Meal Planning Monday

The past few weeks have honestly flown by! I have been meal planning sporadically, as between both of us starting new jobs, and adopting new routines, on top of a holiday its taken a while for the dust to settle! Was no point doing things by halves was there...!! My brain is being tested to its max with learning a whole new role, so most of meals have been with little effort as I had zero energy left some nights! I also recently had the best part of a week in Devon, which was lovely as always, and coincided with a fabulous trip to the magical River Cottage too! 

There's always that slight bit of emotional deflation after looking forward to something special and then <boom> nothing! However we are planning a mega ribs night with friends this weekend - I've bought four beautiful racks of pork loin ribs, just deciding what sauce to bathe them in to do them justice! In the past I have made Jamie's Epic ribs from the America book but I don't own a food processor and I don't think my liquidiser is up to the same effort. They are amazing so I will try and see if I can scale it back a bit!

This year we didn't manage a summer holiday, with job changes happening etc and now cricket season is over, me and my boyfriend are trying to explore areas within about a two hour drive, so on Saturday we had a lovely day trip to Hastings. It involved yummy scampi n chips by the sea and a lush icecream from Dom's along the seafront- I had cherry and white chocolate ripple.

I also saw my first Imax 3D film! The price was a little eye-watering but I hate to say it was almost worth it! We watched The Walk - it was amazing but a little but terrifying on a gigantic screen! Worth a watch though!

I have decided I must make a better, more focused effort at not cupboard hoarding food. One day I hope to get a place of our own and frankly, I don't want to move with our entire larder contents! (I call it larder but its known here as Narnia!!) There is all sorts of odds and ends and I have been trying to cull some of the endless jars. Though making 5 jars of green tomato chutney was possibly a step backwards this week but it did at least use up my mum's unripe tomatoes!

This weeks plan will be using a mixture of fresh and cupboard stashes - our lunches will be mostly leftovers or some of the 4kg jar of veggie couscous I picked up in Costco! Also known as the never ending jar of couscous!!  I made a giant batch of tuna meatball risotto too last night which will do a few lunches too! 

Sweet chilli Chicken wings n noodles

Jacket potato with creamy chorizo and leeks

Pasticcio

Chickepa pancakes with vegetable curry

Pizza baguettes & chips

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