This week’s meal plan: returning to normal

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 12 April 2011 in weekly meal plans | 2 comments

So last week was pretty chaotic – but by and large, I did avoid resorting to junk food — by missing dinner just about every night. I underestimated how long I’d be at the theatre each night and was rarely home before midnight – so I was grateful that I’d planned decent sized lunches! The show went surprisingly well – after three less than promising dress/tech rehearsals, we and the kids were all really thrown when they did a stellar job on opening night. We had lots of good audience feedback too, hurrah. :)

Anyway, this week, we’re back to normal – actually better than normal since my classes are cancelled over Easter – so hopefully we’ll stick to our plan!

Monday lunch: toast & cheese
Monday dinner: pasta carbonara

Tuesday lunch: bread & hummus, and pickles
Tuesday dinner: sweet chilli turkey & veg stirfry with noodles

Wednesday lunch: sandwiches
Wednesday dinner: homemade pizza

Thursday lunch: leftovers from either lunch or dinner on Tuesday
Thursday dinner: roast lamb with green beans & carrots

Friday lunch: egg mayo ploughman’s salad thing
Friday dinner: chicken enchiladas with salad

Weekly meal plan: the lots of quick meals week

Posted by louisa on Monday 4 April 2011 in weekly meal plans | 3 comments

As I mentioned last week, this week is show week for my drama classes – we had our first dress rehearsal last night and … it’s going to be a long week. I didn’t get as much put in the freezer last week as I hoped either – and our store cupboard supplies are low because we’ve not been to the supermarket for a big shop in … a month?. John and I have also both woken up this morning with sore throats/swollen glands. It’s going to be a very long week.

Monday lunch – pastrami with toasted sourdough bread and pickles
Monday dinner – pasta with John’s pasta sauce (from the freezer), and salad

Tuesday lunch – either scrambled eggs or beans on toast
Tuesday dinner – chilli-glazed pork chops with carrots & green beans

Wednesday lunch – chicken pieces & salad and bread
Wednesday dinner – pasta with tuna, sweetcorn, olives & chillis before I go or possibly curry (from the freezer) after I return

Thursday lunch – some sort of dal and rice (pindi channa if I can find my recipe; something with lentils if I can’t)
Thursday dinner – boiled eggs & soldiers :)

Friday lunch – leftover dal & rice
Friday dinner – possibly, probably, something on the way home from the theatre

Saturday brunch – fry-up, hells yeah.
Saturday dinner – pizza at aftershow party

Weekly meal planning: preparing for chaos

Posted by louisa on Monday 28 March 2011 in cooking, weekly meal plans | 0 comments

Every now and then I refer to being busy with drama or rehearsals but I’m not sure I’ve explained it – I help teach drama to teenagers at a local theatre one evening a week and am involved in other productions there from time to time too. Around Easter each year, the two drama classes (for 12-15 year olds & 16-18 year olds) come together for a big production – which means lots of extra rehearsals and running around. This year’s production runs for three nights the weekend after next with lots of dress/tech rehearsals during that week beforehand – meaning I’ll be out every evening from next Sunday to the following Saturday inclusive. This is going to get in the way of dinners somewhat – I’m going to try to get a good leftover buffer set up this week to cater for next week.

Sunday lunch – provided as part of the breadmaking course we were on (more on that later!)
Sunday dinner – bread from the breadmaking course with cheese & chutneys

Monday lunch – bread & cheese
Monday dinner – (after rehearsal) burgers with salad

Tuesday lunch – bread & egg mayo and salad
Tuesday dinner – beany enchiladas (with leftovers for the freezer)

Wednesday lunch – jacket potato with tuna
Wednesday dinner – some sort of curry cooked by John (probably keema & channa achar), with leftovers for the freezer

Thursday lunch – bread & eggs (we have a lot of bread from the course!)
Thursday dinner – pasta with chorizo, olives & wild garlic (has to be a quick one as John’s out)

Friday lunch – samosas and salad
Friday dinner – sausage & lentil casserole (with leftovers for the freezer)

I’m hoping to get John to make a big vat of his slow cooked pasta sauce on Sunday which should provide us for with at least two dinners, so that’s another couple of nights sorted too. Hopefully all these ready meals will make good eating next week as easy as possible :)

This week’s meal plan: the coming-and-going one

Posted by louisa on Monday 21 March 2011 in weekly meal plans | 2 comments

We stuck to the plan much better last week than the week before – not perfectly but much better.

As well as continuing DIY madness (which is proving to be more disruptive than we thought), John’s out at a conference for three days midweek (and we’ve got a friend staying over to go to it too) and I’m starting to be get into crunch mode for the play I’m working on so we’ll be coming and going a lot. I’d still like to have a plan to avoid slipping over to the easy junk food option but I have a lot less inclination to cook for myself though and I think this is reflected in the easy/less-than-varied choices.

Sunday dinner: pasta with herby sausages, peppers & olives

Monday lunch: curried egg mayo sandwiches
Monday dinner: chicken fried rice

Tuesday lunch: leftover fried rice (assuming there is some) or a toastie
Tuesday dinner: homemade pizza (since the friend is over and that was one of the things we swapped out last week) or possibly a curry with some more friends, as they’re in town for the film festival

Wednesday late-lunch: pasta with tuna & olives
Wednesday supper: (John out at the conference dinner, I’m rehearsing ’til 10) crackers & cheese

Thursday lunch: leftover tuna pasta
Thursday dinner: tortilla, with sweet potato, wild garlic & chorizo, with side salad

Friday lunch: samosas & salad
Friday dinner: company meal out (Little Tokyo in Leeds, mmm!)

Menu planning: the week we hope to actually stick to it

Posted by louisa on Monday 14 March 2011 in cooking, weekly meal plans | 0 comments

Apologies for dropping off the radar for a couple of days – I wasn’t just recuperating from all those stairs ;) Our bathroom refit has had problem after problem, so is dragging on and on, and John’s dad was here finishing up some work in our storeroom – so we’ve been rather distracted. Then rather than doing anything constructive on Friday, I spent the whole day refreshing the Guardian’s earthquake feed page and watching devastating videos that left my heart in my mouth as the water rushed over farmland and through cities. Not a really good week by any means.

The household chaos of last week meant we veered off the meal plan to a ridiculous degree – we didn’t stick to anything past Tuesday afternoon and ate a lot of junk food. Sigh. We’re hoping that things will calm down this week (John’s dad has finished; the bathroom is, hopefully, through the worst) and we’ll be better behaved.

Sunday lunch – bacon & mozzarella butties
Sunday dinner – Cottage pie – with reduced-to-clear organic mince, lots of veggies and parmasan & garlic mash, yum!

Monday lunch – ham & cheese toasties
Monday dinner – date night dinner out, hurrah!

Tuesday lunch – fish and chips if we’re being naughty; sandwiches if we’re being good
Tuesday dinner – Leftover cottage pie

Wednesday lunch – sandwiches (meat/cheese/egg mayo)
Wednesday dinner – previously frozen keema & channa curry, with naan

Thursday lunch – samosas & salad
Thursday dinner – Tortilla/Spanish omelette with salad

Friday lunch – boiled eggs & soldiers
Friday dinner – homemade pizza

This week’s meal plans: enter the wild garlic

Posted by louisa on Sunday 6 March 2011 in cooking, weekly meal plans | 0 comments

We ended up with more leftovers last week than I though – we got two dinners out of the risotto and two & a half from the kedgeree, so ended up shuffling things to get those used up. Four portions of curry went in the freezer too – homemade ready meals for the future – but I struggled to fit them in because we have a lot of previously frozen dinners in there – need to start working our way through them to keep them well rotated.

I’m delighted that the wild garlic in the woods is getting big enough to pick now – I hope it’ll feature quite a bit in our diet over the next couple of months (in salads if nothing else).

Sunday lunch – leftover pizza, mmm pizza
Sunday dinner – pasta with chorizo, wild garlic & pine nuts, with salad

Monday lunch – tomato & basil soup with bread
Monday dinner – spicy sausages & lentil casserole (will make enough for two dinners – second lot to be frozen)

Tuesday lunch – fish and chips if Strowger comes around :)
Tuesday dinner – pork chops with creamy mustard leeks and baked sweet potato

Wednesday lunch – bread and cheese & meat
Wednesday dinner – previously frozen keema & channa curry, with naan

Thursday lunch – egg mayo ploughmans lunch type thing
Thursday dinner – jerk chicken with rice&peas (or chips, if we’re feeling lazy) and salad

Friday lunch – leftover chicken with salad
Friday dinner – frittata