Meal planning Monday (or late Sunday)

If I’m going to get back to blogging, I should really get back to meal planning as well.

I’m actually pretty good at meal planning and even have a monthly plan for June written already.  The problem is we haven’t actually been following it.

Well that’s not entirely true, it has been a good guide and we even managed to have some of the meals from the plan but I really need to get stricter on myself and follow the plan which means I can keep to the shopping list and the grocery budget.  

I’m also changing the plan I had, as a lot of the meals were made from scratch.  While I prefer to make all the foods my family and myself eat from scratch, I’m finding the energy for such things are disappearing the further into this pregnancy I get. With just over two months to go I rather spend the time and energy on my two kids than the extra time to make fresh pasta.

So this is the weeks meals.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks
Monday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Spaghetti on Toast	Chicken & Vegetable pie	Mandarins, kiwi fruit, biscuits and homemade muesli bars
Tuesday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Sandwiches and fruit	Enchiladas on rice	Munchies Platter – Cheese, Salami, Crackers and fruit
Wednesday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Mini Pizzas	Filo Parcels with homemade chutney	Fruit kebabs with yoghurt dipping sauce
Thursday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Fruit smoothies	Chicken curry with homemade Nann bread	Shapes, biscuits, mandarins and bananas
Friday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Homemade sausage rolls	Loaded Hotdogs	Fresh vegs and hummus dips and homemade crackers
Saturday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Savoury Monkey Bread	Roast (what kind of meat depends on what’s the cheapest when I go shopping) with potatoes and a winter salad	Fresh fruit, biscuits, homemade pastries
Sunday	Cereal, Fruit, Yoghurt and Toast	Paninis	Sausage casserole with spiced coscos	Fresh fruit, cruskits, and biscuits.

I will also make chocolate self-saucing pudding, fruit and custard, and crepes with cooked fruit and syrup for dessert during the week, but we don’t have dessert every night.

I’m going to make a shopping list from this meal plan but I’m not sure about sharing it here.  This week I will have to do half my shopping on Tuesday and the other half on Thursday but from next week onwards I will be able to do it all in one shop, hopefully in the weekend so I can go without any kids.  As a home schooling Mum there is very little time in my week that I ever get to myself.

Also with sharing my shopping list here I can also share how much I spend each week and use it as a way to keep on track budget wise….. now I’ve talked myself into it here’s my list…

Deli	Dairy
500g Shaved Ham 200g Pepperoni 6 x Frankfurt’s	3 x 3L Light blue top Milk 1 L Plain yoghurt 500g Butter 300ml Cream Dozen eggs
Meat	Baking
Sausage meat 300g Boneless Chicken 500g Chicken bone in for curry 6-8 Sausages Roast (check specials) Meat for filo parcels (check specials, prefer chicken or fish)	5kg Flour Custard powder
Canned	Breads
Chickpeas Tomato paste	4 x Wholemeal toast bread Plain English muffins 4 x Panini Corn Tortillas Hot dog buns
Snacks	Other
Shapes Rice crackers	Milo Marmight Filo pastry Enchilada sauce Toilet Paper
Pets	Treats
Cat food	2-3 different kinds of treat food (I know if I don't put it on the list I'll just buy it anway)

Doesn’t look like much but I do have a well-stocked pantry which has items like canned tomatoes, spaghetti, spices as well as minced garlic, ginger and curry paste in the fridge.

Where are all the fruit and vegetables? I don’t get them from the supermarket.  A friend got me onto foodbox.co.nz and I have to say, after only one week I’m already hooked.  Every Thursday a box of fruit and vegetables are delivered to my door, which are fresher than the local fruit and vegetable shop or supermarket and priced around the same as well.

Every weekend the website is updated with what will be in next weeks box so you can meal plan around it, also if there is something in there you don’t like you can request changes.  For example my family do not eat pumpkin so I’ve asked for it to be changed to more lettuce.

This weeks box will have the following: Gourmet agria potatoes, carrots, onions, broccoli, pumpkin, parsnips, garlic, mushrooms, silverbeet, Shang Hai cabbage, a baby cos lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, rhubarb, granny smith apples, lemon, gold kiwifruit, Envy apples, ambrosia apples, mandarins, pears and bananas

This weeks groceries cost:

The Food Box costs $45
Last minute dairy trip for bread $1.90
New world (Tuesday) $43.75