At Home With Mrs M for Meal Planning Monday
and Darling Downs Diaries for Good Morning Mondays.
After reading Living The Good Life last week, where the family live only on what their backyard will produce or can be bartered for, for six months, I am a bit inspired to at least partly adopt this philosophy. It would be so wonderful to reduce our reliance on the supermarket as much as possible. So let's call this a trial run, even though really it is just using up food I have already bought from the supermarket! Sort of the same?!
Hopefully the kids will survive! We have heaps of food in the house - even though teenagers (and nearly teenagers) are known to open the full fridge or cupboards and bemoan the fact that there is never any food in this house!
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| This is what I feel like making dinner sometime! How about you? |
Roast beef (freezer), roast potatoes (stores) and carrot, steamed broccoli, gravy and mint jelly (canning)
Peach crumble (canned peach pie filling)
Tuesday
Legoman's 11th birthday and we promised him a pub meal. He thinks it is the height of grownupness to have a meal at the pub and play pool!
Wednesday
Spaghetti bolognaise (beef mince from freezer, tinned tomatoes and spaghetti in pantry)
Lemon delicious pudding (lots of lemons on our tree still)
Thursday
Vegetable soup (use up whatever veggies are still lurking in fridge!)
Strawberry shortcake (strawberries from freezer)
Friday
Ooey Gooey Cheesy Meatballs (freezer)
This recipe comes from Tania at One Contented Homebody One Contented Homebody. It was on the menu last week at her house and I know my boys would just LOVE them. With a freezer full of beef, recipes like this are always welcome!
Pear Butter (canning) cake
Saturday
Little Bacon and Egg Pies (pastry already in freezer, ham in fridge, lots of eggs!) with green salad and potato wedges (stores)
Jelly for the kids (pantry)
Sunday
BBQ - rump steak (freezer), mince to make burgers (freezer), potato salad with hard boiled egg (stores and chickens), green salad
Rhubarb crumble (first rhubarb from the garden this year)
I'll let you know next week how I go and how much I do need to buy. I know I will need to buy fruit for lunches and snacks. Fruit seems to be where a lot of the grocery money actually goes, which is why I am so keen to get my trees in! I will be growing melons this year, so hopefully that will make a little dent.
Whirlwind has requested Jelly Slice for this week's baking.
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| Although I will only be making one colour! |
There will also be:
Legoman's birthday cake x 2 - one for his actual birthday on Tuesday and one for his party on Friday
Choc chip cookies
Hedgehog slice
Gingernuts
Fruitcake
Chocolate cupcakes
Monte Cream biscuits
Someone commented last week on the prodigious amount of baking I do each week. It is a matter of having to do that much or else buying baked goods from the supermarket. I try to only use the supermarket baked products as a last resort. Recently when I was sick, they definitely had bought biscuits! But I simply do not trust a biscuit that has a use by date that is into next year! I am still adjusting to just how much food boys consume compared to the girls. It is unbelievable. I buy what to me is an enormous amount of fruit, turn around and it is gone in seconds. When I do baking, I am seriously considering hiding some of it from view.
And breakfast cereal - don't get me started on that! Crazy expensive for what you get and try as I might to wean everyone off it, it is still being purchased.
Weet Bix is the true Aussie cereal. Basic, cheap, no added nasties, super filling. There have been a number of ads with sporting heros on the number of Weet Bix they eat for breakfast.
I am wondering when Legoman will become a 'true' Weet-Bix kid and get up to eating 10 or more at a time!
And being a true Australian myself, this was funny - this actually is the saying I used to remember compass points!
A few vintage ads for Weet Bix as we know my love of all things vintage.
Have a lovely week and I look forward to some more inspiration for other menus!
Porridge oats are a cheap and healthy breakfast cereal and also make a good starting point for muesli and healthy cereal bars. Love the look of your menu, todays menu is actually what we had for Sunday lunch.
ReplyDeleteI love porridge but only one of my boys does - such a shame as it is the cheapest and most filling breakfast. Muesli or granola, the same. Maybe I just have to bite the bullet and make breakfasts and say this is what it is, take it or leave it. I haven't been brave enough to do that yet. Not sure why as that is how lunch and dinner work.
DeleteYour menu sounds fantastic and I'm impressed with how organized you are! I'm usually scrambling a few hours before meal time to figure out what we'll eat.
ReplyDeleteOn desserts and baking, DH always agrees that we don't need to eat too many sweets and that we'll save them for the weekend. But any night I don't have dessert, he never fails to longingly ask, "No Dessert?"
Thanks! I have only started meal planning recently and so many blogs were talking about what a time saver it is. And it definitely is - plus not having to get to late afternoon and try and think of something is great.
DeleteMy boys are like that too. Without fail after dinner, it is 'what's for dessert?'
When our Australian friends come to visit us, we have to find a substitute for Weet-Bix!
ReplyDeleteYour menus looks good and I am very in awe of all that baking!
Thank you! I was wondering if there was a US equivalent. I found a UK one, but not US.
DeleteI live with three boys; the toddler, the child and the dad and they eat so much!
ReplyDeleteEven the toddler already?! If we happen to have a big lunch, I would be happy with toast or something light for dinner - but I can't do that! We had a huge meal tonight and my 11 year old was making himself peanut butter toast within half an hour!
DeleteI really need to be more proactive and come up with weekly menus. I hate it when it comes around to 5pm and I've got no idea of what to do with dinner!
ReplyDeleteI only started doing menu plans fairly recently and would keep doing them for no other reason than that! I love not having to try to think of something late afternoon.
DeleteI have a house full of girls and a 3 year old boy. Food disappears hear very quickly as well. I think home schooling means they have access to more food and somehow I got int the habit of cooking lunches as well. I hope with the warmer weather to have more sallads and sandwiches. My 3 year old devours fruit, especially apples. We buy the little school apple packs from aldi, leave one out and hide the others. For variation will the boys eat a hot breakfast? Maybe beans on toast or scrambles eggs. I think the protein would be more filling.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how fast fruit disappears - but good, of course! I cannot wait to have fruit trees. I am going to try to cook breakfast at least a few days a week and hopefully can wean them from the cereal habit!
DeleteWhen I was researching batch freezer cooking I noticed quite a few recipes for breakfast dishes that could be easily reheated and used as a quick breakfast option. Breakfast muffins(sweet and savory), and breakfast burritos seemed very popular.
DeleteGreat idea! I have never tried a breakfast burrito - sounds yummy though. I know they would love egg and bacon muffins too.
DeleteGreat meal planning! I really need to try meal planning myself xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks! I really do find it to be worth it - not as stressful when it comes to mealtimes now.
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