Meal plan for a low spend January

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First meal plan of the decade – happy new year, folks! As I am currently focused on frugality on a no spend January, I am keeping the sense of thriftiness going in the kitchen too. I intend to spend as little as possible on groceries, whilst eating a healthy diet, of course. So I have devised a meal plan for a low spend January.

I started last week by using up as much as possible from Christmas, especially the perishable items.  As I said in yesterday’s five frugal things post, I made a load of turkey and vegetable soup (using stock made from the carcass, here). I also used up some black bananas in some vegan muffins.

Last night we had a really lovely pasta meal driven by needing to use up half a tin of sweetcorn, various cheeses from a Christmas selection, mushrooms, some tomatoes, a red pepper, some single cream and half a packet of ham. It was delicious! A bit calorific with the cream and cheese, but it needed to be used so that it wasn’t wasted.

I think I have put on a bit of weight over Christmas, which I want to lose, and we want to eat less meat generally, so hopefully this week’s low spend January meal plan will cover those two goals.

Some things in our food store that have been there a while will also be incorporated into this week’s plan. I like to use and replenish every now and again.

A meal plan for a low spend January

Saturday

I have some Quorn pieces in the freezer, but how to make them palatable for Mr S. He is not a fan! I’m not either, although I have had some dishes that have been really tasty.

I thought I would do a version of this Quorn paella. We have some paella rice in the cupboard, so I will use that, but I won’t bother with the Quorn pepperoni slices or put the beans in. I will use what we have around. There are still peppers to use up so this will be the ideal opportunity.

Sunday

A kind of roast dinner….

This will be mainly using frozen leftovers from Christmas. We have some roast, sliced beef from our Boxing Day buffet that I froze, plus some stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets.

This will be good with some roast potatoes and vegetables, plus a bit of gravy.

We have some mini Christmas puddings in the cupboard, which will last for months. Mr S loves Christmas pudding though, so we will probably have a couple of these with a bit of home made custard for dessert.

Monday

Just me for dinner tonight, so I am going for something quick and easy. I picked up these ready made pulse packs a few weeks ago. The Good Grains  one came from Aldi and the Jamie Oliver one came from Lidl.

The chick pea one looks good – and I have already tried the Good Grains version of this – so hopefully Jamie won’t let me down. I will have that with a little extra rice.

Tuesday

Time for another Simply Cook recipe mix tonight. I get a monthly box, so I try to use one each week. It gives me an easy evening cooking wise and makes us more adventurous!

We are using the Moghul Korma box this evening, which is a mild vegetable curry. A bit of basmati rice and we are good to go.

If you want to try Simply Cook, you can get an introductory box of four recipes for £3 here*.

Wednesday

It’s a slow cooker kind of day I think. We have chicken thighs in the freezer so I will thrown together some kind of casserole with lots of vegetables first thing.

Some creamy mash will be nice with this.

Thursday

We have so much canned tuna in the cupboard. I know it lasts forever, but will use some tonight for a tuna penne with black olives. This is a recipe we eat constantly because it’s cheap, quick and healthy.

I will buy some salad ingredients in the week and make one up to go with the tuna and for tomorrow night.

Friday

Jacket potatoes with a large salad, hard boiled eggs and grated cheese.

I won’t need to buy much at all for my low spend January meal plan, so that will keep the grocery bill as low as possible this week.

Are you still eating up the Christmas leftovers? What’s on your meal plan for this week?

As usual, I am linking up with Katy Kicker for her meal planning linky. For more of my frugal food ideas see here.