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Meal planning - love or loathe?

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Sat Sep 04, 2021 6:04 pm

Sounds good Amy, how do you make the Cajun dirty rice?
Mine's under review as planned bbq today had to be postponed.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Amyw » Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:51 pm

Mines actually from a low calorie website as still on the old weight loss so may not appeal to everyone :D , but here’s the link .
https://pinchofnom.com/recipes/cajun-dirty-rice/

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:59 pm

Thanks Amy that looks rather good, it's been bookmarked. :)
I must have a proper look at that site as I've heard good things about it.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Amyw » Sat Sep 04, 2021 9:16 pm

I’d recommend the creamy garlic chicken and sweet potato brownies from there that I’ve tried so far .

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Sat Sep 04, 2021 9:32 pm

Amyw wrote:I’d recommend the creamy garlic chicken and sweet potato brownies from there that I’ve tried so far .

Thanks Amy

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby RockyBVI » Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:24 am

Well I have started off reasonably well. Had the Greek chicken traybake last night. OH added prawn linguine to the list so we are having that tonight.....

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Mon Sep 06, 2021 11:34 am

Sounds good Rocky,
Mine went pear-shaped over the weekend but back to plan today.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:59 am

DS2 heads off on Saturday to his own place for a week so my plan is to use up lurking fridge bits and some single portions of stuff in the freezer.
Meal Plan 10/09 – 16/09
• Fri- breaded cod, baked spud, green veg
• Sat – freezer rake or omelette
• Sun – Bavette steak & flat mushroom sandwich
• Mon- Jerk spiced chicken, sweet potato and roast veg tray bake
• Tue – Pasta with mushroom & tomato sauce
• Wed – Out for lunch so snack or soup
• Thu – Savoury mince

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Sep 10, 2021 12:49 pm

It is dawning on me that if I don't plan for some leftovers lunch is problematic, my main meal is evening dinner, but at lunchtime there is always the makings of a side salad but not always anything interesting to go with it

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:06 pm

As long as my main evening meal is varied I'm happy for lunch to be quite boring so don't really plan for them.
During the warmer months lunch is usually salad, a salad based sandwich or wrap, leftovers or crackers & cheese. Protein elements tend to be cheese, eggs, cooked ham, tinned fish of leftover cooked meat. Sometimes I'll make a batch of hummus or butterbean dip.
In the cooler months I do plan a weekly pot of soup to cover lunches so I can make sure I have the right ingredients to hand to vary which type I make. I usually make 6-8 portions and freeze the surplus. Every few weeks I don't make a batch and use up what I have.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:14 pm

My problem with lunch is that this summer having been obliged to be vegetarian with other restrictions, the usual quick options came down to cheese, eggs or baked beans, and I've got a bit dubious about the taste of eggs, sometimes wanted a cheesy dinner

So I need to have leftover, or something like a slice of quiche, or homemade falafel (can't cope with the spicing in bought) on hand

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:25 pm

Not so much with DS2 here but when it was just me I often used to make a square crustless quiche or puff pastry veg topped flan, portion it, have a piece for lunch for a couple of days and freeze the rest. Perhaps batch cooking specifically for lunches might help vary things a bit Sue?

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby KeenCook2 » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:35 pm

A couple of days ago, when it was very warm, we had a tin of chilled Heinz Tomato Soup with a load of ice cubes in it and a splurge of balsamic and some chopped fresh parsley - which we happened to have in the fridge.
With some water biscuits and goat's cheese log it was a very quick and really rather enjoyable and light lunch! We would have had toast if we'd had any bread, but we didn't so had crackers instead.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Sep 10, 2021 1:36 pm

liketocook wrote:Perhaps batch cooking specifically for lunches might help vary things a bit Sue?

That's kind of what I have been doing - I have a (bought) quiche portioned and my home made falafel (free from cumin and coriander) in the freezer, Also fish fingers and some frozen seafood, which have been ok (though not veg) - trouble is ran out of ideas for things that freeze well

But I'd classify that as meal planning!

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:16 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:
liketocook wrote:Perhaps batch cooking specifically for lunches might help vary things a bit Sue?

That's kind of what I have been doing - I have a (bought) quiche portioned and my home made falafel (free from cumin and coriander) in the freezer, Also fish fingers and some frozen seafood, which have been ok (though not veg) - trouble is ran out of ideas for things that freeze well

But I'd classify that as meal planning!

Absolutely, sounds like planning to me. :)

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Sep 10, 2021 3:45 pm

I find 'crackers' like Corn Thins or those from the Kallo range great at lunchtime. As long as I've got cheese or peanut butter handy and some salad veg with maybe some fruit or nuts afterwards I'm happy. Anything different is a bonus but for some reason not always as satisfying (and I don't have a massive amount!).

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby WWordsworth » Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:34 pm

At one time, when I worked full time, I used to plan meals for the week and buy the appropriate ingredients.
Then I bought a village store and post office. Not only did I work much more than full time, it was like Ready Steady Cook every evening.
When your choice is bin it or eat it, you know what you have to do.

Nowadays I do sort of plan, in that I know what is in the freezer and whether I should take something out in the morning.
I no longer write a menu as such but I have an idea in my head of what dinner will be for the next few days.
Apart from tomorrow and Sunday that is....

Next week is easy as J is back in Newcastle so I can indulge myself with delicious lentil stew, which he dislikes.

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby liketocook » Fri Sep 10, 2021 9:46 pm

Lol DS2 is back in Newcastle next week too! Like you I'm having a few things he's not keen on. :)

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby KeenCook2 » Sat Sep 11, 2021 5:18 pm

WWordsworth wrote:At one time, when I worked full time, I used to plan meals for the week and buy the appropriate ingredients.
Then I bought a village store and post office. Not only did I work much more than full time, it was like Ready Steady Cook every evening.
When your choice is bin it or eat it, you know what you have to do.

Nowadays I do sort of plan, in that I know what is in the freezer and whether I should take something out in the morning.
I no longer write a menu as such but I have an idea in my head of what dinner will be for the next few days.
Apart from tomorrow and Sunday that is....

Next week is easy as J is back in Newcastle so I can indulge myself with delicious lentil stew, which he dislikes.


Gosh, sorry to be nosey, WW, but what prompted you to give up whatever job it was you were doing and buy a village store and PO?! That's really such a commitment. And why did you then get rid of it?

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Re: Meal planning - love or loathe?

Postby WWordsworth » Sat Sep 11, 2021 8:06 pm

I had a pretty good job working in staff training for a major airline but I had been there over 20 years and had become intolerant of idiots.

It was like an itch that needed scratching.
In those days a subpostmaster was paid a salary, so add that to the income from the shop and it's a nice little earner.
Another plus point was that our business was in the Yorkshire Dales national park, so we had lots of seasonal visitors and it was beautiful.

After 4 years of pretty much 364 days a year we put it on the market.
The couple who had the shop and PO in the next village had struggled to sell.
They had been there much longer than us. They had lots of interest but the sale kept collapsing because would-be buyers couldn't get through the PO background check. It took 3 years to sell.

So we put ours up for sale while we were still enjoying it, the theory being that by the time it sold we would be ready for a change.

Sod's law we were offered the full asking price in 6 weeks and it went through!

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