Meal Planning Monday 07/04/14

Last week we stuck to the meal plan every day apart from yesterday. Yesterday I ended up having the boys on my own for most of the day so I took us off down the beach and we had fish and chips.

This weeks meal plan looks like this:

Monday:

Boys - Omlette and Beans
Us - Chicken Balti - Hairy Bikers recipe

Tuesday

Homemade Pizza

Wednesday

Chicken Traybake - Recipe Delicious Magazine

Thursday:

Meatballs and Spaghetti - Jamie Oliver recipe - Ministry of Food

Friday:

Vegetable Biriani and Lentil curry - Hairy Bikers recipe

Saturday:

Pick and mix tea (party tea as the boys would call it)

Sunday:

Definitely roast lamb!

Hope you have a happy week. What are you eating?

Lisa xx

Baking with my boys.

I see many pictures on blogs and social media with parents lovingly baking with their kids. This always appeals to me as I love to cook and bake.

My thinking is if they're involved then I can a) bake more and b) get some hands on fun going with them. Win win. Or not. The reality is they're super active, don't stand still for more than 5 minutes and expect whatever we are making ready for consumption within the space of time it takes before they are bored/hungry. This is never a long time. Cue melt down, strops and stress. How did I combat this? I stopped cooking with them.  Until this morning.

This morning I decided we'd bake chocolate chip cookies and we'd have homemade pizza for tea. So I chucked them in the garden this morning for a run around. Whilst they were out there I weighed everything and got it all ready for them. They came in, were delighted to be cooking and delicious cookies were indeed made. Happy campers all round!


Then this afternoon I got the pizza dough ready (read the bread machine) I got a selection of toppings prepared and again called them to the table to do as they wished with their own pizzas. Again everyone was happy. Genius!

We made good food, had fun and were all happy. A good day was had by all.

No Spend April.

Money has been a lot tighter for the beginning part of this year. I have somehow still managed to keep spending though and it's taken it's toll.

I've seen various people on my Instagram feed doing a no spend month and have decided that this is what I will do in April.

I have limited commitments (by that I mean birthdays) so this is achievable for me. I am going to limit my spending to £100 to include all food and once it's gone it's gone. I need to drastically reduce my food shopping bill anyway as it's gradually been creeping up and now I'm back to popping to Waitrose every couple of days to get a few bits which always hits at least £30. Couple that with spending £100 on a home delivery shop and it reads just as ridiculously as it should.

I'm going to be meal planning on Mondays again and this will keep me on track.

I'll pop a post up weekly to see how I'm doing but this will definitely be a challenge for me, albeit a good one.

So £100 each week plus roughly £40 for my sisters birthday present.

Here we go!