The kids have been back at school for almost two weeks now and we're settling down into a bit of a routine. As the kids get older, there's more activities that they want to join in with which means that some nights, I'm just a glorified taxi driver ;-) I'm not complaining really as they have chosen the clubs they want to go to and they really enjoy going to them, it just makes it a bit difficult for us to have a 'proper' meal some nights - I'll be making a lot of this weeks meals in the slow cooker so I can prepare it all in before I go to work in the morning.This is next week's menu … [Read more...]
Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Jambalaya
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 … [Read more...]
Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Sausage Pie….
After last weeks attempt to follow the Sainsbury's Feed your family for £50 challenge, I've decided that we do need a bit of variety on our menu. Apparently nine out of ten people make the same eight meals over and over again and looking back at my recent menu plans it looks like I'm one of those nine. Not that there's anything wrong with that but we did enjoy the variety of last week so I'm going to try and introduce some new meals to my rather limited repetoire....Monday: Sweet and sour chickenTuesday: Macaroni cheeseWednesday: Jambalaya Thursday: Sausage pie (see … [Read more...]
Family Friendly Frugal Meals – Roasted Chicken and Vegetables….
This week we're following the Sainsbury's 'Feed your Family for £50.00 challenge' which is a bit of a test for me as I usually like to stick to my old faithful recipes. You can find all of the recipes on the Sainsbury's website along with loads of others.Monday - Lunch: Pate, tomato and cucumber sandwiches. Dinner: Chicken and roasted vegetables with rice (recipe below)Tuesday - Lunch: Ham, tomato and cream cheese sandwiches. Dinner: Spaghetti CarbonaraWednesday - Lunch: Carrot, cottage cheese and rocket pittas. Dinner: Sausage, tomato and cannelini pot with mashThursday - … [Read more...]
Family, Friendly, Frugal Meals – Chicken and Mushroom Pasta….
Last week's meal plan went OK but I had to nip to the shop twice midweek - once for dog food and the second time for baking supplies for the bake sale at work that I promised I'd cook for. Both times I bought a few extras which meant I ended the week over budget but we're getting closer to it so I'm not too dissappointed ;-) Here's this weeks meal plan:Saturday: Shepherds PieSunday: Sunday Lunch - Chicken, roasties, veg and Yorkshire puddingsMonday: Chicken and mushroom pasta (see below) using up the leftover chicken from Sunday.Tuesday: Macaroni cheeseWednesday: … [Read more...]
Family Friendly, Frugal Meals – Chilli….
Inspired by the lovely Jen at the Madhouse whose brilliant article about feeding your family on £50.00 a week has just been published in the Guardian, I'm determined to reduce the amount of money that we spend on food each month. We have a grocery budget of £250.00 a month at the moment which is for 2 adults and 2 children. This covers all of our meals at home, packed lunches for me and the kids as well as all of our other household stuff.We used to be pretty good at sticking to the budget but lately I've been so busy that I haven't been doing our shopping online or been meal planning as … [Read more...]
