Lightening Online

Remember those days?  When I used to have a menu plan and know what was for dinner each night?  They’re almost a dim dark distant memory. 

So, today is the day for me to get back into it.  I hope.  As I type this, I haven’t actually written the menu plan yet.  But hopefully by the time I hit publish, one will mysteriously appear here….

MONDAY:  Fish Day.  What fish do I have on hand?  Just a sec and I’ll go check…. and the winner is….. CRUMBED FISH!!!!  Hooray….big round of applause for the good old, chuck in the oven crumbed fish.  Sadly, we’re out of potatoes.  But we’ve got fresh corn and zucchini and plenty of carrots.  Will have to do extra other vegies to cover the lack of potato.

TUESDAY: Crock pot day.  Think it’s about time I made up another batch of spaghetti bolognese sauce.  There is none left in the freezer and we’ve plenty of mince from our 1/2 cow.

WEDNESDAY: If I get energetic enough on Tuesday, I might whip up a cheese sauce and throw a lasagne together.  Mmmmmm…….lasagne.  Been a while since I made one of those!

THURSDAY:   Is low or no meat day.  Might make up a batch of Fried Rice since the kids really LOVE it.  Wonder if I could chuck some fresh corn in that????

FRIDAY:  Fake Take Away Day.  Time again for homemade pizzas I think.  Pretty sure I have the ingredients on hand I need.  Better just go check I have some pita bread for the bases….Back in a minute…..

…… tick, tick, tick, tick……………….

Okay, they took some finding but yes, I do have some so that’s a goer!!!

SATURDAY: We haven’t had chicken for a while.  Wonder what chicken I have at the moment???  Stay with me….. I’ll be back in a sec……………. oooh.  Found some chicken thigh fillets that look like they need to be used.  Quick check in the cupboard for a Southern Fried Chicken coating sachet.  Check.  Southern Fried Chicken for tea.  Yummmmm….. can’t wait!!!

SUNDAY:  Pooled lunch at church.  Need to come up with something to take for lunch……. think I’ll do a salad platter as they won’t need to be heated.   Plenty of lettuce, tomato, carrot and cheese.  Will add chunks of fritz.  Just need to buy some cucumber.  For dessert I might make up a chocolate peppermint slice.

SUNDAY (cont-):  Something really, really, really easy for tea.  If I can get free range eggs in town, will make up pancakes.  Otherwise toasted sandwiches should do.

And that my dear friends, is the menu plan for this week.  Straight from my mind to the page in front of you.     Surprisingly enough, it came pretty easy this week.  Some weeks it takes a LOT longer.  With a LOT of whinging and whining in between (you know… menu planning sucks, why do I have to decide what’s for dinner?  etc etc etc). 

Apologies for the lack of creative flair in my descriptions this week.  Decided that I’d better not make things too difficult on myself for my first time back in a few months.

Twas the week before Christmas

Mum is scratching her head

What will she feed the family?

How will she keep them all fed?

The kids are all growing

Their legs seem a-hollow

One wants a snack

And the others all follow

When what to their wondering eyes should appear?

Than a house full of goodies, all that Christmas cheer

But mum says “hands off”,

“That’s for Christmas you know”

The kids want to eat

While mum shrugs “dunno”…..

Okay, well that’s as far as my creative talents will take me.  LOL.  What I’m really trying to post here is my menu plan for this week.  When I woke up yesterday morning, I thought we were in for a quiet week.  By the time I went to bed we’d added about half a dozen more activities.  So my quiet, get ready for Christmas week has turned into an “aaarrrrrhhhhhhh, Christmas is coming faster than I can say Merry Christmas” type week.  Which makes menu planning kind of essential if we’re all going to survive (or at least eat).

So, I need some kind of plan.  And it would be good if it could include lunches cos I HATE working out what to feed the kids for lunch during holidays (yes, lunch ideas would be most welcome).

MONDAY

Lunch:  Homemade pies

Dinner:  We’re taking my in laws out for dinner at the local pub (not a lot of choice here in the middle of nowhere).  They both have birthdays in December and we never know what to buy for them.  This makes a nice clutter free gift and I’m sure they’ll appreciate it as much as anything else we might spend our money on.  Also means I don’t have to cook tonight OR decide what’s for dinner. :jump:

TUESDAY

Lunch:  My brother and his family are coming down for a BBQ lunch.  They live just under 2 hours away and haven’t yet seen our *new* house (we’ve been here nearly 3 years!!!!).  Slackers!!!!

Dinner:  Leftover bbq.  Homemade pies or tinned spaghetti as back up plans if not many leftovers.

WEDNESDAY

Lunch:  Salad

Dinner:  Have 1 kid off to a birthday party sleep over and another coming to stay here for a sleepover.  I know she eats pasta so will cook some pasta and spaghetti bolognese sauce.

THURSDAY

Lunch: 

Dinner:  Chicken Munchies with chips and salad

FRIDAY

Lunch:

Dinner:  Town Christmas Pageant with local service groups selling tea so I don’t have to cook!

SATURDAY

Lunch:

Tea:  Tacos

SUNDAY

Lunch:  Chip sandwiches at the beach

Tea:  BBQ

MONDAY

Lunch:  Cold Meat and salad

Tea:  Roast Turkey with Roast Vegetables and cheesecake for dessert.  We have a tradition in our family that the years we’re not going to be home Christmas Day, we have a Roast Turkey dinner together at some time earlier that week.  So we’ll do that Christmas Eve this year. 

 Okay, I will post this and add in the rest of the lunches later…..inspire me peoples.  Pleeeeaaassssseeeeeeee…….

Monday – Lightly crumbed fish fillets toasted to a golden brown and served with crunchy potato wedges and a variety of lightly steamed vegetables.

Had to yank gently remove these from DH’s loving clutches last night when he had the grand idea of having them for tea last night.  Thankfully I’d already started a rough draft of the week’s menu plan and could prove to him that I wanted them for tonight.  Nothing to do with the fact that they’re a “chuck in the oven” variety of cooking and why should he get it easy?

Tuesday – Mum’s gotta finish her Christmas shopping so will be throwing something disgustingly unhealthy but probably to your liking in your general vicinity.

Yes, I’m planning on bringing home take away.  Or better yet, if I take long enough, Granny will feed the kids and save me the effort, $$ and guilt. 

Wednesday – Lovingly prepared spaghetti Bolognese sauce yanked out of the freezer and stuffed into the microwave.  Served over spiral pasta because mummy hates the mess you make when she serves spaghetti and lovingly topped with grated cheese in the hopes of disguising all the veggies in the sauce.

Thursday – I don’t know yet and hopefully if I procrastinate long enough daddy will come in and work something out so I don’t have to.

Friday – a mixture of finely minced who knows what, carefully encased in a clear packaging made of “I don’t want to know what”, slapped onto a square white slice of “processed the bajeebers out of” wheat mixed with yeast and a plethora of nasty preservatives and topped with lashings of dead horse.

How’s that for a tasty description? Mmmmm…..can’t wait to  think I might eat at home before we go out.  It’s the annual community Christmas Tree where all the kids are hyped up on end of school year, Christmas is near excitement coupled with too many lollies and the fact that Santa will arrive any minute. 

As parents we get the privilege of paying for some piece of crap lovingly selected toy that Santa gets all the credit for.  Of course, the year I shopped for the presents they were FABULOUS!!!  LOL.  You should have seen the looks on other shoppers faces watching two of us struggle with 3 overflowing trolleys full of toys.  “Yeah, we have 23 kids stashed at home and really WANT 6 of the same toy!!!”  Even funnier when I lost my partner in crime shopping and had to request the front desk call me up.  You see, she and I share the exact same name (married to cousins).  Even stranger to stand by the front desk and hear them call “me” to come to the front desk.  Anyway, it was FUN spending everyone else’s money!!!!

Oh and for those not in the “know” - dead horse is Australian slang for tomato sauce (bit like ketchup) so please don’t call the RSPCA (or whatever animal or child loving group you have) and complain that I’m feeding my kids dead horses.

Weekend - Dunno lovingly served with freshly steamed dunno and maybe even some dunno freshly picked from our garden.

Can you tell my menu planning is not really inspiring me at the moment?  LOL.  I’ve gone 2 weeks without even writing a menu plan which has kind of sucked because then I’ve had to make decisions every day (I HATE deciding what to have for meals).  So I thought I’d be really good and menu plan this week.  *sigh* 

Help a girl out:  I need some suggestions on what I could serve for Thurday night, Saturday night AND Sunday night.  Preferably easy stuff as this week is “nightmare last week of the school year” week so rather busy.  Please leave all your wonderful suggestions in the comments section. 

I’m going solo this week. That is, not participating in the “Menu plan Monday” as such. I’m finding it too hard to get into the hosts website and I know some of you have had trouble too.

However, we still need to eat and at this time of year (with DH so busy) a plan is more important than ever!!! So, let’s get to it……

Monday - Portions of fish lightly coated in herbed flour and shallow fried to a crisp golden brown served with coleslaw and a fresh garden salad.

Fresh garden salad meaning a combination of whatever I can find in the bottom of the fridge plus can scrounge out of the garden. LOL.

Tuesday - Slices of corned beef smothered in a rich creamy white sauce and accompanied by creamy mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Fingers crossed the white sauce *is* creamy and not lumpy. I wonder if I can come up with a way of describing lumpy white sauce so that it becomes edible and maybe even…desirable????

Wednesday - Leftover corned beef diced and warmed in a cheese sauce, served with creamy mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Well, only if I cut the corned beef and not DH will there be leftovers for this night! He is getting better……

Thursday - Mince, lentils, beans and vegetables combined together with a rich tomato based sauce and served over spiral noodles with a garnish of grated cheese.

Even I might be tempted to enjoy spag bol described like this. LOL. I don’t really mind it the way I make it and the kids tend to gobble it up without complaints, despite all the *healthy* stuff hidden within! Mwaaahaaahaaa…..

Friday - Rounds of unleavened bread coated in a smooth tomato paste and topped with bacon, cheese and a variety of vegetables.

Well, DH and I will add vegetables, the kids prefer just bacon and cheese…..

Note to self: remember to plan dessert because the ice cream is all gone so you can’t use that as a fall back plan (unless you actually remember to buy some this week!!!).

Note to everyone else: we don’t have dessert every night (it’s usually on an ad hoc basis really - if DH feels like dessert, everyone gets dessert) but Friday night’s being “family night” AND “fake take away” night it’s kind of become expected!

Saturday - Lamb chops slow cooked with a variety of herbs and served with roast potaotes and lightly steamed vegetables.

Yeah, we did have this last Saturday but the kids weren’t here so they won’t notice and DH used to eat lamb chops nearly EVERY night (blah) so he won’t mind. And well, I gotta fit half a COW in the freezer soon so those bulky items just have to go!

Sunday - Homemade pastry encasing a warm mix of mince in a rich brown gravy.

This is of course based on the assumption that I’ll be able to be bothered making the pies (mix is already in the freezer from last time). Back up plan - box of party pies left over from shearing. Hmmmm…..wonder if I could get the kids to do all the pastry rolling and stuff…….

Okay, your turn now. Anyone else want to try writing up their menu plan ala restaurant menu? Go on, it’s not as hard as you think. And if you want to give me some “linky love” (ie, link back to here) well that’s always appreciated. Don’t have a blog? No prob! Just pop your menu plan in the comments section here. Go on, you know you want to!!!!! LOL.

Oh yeah, you might wanna miss the bits in red. I’m just in a silly kind of mood today and well….. there are only so many weeks in a row that you can pretend you’re Martha Stewart before the *real* person tries to break on through the facade. LOL.

Well, it is *that* time of the week again and I have to admit, I’m enjoying menu planning weeky instead of monthly now. In fact, I seem to be enjoying it a lot more full stop. So I guess perhaps the “creative” touch is helping after all.

I have planned a very easy menu plan this week. It’s shaping up to be quite a warm week which means DH will be rather busy with harvest.

Last night was quite an exciting night in our family. ALL of our vegetables (other than the mashed potato) were picked fresh from our garden. This is the first time we’ve had enough to make a whole meal with. The kids thought it was great. We tried steamed fresh beetroot for the first time but it wasn’t all that nice really. At least we can say we tried.

Anyway, here’s what I’m planning to serve this week:

Monday: Lightly crumbed portions of fish fillet served with oven baked french fries and a side serving of freshly prepared salad.

Tuesday: Mouthsize morsels of chicken breast meat, lightly crumbed and toasted to a golden brown served with crunchy oven baked potato wedges and lightly steamed fresh vegetables.

Wednesday: A mixture of ground beef steak in a rich brown gravy, encased in a light pastry shell. Served with crunchy homemade potato wedges and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Thursday: Tasty grains of brown rice gently stir fried with an assortment of vegetables, tiny morsels of bacon and lightly scrambled egg.

Friday: Beef patties served in a crisp golden bun with cheese, tomato, lettuce, cucumber and egg.

Saturday: Slow cooked lamb chops served in a rich french onion sauce with a side order of mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Sunday: Cafe style toasted sandwiches with the filling of your choice.

If you’d like some more ideas for menu planning, visit www.orgjunkie.com .

Well I had an interesting week with our menu plan last week. I forgot to check what ingredients I needed so we ran out of a couple of things. LOL. Oh well, we still ate well. Having another go this week and hopefully we’ll do a bit better.

Monday - Golden Brown fillets of garfish coated in a light, crispy batter. Served with creamy mashed potato and a selection of brightly coloured steamed vegetables.

Tuesday - Slow cooked lamb chops served in a rich french onion sauce with a side order of mashed potato and lightly steamed vegetables.

Wednesday - A mixture of ground beef steak in a rich brown gravy, encased in a light pastry shell. Served with crunchy homemade potato wedges and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Thursday - A delicious pasta dish filled with finely diced vegetables and covered in a tomato based sauce. Topped with a generous serving of lightly browned cheese.

Friday - Portions of deliciously cooked barbecued chicken served with crisp golden fries and salad. Followed by a Friday night treat of ring shaped buns topped with icing and sprinkles.

Saturday - Homemade Turkey Rissoles served with creamy mashed potato and a selection of steamed vegetables.

Sunday - Cafe style toasted sandwiches with the filling of your choice.

If you’re in need of some inspiration for your own menu plans, you can find more at I’m An Organizing Junkie .

I didn’t write up a menu plan for October simply because I knew it was going to be a messy month and I wasn’t sure when we would be home and when we wouldn’t. I have to admit that as much as I dislike menu planning, I dislike NOT having a menu plan even more. I find it soooo much harder to decide on the actual day what we’re going to have. And it’s so much easier to grab take away or eat a meal that is less than ideal nutritionally.

So, today I decided enough is enough, I’m going to at least menu plan for this week. I decided to have a bit of fun with it, just to create a more interesting menu plan.

Monday: Lightly crumbed portions of fish fillet served with crunchy potato wedges and steamed in season vegetables.

Tuesday: Melt in your mouth Roast Lamb gently cooked in the slow cooker and seasoned with fresh organic chives, parsley and garlic. Served with roast potatoes, carrots and sweet potato as well as freshly picked silverbeet and broccoli

Wednesday: Light chunks of lamb gently warmed in a rich brown gravy and served with creamy mashed potatoes and lightly steamed vegetables.

Thursday: Tasty grains of brown rice gently stir fried with an assortment of vegetables, tiny morsels of bacon and scrambled egg pieces.

Friday: Homemade Pizzas on pita bread topped with tasty tomato paste, bacon, vegetables and a sprinkling of cheese.

Saturday: Homemade Turkey Rissoles served with creamy mashed potato and steamed vegetables.

Sunday: Homemade vegetable soup served with freshly made crumpets topped with a dollop of butter.

I can’t take credit for this idea. It was first suggested to me by Mrs Catherine one time when we were discussing ideas for getting out of my “menu planning funk”. I still don’t rate menu planning up there as one of my favourite activities but it makes for a nice change to occasionally get a bit more creative with my descriptions.

And for a change I thought I’d try participating in Menu Plan Monday hosted by I’m An Organizing Junkie. You can find a list of participants with LOTS of menu planning ideas if you visit her blog. You can also find details there of how to participate yourself, should you wish too.

Thanks also to kin as I got the idea for participating in this from her blog. She participates regularly in “menu plan Monday”.

** I promise I won’t make a regular habit of posting 3 times in the one day. LOL. I seem to have a LOT to say today.

Well I’m running a few days behind with posting this month’s menu plan. Ooops. LOL. Anyway, here it is….

1st Scrambled Eggs
2nd Meat Pie, Chips & Salad
3rd Tuna Patties
4th Away
5th Away
6th Vegetable Bake
7th Blade Steak with leftover Vegetable Bake
8th Lasagne
9th Leftover Lasagne
10th Garfish
11th Corned Beef
12th Southern Fried Chicken Strips
13th Soup
14th Pizza
15th Turkey Rissoles
16th Yellow Bread (French Toast)
17th Tuna Mornay
18th Roast Lamb
19th Lamb in Gravy
20th Pasta Bake
21st Southern Fried Chicken
22nd Sausages in Gravy
23rd Quiche
24th Snapper in Fish Coating
25th Roast Chicken
26th Leftover Chicken
27th Macaroni Cheese with Vegetables
28th Hamburgers
29th Chops
30th Pancakes

Most of our meals are served with a variety of 4-5 different vegetables. Which vegetables will depend on what’s on sale any given week. I usually do potato and then 2 green and 2 yellow/orange veg with a substitution of purple/red veg for one of the other coloured veg when I can get it.

As it happens, I already have all of the meat I need for this months menu so I will just be buying meat as it comes on sale as a “restock”. I try to do this most months as it really helps the budget if I don’t HAVE to buy meat any particular week. I find some weeks a lot of what we eat is on sale and other weeks there’ll be nothing.

To make it easier, I base our menu plan around the following guide:

Monday - Fish (one week we’ll have tuna and the next we’ll have fresh fish - the tuna helps to balance the cost of the fresh fish)

Tuesday - Usually a crockpot meal or a Roast (also done in the crockpot)

Wednesday - Something easy as it’s my town day. Usually there are leftovers from the night before than can easily be turned into something different by adding a gravy or other sauce.

Thursday - No/Low Meat Meal like a pasta or rice dish or soup.

Friday - Fake Take Away night

Saturday - Meat & Veg

Sunday - Something Simple like quiche, pancakes, leftovers etc.

We don’t have dessert as a “regular” thing but I usually try to plan something for a Friday night as part of our “Family Night”. Other nights we’ll tend to have dessert if DH feels like it. LOL. Then it’s usually tinned fruit with ice cream.

Well I must admit that I never get all that excited about menu planning. I’m not big on having to decide what to have for dinner. Although menu planning does help in that I can get it over and done with for the month in one session. But this month seemed to be worse than usual. Not sure if leaving it until the start of the month had something to do with that (given I *had* to decide at least what to have for dinner last night). I thought having less meat in the freezer to choose from may have made it easier to decide - but perhaps that also made it harder. Or maybe I’m just a little bored with things and need to try something a little different.

Anyway, the plan is now done and I’ve even planned right through to the 1st of next month in the hope that I won’t be in this predicament again (or running out of menu plan before the next months is done).

Do have a couple of new dishes in this months plan so it’ll be interesting to see how they go.

1st Fried Rice
2nd Lentil Patties (new recipe)
3rd Chicken Tortillas
4th Lasagne
5th Pancakes
6th Leftover Lasagne
7th Roast Chicken
8th Chicken Pasta Bake
9th Pumpkin Soup
10th Pizza
11th BBQ lamb chops
12th Quiche
13th Tuna Mornay
14th Roast Lamb
15th Leftover Lamb in Gravy
16th Macaroni Cheese
17th Hot Dogs
18th Sausages
19th Toasted Sandwhiches
20th Fish
21st Corned Beef
22nd Corned Beef Hash
23rd Fried Rice
24th Hamburgers
25th Lamb & Potato Bake
26th Yellow Bread (French Toast)
27th Tuna Patties
28th Beef Rissoles
29th Sausages
30th Rice & Beans (need to look for a recipe for this)
31st Fish & Chips
1st Turkey Rissoles

So there you have it. Typing it out, I’m feeling quite satisfied that there are enough different dishes in there to make it interesting. It’s so easy to get in the rut of cycling the same food items isn’t it.

Most dishes, including things like macaroni cheese, lasagne and tuna mornay I tend to serve with 4-5 different vegetables. Friday nights we’re more likely to have salad as the kids enjoy salad more than they do vegies (and it’s our “fake take away” night). Sunday nights are usually a “scratch” meal so often not so healthy (other than they often include an egg dish so not completely unhealthy either).

We’re currently getting a couple of sheep killed so I have several meals of lamb planned for this month. It’s always the nicest when it’s fresh. With the prices I’m having to pay for vegies at the moment - my cheap lamb may be the only way I’m going to achieve the $100 challenge. Nearly wanted to cry this morning when I read Aldi has carrots for 69c kg while I’m paying $1.89kg! I think you have to take whatever advantages your current location might give you when it comes to battling the ever increasing grocery prices.

Happy Cooking (and eating) everyone!

Here’s a list of what we’re planning on eating this month. There’s a few days missing and I deliberately haven’t included dates this month as we’ll be away for a few days (and thought it best not to publicise the exact dates we’ll be away). The only meat item I need to buy for this plan is 1 meal of fish. I do like to be at least a month ahead in my meat supplies as that way I can just buy meat when it comes up at a good price.

I’ve decided to give up on using the menu planning sheet from www.cindysporch.net as I find it too frustrating having to wait until a few days into the month to do my plan. So I’ve made up a basic table in Word and that’s working quite well. Today I made some changes and it was so much easier to just make the changes on the computer and then print off another copy.

I was just looking at last month’s menu plan. Only 11 changes made for the month. LOL. But that’s okay as it’s meant to be a plan not a straight jacket.

Anyway, here is the list.

Pancakes
Corned Beef
Corned Beef Hash
Pumpkin Soup
Southern Fried Chicken
Sausages in Gravy
Quiche
Tuna Patties
Spaghetti Bolognese
Mince & Lentil Loaf
Macaroni Cheese
Pizza
Turkey Patties
Toasted Sandwiches
Snapper
Beef Pie
Tuna Mornay
Tuna Mornay
Lamb Chops
Pasta Bake
Chicken Kebabs
Fried Rice
Soup
Fish Fillets
Roast

I’ve just finalised our menu plan for June and thought I would post it here. I like to use the monthly menu planning sheet from www.cindysporch.net although she has yet to upload June’s planner to her website.

To be honest I don’t really like menu planning. In fact, I don’t really like having to decide what to make for dinner. The good thing about menu planning is I can get the “pain” all over and done with in one hit. LOL. And most people who menu plan claim it saves them money on their grocery bill.

Now my menu plan is likely to change a few times within the month. It’s not something I adhere to strictly and most months I end the month with a couple of meals that haven’t been used for one reason or another.

Anyway, here it is. Most of the time I just plan the meat portion and we usually have 4-5 in season steamed vegetables with it.

1st Hamburgers
2nd Homemade Pumpkin soup with homemade Soy & Linseed bread
3rd Leftover pumpkin soup and homemade chicken & vegetable pies
4th Tuna Patties
5th Corned Beef
6th Leftover Corned Beef in white sauce
7th Fried Rice
8th Hot Dogs
9th Chops
10th Pancakes
11th Garfish
12th Spaghetti Bolognese
13th Mince & Lentil Loaf (going to try a variation on the lentil loaf I tried a while back)
14th Macaroni Cheese
15th Homemade Pizza
16th Sausages in Gravy
17th Quiche
18th Tuna Mornay
19th Lasagne
20th Leftover lasagne
21st Soup
22nd Southern Fried Chicken
23rd Sausage Rolls
24th Toasties
25th Red Snapper
26th Roast Beef
27th Diced Beef in gravy (using leftovers from roast)
28th Pasta Bake
29th Hamburgers
30th Turkey Patties

The best thing is that I have all of this on hand at the moment. The only thing I actually need to buy is a packet of hamburger rolls. Plus fresh vegies of course. Any meats that are on special in the next 4 weeks I’ll buy to use for next months menu plan.