Menu Planning

Firstly, an apology.  The blog is being quite buggy, and I have discovered that dozens and dozens of photos have randomly disappeared from past posts!  I am trying to fix it.  In the meantime, please excuse me if you look at any past posts and they seem to be missing pictures.

If anyone can tell me why this is happening, or how to fix it (the photos are still all visible in Picasa), please let me know!

Last Saturday, I mentioned the groceries, including market items, which I bought for the week.  In the comments, I was asked what meals I would make with those items.  Since it's quite rare that I buy a full week's worth of groceries in one go, I too found it interesting to see how the list correlated to a week of meals!

So I have reproduced my response to the comment here - you can see the rough menu plan for the week, based on that haul of groceries.  Did I stick to it?  Pretty much - although I did a lentil, vegetable and beef bolognaise instead of the stir-fry, and I haven't done the chicken soup yet - I'll do that tomorrow.

HERE is the post outlining the groceries for the week, and below is my vague meal-planning for the week:

Peaches, nectarines, apricots and apples are for eating, The Daddy will take some to work.  I’ll probably make a peach pie or cobbler or something.

Baby carrots (ordinary sort) and cucumber, capsicum etc. for snacking on for T and I.

The leeks will go into a fritatta for lunches.

Chard will be stir-fried with capsicum and go with steaks. (1 dinner)

The baby carrots were roasted and served in a salad with coriander, pine nuts etc., alongside lamb chops pan-fried with a spice rub. (2 dinner)

The veggie burgers will get eaten for lunches, with tomatoes from the garden, basil, coriander, grated carrot, some sliced capsicum or whatever I feel like. Maybe a fried egg as well.  Some of the veggie burgers will get frozen.

The eggs will all get used – hard boiled, frittatas, cakes and biscuits, pancakes etc.  Tabby loves eggs.

The pork cutlets will be fried with a mustard honey sauce, a side of roasted purple carrots, roughly mashed. (3 dinner)

The pumpkin, and some of the veg (carrots, celery, onions) go into soup. (4 dinner, plus some to freeze for a couple more meals)

There will be a stir-fry of veg, with the zucchinis, carrot, celery, broccoli and stems, capsicum, garlic and ginger.  I’ll include some beef mince, and serve with brown rice. (5 dinner)

Rockling goes into the freezer in small pieces for lunches and suppers for Tabitha and I.  I’ll dredge pieces with seasoned flour, fry in some butter, make a sauce with lemon juice and parsley, serve with some steamed greens.

Avocadoes will go on toast for breakfasts and into sandwiches for snacks / lunches.

Bacon will go into either a zucchini slice, a quiche lorraine or carbonara (dinner 6)

I’ll roast the sweet potatoes with one of the chooks, along with some shallots, regular potatoes, garlic etc.  I’ll make gravy and some stuffing (sage, thyme etc from the garden, bacon from the market).  The leftovers will do for sandwiches the next day for lunch.  (dinner 7)

The other chook, I’ll make some soup / stock (with an additional bag of bones, necks, wings etc) and with carrot, onion, celery, parsley stems etc.  I’ll make matzo balls, for lunch or light dinner, and most of it will get frozen (I like to stockpile frozen chicken soup in the lead up to winter and the inevitable colds).

Have I left anything out?  The raw milk will get drunk by myself and Tabitha, and used with porridge.  Breakfasts will be oatmeal, museli, eggs or avocado on toast.  Maybe some waffles.  I might make a compote / hot jam sort of thing with some of the stone fruit for weekend breakfast.

The chickpeas are for hummus.

I’ll bake an apple cake and some scones, maybe some chocolate Afghan cookies, for visitors during the week.