Looking back at our plan for last week, I think we more or less managed to stick to it – though we didn’t get round to the baking (other than flapjacks) or toffee making. The batch cooking was quite a success, though I can’t say the meals tasted very much of meat as the pack of mince was spread so thinly.  That didn’t bother me, but it made me think we could just do the same thing with more lentils and no mince, so I might do that next time.

We had lunch at Granny’s house (Paul’s mum) today, which is our usual Monday routine.  For supper we had leftover sausage casserole and potatoes. This is the plan for the rest of the week.

Breakfasts – cereal, yoghurt, fruit and toast, and maybe porridge.

Lunches – lentil and vegetable soup (Tuesday and Wednesday), sandwiches (Thursday as we will be out) and eggs (Friday)

Suppers

Tuesday – the last of the sausage casserole and potatoes.  (I deliberately cooked a lot on Sunday, and also extra frankfurters and beans as we had friends round, so that we would have enough for three days and I got it just about right.)

Wednesday – Quorn chicken pieces, rice and vegetables.

Thursday – pasta and pesto.

That’s as far as I need to plan this week as we will be at my mum’s on Friday.

Puddings – We still have a lot of cooking apples, so it’s likely to be stewed apple most days.  We didn’t manage to make the toffee for our bonfire night last night so we will try and fit that in tomorrow.

Snacks – fruit, biscuits and rice cakes.

There wasn’t too much to buy this week, so the shopping at Lidl was cheap – at least it would have been if I hadn’t decided to buy winter boots for myself and three of the children!  Taking those off the bill, the regular shopping came to around £50.  There will be one or two top-up shops (the first occurred this evening as we needed more treacle which Lidl didn’t have, and also sparklers, so Paul has been to Sainsbury’s for those) but I don’t think we’ll need to spend too much more.  I will try to keep up the meal planning because it is definitely making it easier to save money.

I’ve been meaning to join in with Meal Planning Monday again for a while, and I’m just about going to manage before Monday is over.  I haven’t had to do any planning for today anyway, as we had lunch (Spaghetti with Quorn Bolognese) at Granny’s house, and then chicken soup for supper, made (by Daddy) from the leftovers of last night’s roast dinner.  So I have got off rather lightly.  This is the plan for the rest of the week.

Breakfasts will be mainly cereal, yoghurt, fruit and toast, but we will have porridge at least once, and probably eggs once as well.

Lunches will be soup, bread, cheese and olives.  The chicken soup will last a couple more days I think.  I am hoping to go foraging for more sweet chestnuts soon, and if we are successful I would like to make chestnut soup.  We will probably make pumpkin soup on Thursday too, as I expect we will be carving at least one!  That should be enough, but my backup plan is to make some tomato soup if all else fails.

Suppers – I am going to try this method of making a pack of mince stretch over three days (I’m not sure it will do six meals in our family, but if there’s any left I will freeze it.)  It’s unusual for us to have meat three days in a row, but after all it is only a small amount of mince.  Anyway, on Friday we will default to our more usual type of vegetarian meal.

Tuesday – cottage pie

Wednesday – chilli con carne with rice

Thursday – Spaghetti Bolognese

Friday – vegetable stew (with beans or lentils, depending how the mood takes me)

Saturday – we will be at the Matilda Mae Welly Walk in Reading, so I think we will end up eating out.

Sunday – this will be our bonfire night in our garden, and we will have sausage casserole with baked potatoes – we might even cook the potatoes on the bonfire if we are organised enough!

Puddings will be variations on a theme of stewed apple, with either yoghurt or custard; we will probably have rice pudding and/ or semolina too, and we have a rather ripe pineapple that needs eating up.  We might make treacle toffee, and possibly toffee apples for Sunday.

Snacks will be fruit, biscuits and flapjacks, and anything else the children feel like baking – we have more time for that this week as it is half term.

It’s a nice cheap week, as we already had the mince and sausages in the freezer (bought on special offer by Daddy, I assume – he does this from time to time, otherwise he finds himself eating only vegetarian food – he’s not fussy, but he likes a bit of meat now and again, whereas I could live without it!)  It’s much easier to make a plan like this, and save money, when we are not too busy (though I doubt we will stick to it completely.)  The real test will be trying to do the same thing next week, when the term-time activities start again.