I *try* to plan our meals each week but it’s not always easy planning a week’s worth of meals in advance and as much as I’d like to tell you that I stick to it rigidly every day, I can”t! There are regular last minute changes for lots of very boring reasons – no time to cook what was planned, forgot to put everything in the slow cooker on the morning, a hungry person ate what I was planning to cook when I wasn’t looking. Sometimes, it’s simply because we just don’t fancy what we had planned!
But I always make sure that I don’t mess with my plan to the point where I need to go to the shop to buy something different because that’s where our budget can easily get out of control. A quick trip to the shop for something little usually ends up with at least two carrier bags filled with things we probably don’t need so it’s to be avoided at all costs!
The secret (it’s not really a secret, most of you are probably the same) is to have a store cupboard filled with versatile ingredients that can help you change your main ingredient into lots of other meals.
Take chicken for example – with the ingredients I have in my store cupboard right now, I could change the barbecue chicken we’d been planning to have into a chicken curry, chicken fried rice or spicy chicken pasta. I could turn the Mediterranean veggies I was planning to roast over the weekend to go with a gammon join into a veggie curry or chilli, a vegetable fritatta or a vegetable and tomato pasta dish.
The list below is pretty much what I try to keep in my veggie cupboard at all time and together with a bag of chopped frozen or dried onion and a bag of frozen veg, I’m sorted for any last minute changes to what we’re eating.
I am trying to get a bit more ambitious with my cooking though so I’d love to know what your standby ingredients are and what your favourite standby meal is?
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My store cupboard is pretty much empty at the moment as we've been living out of it since before Christmas, but usually if i'm stuck I'll type in the ingredients i have into the recipe option on google search. I really do need to start menu planning but never know where to start.
Fantastic post – you know I have no idea what is in my store cupboard I really should go through it. x
I always used to have ingredients for tunafish pasta or spaghetti with minced meat sauce. But since I found out that my stomach problems are caused by gluten I've had to find new staples. I'm still trying to get used to having rice for a risotto and potatoes for different dishes that I'm trying out.
Sounds like a great plan – I wouldn't know what to do without my 'basics' – the amount of times I'm told there's nothing in the cupboard to eat and then I can whip up a meal in 20 mins from bits n bobs in the cupboard!
We eat a lot of chicken as my son doesn't eat red meat. I've never been one of those cooks who can pull a few things from the cupboard and turn it into a great meal though 🙁
My meal planning isn't at it's best at the mo. My store cupboard staple at the mo is brown rice. I can throw it into mince to make a one pot meal, or put a seasoned piece of chicken on top, or make a curry etc.
We don't plan meals as such but we do have a lot of cupboard food plus meat in the freezer, so all we have to buy to make a meal are fresh veggies most of the time.
I have a store cupboard but I need to get better at checking dates as things get pushed to the back and not used
I am just into my third week of meal planning, and quite agree that you need to be able to adapt sometimes when plans change- as they so often do, esp with teenagers in the house!
Random pickles, some pastes and gravy granules. The sort of stuff that lives in the dark and never gets seen again!
I am totally terrible at food full stop I'm afraid. Can just about sort it for the girls, but then my standby is cheese on toast!! 🙁
Menu planning is very difficult, especially with children. Pasta is always at home and quickly to prepare and if I have no idea what I can cook, then I ask my friend Google.
We always have rice, quinoa, pasta, frozen vegetables, tinned tomatoes, halloumi and tofu. You can rustle up anything from those!
We are going to start menu planning! Yikes, organisation! I wish I was a confident cook xx
Pasta seems to be a staple in our cupboard, we have tons of it in different shapes!
I don't have coconut milk in but I always find of tuna for a pasta bake or tuna melts.
great post – we meal plan, but i always have certain things in 'just in case' some frozen veg, bags of pasta, pesto, beans, part-baked baguettes, etc so i can always rustle something up!
I sometimes Google the ingredients ive got and see what comes up x
great post! I could have written it myself as we are exactly the same! We used to pop to the shops or takeaway because we didn’t fancy or couldn’t be bothered with what was on the list but it got so expensive! I now try to stick to the list as much as possible. The kids love that they know what’s for dinner everyday too x
I usually have chicken and maybe mince or quorn mince in the freezer. It's amazing what you can create with tinned tomatoes, stock cubes, some herbs or spices, garlic and one of these ingredients
I'll agree..to a point! I'm just about to move in my motorhome and will have to live with a much reduced stock of basics. It's occurred to me while I've been trying to use up stuff before I leave my conventional home that there's an awful lot in the back of cupboards that gets forgotten. It's making me think about storecupboard approach.