I've been meal planning for my family for a good few years now - I find it not only helps us to stick to our weekly shopping budget (Which is currently £65 for a family of five), but also helps to ensure that we use items before their expiry dates and end up with minimal waste.
It's also a great way to stay organised as a busy working parent, and it helps me to introduce variety to the kids diet too as I'm able to plan in some new meals to try each week in addition to a few old favourites.
I do my weekly shopping on a Thursday, but this doesn't tie in very well with the trend of #MealPlanningMonday so I'm going to be sharing my meal plans here at the start of each week even though we would likely already be halfway through having had them by the time you read these posts - it just works better to do it this way! So to stop confusion, I'll be labelling the meals as "meal 1", "meal 3" etc rather than by days of the week - hope that makes sense!
I'd love to hear what your thoughts on meal planning are, whether you do it too and what you'll be eating this week - I love reading other peoples meal plans for inspiration!
So without further ado, here's this weeks meal plans!
Meal 1:
Puff Pastry Pizza Tarts With Jacket Potatoes & Panzanella
We've had puff pasty pizza quite often for years now - it's basically ready rolled puff pastry sheets topped with pizza topping, mozzarella and then other toppings of choice. But this week instead of making one big to share between us, I will cut the pastry into smaller squares and make individual pizza tarts instead.
I plan to serve it with this Panzenella recipe which I found from my current favorite Instagrammer - @TodayWeCooked - I am obsessed with her recipes right now!
A post shared by Today We Cooked (@todaywecooked) on Feb 27, 2019 at 9:04am PST
Meal 2: Chilli Mac & Cheese
A post shared by The Slimming Foodie (@the_slimming_foodie) on Sep 9, 2018 at 11:12am PDTThis is a recipe from another fave of mine, The Slimming Foodie and it looks amazing.
You can find the recipe here: http://www.theslimmingfoodie.com/one-pot-chilli-macncheese/
Meal 3: Cod in Butter sauce with new potatoes and peas
A nice easy one! We just use Youngs frozen cod in butter sauce, it's such a quick easy tea for busy nights and the kids all love it!
Meal 4: Mushroom pie, Mash & Greens
Another recipe I got from @TodayWeCooked - I used her red wine & Mushroom stew recipe, removed the carrots from the recipe and added some steak instead - it worked really well and the steak was so tender! I then popped it into a pie using ready rolled shortcrust pastry, and served it with mash and spring greens.
A post shared by Today We Cooked (@todaywecooked) on Feb 5, 2019 at 9:01am PST
Meal 5: Mushroom Pasta & Garlic Bread with Side Salad
A really quick and easy one, just simple penne pasta - sauteed some mushrooms, garlic and spinach in garlic infused oil, tossed together with the pasta and served with parmesan shavings.
Meal 6: Jack Monroe's Come To Bed Parmigiana Pasta
A post shared by Jack Monroe (@bootstrapcook_) on Feb 14, 2019 at 2:55am PST
This is one I haven't tried before but I LOVE Jack Monroe and her recipes, and this sounded too delicious to pass up!
You can find the recipe here: https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2018/02/14/parmigiana-recipe/
Meal 7: Take away night!
Every now and then, we get a take away such as a chinese, Subway or maybe a pizza - depending on what the boys fancy! This week was takeaway night week!
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