Meal Planning

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Joan the Vampire Slayer said:
I really want to start doing this, at least for dinners. I find when I get home I’m too tired to cook. If I had a dinner to just pop in the microwave that would be great. And I don’t want to eat food from work anymore. I’m so sick of it, and it’s unhealthy and expensive.

I usually eat something simple for breakfast or skip it entirely.

As for lunch, I try to have something on hand that’s easy to whip up, like a sandwich or salad.
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I have recently been picking up the occasional pre-made stir fry from butchers and farm shops and sticking them in the freezer.

It is a bit more expensive than making them myself, but the pluses are I do not have to make them myself and it is really easy to cook when I cannot really be bothered cooking; put it in a frying pan and move it around with a spatula. Done.

I could batch prep the same sort of things myself - and have done - but like I said, this is almost no effort food without ordering a take away.
 
Slow cookers are great for batch cooking, especially in summer, as they don't give off as much heat as an oven.
I boiled up some, just okay, eggs yesterday, so will used them up today in a potato salad. I over cooked them though, so the yolks are a bit too dry and not good. Nevermind I'll mix it up and they'll be fine.

I'll see what I can pick from the allotment and do some baking later, hopefully I'll have blueberries.
 
It was a mistake to put capsicum in the curry. I just tried to pack it with every vegetable I had. I think it would have been MUCH nicer without capsicum. Still edible. I have 8 serves frozen.

I really like garlic naan. I just got the coles brand and its great.

I do not like coconut yogurt, well I do like the dessert style taste, I just dont like its effects on me.
 
I need to decide what to do with my garlic, that isn't just garlic butter. I don't mind doing garlic butter as it freezes easily, but I want to do a few things with it, even if I do just freeze them too!

Maybe a creamy pasta sauce, I can either freeze it or find some jars to store it in. To the Pinterest!
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
Garlic can also be smoked, so it keeps longer.
@NotASlayer umm strangely I don't own a smoker, but I might preserve some, I've seen a few recipes either in oil or honey.

I've seen a recipe, roasted red onions with garlic butter, so I might do that, but freeze them before roasting.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
I think you can improvise a smoker - oddly, I do not own one either!
My girlfriend plans to cook. I plan to eat. Life is simple.

She made a version of mashed potatoes where she used about six ordinary potatoes and two yams/sweet potatoes to produce a slightly orange-coloured mashed potato vegetable that was slightly sweet. Much more interesting than normal mashed potatoes.
 
Ethan Reigns said:
My girlfriend plans to cook. I plan to eat. Life is simple.

She made a version of mashed potatoes where she used about six ordinary potatoes and two yams/sweet potatoes to produce a slightly orange-coloured mashed potato vegetable that was slightly sweet. Much more interesting than normal mashed potatoes.
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Yeah I often add other veg into mashed potatoes, I loved caramelised onions in it too.

I could make a big batch of garlic mash and freeze thar, once I've dug up a few spuds.
 
Took sausages out of the freezer, haven't yet decided what to have with them, depends on how hot it is tonight! If not too hot I'll finally attempt to sausage and onion tart thing that I was going to make months ago! Otherwise it could just be a sausage sandwich.
 
Tonight is leg of lamb, potato mash and beans. Should have enough lamb leftover for a pie with some more of that aldi veg to use up. NOT THE CAPSICUM. But maybe I should roast that while the oven is on and use it in a dip.
 
My way of meal planning is to keep the number of different dishes that I actually cook to a bare minimum.
That way it's easy to just stock up on the same ingredients every time I'm at the grocery store.

Also makes it easy to decide what to eat. Haven't eaten that in four days. That will do today...

/SK
 
Yeah i definitely need to simplify. I cant keep up with all the dishes, even with a dishwasher!

I had planned to make lamb pie, but it was a million times simpler to layer that premade potato bake on top of sliced lamb instead. With boiled beans. If it works for lunch, I'll do it again. Simple and only two dishes.
 
Finally got around to baking, had all the ingredients for weeks, but today I have made, well they're in the airfryer cooking, chocolate brownies.

I haven't done a lot of airfryer baking, but done brownies a few time as they don't rise. These are a Pinterest recipe, using condensed milk, as my mother had a food cupboard sort out and gave me a tin! The recipe is for the oven but I never use that these days, my airfryer has a bake button so everything gets done in that.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
So far, I have only made brownies from mixes!
@NotASlayer brownies are easy, definitely recommend making them yourself.

I did a quick no bake oaty thing today, as I got a week until my food delivery and need lunch and sweet foods so I don't spend any more money.

I need to use up some of my garlic, but got no extra butter left now, so any butterless garlic ideas?
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
Baking is not something I have much experience with, so I decided to start off easy and use a brownie mix, rather than going completely from scratch. Cadbury's worked better than Morrisons' own brand.
nightshade said:
@NotASlayer brownies are easy, definitely recommend making them yourself.

I did a quick no bake oaty thing today, as I got a week until my food delivery and need lunch and sweet foods so I don't spend any more money.

I need to use up some of my garlic, but got no extra butter left now, so any butterless garlic ideas?
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Maybe a Caesar salad but the price of olive oil may put a stop to that.
 
NotASlayer
NotASlayer
That reminds me, I need more olive oil, both extra virgin and regular.
Was chatting to an old lady today who was dropping big hints about wanting food. I have some roo mince so I was thinking I will make a roo pasta bake for us all tomorrow. She'll either love it and ask for more cooking, or hate it and never ask again hah. My freezer is pretty well stocked but this will be a nice comfort meal to have on hand when the rain really hits.
 
I'm on the use stuff up week before delivery, so today I'm using up the pastry that I'm not sure how long ago I took out of the freezer with some cheese, have no idea if it'll be edible.

I'm thinking omelette tonight to use up both eggs and cheese.
 
It was edible amd rather good too.

Found fishcakes hiding in the back of the freezer so I'll have them this week. Shopping is due Friday, so I'll tweak that during the week.

I'm in and out tonight, so I might just do cheese on toast for dinner.

Monday, might see about persuading my mother to have pub meal!

I'll do some kind of roast meal, either with pie or whatever else I have lurking in freezer.

Fishcakes 2 days, not sure with what yet.
 
The roo pasta bake was delicious! I have been trying to avoid pasta and trying to pack more veggies into everything, but this was basic, mince, onions, tinned tomatoes, passata, pasta and cheese. It was the best comfort food! Easy as to divide up between the neighbours too. I dont want to make it a regular thing for me because its not healthy enough. But there is a good argument to have it more often because I can make many serves, its cheap, very quick and very very easy.

This week I am not cooking anything else. I have enough in the freezer and should start working through that. Plus, I finally caught up with all the dishes and deep cleaned the kitchen, I dont want to mess it up!
 
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