If you live in the UK you are doubtless feeling perplexed by our current weather. On Friday we had the most perfect sunny, spring day. They birds were singing, the insects were buzzing and all the daffodils were up. The following day we had snow!! As I have said in a previous post, I find meal planning essential. But it is hard to know the type of food to cook when the weather is so erratic and unpredictable.
Meal planning when the weather is weird
Do we go for warm, comforting soups and stews or is it time to make some salads to suit the longer, lighter days and (theoretically) milder weather? I have hedged my bets and done a bit of both.
I love a bit of meal planning. Using up as much what we have already saves time and money on shopping and encourages us to eat healthier meals. Meal planning also enables us to incorporate what is in season and what we may be growing in the garden (nothing yet except herbs!). Being organised stops those moments when you have a fridge full of food but no idea to do with it. That’s when the urge to get fish and chips and be done with it can hit your budget!
I have a whole post on meal planning here.
My meal planning efforts this week are focussed on things I can batch cook to save time and money. I have gone for:
Sweet potato and Quorn curry
I have a jar of tikka masala sauce and inexplicably about 4 packs of Quorn pieces. A couple of sweet potatoes and lots of other veg will transform this into a fine ‘fakeaway’. Some of this will go into the freezer to make a quick ready meal or two.
Coq au vin
There is half a bottle of red wine sitting around and some chicken pieces so I will make this for Mr S, whilst I have a veggie version. Yes, those Quorn pieces will make an appearance again!
Tuna olive penne with salad
This is a quick and easy dinner after work. I bought salad so we need to eat it. Mr S can have his with some of the garlic bread hanging around in the freezer. I will post this recipe later in the week as it is an old family favourite, cheap and healthy.
Omelettes, home made wedges and salad
Home made oven chips are so quick to do and so much more satisfying than the type you get out of the freezer. You can make the healthier with a little cooking spray. I like to add garlic oil to mine, or a sprinkle of paprika. There is a bag of spuds to eat this week, so these are a good way to use them up.
Spaghetti cheese casserole
Talking of family favourites, this spaghetti cheese casserole is another one. I have been making this for years. The addition of a little white wine in the cheesy, carroty sauce makes it very moreish.
A ping meal from the freezer
A home made one, though! Only me for tea, so I will have a bowl of hot veggie stew with some of my home made spelt bread and perhaps a sprinkling of grated cheese on top.
Steak and vegetables
I bought a cheap pack of 4 steaks a while back and there is one left in the freezer. Mr S will enjoy that for his dinner. I will be having a vegetable burger from Lidl. There vegetarian range is pretty decent and ideal after a hard working week. Sometimes you need a rest, not a fuss.
So these are my meal planning thoughts for the week ahead. Are you organised with your meals? I know that Ilona over at Life After Money eats around her yellow sticker bargains rather than rigidly meal planning. This is a great idea if it is just you and you have the time to hunt out the reductions. If I find any when I am out and about I build them in to my plan and change things around. I don’t think this approach would work if you have a family, though.
This week I am linking up with Katy Kicker and Naomi from the Organised Life Project. Hop over to their sites to see what other meal planning inspiration you can find.
Have a great week and I hope you aren’t too cold or snow bound where you are.
A nice variety of meals and recipes. I’ll try a few. Thanks.
Just curious – how do you have half a bottle of red wine ‘ hanging around ‘ Never happens in this house 🙂
I don’t drink it and this one was too heavy for Mr S! Otherwise it doesn’t happen often
It’s just me so I don’t plan every meal for the week. I see what I have and then what’s on special at the shops and go from there.
I do a batch cook once a week – maybe a soup and a stew (sometimes meat/sometimes vegetarian) and that way I have a couple of lunches and a couple of dinners sorted and the rest will go into the freezer for later in the month. I will cook up a grain or some rice, along with a batch of veggies, either roasted or stir fried and these get used on their own, as a side dish or in salads throughout the week.
I generally hard boil a few eggs, always have cheese and tins of salmon, tuna and sardines so these will get used for a couple of meals as well. And when I’m just too lazy to do anything else, it’s scrambled eggs on toast (and damn the carbs)! 🙂
I laughed at you being perplexed, you should try living in Melbourne , we’re famous for having all four seasons in one day! My pantry has staples like tuna ( hot weather with salad, cold day in fish pie) , mince can be burgers and salad on buns or savoury mince or pasta, and chicken becomes shaslicks and salad or a pie or schnitzels, for the vegetarian I make Broke Burgers mix which can be burgers/ rissoles, meatloaf or sausage rolls. It’s all a matter of thinking flexibly and have dual use food in the fridge like carrots which can be cooked or grated in a salad etc. you know what they say about variety adding spice to life, Saturday was 33 Celsius and yesterday low 20s and we do have the eight day forecast to give us a bit of advance notice . My menus are interchangeable, I have a list of 31 summer meals and 31 winter and sometimes use a winter one in January if the weather needs it, and sometimes just because we’re sick of the same old salads we have some hot food.
I love the sound of the spaghetti cheese casserole! Thanks for linking up!
Thank you so much for linking up. That Spaghetti Cheese Casserole looks great. I know exactly what you mean about the weather – it’s so unpredictable! Let’s hope for some warmer weather!