Oops

It looks like I cant count. I only planned 12 meals. Looks like the old brain has gone walk about. To add to it, I also dropped the ingredients for tonights dinner the Lamb and chickpea patties all over the floor tonight, and my floor isn't clean enough to eat off. Sigh.

At least the rest of the meals should take us untill near the end of next week.

Back to work tomorrow, got some bookkeeping, and the uniform shop in the afternoon, before doing the canteen for the rest of the week. At least I'll be earning money.

Two week menu

Eating out of the pantry for the next 2 weeks with only a teeny tiny grocery shop to be done.

I have a 14 day menu to present, 2 of these nights I'm not home, so its easy stuff for dh and dd. On these 2 nights they have the following to choose from: Fish/nuggets and chips, and some frozen pasta meals.

For the other 12 nights we will have the following (I'll post the recipes as I make them):

Meatball Stew
Chicken barley soup
Spaghetti Bolegnaise
Bacon & Egg pies
Lamb and Chickpea patties
Beef & Vegetable Pasties
Macaroni Cheese
Middle Eastern Lamb Pies
Garlic and Chilli Prawns
Chilli and Bean Bake

Can you believe I actually found some frozen prawns (ala Aldi) in my freezer.

Its truely amazing what you will find when you dig around in there.

The only meat I have to buy this week is minced beef.

Lunches will be leftovers or sandwiches ( I have enough bread mixes to make 6 loaves).

Breakfasts will be cereal as per usual.

I'll also be doing some baking, I have a recipe for 150 cookies that looks really easy. I've got a tonne of cake mixes, brownie mixes etc to feed the entire family for weeks. There is also plenty of jelly, and tinned fruit to keep everyone happy.

The $21 challenge

On one of the websites I occasionally go to and also receive newsletter emails from Simple Savings, has just produced a new book called : The $21 Challenge.

I read about it in Thats Life magazine last week and thought, "Hey, this could be doable on a monthly basis" It could also get those of us who are in the supermarket a number of times a week, menu planning properly, so we can get it down to once a fortnight or week at the most.

So I've done a pantry stocktake. I haven't reached the freezer yet, but I had to throw a lot of food ($$$) away that had expired. :( But now I know what I have in there, I can start on a two week menu plan for dinners.

I'll do the freezer this afternoon, to find out what food is in there.

I'm reckoning, that on the second week, we should only need money for fruit, veges, milk, eggs and bread perhaps.

So I'm going to give it a try. So week 1 will be a regular grocery shop, but with 2 weeks shopping in one, shopping out of my pantry first. Week 2 will only be top up with a limited amount of money being spent.

This also means no Takeaway's for 2 weeks. So I'm going to have to menu plan properly.

Wish me luck

What's for dinner? Monday

I cant believe its Monday already. I've had a terrifically terrible weekend, and it seems to have stretched forever, even though its a long weekend, it feels like its gone on for a week.

Tonight I feel like some home made, feel good food for dinner. So a really cheap yet cheerful meal is on the menu.

Chilli Spaghetti

Spaghetti for the number of people being served. I'm a chuck the whole pack in type of girl, so adjust for your needs. Note, I love this and will eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner with no qualms.

A red chilli (If you cant get fresh, I have used chilli from a jar, not sweet chilli or powdered though)
Parsley, I like continental
Garlic, ( I have a jar of it in the fridge, so I'll use that)
Olive Oil
Butter

Cook the spaghetti as per instructions on the packet

In a small saucpan melt butter and olive oil. (sorry I dont have amounts, you will have to use what you feel is adequate)

Cook the garlic (1 tsp?) and the red chilli that has been deseeded and chopped very finely, unless you love big bits of chilli in your mouth. Add the chopped parsley before these brown, and pour over the drained spaghetti and stir.

Sprinkle with your favourite cheese that you like on pasta.

This meal wouldn't cost more than $5 if you buy cheap pasta. I can get a kilo for just over a dollar here. That feeds a lot of people. You dont need the pasta saturated with the sauce, just a taste worth, kwim?

Whats for dinner tonight? Friday

We had chicken wings for dinner tonight. I'd picked up Chicken wings at woolies yesterday for $1.49 a kilo, and couldn't resist them. So I bought 2 kilos of them :)

So I made yummy honey soy wings.

I had half a bottle of marinade in the pantry waiting to be used up, so sloshed it over the wings, and then sprinkled sesame oil over them. Then I cooked them in the oven for an hour at 180C. Now a whole hour may have been a little long when they came out a little dark, but they tasted fantastic, not burnt, and easily fell apart when eating them. And moist too.

Mmmmmmm.

There are some leftovers.

What's for dinner - Thursday

Looks like someones brain wasn't working last night. Yesterday was Wednesday!

Anyway, for dinner tonight we are having pork ribs, cooked slowly this afternoon in the slowcooker. I forgot to put anything on them, but I'm sure they will still taste good. I'm serving them with left over baked veges from the other night. Potato, butternut pumpkin, cauliflower, mmm, I'm hungry.