Sunday, May 18, 2014

do you meal plan?

Today's topic clue is in the title, if this sort of ish bores you silly, please close your browser window now! 😂

Have we spoken before about my slight (ha!) control-freakish tendencies? If you've been following for a while, you will know I hate leaving things to chance or the last minute (recall me packing my labour bags at 34 weeks pregnant?) Also, I loves me a good list. So it probably comes as no surprise that I am a long-time devotee of the great Weekly Meal Plan.

I remember, in the pre-baby days, when the weekly meal plan involved elaborate 3 course dinners (I kid you not), meticulously devised over a cup of tea and the latest Donna Hay, and jotted down in my Kikki-k journal. Now it's more a 15-minute effort between bebe-wrangling, and involves less haute cuisine, more slow-cooked and one-pan, but still an essential weekly task!

I usually hit up my local weekly produce markets every Friday and stock up on the fresh goodies, meat usually from the butcher, and yes, non-perishables from good old online shopping - love having someone carry all the heavy stuff upstairs to the apartment for me!


I find if I slack off in the meal planning, I tend to go a little crazy (I adore food shopping!), and just generally get carried away, then end up overspending on food that doesn't get eaten - wasteful, not to mention a waste of money! If I have that little list in hand, I can stick to what we need, plus Evelyn's fruit and veges of course (I can barely keep up with the kiddo's appetite these days!)

I used to find we would feel somewhat stuck in a rut from planning too rigidly - what if we felt like fish on the night we had jotted down chicken? So now I prefer to plan a weeks' worth of dinners, then decide on one the night before. Easy!

For those of you interested in the real nitty gritty, this weeks' meal options include:
• Goats cheese and mushroom tarts with micro herbs 
• Chicken cacciatore
• Slow cooker chicken and vegetable noodle soup
• Baked spicy meatballs w/ heirloom tomatoes and goats cheese
• Home made pizza
• Slow cooker vegetable curry with rice, sliced cucumber, red onion relish
• Chicken polpette brodo

As you can see, it's fairly simple stuff that can be prepped in advance in the morning or, better yet, chucked in the slow cooker and left for the day!

Do you meal plan? Or are you more the "winging it" type? For the mums out there, have things changed in your kitchen since the kiddo arrived?
xoxo

10 comments:

  1. I LOVE meal planning, best thing in the world. I meal plan lunches too. One of my faves at the moment is meatballs in a gorgeous napoli type sauce. We have them one day in a roll for lunch and then save the rest to have with spaghetti for another meal. Great freezer option too.

    Like you we do pizza too.. hmmm tonight we are having a kale one with pork and fennel sausage. YUM

    xox

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  2. I'm another obsessed with lists and meal planning. Like you though, I keep it to weekly options rather than rigid nights. Organization is key to eating well and still enjoying food with a bebe in the house. X

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  3. Your meals sound delicious!

    I do not meal plan - I'm actually terrible like that. Even when I lived alone, I just bought ingredients every day.... You would think that it would appeal to my list-obsessed personality type, but I have just never bothered. One day!

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  4. I love produce shopping too :) your list of meals sounds delicious- esp the goats cheese and mushrooms tarts! some meals are planned out depending on what meat I buy- usually something to slow cook, some lamb steak and chicken thighs for quick curries! stuffed mushrooms are a fav of late too xx

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  5. I like to meal plan, but my husband does most of the cooking and is a bit more of a 'wing it!' type person. Drives me nuts! :) But it does save us money. I love reading your list-keep it up! xx

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  6. OMG can I come to your house for dinner?! It all sounds delicious! I like meal planning but I've got very slack with it lately and hubby doesn't like pre planning. You've inspired me to get back into it!

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  7. I agree though that planning would save us a lot of money but I wing-it because I like to cook what we feel like eating on any particular night. I think though that if and when I do have children I will meal plan because I will need to be a lot more organised then. I like your idea of shopping online for non-perishables. I'm definitely taking that on board :)

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  8. We plan 3 weeks out of 4 I think. And that one week we don't plan we flounder in the disorganisation and reawaken our passion for planning!

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  9. Never make it to the markets though...normally struggle getting to Coles!

    X cake.

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  10. I wing it but I try hard to not buy anything extra. I do pretty well at that, I have to say.

    I've found the way I cook has changed since Baby-Cab has been eating with us in the sense that I am more conscious about what I cook. When I used to be happy with a piece of crispy skin salmon on mashed potato with some baked leeks, now I feel the need to absolutely cover the plate in vegetables. It's actually illogical because Baby-Cab eats fruits/veggies with every meal, so it's not like those potatoes and leeks would be her only veg of the day, but it's like some kind of weird compulsion to chuck some broccoli and carrots and such in there too.

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