This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 24 May 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

A late start on this one since we were away – I did write a meal plan for our camping trip but since we cut it short and rain-stopped-bbq-play another evening, it seems a bit pointless to post it. It was very useful to have though to know what we should with us.

Tuesday lunch – bread & ham
Tuesday dinner – chicken risotto with salad

Wednesday lunch – pate on toast (for me); ham sandwich (John)
Wednesday dinner – pasta with tuna, sweetcorn, olives & chillis

Thursday lunch – curried egg mayo with bread/toast
Thursday dinner – (John out) leftover risotto (hopefully!) or jacket potato, with salad

Friday lunch – samosas with salad
Friday dinner – warm chorizo & poached egg salad, with new potatoes

This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 9 May 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

We seem to be having a rather carb-heavy, vaguely Italian themed week this week – lasagne for two nights, pizza for another two meals and a ravioli experiment on Friday. Mmm carb-heavy vaguely Italian food ;)

Sunday brunch – scrambled eggs I got up too late to have them, just had cereal instead ;)
Sunday dinner – curry, weeee! we heart curry

Monday lunch – bread with cheese & pickles
Monday dinner – lasagne using one of the frozen portions of John’s special pasta sauce & a whole heap of veg, with salad

Tuesday lunch – bread & cheese etc fish and chips
Tuesday dinner – leftover lasagne, with salad bread & cheese etc

Wednesday lunch – samosas with salad
Wednesday dinner – movie night pizza leftover lasagne, with salad

Thursday lunch – leftover pizza (if there is any); if not, just bread & stuff
Thursday dinner – chicken & mushroom egg fried rice

Friday lunch – french toast with bacon (because I want it for brunch on Saturday but won’t be here ;) )
Friday dinner – experimental homemade ravioli…!

The week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 2 May 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

I didn’t do a meal plan last week because by the time I sat down to write it after the long weekend, it was Tuesday and nearly half way through the week already. I also thought I’d see what it was like to not have one – John kept asking “what’s on the meal plan for dinner tonight?” — I think we’re getting reliant on them already!

Sunday brunch – scrambled eggs & muffins
Sunday dinner – John’s special pasta sauce (made with reduced to clear pork mince so it cost about 35p a portion, for five x2 portions – win! freezer full of homemade ready meals! hurrah for batch cooking!)

Monday brunch – scrambled eggs & muffins
Monday dinner – Marinaded turkey with veg stir-fry

Tuesday lunch – bread & cheese & olives & pickles
Tuesday dinner – pasta & sauce (the portion that didn’t get frozen)

Wednesday lunch – spicy chicken pieces with salad
Wednesday dinner – tuna bagel melts with salad

Thursday lunch – bread & cheese & olives & pickles
Thursday dinner – warm chorizo & potato salad, with wild garlic & poached egg

Friday lunch – bread & cheese & olives & pickles
Friday dinner – nachos (with loads of veg & beans so isn’t as “packet of crisps” as it sounds ;) )

Giving Approved Foods a try

Posted by louisa on Tuesday 19 April 2011 in frugal | 2 comments

My first order from Approved Foods arrived yesterday.

I first heard about Approved Foods back in 2008 when I was sent an email about it through Recycle This – they help reduce food waste by selling items close-to or just-passed their best before dates — the online equivalent of those cheap food stalls at markets or car boot sales. I remember looking at the site but not being too impressed – the range was limited and tended to be cheaper processed stuff I wouldn’t buy, plus there was a hefty p&p cost pretty much wiped out any savings I’d make on the few things I might buy. Fast forward a year maybe, and I’m reminded of it again but still the same feeling. Then over the last few months, the Frugal Queen has repeatedly spoken of its greatness (and cheapness) so I thought it was worth another look.

The range still doesn’t excite me that much but these are what persuaded me to give it a go in the end:

Deidentified (*cough Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference cough*) mixed Provencal olives and Nouvelle toilet tissue. Two things I buy in the normal course of things, especially when they’re on offer – those olives are just about my favourite supermarket olives. Both were about half their usual RRP. I bought 10 jars of the olives – I like them a lot and they’ve got a long date on them. In fact everything I bought had a decent date on them – the only things after their best before date were two bags of crisps (and their date was only a week ago so they’ll be fine).

The p&p is still pretty hefty – £5.25 for normal UK mainland delivery but it’s for up to 25kg worth of goods so it would be possible to split the cost with a friend and still both be able to buy a decent amount of stuff. I tried to persuade Strowger with the lure of the olives but their stones were their downfall so ended up doing it solo instead. Still, even with having to pay the p&p all by myself, my total was £27.13 for a basket of stuff with an RRP of £46.58 – an overall discount of 42%.

Of course, the RRP stuff is slightly meaningless if you usually buy stuff when it’s on offer (as I do with a lot of stuff and almost always do with [recycled] toilet rolls, for example). I also bought some stuff that I probably wouldn’t buy in the normal case of events – for example, some shortcrust pastry mix. The mix will get used so it’s not a waste of money but it doesn’t feel like I’ll be saving any money because I won’t have to buy them next time I go to the supermarket. I did also buy some Jules Destrooper butter waffle biscuits as an impulse buy because they were cheap – and that’s going to cost me a lot in the future because, my God, they’re fantastically moreish.

I can’t see myself buying stuff from there that regularly – I will keep a closer eye on it from now on in case any more of my favourites come up but the p&p still makes it prohibitive for small orders. I did also get a lots of plastic-based packaging – I appreciate that they wanted to keep my precious olives safe with bubble wrap but the big bag of foam nuggets in with my flour (to, presumably, stop it knocking about) made me much less happy from a green point of view.

Have you used/do you use Approved Foods or any other services like that? Any recommendations/things to avoid advice?

This week’s meal plan

Posted by louisa on Monday 18 April 2011 in weekly meal plans | 0 comments

Our grow-our-own salad isn’t quite ready – such a shame as it would be very useful this summery week!

(John was out for a family lunch thing yesterday so I just snacked on leftovers/cheese’n’crackers as needed – no meal planning required ;) )

Monday lunch: scrambled eggs on toast
Monday dinner: pasta with tuna, olives, sweetcorn & chillis

Tuesday lunch: bread’n’cheese’n’stuff
Tuesday dinner: risotto – possibly chicken & red pepper, with salad

Wednesday lunch: bread’n’cheese’n’stuff
Wednesday dinner: pizza

Thursday lunch: falafel in pittas with raita and salad
Thursday dinner: hot chorizo & poached egg salad

Friday lunch: samosas and bean salad
Friday dinner: burgers with salad (and any leftover bean salad)

Saturday brunch: sausage sandwiches
Saturday dinner: enchiladas (or possibly a curry with friends)