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 plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 21 February 2011 in cooking, weekly meal plans | 3 comments

We’re getting a bit better at sticking to meal plans – not great, but better. A couple of shuffles last week but again, it’s generally wonderful to know what’s in the offing.

Sunday dinner – Pasta with John’s special pasta sauce (frozen leftovers from a previous batch) and salad

Monday lunch – some veg things John bought while I wasn’t there so don’t know what they are, with bread
Monday dinner – Spanish omelette (possibly with sweet potato, pepper & chorizo)

Tuesday lunch – hopefully not fish and chips but I get *bullied* into it every week when Strowger comes to visit. I blame him totally. I don’t even like fish and chips. And especially not curry sauce. Mmm curry sauce – I mean, urgh, curry sauce.
Tuesday dinner – pork chops with a mustard & chilli glaze with green beans & carrots

Wednesday lunch – ham/cheese sandwiches
Wednesday dinner – (I’m in for once – half term) egg fried rice (possibly with mushrooms, possibly other stuff)

Thursday lunch – bread, meat & salad/pickles
Thursday dinner – pasta with tuna, olives & chillis (since that was one of the things we swapped out last week)

Friday lunch – samosas & misc bits
Friday dinner – burgers with salad (the other thing we swapped out last week)