A week of frugal meals, including a Valentine’s special

You know when you get given lots of vouchers and you are really excited to use them? But then life gets in the way and you suddenly realise there are only a few weeks until they expire? That is us! We have a busy week ahead using them, but are nevertheless planning a week of frugal meals.

Meal planning for a week of frugal meals

We have vouchers giving entry to St Paul’s Cathedral in London and hope to use them this week. I have hesitated to book the train in advance as Mr S  has had the flu, so I want to make sure he is properly better before dragging him around the city!

Tentatively, we are planning that for Wednesday, so will build this into the meal plan. We will eat out somewhere cheap. Borough Market is a favourite, so we might venture up that way at some point.

We also have vouchers for a lovely little cafe near Chelmsford and we are going for lunch there on Saturday (which is today, if you are reading this the day it is published). So dinner will be something fairly light and easy, as we won’t need another big meal.

It is also Valentine’s Day on Friday! We won’t bother paying inflated prices at a restaurant, particularly as we will already have had three meals out this week.

This type of week is exactly why meal planning is such a good idea. It would be easy to buy more food than we need for a week when we won’t actually be home much. I hate food waste so we will only buy exactly what we will use.

Saturday

A rare treat! Lunch out. My brother and sister in law really rate the little cafe we are going to. They go there often and bought us the vouchers. I will let you know how we get on!

We won’t need anything fancy in the evening. There are baking potatoes in the cupboard so will be having those with maybe some tuna mayonnaise and salad.

We have salad leaves to which I will add grated carrots and olives. I think there is beetroot still on the veggie patch so I will dig the last of those up and perhaps have some of that grated on the salad as well.

Sunday

Hassleback chicken with vegetables and potatoes.

I watched a You Tuber make this the other day and thought it looked delicious. To be honest, I am not sure what pepper jack cheese is or where I would buy it. I will probably just use cheddar!

Sweet peppers are so nice roasted and really good for you. I think this recipe will be the winner amongst my week of frugal meals!

This will be nice with new potatoes and broccoli I think.

Monday

Monday is usually  my busiest day work wise, so I tend to go for something quick and easy.

I hit Google with quick and easy recipes and came up with this quick sausage bolognese from BBC Good Food. The plan is to make enough for Tuesday as well – a day off cooking is always good for me.

We have frozen corn on the cobs that I picked up recently in Iceland and I think they will go well with this.

I don’t go into Iceland that  much these days, but I was impressed by the price of their meat and vegetables. Maybe I will visit once a month to stock up on freezer stuff, alongside my regular Aldi shop.

Tuesday

As above – a no cooking day! If we have salad that needs using, we will ring the changes and have this as an accompaniment tonight.

Wednesday

A mystery lunch in London and possibly dinner too. We won’t spend too much. As I said earlier, Borough Market is interesting. The street food area just outside is really good value and there is so much variety.

Maybe we will grab a sandwich to eat on the train home, or we will wait until we get in and have something on toast for tea.

We will take water, our coffee cups and some snacks with us as well, to keep costs down. Usually a day out for us involves a flask and picnic, but we won’t want to lug that around London.

Thursday

We were supposed to be going out for lunch with my parents and eldest daughter last week, but my mum was full of cold so we postponed. This has been rescheduled for today.

My parents have insisted on treating us, so a nice easy day food wise. We will probably go to Pizza Hut for their lunchtime special. Again, we won’t need much in the evening. I will probably get some home made soup out of the freezer and have it with some toast.

Friday

Another You Tube video I watched (I honestly don’t spend all day doing this!) is a super simple prawn curry. It uses two packs of king prawns, a jar of curry paste, a pack of spinach and a pot of cream (I will use Lactofree). It’s so simple and looks really rich and delicious.

It will be pricier than our usual meals, because of the prawns especially, but it is Valentine’s Day! Anyhow, it will still be just a fraction of what we would pay if we at out. We will eat this with basmati rice and poppadoms.

We don’t often eat dessert, other than yogurt and fruit. However, since we are pushing the boat out I will buy something ready made, probably containing chocolate!

There are still a couple of bottles of the organic Prosecco left over from Christmas, so we will crack one of those open as well.

It’s so rare for us to eat out, but we will do it three times this week! I am going with the flow and making the most of it.

When we are here, it will be a week of frugal meals for us. What are you eating 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.