All things Meal Planning Archives | The Diary of a Frugal Family

Homemade Slow Cooker Cranberry Sauce….

29729Leave a Comment2021-11-22+10%3A00%3A15Cassandra November 22, 2021 By Cassandra
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Today I'm sharing my version of homemade slow cooker cranberry sauce and I guarantee you're going to LOVE it.I've never been a fan of cranberry sauce really but that's not really surprising when you consider that until last December, I'd only ever tried shop bought versions of cranberry sauce!Last year though, I tried some homemade cranberry sauce during my work's Christmas meal out and it tasted amazing. Honestly, it was almost unrecognisable from the shop bought versions I'd tried previously so I decided to have a go at making my own at the last minute.My first … [Read more...]

What we’re eating this week {15th November 2021}….

386621 Comment2021-11-15+10%3A00%3A58Cassandra November 15, 2021 By Cassandra
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OK, I know I have a meal planning blog that I should be sharing this on but honestly, it's very neglected and needs a bit of TLC so I thought I'd share this week's meal plan with you on here for a change.I'm keeping an even closer eye than usual on budgets at the moment as we're obviously approaching the most expensive time of the year so I want to save money wherever I can and I know that our food budget is one of the easiest ways to shave some money off my spending! Monday - Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Honestly can't beat Instant Pot chicken and rice for a quick, easy, and filling … [Read more...]

10 Foods you didn’t know you could freeze….

September 29, 2021 By Cassandra
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You probably know by now that I'm a total fan of using my freezer to help with my meal planning - whether it's batch cooking things like tomato sauce or using ice cube trays to freeze small portions of things like wine. Freezing food is a great way to extend the shelf life of items you use but may not use fast enough to make it economical to store fresh. I thought I'd share a few things that you can freeze because there have been a few things that I've discovered over the years that have literally changed the way that I'm able to save money on our family … [Read more...]

How to reduce your food prep waste….

August 30, 2021 By Cassandra
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Meal prepping is a big thing but do you ever find that you get super organised and prep a stack of meals for the week ahead, only to see some of them go to waste for one reason or another?Quite often, on a Sunday afternoon, I might spend a bit of time meal prepping for the week ahead as I work full time and at the end of the day, I'm not always in the mood to spend time cooking so as well as my usual freezer batch cooking, I might also do some prep for meals through the week and pop some bits in the fridge to save me some time.I might make a pasta bake or some soup to pop into … [Read more...]

Too Good to Go – what you really get in a ‘Magic Bag’….

August 3, 2021 By Cassandra
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Too Good to Go is my new favourite app so I thought I'd share with you how it works and why I love it so much. I'm also going to share a couple of my recent bargains so I can give you an idea of what you get in your Magic Bag.First of all, have you heard of Too Good to Go? I only discovered it a couple of months ago and even then only started using it myself in the last month or so I'm guessing it'll be new to some of you guys too.It's basically a free app that allows you to buy unsold food from local shops, cafes, bakeries, and restaurants in your local area at the end of each day … [Read more...]

How an ice cube tray revolutionised my meal planning….

June 14, 2021 By Cassandra
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Today I'm going to tell you how a £1 ice cube tray has revolutionised* my meal planning.(*Ok, maybe revolutionised is a bit strong - I should probably go with improved rather a lot although that doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?. ;-))Not long ago, when I shared my post about how to build a frugal pantry, I mentioned that I used ice cube trays in my freezer to help with my meal planning and prep and I got lots* of messages asking me to reveal my secret.(*Ok, I got two messages about it and one only mentioned the ice cubes tray thing as a PS.)Basically, I have about … [Read more...]