For some reason I struggle to be able to stick to typing it all up with any sort of regularity - even though I religiously write one out by hand every single week! I guess I'm just more of a pen and paper sort of gal at heart?!
But I absolutely love pouring over other people's meal plan blogs for ideas and inspiration for those fussy little eaters, Toby & Roo's meal idea posts are my favourites and I always pin a good few of hers for future use! So I'm going to try again to start sharing my own, as we all need a bit of inspiration to try new things in the kitchen sometimes don't we?!
So here's what we'll be eating for our evening meals next week:
Monday - Cheats Chicken Curry for the kids/ Chicken Fettuccine Amalfi for us adults!
Now admittedly this might not seem like the best start to a meal plan, since it's kiiind of two different meals but - stay with me!
I have learned the hard way over many attempts that my children are just not fans of rich food, and unfortunately - my ultimate comfort food is a very rich, creamy dish that they just don't appreciate. However, I am NOT willing to give up on occasionally indulging in my favorite meal because of that!
So when I fancy that dinner, I make sure to buy a large whole chicken that can be easily used for two different meals.
I use one half of the breast meat to make a very quick & simple cheats chicken curry for the kiddos, using good old Maysan curry powder served with boiled rice and a shop-bought naan bread or two. Aside from roasting the chicken, the dinner is ready within minutes - and they happily gobble it all up!
Then once they're safely tucked into bed, I get on with making dinner for Jon & I which we can enjoy in peace and quiet!
Chicken Amalfi was a dish I discovered at an Italian restaurant years ago, and is basically a delicious chicken in white wine sauce sauce served over pasta and topped with bubbling delicious mozzarella cheese, it is just the ultimate in comfort food.
All you need to do is fry off a medium white onion (chopped) with a couple of handfuls of sliced button mushrooms until soft, throw in your cooked shredded chicken breast meat, add a couple of cloves of minced garlic and a big handful of spinach leaves, leave to wilt and then pour in about half a wine glass worth of white wine, and leave to reduce for a couple of minutes over a medium high heat. Then add in about 250ml of double cream and simmer for a few moments. Serve over cooked fettuccine, top with grated mozzarella and grill until bubbling.
You only need a small amount of white wine for this, so you can go ahead and treat yourself to the remainder of the bottle too - extra points for this meal! You can stock up on delicious wines and read some white wine facts here.
Tuesday - Veggie Mexican Chilli Bowls
Homemade chilli is one of our favorite family meals, Jon usually follows this recipe to make it and separates the kids portions before adding extra chillies in to our portion. We always make it with quorn mince rather than meat as it's just our families preference.
We have the chilli served in different ways depending on how we're feeling - sometimes we'll have it in tacos, sometimes in wraps - this week we'll be having it served as chilli bowls. We use tortilla wraps, placed over oven-proof bowls and baked in the oven until they crisp up and make the perfect chilli bowls!
Wednesday - Hot Diggity Dogs
My kids are BIG fans of a good hot dog, and I'm a big fan of knowing that they won't kick up a fuss about what we're having for dinner - so this one sounds like a winner all round!
We haven't tried this recipe before, but I'm pretty confident they'll like it - I like the idea of using wraps instead of buns for something a bit different, and it also means we can use up the tortilla wraps from last nights dinner. Perfect! I love it when a meal plan doesn't leave any waste!
Thursday - Scouse
This is always a winner in my book as it's just so bloody easy! It also has the added benefit of being packed full of veg!
It's a traditional recipe from my home city of Liverpool and something I was brought up on, my kids usually eat every last bite without much complaining too - perfect! I've blogged the recipe HERE
Friday - Slow Cooker Beef Stroganoff
This beef stroganoff sounds super easy - I'm always a fan of a slow cooker dish, and this one sounds like it'll be really tasty. I'm not entirely sure what the kids will make of it but I like to try something new most weeks to keep them on their toes!
Saturday - Takeaway Night!
We usually stick to the saturday night takeaway ritual in our house, although we do like to switch up what sort of takeaway we get most weeks - I think we'll go for pizza this weekend.
Sunday - Rustic Vegetable Tart
And finally, I really like the look of this Vegetable tart for Sunday's tea. I have some ready made pastry left over from last week that needs to be used so this will take care of that, and it will give me chance to use up any left over veg from the week too. Perfect!
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