Meal Planning Monday 03/03/14

Can you believe it is March already!  This year is coming in far too fast!
It’s my mini mans 5th birthday this month and only 4 months until my wedding!
Can someone slow down time for me?

Because we are still doing our healthy eating, I am takibg inspiration from The Hairy Dieters again.
If you haven’t gottheir books, where have you been by the way?, I would recommend getting them,  some fantastic stuff in them.

Here goes

M   All in one pork and rice
T   Soup, unsure what yet
W    Haddock fishcakes
T    Baked potatoes
F   Meatloaf and tomato sauce
S    Chicken korma
S    our usual Roast

Thanks to Mrs M for hosting the weekly linky, take a swing by her page go see what’s cooking.
X

Meal Planning Monday 24/02/14

Welcome to my Monday Meal Plan!
With a big thanks to Mrs M for hosting this linky.

I am getting back in the swing with my meal plans, and cannot believe that I let them slide for so long.
They are helping me stick to my healthy eating and keeping shopping costs down,  which we all love, don’t we?

Here goes:

M  Chicken cordon bleu – low fat version
T   Homemade Lentil soup
W   Creamy Haddock
T   Pann Haggerty light
F   Mince & vegetable pie
S   Turkey Burgers
S   Roast dinner

We are taking inspiration from The Hairy Dieters this week.

We get out fresh fish from John and the gang at Delishfish.  Pop along and have a look, the fish is the tastiest we have had in a while.

Don’t forget to pop along to Mrs M’s to see what else is cooking 🙂

X

Calling All Adventurers (and mummies/daddies)

Here at Follow my Line HQ, we have been invited to a Top secret event, hosted by the wonderful Ella’s Kitchen.
Alas, we cannot go, as this event is being held in London (hopefully you will have one in Edinburgh at some point)
I bet you can imagine how sad we are to miss this 😦

I can let you into a little secret though!
Are you in London on Wednesday 26th February?
Are you free between 10.30am and 1pm?

Well if you answered yes to these 2 questions,  read on my little Adventurers,  and don’t miss out!

Calling all adventurous little ones…

Baby and toddler food experts, Ella’s Kitchen, is creating a totally incredible, edible experience for little taste explorers to enjoy.

Created to celebrate the launch of the ‘my little BIG meals’ range, the super-secret taste adventure is designed to introduce little ones to a world of scrummy fruit and delicious veg, and features a whole host of fun things for little explorers to taste, touch, smell and discover.

 
The incredible edible event opens to the public at The Horniman Museum and Gardens, London on Wednesday 26th February from 10.30am – 1pm and is free of charge for parents and little ones to explore.

 
WHEN? Wednesday 26th February, 10.30am – 1pm

WHERE? The Horniman Museum and Gardens, Victorian Conservatory

ADDRESS: 100 London Road, Forest Hill, SE23 3PQ

CLOSEST TUBE: Forest Hill

Sounds exciting right?
Get along there and join in the fun.

Let us know how it is and be sure to have some fun for us.

X
 

Meal Planning Monday 27-1-14

Well fellow meal planners, I *hangs head in shame*, have not taken part in the Meal Planning Monday in a while.
All this is about to change 🙂

I hope you ‘orrible lot have been sticking to it though.

Here goes:

M
Homemade Mince and Tatties

T
Homemade Leek and Potato soup

W
Chicken curry and naan bread

T
Some sort of fish, not sure yet, whayever takes our fancy

F
The Mini’s will be at granny’s tonight, may persuade the Mr to take me out!

S
Beef Tacos

S
Roast beef

I am using up items in my freezer, cupboard, you name it, to help save some money.

I am in the process of setting up another blog for my recipes, so once that’s up and running, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Thanks to Mrs M for her Meal Planning hosting.

x

Frugal Friday Tips

I bet most of us are in the same boat moneywise,  especially after christmas.
And that boat is the Skint Boat.   I know I definitely am!

So I have decided to make some Frugal posts, to share with you.  These hints and tips are what I do to try and stretch the old dough a little further.  And please if you have any tips you would like to share, don’t hesitate to send them in.

The first Frugal Friday post is about Roast chicken.
Yes, yes, I know.  How can a roast chicken be frugal, well here goes…..

Have you heard about the 1 chicken, 3 dinners rule?
I LOVE it!  It’s one of the best money saving tips food wise, that I have come across.

Basically, you get yourself a whole chicken anduse it 3 times.
And how might you do that?  Dead easy.
You have your Sunday chicken roast, once you have finished, completely strip the meat that is left and use it for the next meal.
Then take the carcass and boil it up with some herbs, veg, whatever takes your fancy.
And Bobs your uncle,  you’ve got yourself 3 dinners!
Tell me thats not amazing!?

1.  Roast chicken dinner
2.  Leftover chicken curry
3.  Chicken noodle soup

I think its fantastic, and the most I have had out of it is 4 dinners.
I just make, say, chicken curry or chicken pie, with the stripped mest and freeze it for another day.
Sameneith the stock,  just tub it up and freeze.

If you have tried this, how many dinners have you had out the chicken?
What do you make with your leftovers?

Be sure to let us know 😉

X

Meal Planning Monday – 1st July 2013

Unbelievable. July the 1st already!
I cannot believe how fast time is going these days. And of course it means its just a year and 4 days until my wedding day 🙂

With purse strings tightening that little bit more I am going to completely run down my freezer and cupboards over the next few weeks. If any of you wonderful people know or have any cheap recipes send them my way or direct me to them ;).

Some of the recipes in this meal plan have came from the recipe book below (which I got from a local charity shop for 50p!)

Monday – chicken and sweet corn crepes (we have leftover chicken from our Sunday roast)

Tuesday – it’s our 9 year anniversary!! I will be heading to M&S for their two done for £10, hope they still do it!

Wednesday – I’m at the Bon Jovi concert at Hampden, dinner will be pub food.

Thursday – minced beef and potato pie

Friday – fish and chips

Saturday – cheese, potato and veg layer

Sunday – roast, unsure what yet

Head over to Mrs M for more meal planning ideas x

1 Chicken, 3 Dinners

Im not sure if you have seen all these amazing posts about cooking a whole chicken and having 3 or more dinners out of it. I think it’s a fantastic idea, especially if you are trying to be a bit thrifty.

I decided I was going to do this, so on my shopping trip to Costco I picked up a cooked chicken.
I know what you’re thinking, lazy mare! In a way yes I am lol but when a cooked chicken is bigger and cheaper than a supermarket, uncooked chicken, then hell yeah I am buying that bird.

So first dinner was the obligatory Sunday roast. My god, I do love a good roast dinner with all the trimmings. You have to have them don’t you?
I stripped the chicken down, saved some meat and the 2 legs for our roast. Then put the rest in a tub for our second dinner.

Yes I can count 😉 , that makes 2 dinners, I still had the carcass.
That got chucked into a pot with carrots, leeks and seasoning. Simmered away for a couple of hours to make a tasty stock.
I will be using this for a nice homemade soup.

We had the leftover chicken tonight for dinner. I made a butter chicken (using Pataks sauce) mixed with onions and red pepper. It was lovely.
I had mine on a baked potato and the Mr had his with some veggie rice.

There you have it. I started with one whole roast chicken and I got – roast chicken dinner, butter chicken and chicken stock. Amazing!

I think some people have had more out of it 4 maybe 5 at a push.

Have you done this? How many meals did you get out of it?

Meal Planning Monday 20 May

Aaah the meal plan is before us again.
Is it just me or do the weeks seem to be coming in quicker and quicker?
Look it’s almost nearly the end of May, and alas, still no sign of summer :(.

This weeks meal plan comes to you from the dark depths of my freezer.
It’s time I was whittling the food down so I can fill it with BBQ food ready for summer days, well I can live in hope.

Some of options aren’t going to be the healthiest, but I will be cutting the potion size down to, kind of, make up for that. And load my plate with veg or salad.

Here goes 🙂

Baked potato with cheese, tuna and salad.
Homemade chilli and rice.
Butter chicken (pataks sauce)
Pork chops (unsure of how I’m doing them yet)
Chicken and bacon lattice
Homemade steak pie
Chicken quarter pounders with salad

Like I said, it’s a proper freezer raid. And I’ll be a few steps closer to emptying the freezer 🙂

Hop on over to Mrs M for more inspiration.

Meal Planning Monday – 13 May 2013

That’s it! I’ve had enough!
Time to get my head screwed on with the healthy eating.
I have just over 13 months until the Wedding Day 😮 and I want to be at my target weight (3 stone lighter than I am now!) well before that.
My aim is to lose it between now and the end of the year.

Because of this my meal plan recipes are all low fat, and tasty might I add 🙂

Not going to put into days, as the Mr is working late a couple nights and not sure what ones yet, at least I will get peace lol.

Anyway here goes:

Cod and Potato fritters
Meatball Brochettes
Pork Stroganoff
Baked Potato and Salad
Chicken with Spicy Yoghurt Crust
Curried Yellow Split Pea soup
Sunday is Roast day

What are you all cooking in the kitchen?

Visit Mrs M and see what else is cooking 🙂

Meal Planning Monday

Last weeks meal plan half went to plan and the other half, well just went to pot!
This week I completely sticking to it. One, because my budget needs me to, and two, my diet really needs me to.
I need to get stuck back in and up my gym visits.
I am starting to feel unhappy again about my weight as I have gained a few pounds :(. But I will get there!

This weeks meals are coming from my Hairy Dieters book, one of my favourites!

M – Spanish style chicken bake
T – Mediterranean beef burgers
W – some thing with fish 🙂
Th – Easy Crispy Chicken
F – cottage pie
S We are away on a rare night out. Woo hoo! Dinner is likely to be liquid 😉
Su – skinny beef lasagne

Thanks to Mrs M for the weekly link up. Away and get some more inspiration.

X