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 50g butter, 185ml semi skimmed milk, olive oil for frying

Wednesday - Half of a medium roast chicken (breast meat), 100g cous cous, 1 red onion, 1 red pepper, 1 large carrot, crushed chilli flakes, half a bag of leafy salad, olive oil for roasting,

Thursday - 200g white fish, half a jar of balti curry paste, 2 small onions, 1 green pepper, a handful of green beans, 2 tbsp tomato puree, 200ml water, 75ml coconut milk, 150g rice, zest of 1 lemon, juice of half a lemon, a few leaves of corriander.

Friday - 200g pasta, 100g cheddar cheese, 150g greek yogurt, 50g spinach (we love frozen spinach), salt, pepper, 2 cloves of garlic

Shop used: Morrisons 

Total for ingredients purchased: £11.59

Total shopping bill for the week (all meals and Edith's food) £22.88

I'm hoping to share the recipes for the meals soon (I just need better evening light to photograph them!) Please let me know if you'd like to see the recipes and more of these meal planning posts.

* We only plan weekday meals as at the weekends we eat out, at my mama's house or get takeaway (naughty). *