admin During the month of January, I fell off the meal planning bandwagon and felt totally lost. It’s ok but now let’s get back on track. It is ok, if you do not follow religious the meal plan, but the fact that you have a plan means that you have a fall back.
So this month, I want to get back on track and more. As you already know by now, I meal plan for the whole month but grocery shop on a weekly basis – this helps to takestock when things pop up unexpectedly.
So here is what I am cooking this month:
Lentil soup, breakfast for dinner, pasta with sauce, slow cooker chili, grilled chicken with salad, burgers in buns, meatballs, japanese style chicken, slow cooker broccoli alfredo chicken, soup with garlic bread, homemade pizza, hot dogs, lasagna and garlic lemony chicken, cauliflower patties (fritturi tal-pastard) (some recipes will be repeated). Most of the food will be served with vegetables or salad.
A reminder of some meal planning tips. Check out my blog post where I go into more detail about Meal Planning
- Shop your pantry first;
- Make family favorites;
- Do not try complicated recipes on a busy night;
- Cook once eat twice – whenever possible make an extra portion for another day or for lunch;
This month am taking it a step further as have prepared some slow cooker freezer meals. I only have the freezer that comes with the fridge, so space is limited. The secret is to freeze them the right way to save space. It is useless having a deep freeze if you just dump everything in and don’t know what you have….it is a waste of money.
When choosing these recipes, I tried using as much items I already on hand basically I shopped my pantry (it’s ok to change some ingredients). Shopping your pantry makes sure you use what you have and not increase your grocery bill. These are the slow cooker recipes I am trying out (the crockpot beef fajitas is not shown in picture above as at the time did not have the right kind of meat)
Crockpot Chicken Broccoli Alfredo
This week, I bought the produce from the Farmers` Market. I had not been there for quite a while, and will definitely try harder to shop from there. It is a money saver.
I spent Eur22. I bought the following:
3 broccoli (were Eur1.70 each)
3 large lemons
1kg green peppers
Large box of strawberries (this cost Eur6.50…obviously afterwards saw other vendors selling them at Eur5). The previous day from the supermarket I bought a small box of strawberries for Eur3.05.
The above cost Eur15 and some change. I also got a kilo of mushrooms which cost Eur4, and carrots and mandarins (still with the stem) for Eur3.
The Farmers’ Market is definitely worth a visit.
Love
Strugglingmum XXX
