Well it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and done a proper meal plan, in fact, I don’t think I’ve done one since before the kids broke up for the Summer holidays and I’ve been looking forward to getting back into it.
As the kids aren’t back to school until next week, I’m having a bit of a lazy week with my meal plan. I made easy mince and dumplings yesterday in the slow cooker and I’ll add a bit of mash to the top of the leftovers of the mince from that to make an easy cottage pie for Wednesday. Thursday is chilli, cheese wraps using some of last weeks leftover chilli or if I really can’t be bothered we’ll have the chilli on jacket potatoes.
I’ll be writing soon about how to stretch one meal into two with very little effort and almost no extra cost but these are just a couple of examples of how I do that at the moment in my meal plans. I asked on Twitter for some ideas to include in my post and got some great ideas but if you have any ideas for me to include, I’d love to hear them….
Monday: Mince and dumplings
Tuesday: Macaroni cheese
Wednesday: Jambalaya (see below)
Thursday: Cottage Pie using the leftover slow cooker mince from the mince and dumplings
Friday: Home made wraps with leftover chilli from the freezer, cheese and sour cream with some home made potato wedges.
Saturday: Home made pizza with choose your own toppings – chicken, ham, pineapple, mushrooms etc
Sunday: Sunday Lunch – Roast chicken, roasties, veg and Yorkshire puddings
Jambalaya
This is one of those vague recipes that doesn’t really have any set quantities, I usually calculate the rice depending on how hungry we are and everything else is usually just a case of however much we have in. I’ve made this with prawns before and often add sweetcorn or peas – it really is a case of anything goes….
Chicken breast pieces
Chopped chorizo
A small chopped onion,
A finely chopped red pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Long grain rice
1tsp dried thyme, oregano & chilli powder/flakes
2 tins chopped tomatoes (I like the ones with chilli in)
Chicken stock (twice the volume of the rice – ie. for every one cup of rice, use two cups of water)
A big squeeze of tomato puree
* In a large pan, cook the chicken until lightly browned.
* Add the onion and peppers to the chicken and cook them until they’re soft.
* Into the pan, add the garlic and rice and cook for 2 mins stirring constantly.
* Add the thyme, oregano, chilli, the chorizo and the chopped tomatoes and cook for a further 2 minutes.
* Pour in the hot chicken stock and bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over a low heat for 20 mins, or until the rice is cooked, you need to stir quite often with this one or the rice sticks to the bottom of the pan.
* Add a dollop of sour cream and a glass of wine 😉
* Enjoy
For more meal plan ideas, pop over to At home with Mrs M
