OUR FAMILY MEAL PLAN FOR WEEK OF 27/08/18 - £43

This is definitely a Mother Hubbard week for us. We’ve had eye tests for all of the children and of course new glasses were needed, a couple of new bicycle tyres were needed, the last of school uniform shopping, school shoe shopping, and my husband needed new shoes too as when it belted with rain he discovered his were holey. This means that payday on Friday cannot come soon enough.

We’ll be using up what we have in the cupboards, and buying the bare minimum, to get us through the last full week of school holidays. We’ve got more blackberries, foraged from the local common, and our apple tree is still laden with fruit. Our back garden still has fresh herbs, raspberries, rhubarb, chard and rocket. Thank goodness for free foraged and homegrown food!

I walked up to the local butcher and got six chicken frames for free. They were from free range chickens, and there’s still quite a bit of meat left on them. I’ll get as much of the meat off them as I can then make stock. The meat will go into a stir fry, and the rice will be cooked in the stock. That will be one tasty and very cheap dinner. I’ll also be making chicken soup from the stock.

I'll be adding cooked pearl barley to our soups, especially the blended ones, because it bulks out the soups and adds more protein and minerals for a very low cost.  Once blended you can't tell the barley is in there, perfect for picky eaters.  I've added tinned beans in the past for this reason too, cannellini beans and haricot beans are easiest to disguise.  There's a handy guide to cooking pearl barley here.

Breakfasts will be porridge or overnight oats with apple and blackberry or apple and rhubarb compote. Weekend breakfasts will be pancakes and bacon butties.

Snacks will be popcorn, homemade rice pudding pots, homemade yoghurt with fruit compote, scone swirls and flapjacks.

Lunches will be soups as the weather has turned cooler. We’ll have homemade wholemeal bread rolls with the soups to help fill us up. We’ll be having Slow Cooker French Onion Soup, Mixed Vegetable Soup, Tomato and Basil Soup, Spicy Roast Sweet Potato and Carrot Soup, and Basic Vegetable Soup.  Weekend lunches will be Twice Baked Potatoes and Caramelised Onion Swirls both with salad greens from the garden.

Dinners

Bean and Rice Burritos 

1 Tblsp oil 

1 onion, finely chopped 

4 cloves garlic, minced 

2 tsp paprika 

400g tin chilli beans 

400g tin black beans, drained 

400g tin chopped tomatoes 

1 carrot, grated 

300g frozen spinach, defrosted with the water squeezed out or finely shredded fresh chard

1 tsp dried mixed herbs 

½ tsp chilli (to taste) 

3 cups cooked rice, I used brown 

10-12 tortillas 

1 cup grated cheese« 

Heat oil in a large frying pan or pot over a medium heat and cook the onion until softened, approximately 5 minutes. Add the garlic and paprika and fry for a further couple of two minutes. Mix in the chilli beans and black beans, chopped tomatoes, carrots, spinach, mixed herbs, chilli powder and rice. Simmer the mixture uncovered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until it has thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

To assemble the burritos, heat the tortillas according to the package instructions. Spoon a little of the bean and rice mixture in the centre of each tortilla. Sprinkle with grated cheese. Fold the edges and roll up to make the burrito.

Macaroni Cheese - I make my own cheese sauce using a roux base and add frozen mixed vegetables to the pasta during the last few minutes of cooking time. Our Macaroni Cheese usually has plenty of vegetables with the pasta in a rich cheddar cheese sauce.

Chicken Fried Rice 

2 cups long grain rice

600ml stock or water

6 eggs, lightly beaten

2 Tblsp/30ml oil 

1 onion, finely diced

1kg mixed frozen vegetables

300g leftover cooked chicken, shredded

45ml soy sauce, salt reduced (use more or less, to taste) 

Rinse the rice under cold running water until the water is clear then put the rice and stock into a saucepan and bring to the boil with the lid on.  Reduce heat to the lowest setting and cook for 20 minutes or until the stock has been absorbed and the rice is cooked.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.  

Heat a wok or large frying pan with half of the oil.  Add the beaten eggs and cook until lightly scrambled. Remove eggs and roughly chop.  Add the rest of the oil to the wok and add the onion and vegetables. Stir-fry until nearly cooked.   Add cooked rice and chicken and cook until piping hot and heated through.  Add eggs back to the wok with soy sauce and mix thoroughly, making sure every thing is piping hot, leave to cool a little then serve. 

Slow Cooker Veggie Bolognese (Vegan) served with pasta and mixed vegetables

Chicken Soup

Leftover cooked chicken

1 Tblsp oil 

2 onions, diced

2 large carrots, sliced

2 celery stalks, chopped

1.5 litres chicken stock

1/2 cup pearl barley, rinsed

2 Tblsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions, carrot and celery. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the onion softens. Add stock and bring to the boil. Add barley the reduce the heat to low. Simmer, partially covered, skimming any foam from the surface, for 25 to 30 minutes or until the vegetables and barley are tender. Add cooked chicken and simmer for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is heated through. Stir in parsley. Season to taste then serve.

Slow Cooker Butternut and Red Lentil Dhal (Vegan) with homemade Naan breads

Quick Bean Chilli

Shopping List

37 items: £42.93

Frozen

3x   ASDA Frozen for Freshness Mixed Vegetables (1Kg)                          £2.85

Tins, Jars and Cooking

5x   ASDA Smartprice Chopped Tomatoes in Tomato Juice (400g)             £1.45

1x   ASDA Smartprice Red Kidney Beans in Water (400g)                          30p

1x   ASDA Smartprice Sweetcorn in Water (326g)                                      35p

2x   ASDA Chick Peas in Water (400g)                                                      66p

1x   ASDA Stock Cubes - Vegetable (12x10g)                                            39p

1x   ASDA Black Beans in Water (400g)                                                    65p

1x   ASDA Chilli Beans in Chilli Sauce (390g)                                            65p

Dairy and Eggs

1x   ASDA Semi Skimmed Milk 6 Pints (3.41L)                                           £1.48

2x   ASDA British Whole Milk 6 Pints (3.41L)                                             £2.96

1x   ASDA Free Range Large Eggs (12)                                                    £1.85

1x   ASDA Best for Baking Cakes Spread (500g)                                       85p

1x   ASDA Smartprice Low Fat Natural Yogurt (500g)                                 45p

1x   ASDA Butter - Unsalted (250g)                                                           £1.49

1x   ASDA Smartprice Mature White Cheddar (830g)                                  £3.69

Packets and Cereals

1x   Silver Spoon Granulated Sugar (1Kg)                                                  65p

1x   ASDA Strong White Bread Flour (1.5Kg)                                             69p

1x   ASDA Wholemeal Bread Flour (1.5Kg)                                                69p

1x   ASDA Smartprice Plain White Flour (1.5Kg)                                        45p

1x   ASDA Smartprice Self Raising Flour (1.5Kg)                                       45p

1x   ASDA Easy Cook Long Grain Brown Rice (1Kg)                                  £1.09

1x   ASDA Smartprice Long Grain Rice (1Kg)                                            45p

2x   ASDA Smartprice Pasta Shapes (500g)                                              60p

1x   ASDA Good and Balanced Pearl Barley (500g)                                    55p

1x   ASDA Dried Red Lentils (500g)                                                           £1.15

1x   Tropical Sun Popcorn (500g)                                                              79p

2x   ASDA Scottish Porridge Oats (1Kg)                                                    £1.78

Meat, Fish and Poultry

2x   ASDA Farm Stores Cooking Bacon (500g)                                          £1.14

Fruit and Vegetables

25   ASDA Grower's Selection Bananas by Weight (200g)                          £3.00

2x   ASDA Grower's Selection Carrots (1Kg)                                              £1.30

1     ASDA Grower's Selection Butternut Squash                                        98p

1x   ASDA Grower's Selection Celery                                                        52p

1x   ASDA Grower's Selection Garlic Loose                                               20p

2x   ASDA Grower's Selection Swede                                                        £1.00

2x   ASDA Farm Stores Brown Onions (1Kg)                                             £1.10

2x   ASDA Farm Stores White Potatoes (2.5Kg)                                         £2.30

4x     ASDA Grower's Selection Sweet Potatoes by Weight (Approx 663g)    £1.99

We purchased our shopping online from Asda, via My Supermarket and the cost of our groceries was £42.93. Had we shopped elsewhere our shopping list would've cost:

£46.91 from Tesco

£49.83 from Sainsburys

£59.34 from Ocado

£64.60 from Waitrose

My lovely blogging buddy Ciara from My Fussy Eater has created a fab Meal Planning Facebook Group so we can inspire each other. She also has a book out which you can order here. 

And Katykicker, and Naomi from The Organised Life Project have a Meal Planning Linky full of fabulous Meal Planning posts with lots of tasty ideas.