I know I said that I don’t usually do much of a meal plan over the Summer Holidays but it’s driving me mental at the minute.
Meal times are usually laid back in the Summer because (a) I never know how many we’re having for tea, (b) we don’t really stick to a schedule as we like to be out as much as possible and (c) we don’t know whether our day might involve an impromptu picnic (which would usually come out of the food budget).
But this Summer, I feel like my food budget is just running away from me and not only are we spending way more than we should be spending, we’re also at the shop much more often that I want to be, Which is why I’ve decided to break my own rule of having no rules where meals are concerned and go back to meal planning before the kids go back to school and I’m starting it today because I need to get on track as quickly as possible before the budget goes completely out of the window.
So. I’ve gone back to scratch and listed everything that we have in our cupboards, fridge and freezer and now I’m going to use my list to make sure that I use as much as I can of what we already have in so I can spend as little as possible over the coming weeks. We’re going back to set meal times and if the kids want to invite someone else for tea, they can do but we’ll stretch our what we have in and just pad it out with extra veggies or potatoes where necessary.
Friday
Tonight is homemade cottage pie with the leftover being used for lunch tomorrow.
Saturday
Homemade Paella and I’m at work on Sunday so I’ll take the leftovers for my lunch. I’m pretty sure that Master Frugal won’t try Paella even though he’s definitely getting better at trying new food so he’ll probably be having cheese and tomato toasted quesadillas with corn on the cob on the side.
Sunday
Minced beef and onion pie for the grown ups – shop bought but reduced from £4.00 to 99p. I’ll do some Yorkshire puds, veg and mini roasties with it.
Monday
Pasta bolognaise seeing as a giant hamper has just been delivered filled with pasta, Ragu sauces and Parmesan cheese.
Tuesday
I’m contemplating a Quorn chicken curry but I’m not 100% whether that will work with my usual recipe so I’ll need to have a look into that but if I can, that’s what I’m making. We can have it with rice and anyone not wanting the curry can just have egg fried rice.
Wednesday
Tuna Pasta Bake or pasta with pesto depending on what everyone fancies – I could probably even manage a macaroni cheese if that’s requested 😉
Thursday
Freezer surprise – we have lots of bits in the freezer that need using up so it’ll be a bit of a pot luck tonight – chicken burgers, beef burgers, chicken fingers, scampi and fries with some corn on the cob and peas thrown in for good measure.
