We have two week school holidays now, which both myself and the children have been looking forward to. As such I am planning on enjoying the slower pace and will be keeping the food simple, choosing meals which require minimum effort!

Monday: Baked Penne With Bacon

Baking: 100s Of Biscuits
Fantastic recipe which I picked up from Kate at Picklebums. Baking these with the kids also doubles as a great school holiday activity as well.

Tuesday: Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens

Wednesday: Grilled Fish and Steamed Vegetables

Thursday: Spicy Chutney Chicken with Mixed Rice

Friday: Homemade Pizza

Saturday: Mexibake

Sunday: Lamb Chops and Salad

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

Technorati Tags: family friendly food, Menu Planning, Recipes

• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit And Vegetables For October
• Menu Plan Monday - Short Week
• Menu Plan Monday - Easy and Quick Version
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables For August

Image by Teamaksins

We (me and the kids) will only be at home for dinner from Thursday this week. I have taken the children to Mildura for a few days so that we can help celebrate their cousin’s 2nd birthday.

I have created a menu plan for only the days that we are back home. I have supplies for Mr I to cook himself some meals, but the pizza shop on the way home from the train station is sometimes to tempting after a long day at the office!

Here is our short and very basic week:

Thursday: Sausage and Vegetables
The children request this all of the time and I have really gone off sausages during pregnancy. But if I ask for their input, I have to accept what they give me.

Friday: Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens

Saturday: Chicken Schnitzel and Vegetables
Another request from the children. “We haven’t had that yummy chicken for ages!”

Sunday: Lamb Chops with Potato Au Gratin and Steamed Vegetables

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

Technorati Tags: family meals, Menu Planning, Recipes

• Menu Plan Monday - Is It Still Winter????
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables For August
• Menu Plan Monday - Taking It Easy
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Vegetables For July And School Holidays Week 2

Image: Fimb

Last week went by in a blur. I am so glad that I did my big planning session at the end of July. With the pace that I have been going at in August it has been great to have one less thing to think about and just access the menu plan file for that week and have it ready to go.

I am always a big advocate of menu planning, but going through a month like this one, I honestly don’t know how I would have fed us all healthily and within budget, if I hadn’t taken the time to prepare the menu plans earlier.

Here is what we are having this week:

Monday: Pumpkin Soup

Baking: White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tuesday: Baked Penne With Bacon

Wednesday: Spicy Chutney Chicken with Mixed Rice
Thursday: Homemade Pasties

Friday: Left Overs

Saturday: Tacos

Sunday: Chicken Wings with Baked Potatoes and Corn

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.

Family 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: family meals, Menu Planning, Recipes, shopping list

• Menu Plan Monday - The Favourites
• Menu Plan Monday - Better Late Than Never!
• Menu Plan Monday - Quick And Simple
• Menu Plan Monday - Easy To Cook Family Food

Image by Roland

I am in week three into the 30 Day Challenge now and feeling a little tired. This combined with having visitors staying for Mon and Tue night (family of six) means that I will be keeping things very simple this week to try and make my life a little less busy.

Monday: Fettuccine Carbonara, Baked Penne With Bacon and Spaghetti Bolognaise.
As well as our visitors, we are having another family for dinner as well. I will be able to make most of these fully or wholly in advance, so hopefully I will enjoy some of the dinner myself.

Baking: White Chocolate Chip Muffins

Tuesday: Fried Rice and Chicken Wings

Wednesday:Beef Curry

Thursday: Porcupine Meatballs (Carried over from last week.)

Friday: Left Overs

Saturday: Nachos

Sunday: Sausage and Seasonal Vegetables

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

Technorati Tags: family friendly food, Menu Planning, Recipes

• Menu Plan Monday - Is It Still Winter????
• Menu Plan Monday - Retro Food
• Menu Plan Monday - “Preparing Food Is An Act Of Love.”
• Menu Plan Monday - The Favourites

Photo: avlxyz

It happens every year at about this time. I start to fret that winter will go on forever and that the cold and wet weather is never leaving. I know that in Melbourne with our appallingly low water reserves, it is somewhat ungrateful to complain about rain, but could it just happen at night?

Anyway, I suppose at least there is always warm food to cook in winter!

Monday: Beef Stroganoff (Carried over from last week.)

Baking: Chocolate Balls (I know we only made them a couple of weeks ago, but they were a request from Thinker and he doesn’t often ask for things, so I thought we would make them again.)

Tuesday: Pasta Bake

Wednesday:Beef Stir Fry with Asian Greens

Thursday: Porcupine Meatballs

Friday: Left Overs

Saturday: Lamb Chops, Seasonal Vegetables and Potatoes Au Gratin

Sunday: Chicken Lasagne

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

Technorati Tags: family meals, Menu Planning, Recipes

• Menu Plan Monday - Retro Food
• Menu Plan Monday - Taking It Easy
• Menu Plan Monday - Keeping It Simple
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables For August

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

• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Vegetables For July And School Holidays Week 2
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit And Vegetables For October
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Vegetables For June
• Menu Plan Monday - Seasonal Fruit and Vegetables For September

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

• Menu Plan Monday - One I Prepared Earlier
• Menu Plan Monday - The Favourites
• Menu Plan Monday - Autumn Is Here
• Menu Plan Monday - Better Late Than Never!

(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

• Menu Plan Monday - Easy To Cook Family Food
• Menu Plan Monday - Input From The Husband
• Menu Plan Monday - One I Prepared Earlier
• Menu Plan Monday - Cooking In Bulk

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
• Menu Plan Monday - Autumn Is Here
• Menu Plan Monday - Short Week
• Menu Plan Monday - One I Prepared Earlier

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