Wheat-free week: our meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 5 September 2011 in weekly meal plans | 3 comments

I stopped publishing our meal plans a couple of months ago because I didn’t know how much value they had to other people – but I thought this one may be more useful. (I have been writing the meal plans most weeks and sharing them with John on Google Docs, and boy have we felt it in the weeks when we didn’t have a plan – we’re definitely plan converts.)

So this week we’re having a wheat-free week. As far as we know, neither of us has any health problems caused or exaggerated by wheat but we eat a lot of bread & pasta, just because they’re easy fallbacks. We’re hoping a wheat-free week will encourage us to find different things to eat for lunch and for quick dinners. I also eat wheat-based (shop-bought) cereal most days for breakfast and we eat a lot of wheaty biscuits/cakes so I’ll have to find an alternative for them too.

John’s not a big fan of potatoes really so there is a lot of rice (and our normal repetition due to leftovers). We’ll probably have another wheat-free week in a couple of months – if you’ve got any recipe suggestions, do let me know :)

Monday breakfast – eggs or porridge
Monday lunch – tomato & lentil soup
Monday dinner – chicken, courgette & pepper risotto, on a bed of spinach/with salad
Monday dessert – chocolate mousse

Tuesday breakfast – eggs or porridge
Tuesday lunch – tomato & lentil soup leftovers
Tuesday dinner – chickpea & paneer with rice
Tuesday dessert – kheer

Wednesday breakfast – eggs or porridge
Wednesday lunch – chickpea & paneer leftovers, with rice
Wednesday dinner – (John might be having a movie night with friends, which may include wheaty pizza but nevermind; if not/for me) Jacket potato with tuna & cheese
Wednesday dessert – kheer

Thursday breakfast – eggs or porridge
Thursday lunch – tomato & bean soup
Thursday dinner – keema curry with rice

Friday breakfast – eggs or porridge
Friday lunch – egg salad
Friday dinner – keema curry leftovers, with rice

Saturday brunch – bacon & eggs, with hash browns
Saturday dinner – steak with vegetables
Saturday dessert – flourless chocolate cake

Sunday brunch – bacon & eggs, with hash browns
Sunday dinner – Spanish omelette (with sweet potato & peppers)
Sunday dessert – flourless chocolate cake

This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 25 July 2011 in weekly meal plans | 2 comments

I’ve not done meal plans for the last few weeks – it started when I wasn’t going to be here/cooking for a week during my drama-packed week earlier in the month, then I was off and on poorly for a week so not eating much, then it was my birthday week (so lots of eating out or at least not me cooking!) and then it was now. However, in between all that, we’ve reached quite a few dinner times without an idea of what we’re going to eat (and all our Swillington Farm meat frozen solid) so I think it’s time we returned to planning!

Sunday brunch – sausage & eggs
Sunday dinner – beef & mushroom casserole with butter dumplings*, and veg

Monday lunch – pate on toast** sliced beef & mustard in a bun
Monday dinner – (John away) sticky sticky spare ribs

Tuesday lunch – sausage & eggs
Tuesday dinner – leftover beef & mushroom casserole with dumplings & veg

Wednesday lunch – ham sandwiches
Wednesday dinner – chorizo & courgette frittata

Thursday lunch – samosas and salad
Thursday dinner – (John out) pasta with John’s special pasta sauce (from the freezer)

Friday lunch – pork pies from Wilson’s in Armley***
Friday dinner – celebratory**** meal out – probably bargainacious curry.

Saturday brunch – bacon & eggs
Saturday dinner – chicken legs, with new potatoes from the garden & salad

* ie, dumplings made with butter not suet.
** damn you mouldy bread! I only bought the pate because I knew I had you to use up. Then you went mouldy. *shakes fist*
*** well, John will have a yummy pork pie – Wilson’s do very nice pork pies. I will have a cornish pasty and wish I could have a pork pie without it giving me indigestion. Damn you pork pies. *shakes fist*
**** we’re, hopefully, completing the sale of our old house, I think that deserves a £6 a head curry ;)

This week’s meal plan – garden a go go!

Posted by louisa on Monday 27 June 2011 in weekly meal plans | 8 comments

Our first Swillington Farm meat box arrived last Thursday night – all the (fresh) meat we’re eating this week (and hopefully for the next three weeks!) will come from that. Most of it went in the freezer so we’ll have it across the month and like a veg box, we don’t have any choice in what’s in there, so it should encourage us to some try different things. We had some of the bacon & some of the sausages for breakfast over the weekend and I also jointed the chicken – we froze the breasts (which each weighed over 250g/half a lb!) and had the rest on Saturday/Sunday. Tuesday’s soup comes from stock from the carcass – it was supposed to be for eating today but it’s far too hot for that today!

As for the title for this one – the garden is finally providing! We’ve been having spots of salad for a few weeks (much later than last year for some reason) but various things are finally starting to shine. I think there is something from our garden – either veg or eggs – in every meal, hurrah :)

Sunday breakfast – eggs & sausage
Sunday lunch – leftover chicken & potatoes, with homegrown garlicky broad beans & salad
Sunday dinner – dining out – curry

Monday lunch – marrow flower fritters with salad
Monday dinner – rump steak with purple sprouting broccoli, homegrown potatoes, broad beans & salad

Tuesday lunch – chicken & sweetcorn soup
Tuesday dinner – pasta with chorizo, pepper & homegrown courgette

Wednesday lunch – leftover chicken & sweetcorn soup
Wednesday dinner – chicken jalfrezi with lemon rice

Thursday lunch – bread & meat with broad bean salad
Thursday dinner – leftover chicken jalfrezi with lemon rice

Friday lunch – curried egg mayo with bread
Friday dinner – homemade pizza, with salad

This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 20 June 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

Last week’s mostly-eating-from-the-freezer week was good – the closest we’ve stuck to the meal plan for a long time (aside from the beef goulash and “for next week”‘s sausage & lentil casserole swapped places).

This week should see the first not-just-salad crops from the garden – broad beans and new potatoes will definitely feature, and we might get our first courgette too. I heart this time of year :)

Sunday brunch – bacon butties (yay!)
Sunday dinner – roast beef dinner (John went to his mum & dad’s for lunch and brought a plate back for me)

Monday lunch – tomato soup with a pastrami & pickle sandwich
Monday dinner – pasta with tuna, sweetcorn, olives and chillis

Tuesday lunch – leftover pasta with tuna etc
Tuesday dinner – some sort of risotto (whatever John fancies making)

Wednesday lunch – poached eggs (hopefully! going to learn how to make them)
Wednesday dinner – the beef goulash I forgot to make in time last week

Thursday lunch – samosas, salad & pickles
Thursday dinner – leftover goulash

Friday lunch – bread, cheese & pickles
Friday dinner – new potato & broad bean salad (both from the garden, woo), with bacon/pancetta & poached egg (hopefully!)

This week’s meal plan: using up stuff from the freezer

Posted by louisa on Monday 13 June 2011 in weekly meal plans | 2 comments

We’re swapping things around here at the moment, with our formerly sealed coal hole becoming a proper lovely & useful utility room-ette, we’re moving our undercounter freezer down there and have got a more space efficient (and generally more efficient) fridge-freezer for the kitchen. Anyway, long story short, we’re going to have more freezer space in the long run but are using it as an opportunity for a clear out now.

Sunday brunch – sausage & egg sandwiches
Sunday dinner – pasta with John’s special pasta sauce (from the freezer)

Monday lunch – croque monsieurs, since I’ve had a craving for them for weeks :)
Monday dinner – Spanish omelette with chorizo, garlic mushrooms & peppers (to use up some cheap potatoes we got last week), with salad (homegrown!)

Tuesday lunch – sandwiches or fish & chips if Strowger gets his way ;)
Tuesday dinner – spicy smoked mackerel kedgeree (smoked mackerel from the freezer)

Wednesday lunch – curried egg mayo with toast
Wednesday dinner – John out with friends; an on-toast or doggy bag for me

Thursday lunch – tuna and salad in wraps
Thursday dinner – slow cooker beef goulash (beef from the freezer) (thanks to Katherine for the inspiration :) )

Friday lunch – samosas with pickles and salad
Friday dinner – leftover beef goulash

And a note for me for next week – use sausages from freezer to make a casserole :)

This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 6 June 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

This one feels less varied than normal – but should be quite efficient as a result and not need too much extra shopping, which I like. :) The shepherd’s pie was originally going to be cottage pie but I found some lamb mince in the freezer. Another win :)

Sunday lunch – Saturday night takeout leftovers
Sunday dinner – … Saturday night takeout leftovers (eyes seriously bigger than our bellies!)

Monday lunch – tomato soup with soda bread
Monday dinner – courgette & bacon risotto

Tuesday lunch – leftover risotto & bread (or if we’re lured into naughtiness by Strowger, fish butties)
Tuesday dinner – shepherd’s pie and veg

Wednesday lunch – curried egg mayo sandwiches
Wednesday dinner – pizza

Thursday lunch – samosas and salad
Thursday dinner – leftover shepherd’s pie and veg

Friday lunch – bread, meat & pickles
Friday dinner – spaghetti carbonara