Ha! you thought this blog was dead didn't you? OK it was for a while but I never stopped thinking about writing. I'm just absolutely rubbish at carving out time for myself especially these days. Why so much so now you ask? Because I now chase around a toddler for a big chunk of my day. A toddler who loves to try and "press buttons" and "use 'puter" so needless to say I don't really use the computer much with her up and about. I do miss the community aspect of all these lovely foodie blogs. I get so many ideas from reading other's kitchen experiments, successes and failures (although we're all a bit reluctant to share those most of the time).
Anyway to jump right back into it I'd like to continue to fill out this blog with practical advice and real world recipes (that are accessible in a cash, time and skill way). To help me make more time for my blog I'm going to use this partly as a tool for our family by way of meal planning.
Meal planning is a great way to keep to a budget and to cut back on decision making in the middle of your hectic week. Ok my weeks aren't really that hectic as a stay at home mom but as anyone with children will agree you are busy busy busy all the time even if you're just busy playing.
Meal planning is also a good way to focus on using certain ingredients and making sure you're eating an interesting and varied diet.
Some of my rules of meal planning (or questions I ask myself) are:
-do I have particular perishables that need using? If so slot those in early in the week.
-is it a skint week? If so focus on using more of what's already in the house.
-what ingredients are cheap or on sale that we can use?
-try to keep meals flexible so if you need to change out an ingredient or two you can or switch days around without throwing the entire plan out the window.
-One meal a week from my ridiculous collection of bookmarked recipes from other blogs
This last point is particularly important in our house as we frequently check the reduced produce areas of the supermarket and score super cheap veggie. Sometimes these need to be used straight away so if we stay flexible in regards to ingredients then we can use those cheap ingredients and save money.
So without further rambling my meal plan for this week (I try to do this on Sunday so I shall try to do a Meal Plan Monday post):
Monday: Shepherd's Pie
Tuesday: Double Bacon Cheese Burger (but probably eaten one at a time without buns) with salad
Wednesday: Spicy Roast Potatoes and Lentil pea curry (inspired by this)
Thursday: Black bean spicy stir fry (we have a sauce packet in the cupboard and this can take any veg you find)
Friday: Chickpea Veggie Quiche
Saturday: Cincinnati Chili with Vermont Common Crackers (wish me luck here because I have no kitchen equipment save a rolling pin these days)
Sunday: Tacos (using tvp/soy mince, lentil refried style beans, tomatoes, fresh greens)
So that's this week. I'll see about adding a recap on the success of the previous week with next week's meal plan.
