When I sat down on Sunday to plan this week’s meals, I thought you might find it interesting to see why I chose the meals that I did.
So this week, I didn’t do a full-on fridge, freezers and cupboards food inventory because I have a pretty good idea of what we have in thanks to a couple of re-shuffles over the last couple of weeks to squish in extra food for Christmas. Usually, I’d go through them once a month (ish) to write a list of everything we have in so I can make sure nothing is forgotten about. 😇
From memory, I knew there was a couple of things in that I wanted to use up in the freezer – I have two bags of frozen prawns, a big bag of frozen chicken tikka chunks, a big bag of frozen butternut squash chunks and a load of sausages that I bought reduced and popped in the freezer before Christmas. I also have some wholewheat frozen rice that I wanted to try and use up.
The reason I wanted to use these things up (aside from meal planning obviously making more sense if you use up what you have in first to save money) is because I really want to try and get my freezers organised and I need space to do that. These are all pretty bulky ingredients so they’re first on the list to be used up.
I wrote down the foods I wanted to use up and then sat down with my recipe bank list and my Macbook ready to work out our actual meal plan.
Here’s what I chose and specifically why.
Monday
I went with slow cooker sausage and bean stew which is a variation of a recipe I shared over on The Diary of a Frugal Family many years ago before I understood the concept of good photos. 😂.
I have loads of tins of beans in as I bought two six-packs in two weeks shopping by mistake when it was on offer before Christmas. I also have loads of tins of chopped tomatoes in the cupboard and a big bag of frozen chopped onions as I use them so often so this is a perfect recipe for using only what I have in.
Tuesday
I’ve written down that we’ll be having slow cooker chicken curry but I think my usual recipe is going to need some tweaking as I’m going to try and use the chicken tikka pieces and also mix in the wholewheat rice into the mix rather than serve it on the side as I’m hoping it’ll soak up some more flavour as I’m not a huge lover of the taste but I don’t want to waste it.
Wednesday
Prawn Pasta Arriabata is on the menu for tonight as I really just want an easy option so this should tick that box hopefully. I usually make a spicy chicken Arriabata but I think it’ll work just as well with prawns. Aside from the prawns, which are on my must-use-up list for this week, everything else I need to make this is something I’d have in anyway so this is another good meal for using only what I have in.
Thursday
I know we had Mexican Pasta Bake with homemade cheesy garlic bread on the menu last week but it’s back by popular request as my youngest teen loves this and wants to try making it with Quorn mince as a change.
Friday
I’ve written down that we’ll be having Chicken Tikka Masala Soup for tea tonight.
This is a totally new recipe for us and is inspired by a recipe I saw when I was flicking through a magazine at the supermarket so it could go completely wrong as I didn’t actually buy the magazine and didn’t actually memorise the ingredients so it could go completely wrong. I thought I could make something similar to the recipe I saw but with my chicken tikka chunks, the butternut squash chunks and some chicken tikka masala curry powder I’ve had at the back of the cupboard for longer than I think I should have.
Loaded fries are on the menu for Saturday night so it’s a bit of anything goes when it comes to toppings as I just use whatever we have leftover in the fridge generally – in the photo above there’s shredded gammon, half a green pepper, some red onion and cherry tomatoes and some grated mozzarella over the top.
The burgers may be homemade as I do have a burger press but I also have some chicken burgers and spicy bean burgers to use up in the freezer so I know I should probably use them up.
Sunday
Sunday Dinner is going to be toad in the hole to use up some more of the sausages along with some frozen veg and some mash or roasties to go with it. Nice and easy and always goes down well in our house.
So that’s why we’re having what we’re having this week, I hope you found it helpful. 👍
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