Monday 1 June 2015

Meal Plan Monday

Linking today with I'm An Organising Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.


First, I would like to share a recipe.
The boys' school organises Seniors Catering once a month as a fundraiser. Once a year, each family is rostered on to provide a menu item and come to the hall to cook, serve and clean up. The Grade Six children are the waiters. It is always a lot of fun and a great way to serve our community and to teach the children about serving others, as well as raise funds for the school. The volunteer parents also receive the meal for lunch, after the Seniors have been served, of course!
This month, it was my turn and on the menu was meatloaf. Now, meatloaf and I are not really friends. Apologies to my mum, but meatloaf in the 70s was pretty much just some mince, some onion and not much else. It did not have much flavour. But this one was yummy! It is baked in its own sauce which caramelises on the top. 
The recipe is from one of those wonderful church cookbooks. 


I've reproduced it below as the picture is not really clear. I know the ingredients sound less than gourmet, but I promise you, the end result is delicious! And cheap too!

500 grams minced steak
250 grams sausage mince
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 egg
2 onions
1 dessertspoon curry powder
salt, pepper, half a cup milk, half a cup water

Method: Mix all ingredients together and cook 30 minutes at 180 degrees C. Then add sauce. Cook another 45 minutes and baste.

Sauce:
Half a cup water
Half a cup tomato sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
Half a cup brown sugar
30 grams butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put in saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over meatloaf and baste frequently.

I had to add my own oven temperature as so many of these older cookbooks assume that certain cooking knowledge was common to all. This temperature works for me.

I make my own curry powder as I need it, from this recipe. Takes two seconds, if you already have ground spices on hand. 

2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Do let me know if you try the recipe. I would love to hear what you thought.

And have a look here for a wonderful post from Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth on DIY Seasoning Mixes. The post includes a free printable with the recipes, gorgeous jar labels and directions for use. I am planning on making up all of these!


Image from Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth

And now for this week's Menu Plan.
I have not used a specific book this week; instead I am just planning a week of old favourites.

Monday
Lasagna with green salad and garlic bread
Fruit salad

Tuesday
Roasted vegetable frittata with potato wedges
Chocolate self-saucing pudding

Wednesday
Roast beef with roast veggies, green peas and steamed broccoli
Fruit salad

Thursday
Chicken wraps with all the fillings
Pineapple upside-down cake

Friday
Homemade pizza
Apple slice

Saturday
BBQ with porterhouse steak and sausages, potato salad, pasta salad and green salad
Lemon meringue pie

Sunday
Roast lamb with roast veggies and steamed greens
Swiss roll with jam and cream



  • Chocolate chip cookies - one week, I am not going to make choc chip cookies twice a week, except I'll probably have a mutiny on my hands!
  • Monte Cream biscuits - these are a homemade version of Monte Carlos, not sure if these are only Australian?
  • Fruitcake
  • Cherry, coconut and rosewater cupcakes - these were a bit of an experiment from a few weeks ago and were yummy.



  • Lemon iced cookies
  • Chocolate coconut slice
  • Apple tea cake

Can you tell my boys are growing fast? I really cannot believe the amount of food they can put away! I really, really need to get my fruit trees growing as I am spending astronomical amounts on fruit every week. I certainly don't want to be saying you can't eat fruit, but it just becoming so expensive. 
I would love to hear what you do to fill your kids up! It is so hard to fill them up healthily, but also cheaply.

Happy cooking!


16 comments:

  1. I am having a different battle with my two little girls... they won't eat! I mentioned I would be making spag bol tomorrow. It was met with 'yeay!' My husband said oh well that's progress. 'It is dear, but I suspect the yeay is because there's no veggies!' Kids!

    I have never had meatloaf. I suspect that is quite bad. Very little in the way of ingreients though and mainly store cupboard staples so I think I'll have a go. Thanks for sharing Jayne.

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    1. I always sneak veggies into spag bol, like grated carrot and zucchini. You can't see them in there!
      Once you are growing stuff, they will love to eat it! I cannot believe how many peas my three year old (who hates peas, thank you very much!) can eat from the garden.

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  2. My kids would like it if I baked that much!

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    1. It seems a never ending job keeping up! If I don't bake that much, hubby will buy them chips or something else as there is nothing to eat!

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  3. The first list of ingredients for the meatloaf (minus the curry powder) is what I use to make sausage rolls. At the moment I'm struggling to feed the crowd on a budget. I have 4 girls and one boy. I try to eat low/er carb, my eldest is gluten free, the second eldest won't eat fruit or vegetables and my 2 youngest eat loads of fruit. I went grocery shopping on Saturday and they've already eaten most of the fruit. I make yogurt and add honey which is a good standby. Banana cake and choc chip biscuits are always a favourite. We do have a cooked lunch at home most days which helps out a bit but not so good for my sink full of dishes. Just out of interest my Grandmother used to make a sultana and choc chip biscuit with cornflakes. I don't know is it was from a recipe or a self creation. I would love to hear if anyone has a similar recipe.

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    1. I love homemade sausage rolls. I like to make a big batch and freeze some - whatever doesn't get eaten while they are cooling down!
      Wow, you have some interesting food choices to make with all those differences! It is hard, isn't it?
      I love cornflake biscuits. I haven't made them in ages - thanks for reminding me. I will hunt out my recipe and see what it has in it.

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  4. I have every intention of making a weekly menu but it just never seems to happen. Our work schedules are kind of crazy so we are lucky if we eat a meal together twice a week. Otherwise I make meals and then we defrost a portion of it.

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    1. It works for me as I am at home. I am also super unmotivated by the time it gets to 5 in the afternoon. If I don't have a meal planned, we would eat toasted cheese sandwiches every night!

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  5. My dear Jayne, I am making meatloaf for supper tonight :) What perfect timing! Although, I'm not sure if I have all the ingredients on hand....I will have to check because it sounds delicious!

    Happy June, my dear. Hugs!

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    1. It is funny that I have always discounted meatloaf because, I tell you, the boys said it was the best dinner ever!! Definitely staying on my regular list of meals.
      Happy June to you too - it was our first frost, right for the first day of winter.

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  6. I'm not really a meatloaf fan either, but this one sounds great. Once again your meal plan for the week sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing it with us at Good Morning Mondays, also thanks for the encouragement to get baking, I am going to try sour dough chocolate chip cookies this week (hopefully). Blessings

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    1. Those cookies sound interesting - so you use your sourdough starter? Yesterday, I baked ten dozen cookies with a really simple recipe that I think is my new favourite.

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  7. Wow, that's a heap, are you going to share the recipe???

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    1. Yes! I have it on the list to add to next week's post.

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  8. That meatloaf recipe sounds delicious! I have saved to try later :)

    Thank you for sharing the DIY curry recipe, I have added it to my growing list of things to make.

    xTania

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    1. You'll have to let me know how it goes. My first attempt was a bit crumbly, so didn't slice well. But it tasted delicious - and boys don't really care about presentation! They inhale it in two seconds anyway!

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