So, I didn't make a plan last week because I had an issue with a kidney infection and mostly felt deathly, but I very much felt the lack and ended up plotting some things out in my paper diary anyway. I'm back at it with a vengance this week.

The week before last didn't have too many changes: on Friday I had fried rice, not beany chilli, for lunch because I hadn't made it as I'd planned and I had extra rice that needed eaten, Sunday I went veggie for and had noodles for lunch and mujadarrah (spiced lentils & Onions, lovely) for dinner and I had the mujadarrah again for dinner on the monday night.

This week will be a little more prone to change, once I get in some proper groceries, and because I've got a funeral to go to, but not, I hope, too much.

Tuesday
Lunch: Chicken Salad w/pomegranite seeds
Dinner: Grilled Chicken Kebab

Wednesday
Lunch: Baked Potato and Beans
Dinner: Fried Rice

Thursday:
Lunch: Mujadarrah
Dinner: 1/2 Frittata & Noodles

Friday:
Lunch: 1/2 Frittata
Dinner: Roast Chicken and Veggies

Saturday:
Lunch: Chicken Salad
Dinner: Chicken Chilli

Sunday:
Lunch: Quorn Cottage Pie
Dinner: Noodles

Monday:
Lunch: Baked Potato and beans
Dinner: Quorn Cottage Pie


So, the new meal this week is the Quorn cottage pie (and, theoretically the mujadarrah, which also handily uses up the green lentil mountain that I'm currently scaling).

Menu Planning again - the week just goes in so quickly. Anyway, I've seen that I tend to eat a lot of the same thing (not just through the neccessity of using things up, which is fine, but by repeating what I'm cooking) so I'm going to try and have at least one NEW dish (new to my menu planning, anyway) every week... I shall see how that goes!

Last week was much as planned; on wednesday I was working late so I ended up having a mishmash of noodles and cheesy beans at various points through the evening because I was so late and so tired. Friday's dinner was beany chilli that needed eating (and I was tired enough that just dinging something in the microwave was bliss). On Saturday I went out to lunch atSuperfood Salad with chicken, without dressing - bliss) and yesterday I was feeling very blah so had a veggie day involving too many eggs (I was already feeling blah, so the extra blah may not have been food related, but Cheese Omlette and then Noodles and frittata is a LOT of eggs and my innards weren't super happy). Today's lunch was the 2nd half of the frittata (I photographed it when I made it so I'll stick it up in a post at some point). Other than that I was as planned - and I'm happy that I would have been much more to plan without the surprise!working late and resultant sleepiness!

This week I'm having:

Tuesday
Lunch: Pork Salad
Dinner: Grilled Chicken Kebab (MUST ALSO COOK RICE FOR TOMMORROW)

Wednesday
Lunch: Beany Chilli
Dinner: Veggie Fried Rice

Thursday
Lunch: Veggie Fried Rice
Dinner: *NEW MEAL* Pasta w/marinara sauce and cheese (not, admittedly hugely exciting, but I like it and it's tasty).(BUY POTATOES, MAKE BEANY CHILLI)

Friday
Lunch: Beany Chilli
Dinner: SW Chips (I use frylight not oil, or Pam spray would work), Beans, Cheese & Pickles

Saturday
Lunch: Noodles
Dinner: Beany Chilli

Sunday
Lunch: Bacon & Scrambled Eggs
Dinner: Fish

Monday
Lunch: Paid for Curry Lunch at the office to say thanks
Dinner: Fish (because it's light and I have lots in the freezer)

I'll be linking this post up at Org Junkie's Menu Plan Mondays

I'm really liking this menu planning thing - it's starting to feel that I may even use up some of the things that have been lurking around my cupboards forever. I'm linking this plan up, so for anyone who's come over and is wondering about the red/green/EE thing: I follow a Slimming World eating plan which limits carbs on red, meat on green and fat & sugar on all three and focusses on filling up on fruit, veg and low fat dairy foods prepared from scratch.

I did tweak a little bit last week because I just wasn't as organised with the making of things as I wanted (and because I discovered that I had an extra portion of beany chilli in the freezer) so the tweaks were:


Wednesday lunch was beany chilli
Thursday lunch was savoury rice
Saturday became a green day and dinner was baked potatoes,beans and cheese (yummy and cosy on a rainy day)
Sunday lunch was quorn bolognese and dinner was quiche and noodles.
Today's lunch will be mexican rice and dinner will be quorn bolognese (and I must finally MAKE BEANY CHILLI!)


Some of the changes were due to having guests, some were due to not really planning properly to use things up (some of that was due to having guests and not being able to assemble for the freezer properly...so I don't have a lot of lessons learned for this week I don't think. Quorn is very useful as it's both much healthier than regular mince (hamburger) and it's "day neutral" on my plan because it's free on both red and green days and I very much enjoyed the quiche/fritatta thing both hot and cold. I'll either find a recipe online or post one for the quiche/fritatta just as soon as I decide which it is...


Tuesday: EE
Lunch Chicken Salad (use up pomegranite seeds)
Dinner Noodles and a treat (MAKE RICE)

Wednesday: Green
Lunch Beany Chilli & Rice
Dinner SW chips (I use frylight spray, not oil. Palm would also work), cheese, beans & pickles

Thursday: Green
Lunch Beany Chilli (no rice)
Dinner Veggie Rice Stirfry (MAKE DOUBLE)

Friday: Green
Lunch veggie Rice Stirfry
Dinner Chicken Carbonara (Chicken as HExB)

Saturday: Red
Lunch Scrambled Egg & Bacon
Dinner Fish, roast carrots & Steamed Veggies

Sunday: Red
Lunch Cheese & bacon Omlette
Dinner Pork, roast carrots & Steamed veggies

Monday: Red
Lunch Chicken Salad
Dinner Pork, roast carrots & Steamed veggies

I've linked this post up at

What I need to buy to make this plan work: veggies for steaming and veggie rice & carbonara. Potatoes. Small tomatoes , feta cheese and eggs.
What I also need to buy: Milk and fuit.

What I need to use up: I don't know (this is bad...) I need to inventory my fridge, freezer and vegetable rack.

How, exactly, did it come to be August already? I swear it'll be Christmas before I get a chance to blink.

Anyway, I enjoyed my menu planning for last week (even though it wasn't for a full week) - it gave me a level of control and meant I was doing my thinking at a time when I had a little brain to do it, rather than forgetting to do it, eating noodles and having to buy lunch (expensively) on the way into work.

I did tweak it (and the post) a lot, and I'm annoyed now that I didn't keep a note of the original. This week, therefore, I'll keep anything I edit in this post so I can compare next week! I suspect there will be editing, as I've got a friend coming to stay over the weekend and into next week, but I'll speak to her and see what she thinks of the food before I buy the bits and pieces I don't have.


Last Week's menu high points: Saturday's lunch at Wetherspoons was lovely; I checked the menu before hand and made up a wee list of possible options (that's now living in my purse) and can highly reccomend the superfood salad (without the dressing, which I had to the side and which smelled very sharp) - I'm going to try to replicate it at home (as far as I can be bothered...). Friday's lunch of veggie fried rice; it nuked like a dream and was very filling and so easy to assemble the night before with the frozen veg.

Last Week's menu failures: None, really. I tend to repeat a lot of meals because I don't have enough freezer space to sensibly work with to keep things for longer, but it's not terrible as long as I'm not eating the same thing twice in the same day.

I'm going to link this plan up later, and for those that aren't Slimming World people, green just means it's a veggie day and Red is a limited carb day. For being on an eating plan I eat remarkably normally. The instructions in parentheses are really reminders for me, so I get things done for the next day's food whilst I'm in the kitchen (if I can find a clearer way of doing that, I'll change it next week, but basically those notes are what go up onto the white board on my fridge of an evening).

Tuesday: Green
Lunch Beany Chilli (From the Freezer)
Dinner Noodles and a treat (I'm usually so late home from class that I could eat my own arm and I LIKE noodles now and again. MAKE SAVOURY RICE UP & BOIL RICE FOR TOMMORROW'S DINNER & MEXICAN RICE)

Wednesday: Green
Lunch Savoury Rice (made last night, cold)
Dinner Veggie Fried Rice (MAKE quorn bolognese & Mexican Rice - which is the bolognese with more spices&peppers mixed through brown rice)

Thursday: Green
Lunch Mexican Rice (BUY BEANS)
Dinner SW chips (except I use frylight, not oil. Palm spray would be good), cheese, beans & pickles

Friday: Green
Lunch Quorn Bolognese
Dinner SW Quiche (make day neutral)

Saturday: Red
Lunch SW Quiche
Dinner Chicken Curry (Will have visitors, start BEANY CHILLI at same time)

Sunday: Green
Lunch Pasta Salad (Tuna as HexB)
Dinner Beany Chilli

Monday: Green
Lunch Beany Chilli
Dinner Macaroni Cheese (FIND SW RECIPE)

I'm Linking this up at

I'm probably going to run my weeks Tuesday (WI day) to Monday, but I'll see what works.

Wednesday Green
Lunch: Quorn Bolognese (freezer)
Dinner: SW Chips, baked beans & Cheese with pickled onions (start beany chilli. Freeze all but one portion)

Thursday Green
Lunch: Quorn Mexican Rice (freezer)
Dinner: Beany Chilli topped with cheese (Also make veggie fried rice for lunch tommorrow)

Friday Green
Lunch: Veggie Fried Rice(cooked last night)
Dinner: Beany Chilli & cheese

Saturday Red
Lunch: Out @ Wetherspoons Pub (I have a list of meals)
Dinner: Take Away (Prob chicken kebab, no bread, no sauce)

Sunday Green
Brunch: Scrambled Egg & Beans (w/pancakes & bacon for guests)
Dinner: Beany Chilli & Cheese (w/Chinese for guests)

Monday Red
Lunch: Chicken Salad
Dinner: Out at Yo!Sushi