It is the start of a new month, so time to receive some inspiration for meals by which vegetables and fruit are in season.

The following fruits and vegetables listed below are at their best and cheapest this month. These lists are for Australia, but if you live in the UK you can see what’s in season at Eat the Seasons UK and for North America Eat the Seasons US.

Fruits:
pples - fuji - lady williams - sundowner, cumquat, custard apple, grapefruit - yellow - pink, lemons, limes, mandarins - ellendale - imperial - murcot, nashi, oranges - blood - navel, pawpaw, pineapple - smooth leaf, pomelo, rhubarb, tangelo.

Vegetables:
asian greens - bok choy - choy sum - gai laan - wonga bok, avocados - fuerte - hass - sharwill, beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprout, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, fennel, garlic, ginger, horseradish, jerusalem artichoke, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, olives, onions, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, shallot, silverbeet, spinach, swede, sweet potato, turnip, witlof.

Now on to the plan!

Monday: Spaghetti alla Matriciana

Baking: Pikelets

Tuesday: Risotto Napoletana

Wednesday:Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens

Thursday: Left Overs

Friday: Home Made Fish and Chips

Saturday: Chicken Schnitzel and Seasonal Vegetables

Sunday: Beef Stroganoff

For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.

Technorati Tags: family food, Menu Planning, Recipes, seasonal fruit, seasonal vegetables

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When I sat down to plan the meals for this week, I realised that this week would see the start of August. For me, this year August has particular significance as I am doing the 30 Day Challenge in this month. I won’t bore you with the details, other than to say that it is an Internet Marketing Course that will require a chunk of my time every day for the entire month.

It is going to be a lot of work, so to prevent myself from meltdown because of overload, last week and for the remaining time until the challenge starts, I am trying to get as organised as possible.

A major part of this was to menu plan for all of August and the first week of September (will probably be exhausted by them!). I also used a slightly different style of planning because it was for such a long period of time. I was reminded of this process by Small Town Blessings.

Basically you allocate a style of meal to each day and then make your selections from this criteria. For the month of August, I am keeping it very simple, no new recipes, just tried and tested home favourites.

The plan I used was:
Monday - Prepare ahead meal
Tuesday - Pasta based meal
Wednesday - Rice based meal
Thursday - Big dish (has left over potential like soups, casseroles etc)
Friday - Left Overs (by the end of the week, I will need a night off.)
Saturday - Mexican
Sunday - Meat and Veg

So for this week, this means:

Monday - Shepherd’s Pie

Baking - Chocolate Balls

Tuesday - Fettuccine Carbonara

Wednesday - Chicken Korma

Thursday - Tuna Rice

Friday - Left Overs

Saturday - Mexibake

Sunday - Sausages and Vegetables

Again, I have included the shopping list for this week’s menu plan as an excel file. The below paragraphs explain what is in the attached excel file below.

0728 Menu Plan and Shopping List

It contains three separate spreadsheets. The first is named “Complete Grocery’ and it lists by supermarket aisle all the ingredients that are needed to cook the family meals for this week.

The second spreadsheet is named “Ingredient By Meal’ and it lists the ingredients that are required for the family by each individual meal this week. I have also left on the aisle and aisle subsection in this spreadsheet for reference, but if you want to print that out you will need to alter the print area.

The third spreadsheet is named “Menu Plan” and is a modified version of the menu plan that I print and place on the fridge. I have a notes section, that I like to populate with any activities that are likely to impact the evening meal routine.

Want to see what we are having next week? Subscribe to my free email updates via the “subscribe page” or from the RSS Feed icon at the top of the page.

For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.

Technorati Tags: child friendly, family food, Menu Planning, Recipes

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(Photo Source: flickr - jslander)

When I planned the menu for the family this week, I had to do son with a different cook in mind. Mr Infrastructure and I are doing something of a role swap this week. The aim of this for me to do some long term planning, complete the preseason for the 30 Day Challenge and work on documenting all my recipes.

Monday: Pumpkin Soup

Baking: White Chocolate Chip Cookies
(I will still do the baking - I think I can only push it so far!)

Tuesday: Chicken Stir Fry With Seasonal Vegetables

Wednesday: Baked Penne With Bacon

Thursday: Tacos

Friday: Roast Chicken and Vegetables
(The chicken will be bought cooked, but the veggies cooked at home.)

Saturday: Picklebums Easy Beef and Vegie Triangles
(Using left over meat from the tacos.)

Sunday: Pasta with Chicken and Spinach

Again, I have included the shopping list for this week’s menu plan as an excel file. The below paragraphs explain what is in the attached excel file below.

Shopping List For Family Menu Plan 080721

It contains three separate spreadsheets. The first is named “Complete Grocery’ and it lists by supermarket aisle all the ingredients that are needed to cook the family meals for this week.

The second spreadsheet is named “Ingredient By Meal’ and it lists the ingredients that are required for the family by each individual meal this week. I have also left on the aisle and aisle subsection in this spreadsheet for reference, but if you want to print that out you will need to alter the print area.

The third spreadsheet is named “Menu Plan” and is a modified version of the menu plan that I print and place on the fridge. I have a notes section, that I like to populate with any activities that are likely to impact the evening meal routine.

Want to see what we are having next week? Subscribe to my free email updates via the “subscribe page” or from the RSS Feed icon at the top of the page.

For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.

Technorati Tags: child friendly, family food, Menu Planning, Recipes

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From Wednesday of last week, we were lucky enough to have two young pilgrims stay with us on their way to World Youth Day in Sydney. They were from Cannon Falls, Minnesota and the whole family immensely enjoyed their stay with us.

Meal planning was nowhere to be seen on the weekend, so I have cheated and just copied one from May. I deliberately chose one which was easy for me to cook and that included many of the kids favourites. This should hopefully make meal times easier during their first week back to school after their two week break.

This is what we are having this week:

Monday: Sausage and Veg

Baking: Rice Bubble Treat

Tuesday: Pasta with Chicken and Spinach

Wednesday: Kin’s Apricot Chicken

Thursday: Beef Stir Fry

Friday: Fried Rice

Saturday: Left Overs

Sunday: Beef Stroganoff

Again, I have included the shopping list for this week’s menu plan as an excel file. The below paragraphs explain what is in the attached excel file below.

Menu Plan and Shopping List 080714

It contains three separate spreadsheets. The first is named “Complete Grocery’ and it lists by supermarket aisle all the ingredients that are needed to cook the family meals for this week.

The second spreadsheet is named “Ingredient By Meal’ and it lists the ingredients that are required for the family by each individual meal this week. I have also left on the aisle and aisle subsection in this spreadsheet for reference, but if you want to print that out you will need to alter the print area.

The third spreadsheet is named “Menu Plan” and is a modified version of the menu plan that I print and place on the fridge. I have a notes section, that I like to populate with any activities that are likely to impact the evening meal routine.

Want to see what we are having next week? Subscribe to my free email updates via the “subscribe page” or from the RSS Feed icon at the top of the page.

For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.

Technorati Tags: child friendly, family food, Menu Planning, Recipes

• Menu Plan Monday - The Favourites
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It is the start of a new month, so time to receive some inspiration for meals by which vegetables and fruit are in season.

The following fruits and vegetables listed below are at their best and cheapest this month. These lists are for Australia, but if you live in the UK you can see what’s in season at Eat the Seasons UK and for North America Eat the Seasons US.

Fruits:
apples -bonza - braeburn - fuji - golden delicious - lady williams - pink lady - red delicious - snow - sundowner, cumquat, custard apple, grapefruit, lemons, limes, mandarin - ellendale - imperial, melons - champagne, nashi, oranges - navel, papaya, pineapple, pomelo, rhubarb, tangelo..

Vegetables:
asian greens - bok choy -choy sum - gai laan - wonga bok, avocados - fuerte - hass - sharwill, beetroot, broccoli, brussels sprout, cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, celeriac, celery, fennel, garlic, ginger, horseradish, jerusalem artichoke, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, okra, olives, onions, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, shallot, silverbeet, spinach, swede, sweet potato, turnip, witlof.

The first week of school holidays went very quickly and we are all a lot more relxed now. This week we are having more visitors around, so just for fun I am going a bit old school with the baking this week:

Monday: Sausage and Seasonal Vegetables

Baking: Pikelets

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday:Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens

Baking: Scones

Thursday: Chicken Korma

Friday: Tuna Rice