Our Real Food Meal Plan – Week 13

By Thecookspyjamas @thecookspyjamas

I am always on the look out for better ways to organise recipes, write menu plans and develop shopping lists. This week I stumbled across Yummly, and am quite excited about the potential it has to keep me organised. Yummly is free to join, and I have slowly been adding recipes from my blog to my publisher page. If you want to add my recipes to your own Yummly collection, then just press the Yum button in the share ribbon at the bottom of each post.

Yummly allows you to categorise similar recipes into collections, making them easier to find. Where Yummly really comes into its own for me though is in the shopping list function. I love how simple it is to add recipes to the list, remove items I already have in my pantry, then instantaneously text or email myself the finished list. I have used it with great ease on both my desktop and iPad, and they also have an Android app. If you are looking for a simpler way to organise yourself I urge you to give it a try. Personally I think I may be in love.

As to our meals this week, the slow cooker has been pressed into action a few times. As I can load up the slow cooker, this has meant leftovers for the freezer. We also had a family wedding this week so one less day I had to cook. This week we have eaten:

Sunday

Family Wedding. No cooking required.

Monday

Teriyaki Beef Noodle Stir Fry

Tuesday

Farfalle with Carbonara and Spring Peas by Jamie Oliver

Obviously as we move into winter, it is not spring pea season, so I used frozen baby peas which were perfect for this recipe.

Wednesday

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore served with crusty sourdough bread.

Thursday

Slow Cooker Indian Spiced Lamb Roast with Spicy Mushrooms & Spinach, served over brown rice.

Freezer Cooking

Mr Grumpy was away on Wednesday, so with only The Princess and myself to feed, most of the Chicken Cacciatore went into the freezer. I will serve it with pasta or polenta next time to mix things up a bit.

We ate only a third of the 2kg lamb roast. As I have grand plans to turn the rest into a lamb biryani, Mr Grumpy has been warned off eating the leftovers. I will freeze the meat separately, and make the biryani from scratch rather than freeze the entire dish.

I have only managed to make one batch of muffins for the freezer this week, so The Princess has indicated that further baking is required this weekend.

Bon Appetit!