Comfort and ease.

I like nothing better than coming home from work and relaxing. I don't want to spend lots of time doing stuff when I get home; home time is for relaxing, spending time with family and winding down after a hectic day. 

And that includes food and cooking. I love cooking, but the last thing I want to do after a long day at work is slave away for ages over a meal - I want something nice, simple and easy. 

This is what we had for tea tonight:

The potatoes, onion and peas were things we had in already. That's a pork shoulder steak on the plate too, which cost 75p and we needed apple sauce too. But, a very tasty meal which doesn't cost much and little effort in cooking is the best one in my book. 

Happy Monday. 

Our week ahead, and some news!

Another weekend over. Another week planned for. 

Our meals for the week look like this:

today - sausages with sweet potato mash, peas and gravy

Monday - veg stir fry and noodles

Tuesday - spaghetti bol

Wednesday - pizza (dh) soup (me)

Thursday - spanish style chicken bake

Friday - garlic chicken with chips and salad

Spent £37 at Mr Ms for this week, which is good. I'm trying to focus on our food spends being around £40 a week. It's working so far.

I went to see Les Miserables with some friends last night and loved it. I cried too, but it was. I wasn't sure about Russell Crowe singing though, but I'm not the biggest fan of his. But, I'd definitely go and see it again.

Also, we've adopted two kittens/cats! (they're 9 months old, is that still classed as kittens, or not?) They arrived this afternoon, and are currently hiding away, which is sad, but I'm excited to have them here finally, and to make our home more of a home. Also, they're from the rescue centre so I'm glad we're able to give them a home. I'll try and get some pictures whenever they come out of hiding! 

We've had more snow. It's cold. 

Menu planning and the week ahead.

Whenever I mention how much we spend on food shopping, most people don't believe it. They also don't believe that we tend not to throw any food away. One of the biggest things that I think helps when it comes to budgeting is meal planning. 

First thing to do is look at what you already have in - is there anything that needs using up? That could be made into something? Then write a list of what you have that can be used and then think of meals you like to eat and are easy to cook during the week. 

Our meal plan for this week looks like this:

Saturday - out, date night :)

Sunday - Sunday lunch with the in-laws

Monday - Fish fingers, waffles and beans (to use stuff up from the freezer)

Tuesday - Spaghetti Puttanesca

Wednesday - Homemade sweet and sour chicken with rice

Thursday - Shepherds Pie with broccoli and gravy

Friday - Ham and Pineapple pizza with salad 

We have lots of spaghetti in the store cupboard, so I wanted to use a recipe involving that. We also have lots of broccoli in the freezer, so wanted to use some of that somewhere. It's all about thinking ahead, and reducing your food waste.

Our food shop this week came to £31.43, which includes some treats, and a couple of things that will last more than this week ( for example, I bought some more value porridge oats even though I think I've got enough for this week. These will last a month or more in our household!)

Do you meal plan? How do you do your food shopping? 

N xxx