Our monthly budget took a big hit with myself and the girls sick… for a couple of weeks I couldn’t do our grocery shopping and didn’t even have the brain power to put together a monthly meal plan let alone a shopping list. Whilst we avoided take out on all but one occasion we did impulse purchase a lot, with either my husband or myself stopping at the supermarket almost daily to pick up bits and pieces to make that nights dinner.
However we are back on track and I’ve got our meal plan sorted, due to the budget blow out while I was ill there has been some rethinking of the meal plan and my approach to cooking.
Our meal plan for the month looks like this:
Monday: Risotto with poached chicken and vegetables
Tuesday: Vegetarian sauce and pasta
Wednesday: Sausages and mashed potato
Thursday: Tacos with chicken mince and fresh salad
Friday: Fried Rice
Saturday: left overs from the freezer
Sunday: Pizza
Everyone except for me likes the repetition of meals, having the same thing each week, my taste buds might not like it, but it is the best for our budget and my health.
I realised that my Crohn’s is going to be an increasing issue and I have to plan for the nights when I’m so drained I can barely stand up, let alone cook. Hopefully as we recover from this recent bug those days will be few and far between.
I found some cool storage boxes at ALDI and thought they’d be perfect for my meal planning, I’d been stressing over not having enough containers and having to use plastic ziplock bags, which really bothers me. I got two of the larger boxes and filled them with sandwiches, ham and cheese in one set of boxes and vegemite in the other. As you can see in the picture, the larger size stack of 3 holds 12 sandwiches.
So all up 24 sandwiches for school lunches, supplemented with the zucchini and rice slice, pizza rolls and pita pockets it should keep us going for the next month.
I then poached 6 chicken thigh fillets, shredded and divided the cooked chicken among a smaller 4 tray stack, along with a cup of frozen veggies each. These are for my risotto which I make in the rice cooker, I am able to throw the frozen chicken and veggies into the rice cooker, along with the rice and chicken stock.
I also made up a huge pot of vegetable pasta sauce (recipe coming soon) and froze for our Tuesday night pasta.
Finally caramelised onions which Ralph has been really enjoying on his lunch wraps, but it is terribly expensive to buy from the condiments aisle.
Caramelised Onion in the Slow Cooker
- 1kg brown onion
- 1/2kg red onion
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3cup brown sugar
- 1/3cup brown vinegar
Slice up the onions and place into the slow cooker along with the other ingredients, cook on low for 8 hours.
Bottle and store in the refrigerator.
Hopefully these small changes, along with a little hard work over the last few days to get our freezer stocked and meals prepared will really help keep the budget in check.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
You poor darling. I don’t know a lot about Crohns but it sounds horrendous. I wonder if the Food Combining idea of eating would help rest your tummy and intestines? Loved your pre meal prepping ideas and photos. Here is a site that I read and you may get something from it too. http://dinnerisinthejar.com/ I have a few done up and even though the initial prep is a pain, it saves time when you are buggered.
Another good site is dehydrate2store. Not about the food drying but she has You Tube videos on what she puts into her slow cooker.
Take care and give those beautiful girls a little quiet hug from me, please. xo
I just went to the meals in a jar site and she’s taken down her recipes as she now has a book to sell. However, you get the idea and Google will have others. I love the idea of having pikelet mix all ready to go, just having to add eggs, milk and a little oil. I’m storing a little food too in case the so totally useless carbon tax will sky rocket prices.
xo
Lydia recently posted..Time for Happiness and Lightness of Being.
Thank you for the link and the reminder about meals in the jar. I made some rice in the jar meals as gifts a few years ago. Would work really great for the rice cooker to measure everything out in advance and I can get the girls to just pour it in. Thank you.
Yes, it’s times when we are sick, or super busy that I am glad I meal plan and have some frozen meals ‘up my sleeve’ (well, they are really in my deep freezer!). I like your idea of prepping the chicken and vegies for rissotto….will think about how I can work that in to my planning too. It is getting to the weather to have casseroles and soups ready for quick dinners. I am trying your zucchinni slice recipe soon, our home grown zucchinis have gone crazy this year, and it looks like it will freeze well for lunches. I am going to try pre-making sandwiches too, that looks like a good idea. Here is a link to my blog, with some of my most recent tips for bulk meals and family favourites: http://mypaperlessphd.wordpress.com/2011/11/06/bulk-meals-and-recipes/
Thank you for the link. I’m going to bookmark it and add a few of the recipes into next months meal plan calendar. I’m glad it is getting cooler, so I can make a few stews and curries up.
Yum yum! I only cook rice in our rice cooker, never tried adding stuff for risotto… might give it a whirl
I cooked tomato sauce (just tomatoes, onions and celery) on Sunday from home-grown tomatoes and ended up with 1.5L of the stuff! In the freezer in portions just right for serving on pasta!
Kate @ UpsideBackwards recently posted..Looking good
Our rice cooker recipe book came with a heap of ideas for meals you could cook in the rice cooker. I especially love cinnamon rice pudding
I’m sorry to hear about your Chrons and hope you’re feeling better and get on top of it. With all this smart meal planning you’re way ahead of the game! I am fully in awe of your organisation.
Laney @ Crash Test Mummy recently posted..March to your own beat
Thank you. Organisation was a necessity or we would have run out of food.