Meal Planning Monday; 29th April 2013

Happy Monday everyone! I've been enjoying a very social week with two courses (with Bubbah in crèche  albiet somewhat reluctantly on his part thanks to a spout of separation anxiety) at the local children's centre, a gorgeous sunny afternoon in the park (which resulted in me having sunburn on my back, ouch!) and a visit to a stay and play group where Bubbah walked up to a little girl his age and kissed her on the cheek! As such I've been so busy that not many pictures have been taken so apologies for the text heavy post!

Last week went pretty well although the next two weeks of meal planning will be pretty simple as we're on a strict budget courtesy of hubby switching from agency worker to proper employee, meaning we're on a monthly pay rather than a weekly one. Thankfully we have a lot of stock cupboard supplies including lots of rice, pasta and lasagne sheets.

We've also had our sideboard delivered and put together (the joys of flat pack) and Bubbah is thoroughly enjoying going through the cupboards and drawers on it as well as trying to colour in anything possible with the crayons he's finally taken an interest in.

Last week's cooking lesson was cod in white wine with linguine and fresh basil. I've also started a skincare and make up course (how amazing are children centres!) where I learnt that...I knew nothing! I invested in some new skincare and make up stuff from Benefit and have managed to stick to it for...oh two days now! I'll let you know how good I am in keeping it up as the course is on for a few more weeks.


Anyway, all that aside, let's get on with this week's meal plan...

• lasagne
• toad in the hole (probably mini ones rather than a big one)
• vegetable soup, or throw in some sausages and turn it into casserole
• fish pie
• macaroni cheese with bacon and three veg
• risotto
• Nando's lemon and herb chicken (they've released a seasoning kit to do your own and I had to try it)

I just hope there's room in the freezer as most of these get batch cooked! That or I'll have some hearty leftover lunches in the week!

The lovely Mrs M is hosting the meal planning week as usual this week so check it out for more ideas.

Meal Planning Monday: 22nd April 2013

And it's another week, another meal plan! I'm absolutely loving being back on my cooking around the world course. We ended up doing Greek and made moussaka with spinach and feta cheese filo parcels. Hubby was the tester (as I'm not keen on either dish) and declared it "too Greek" for him due to the amount of cinnamon they use!

This week's lesson is Italian, although the dish is to be revealed as the teacher recognised me and vowed to change the meal from last time to keep it interesting for me (which was a shame as I loved the salmon linguine we did previously) so that shall be interesting. Hopefully I'll be able to get online this week and post both the Greek and Italian recipes for anyone who wants them.

We had a lovely weekend and took full advantage of the sunshine with the local farmer's market (fresh bread and free samples of various sausages including Moroccan lamb!)  and saved about £15 on our normal supermarket shop as a result. I snapped up some scrummy looking cupcakes and took them with us when we went to my dad's where my brother and his brood were also visiting. We took Bubbah to the park where aside from one minor incident with a too big for his boots 12 year old who said the wrong thing in ear shot of me (Twitter for those who want to know in detail) we all had a lovely time and the kids promptly tired themselves out!

Bubbah and my niece

Bubbah has entered a new stage I've dubbed "the destruction phase" It pretty much goes something like this: Bubbah enters room, sees toys/books/clothes cupboard all nice and tidy and pulls it all apart, throwing it around him until within the space of literally a few minutes you end up with this:

Lovely!


Anyway, this week's meal plan is a bit up in the air as I've been feeling somewhat uninspired. I hope to bake some biscuits and a batch of chocolate fudge honeycomb cupcakes (which are as amazing as they sound and not sickly at all) but meal wise I know the following for definite...

• spaghetti carbonara using up leftover sauce from Sunday night's where I made too much sauce when we had a friend over for dinner
• something with sausages in, possibly toad in the hole as I didn't make it last week
• gammon (from the market) and home made chips
• my mystery Italian dish from cooking class
• Pizza with home made chips
• Risotto or a pasta bake depending on how lazy I feel come Saturday!

And that's my rough, quickly put together meal plan! For some more organised meal plans, pop on over to Mrs M to see what everyone else has planned this week. Have a good week!

Recipe binder: cheesy cottage pie

This has been on my meal plan posts for a couple of weeks now and I promised a recipe for it so here you go...

Cheesy cottage pie

What you need:

• 400-500g beef mince
• 3-4 potatoes (depending on size, if they're big go with three, but be prepared for more)
• Beef/meat gravy
• Butter
• Cheese of your choice

What you do:

• Peel and chop potatoes into small pieces (so they cook through quicker)
• Make up gravy (I like mine thick) and boil potatoes
• Brown the mince and then add in the gravy
• Allow to cook for a few minutes so that...
• ...you can make up the mash! (I use just butter but you can use milk/cream if you wish)
• Take mince off the hob and spoon into a casserole dish
• Top with the mash, run fork over mash (this helps it go crispy)
• Cook for 20 minutes gas mark 6
• Remove from the oven and top with grated cheese
• Cook for a further 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted and/or the potato topping has going crispy
• Serve with veg or just eat by itself

Meal Planning Monday; 15th April 2013

Goodness me is that sun I see out of my window this morning! Last week was quite nice and relaxed with very little to do except enjoy the sunshine and have Bubbah weighed. Hubby got promoted from agency worker to a proper permanent employee of his company (hurray) which means, among other things that he now actually gets a pension. So we ended up having a cinema date and Indian take away over the weekend to celebrate (we saw A Place Beyond The Pines which was, it has to be said, rather depressing as much as Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper are both lovely to look at and good actors) said promotion.

This week we're starting to get back into the swing of things. I start a cookery course this Wednesday (cooking around the world) so Bubbah will be in crèche for a few hours. I'm also taking him to get his feet measured again as I suspect he needs new shoes already despite getting new ones less than two months ago. Hopefully it will be sunny and we can enjoy warmth when we go out rather than being pelted with rain. Bubbah has some sunglasses at the ready, just in case...

This week's meal plan is pretty simple and batch cooking friendly:

• Pizza with garlic bread
• Toad in the hole (I may make mini ones)
• Mac n cheese
• Tuna pasta bake or caluiflower and broccoli cheese depending on preference
• Salmon linguine with home made pesto
• Risotto

Baking this week will be:

• blueberry fairy cakes
• caramel muffins (a hummingbird bakery recipe I've been desperate to try)
• possibly some shortbread

I'll be linked up to Mrs M so for what everyone else is cooking this week head on over there and have a read through for inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday; 8th April 2013

Ooops! I completely forgot to link up last week's meal plan to Mrs M but I promise you I kept to it, more or less!

It's been somewhat uneventful here, I've been hibernating as school holiday business drives me insane and makes me loathe to leave the house any more than necessary. Bubbah had a play date mid-week and that's been pretty much it. Oh, except Saturday where we went into Welwyn Garden and visited the market that was on there. We also had lunch at Ask where Bubbah quite happily acquainted himself with spaghetti carbonara...

Clearly it doesn't take much to impress me because one visit to the fruit and veg stall later and I was enthusing to my bemused husband about how amazing it was. To be fair, I got a huge punnet (400g) of strawberries, a punnet of raspberries, grapes and 100g of mushrooms for £4. Please tell me I'm not the only one impressed with that! To compare; 400g of strawberries from a supermarket is usually between £2 and £4 depending on brand/offers.

This week is quite plan light as well, although Bubbah has a doctor's appointment this afternoon courtesy of a horrid cough (think smoker's cough for example of the noise) that's stubbornly refusing to shift itself and keeping him (and me!) up all night.

Our meal plan is full of big cooks that will fill up the freezer quite happily...

• veg lasagne for hubby (who insisted that I make it again after having it last week)
• Quiche lorraine for me after picking up some really good quality bacon from the butchers at the Welwyn market
•  Cottage pie - I made this last week instead of lasagne for myself and it was SO tasty I decided to repeat it.

My cottage pie complete with cheesy coating

• Pizza and garlic bread, possibly with curly fries
• Pigs in blankets with curly fries or home made chips depending on my mood
• Mac n cheese
• Chilli sin carne (no meat chilli) for hubby
• Spinach and tomato quiche - made up in advance for all of hubby's lunches

This time I'm linked up to Mrs M, I promise!

Meal Planning Monday; 1st April 2013

Goodness me, a bank holiday AND April Fool's day all in one! A lovely Easter weekend has been had with lots of family time and time with friends too (I didn't have to cook three days in a row; it was wonderful!) Hubby and I even managed to squeeze in a date night too for the first time in about three weeks and saw GI Joe: Retaliation where I was one of three women in the cinema! Great film and one I'd recommend. Bubbah got hold of a pair of our 3d glasses too...

Last week I had a meal plan, I just didn't post it. I forgot my laptop when I came back from staying at my mum's and had to go and get it and then, well, life happened I guess and I barely had time to sit down!


This week our plan is pretty simple...

• fajitas with sausages for me and lots of veg in general served with home made potato slices
• risotto
• lasagne
• chicken tikka with home made naan bread
• sausage casserole
• mac n cheese

Nice and simple with some old favourites! How was everyone's Easter weekend? As usual I'm linked up to Mrs M so head on over there and see what everyone's got planned for their eats this week.