Regular readers will know that I love meal planning. It saves time for a start. If you buy all the food you and your family are going to need in one go you will cut out all of the extra trips to the shops. Getting organised also saves brainpower as you approach dinner time and can’t think what to cook. You can plan economical meals and make sure you use up what you already have, saving both money and reducing food waste.
Having said that, although I write a weekly meal plan and then shop accordingly, I am sometimes flexible. If I get free food from Olio, the app that saves food items from the bin, or find great discounted yellow sticker items they obviously have to be used up first.
I have made a large pot of soup using up bits of vegetables, fresh and frozen, which will do us for lunches for several days. We have bread and rolls in the freezer that came free from Olio, so we will defrost them to eat with the soup as we need them.
Reducing waste
Because I want to reduce our plastic waste, I plan to make some of our own snacks this week, maybe some cookies and a few cakes. I will plan these around what we have in the cupboards already.
We have a big bag of ground almonds that was purchased a few weeks ago from Approved Food, so it would be good to use some of those.
We have quite a few unused Simply Cook mixes to use, so I am going to use three this week. They are handy when you need something quick and tasty. If you want a free trial box, my referral code is here (this is a time limited offer).
Incidentally, Lisa sent me this article on Instagram this week. It shows some common foods that are actually perfectly good before their designated best before date. One of them is double cream – I have found this myself. It actually lasts ages as long as it is kept refrigerated. It just goes to show how much food is wasted that is perfectly good to eat still. I have some posts on reducing food waste here and here.
Reducing food waste with this week’s meal plan
Saturday
We had a change of plan last week and didn’t eat the tuna pasta bake. So we are going to have this tonight with some broccoli.
I have a cheat jar of sauce for this, which was purchased from Approved Food. If you are interested in finding groceries that are hugely reduced because they are near their best before date, I have a referral code here.
Sunday
We are back on the DIY today, so dinner is going to be something extremely quick and easy. I picked up some eggs from the Olio app, which need eating, so we will have cheese omelettes, chips and salad.
Monday
Simply Cook halloumi salad. I use the mix on the cheese, but then tend to use whatever is around. In this case I will have grilled tomatoes, mushrooms and a jacket sweet potato.
Tuesday
Another Simply Cook one – mushroom and pea risotto. This is a new one to me. It calls for shitake mushrooms, but I am going to keep it cheap and use the fresh ones that we have in the fridge.
Wednesday
Simply Cook Goan fish curry with rice, one of my absolute favourites. If you don’t want to commit to a subscription to Simply Cook, this one is actually available in Asda! It’s so delicious and cheap to make.
Thursday and Friday
I am going to make a slow cooker sausage ragu first thing, to have with mashed potatoes and broccoli. If I double the usual quantity, we can have this on Friday too. I love a no cook night at least once a week!
We will only need to do a tiny shop this week to cook all of these meals. What are you eating, and are you reducing food waste too?
If you like to chat about all things money saving, please come and join my Facebook group. We are building up a lovely supportive frugal living community!
I am joining in with Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. Check out her meal plan this week too. You can see more of my favourite food ideas and recipes here.
Sam says
I was more a meal possible list maker rather than meal planning. The last few weeks though, as much to have some detail/event to put on my calendar, I have been actually making a designated meal plan and for the most part sticking to it. My gosh has it helped me manage waste that was starting to creep back into my kitchen. I’m also making sure to freeze a leftover portion if we don’t use the next day for lunches for a future meal/leftover night. That was a big problem as we thought we’d eat the leftovers, and a week went by and into the bin it went. i wish I could get y husband to like curry. I’m craving some and my daughter is away at college. I could make and share with the other daughter, but she eats vegan and I love my curry with yogurt sauce.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I love leftovers! Most things taste nicer the next day
Chrissie says
In our home it is usually me that eats the leftovers, I also eat the crusts from each end of a sliced bread, any leftover veg I like to have the next day, eaten cold with mayo mixed with chilli sauce as a salad with my lunch. Often if I have made a chunky soup and saved some for the next day, it thickens up nicely in the fridge and I use it as a pie filling. I am trying to train my husband in the art of not wasting food, he says he fancies something, I buy it ,he has it once and it get’s forgotten in the fridge, it’s usually fish or meat based , I eat neither , currently his clotted cream is having a very long vacation in there !
Judy Tieger says
I try to utilize every scrap of food as I feel guilty if I waste food. My husband likes leftovers and will eat them the next day for lunch. We have a hearty soup at least once a week for dinner. Since there is just my husband and I (kids grown) I am mastering making just enough for the two of us When I buy chicken I buy a whole chicken and cut it into serving pieces. Cutting up the chicken is not difficult. This is much more economical than buying the cut up pieces of chicken. I freeze the pieces individually on a cookie sheet and store them in a bag. so they are separate and can be used that way. I use the neck, back and wings to make broth. We get a lot of meals from one chicken. I am in the U.S. so don’t know about olio, but it sounds like a good plan. I got to a couple of outlet stores here that have overstocks and damaged boxes etc. I have gotten some great.name brand food including meat at great prices.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
That is super organised. I tend to just buy the thighs for the two of us, but a whole chicken may well be cheaper. Nice to hear from you
Katy Stevens says
I really should check out Approved Food again soon!
Kim Carberry says
You are so great with your meal planning and reducing waste.
Your meals sound so good.
I do like the sound of the mushroom and pea risotto, I would be tempted to stick to normal mushrooms too. x
Emma says
Omg, the sausage ragu sounds lovely.
Just last week I signed up to simply cook. We are waiting on them to arrive to see how we get on with them