Meal Planning – Week 8

Last week saw our return to Meal Planning. Now that our family is back in the swing of things we are moving on to Meal Planning Week 8. These posts are always a bit selfish because it helps me keep myself in check and I can use it as a reference point later on when I can’t remember what meals I made and what I haven’t done yet.

Last week was a strong start but it still wasn’t perfect. I will get to the pitfalls a bit later on in this post.

I’m also going to share with you what this week’s meal plan is and how I am going to tackle Week 8.

Meal Planning – Week 8

For months we meal planned and really got into the swing of things. I documented the first 6 weeks of that. Then I became a student and wrote exams and things just went downhill. Last week we returned to meal planning and picked up where we left off.

There is a silver lining though… for the readers, not for me…

If you’re thinking about doing this, you should be able to follow all of the posts and have a two month guide on how to meal plan.

Week 7: what happened and what went wrong

I had a plan and stuck to it for most of the week. The problem was that

I started too late in the week. I decided to start on Tuesday and not on the weekend which didn’t give me enough time to consider the activities planned for the week and how they would impact the evenings. Halloween and a planned night out on Friday threw me somewhat.

I didn’t stick to the plan properly.

This week will be better, I have no doubt. And it really does get easier the more disciplined you are in the beginning and then just the longer you stick to it.

However, I did get told that the baked crumbed chicken was my son’s favourite meal in the world. From an extremely fussy eater – that just made my week.

Starting the Meal Plan for Week 8

Step 1: What is in the fridge

This week I am in a better place as I actually went to the grocery store with a purpose last week. I wasn’t just rushing in a few times a week without any structure.

This week, I still have half my savoury mince that I made up for spaghetti bolognaise. Some of the vegetables and salad ingredients left over from the week.

I also managed to get a good piece of beef on special that will be perfect for roasting this week. This will make up two meals because I can use the left over beef cold in wraps.

I would had some streaky bacon and pork sausages that were on special but the bacon got used for a lazy weekend dinner of jacket potatoes.

Step 2: The Shop

I have the basis of three or four meals already:

Hot Roast Beef, roast potatoes and vegetables.
Cottage Pie with the left over mince.
Beef in wraps or pitas using the left over roast.

I generally try alternate chicken and pork with red meat so I have three red meat dishes and am going to be trying to incorporate chicken into the rest of the week’s dishes.

This week I am also going to try do all my shopping on line. Starting with what I need and then quickly looking into the weekly specials to see what pieces of meat I can get at a good price.

Step 3: The Menu

So, this week we will be having:

Sunday

Butterflied Chicken

I am trying a new product tonight. It is a boneless butterflied chicken.

Depending on the weather, we may have it on the BBQ or if it’s cold we will have it oven roasted with some bread and a side salad.

I’ve read good reviews about this product so I’m going to give it a go. Hopefully, it will be good so that we can add it to other menus in the future.

Monday

Roast Beef with Roast Potatoes and Vegetables

My kids actually love roasts and roast potatoes so this is a win for the whole family. It also means sitting down together as a family early Sunday evening.

I do marinade the meat the whole day before I cook it. Remember to take your meat out an hour before you cook to bring it up to room temperature.

One day I will get to the point of making Yorkshire puddings but I’m not there yet. I am still trying to get the gravy right.

Tuesday

Chicken Stir-fry

I need chicken breasts to cut up or chicken stir-fry. Sometime you can get the stir-fry priced at the same price as the chicken breasts themselves.

All I’m going to do is make a sticky sauce, using honey and soy sauce for the chicken. I’ll use this recipe I found AllRecipes (http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/11234/spicy-honey-chicken.aspx)

Veggies are easy – carrots, zucchini, corn, capsicum, cabbage and onion all finely sliced.

Wednesday

Home made pizza.

My husband makes homemade pizzas from scratch. My daughter will be home from day care so it’ll be a great afternoon activity to make the dough with her.

Of course, the kids decorate their own pizza with an array of salami, capsicum, cheese and ham. Regardless of the meat they choose, it generally turns out to be a face.

Thursday

Beef wraps.

This is such an easy meal. While we will eat the same as the kids, the kids eat earlier.

I make up all the ingredients for their wraps and then leave them to put them together. This has the effect of encouraging my difficult eater to get stuck in and it results in him eating more. Ironically though, my brilliant eater doesn’t really like this way of eating.

To set up the wraps, I heat the wraps in a dry pan, slice up the meat in very thin strips or slices, cut up capsicum, grate carrot, cheese and then give them some sauce to layer on the wrap first.

Friday

Cheat night.

My in-laws arrive on Friday from South Africa so I don’t know what we’re going to do for dinner on Friday but we will probably go out or have take out on the beach.

Depending on how exhausted they are we may just stay in and I’ll get a ready made lasagna.

What ever happens I know that I can’t plan for this so will take it in my stride.