ilovemealplans.com

During the summer holidays trips out and holidays blow the budget, so I’ve planned 7 days of cheap meals:

1. Macaroni cheese
2. Bacon and pea risotto
3. Frittata
4. Pizza (shop bought £1.50 at Iceland)
5. Prawn curry
6. Jacket potatoes
7. Pork stir-fry

I’ve had two weeks on holiday and two weeks of spontaneous dinners. Somehow meals on our family holiday seem to work best when we decide daily what we are going to eat. However, yesterday back at home my fridge was bare and today I did a much needed meal plan followed by a trip to Lidl (thanks to my Mum for her help pushing the trolley and packing the bags!). So I thought it would be worthwhile reminding us all of my 10 reasons to meal plan…..

1. Using a structured meal plan saves time thinking and considering recipes each day; reusing meal plans or rotating a monthly plan of recipes saves even greater time.
2. Planning all meals in one go allows for food shopping to be cut to once a week, saving time spent popping to the shops everyday, and less money being spent with daily shopping trips often adding up to more than one large weekly shop.
3. It is possible to plan for leftovers, when you have a roast dinner you can plan to use any leftovers in a stir fry or pasta so there is less food wasted which is good economically and environmentally.
4. Busy days can be less stressful as a quick meal or casserole prepared ahead will make things easier.
5. No more worries about a healthy diet as planning a whole week of meals lets you make sure your diet is balanced.
6. Last minute dashes to the takeaway, which can be expensive and unhealthy, will be gone as there will always be something planned for dinner.
7. Less snacking – meal planning helps to get dinner on the table before you get too hungry and start to snack.
8. Time spent in the supermarket is shorter as no need to wander around hoping for inspiration and trying to remember what is left in the fridge.
9. Families can get kids involved in meal planning, even sometimes choosing meals they can help to cook.
10. Everybody should be happy with what is cooked, as family members can all have some say in the plan and will know what to expect each evening.

One more reason:

Plan a week of meals and it is ideally suited to ordering all the ingredients online. Online shopping is very useful but does require organisation and planning.

Here are 5 steps to create your own meal plan:

1. Find out the weekly schedule for everybody in your family; see who will be eating at home on what days; see which days are busy and plan an easy meal to prepare.
2. Look through the fridge/cupboards and see what there is to use, this will prevent duplicates being bought and keeps costs down.
3. Write a list of 7 meals and, if lunch planning too, write a list of 7 lunch meals (or use an ilovemealplans.com meal plan from the meal plan page).
4. Write a shopping list including all the things you need for your 7 meals plus extras such as cleaning products.
5. Do one big shopping trip* and get everything you need, or make an online grocery order and have it delivered to your door.

*As a stay at home Mum I do one big weekly shop but leave some fresh items, such as salad, to bought throughout the week. Then later in the week I plan into my routine a trip to a local shop when it is convienent to buy a few fresh ingredients. If you plan ahead this can fit into an routine such as a trip to a shop on the way home from work, rather than arriving home and realising it is necessary to go out again to the shops.

If you use my 5 steps to meal planning you may find it helpful to use a meal plan chart and place it somewhere that everyone can see it. I have found an attractive free meal plan at this website: OlliBird.com

When it is hot my husband would love to barbecue every single night, but I have to consider our budget when meal planning. After shopping at the butchers our bill was rather large so I added fish to our barbecue plan and compromised on some nights by substituting a cheap meal like pasta. See what you think….

1. Barbecued Trout, green salad and rice.
2. Kedgeree (I use a Nigella Lawson recipe – read it here) with salad.
3. Barbecued Sausages, new potato salad, rocket salad.
4. Bacon, spinach and creme fraiche pasta with salad.
5. Barbecued Chinese spiced ribs, rice salad, rocket and radish salad.
6. Barbecued Mackerel fillets, new potatoes and tomato salad.
7. Barbecued Minted Lamb chops, cous cous and marinated green bean salad.

How can you do a really tasty barbecue really quickly?

We have found the answer by buying all our meat already marinated from the butcher. Buying marinated meat is only a few pennies more but it saves time and we have been so impressed with the quality. The butcher is able to marinate the meat for much longer than we would and as a result the meat tastes incredible!

I enjoyed watching Jamie Oliver’s episode of ‘Jamie at Home’ on Channel 4, where he shared loads of great tips on barbecuing, watch it here.

Here is a meal plan I did last week. It worked well and I found it easy to get all the meals on the table at the right time.

1. Pork Casserole
2. Fish in a Parcel
3. Jacket Potatoes
4. Bacon & Tomato Pasta
5. Risotto
6. Prawn Curry
7. Sausages & Mash

I am constantly updating my recipes but if you would like a recipe to appear soon please leave a comment and I’ll get working!