Menu planning has become on of my Monday tasks and I am really starting to enjoy it! I wait for my Produce box to come and then I make a list of all of the things I have been sent - then I sit down with my folder, with my books and with coloured paper and pens... and get cracking!
This is my though process for this week... starting with this weeks Produce Box contents.
a small-ish bag of kale,
a head of broccoli,
400g mange tout,
a box of grapes,
2 bananas,
a massive courgette,
a parsnip,
3 pears,
yellow bell pepper,
2 fat, dirty, winter carrots,
a sweet potato,
3 round fat tomatoes,
a leek,
a red onion,
a white onion,
3 massive tatties,
3 oranges,
2 apples, and,
2 nectarines.
So now I have my list I work out what I will do with what. This isn't a science, but the way that is working for me is to pick out the things that I'm not quite sure what I'm doing with and purpose them first then I can work with the rest. The fruit I do not worry about as I eat it for breakfast and Brian eats it for lunch, and any left over will go in smoothies and in custard for pudding! I also make a list of what I have left over from last week, what's in the fridge and what I have procured from the Mother and the Mother in Law (I got this and it was buy one free, would you use one? - the answer is almost always yes!).
The existing, use it up list looked like this:
a white onion,
two lemons,
two small courgettes,
a head of celery,
a leek,
half a cucumber,
new potatoes, and
sugar snap peas.
These become the priorities to use before they are past their best.
From the produce box list of mystery I picked out:
a small-ish bag of kale,
a massive courgette,
a parsnip,
a sweet potato,
a leek, and,
3 massive tatties.
Now I think about what we are doing in the evenings each day of the week, and this week looks like this:
Monday -
Tuesday -
Wednesday - Silly busy day. Needs to be an easy meal.
Thursday - to the in laws for dinner.
Friday -
Saturday - Lunch -
Saturday - Dinner - Geekfest night. No dinner needed as take out is happening at us! Whooo!
Sunday - Lunch -
Sunday - Dinner -
So now we finally look at meals! I don't really plan lunches during the week but I do make sure that there is pleasant enough and planned out lunch at the weekend. Brian almost always has a flat bread with meat, salad, cream cheese and some form of spicy condiment for the main element of his lunch so he's easily pleased. I live on eggs, left overs, meat, soup and cheese. Especially cheese.
Please note that I was going into the stationary I use to plan all of this madness out, but I will do that separately as this post is turning into quite a thing!
Ok! Meal ideas. I steel my self with a cuppa and grab my books that I refer to most (currently Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstalls River Cottage Veg and the Innocent Hungry? Book) and we get cracking.
Hit one - kale. I am not a big fan of kale but it is excellent in soup, so soup it is. My plan for this bag of kale is cannellini bean, barley and kale soup (recipe coming soon!) - so that's Saturday lunch sorted.
Hit two - courgette. I have been keen to make courgette fritters for a wee while but I'm not sure how I was going to fit them in to a menu that doesn't involve a roast chicken where I can serve them with left overs and new potatoes. So I shall save that idea and for now the courgettes will go in a pasta bake. This use of courgette is a good replacement for pasta (cut down the amount of pasta you use) to keep the calorie count lower.
Hit three - sweet potato. After last weeks soup incident I am not using this is soup... so what am I going to do with it? It's getting roasted and we are eating it for Sunday lunch with... er... something.
Hit four - leeks. I have two of these now as I did't use last weeks one (bad Karen!) but I will use this up in my chicken parcels as they go so soft, so sweet and just yummy.
So now we can fill in the week plan:
Monday - Roast gammon, new potatoes, and, sugar snap peas.
Tuesday - Baked risotto with left over gammon, mange tout, celery, onion, carrot and anything else I fancy!
Wednesday - Pasta bake, left over gammon, peppers, onions, home made tomato sauce.
Thursday - to the in laws for dinner.
Friday - Mince and tatties, carrots, peas, broccoli.
Saturday - Lunch - Cannellini bean, barley and kale soup and bread.
Saturday - Dinner - Geekfest night. No dinner needed as take out is happening at us! Whooo!
Sunday - Lunch - Haggis toasties with cheese, onion and tomato.
Sunday - Dinner - Chicken Parcels with roasted sweet potato, roasted white potato and mange tout.
And that's us done! I know it looks complex but I can do this in about twenty minutes now and I actually enjoy doing it. I do love a bit of a read and a plan. So there we go... all planned out! I'm not saying it always works which is why there is one more meal to plan... the emergency back up! This is almost always macaroni cheese, as we both love it, it's easy to make and it can be made in advance - so if I'm having a bad day I can make it early, if we get in later then it can be thrown together easily. Done!
I promise.
Omg, we love Hugh from River Cottage - especially those dodgy first seasons from the late 90's!
ReplyDeleteI agree! I have just recently fallen in love with him, he annoyed me a lot for along time for some reason. River Cottage Every Day has become my go to book for everything and I've had it for ages! Thanks for coming by!
DeleteYes Hugh is quite the inspiration. I bought a box of fresh produce at the market 2 weekends ago now and still dabbling away thinking of stuff to make. I only have sweet potatoes left and thank goodness they keep for ages. I so need to update my cooking book collection. Great post. I like your method.
ReplyDeletehello and thank you! I am glad you like my mad method! Sweet potato soup is glorious, as are roast sweet potatoes. So many lovely ideas! What else did you get your lovely box?
DeleteWow! I love this idea. I always have things in the fridge that looked great at the store and then I don't know what to do with them. Thanks!
ReplyDelete