Menu Plan Monday - 8th February

How's the menu planning going, guys?  Hopefully there's some of you out there that find it as helpful as I do...

Been so busy, haven't got too many recipes posted lately...  Schooling takes up a lot of my day lately, as well as cooking classes, demos, church and youth activities, art class and other homeschool group outings...  My friend Mama Bel and I have been dying wool for a felting class for our homeschool group - look at these beautiful colours!  (Actually, Mama Bel did most of the work, bless her!)  I know it's not food, but it's so pretty...

The weather has been so hot and sticky I really haven't wanted to do too much cooking... We've been enjoying icy cold lime-ade, made with lovely, locally grown limes picked fresh off the tree at the lime farm (they were so kind to give me a great big bag full for free!)  It looks darker than usual as I use Rapadura to sweeten it, plus a pinch of stevia.  (Recipe coming...)

For those busy nights when I need a quick, simple dinner, I often cook the mashed potatoes in the Thermomix with the veges steaming on top at the same time, while frying some meat in the frying pan.  For those of you who haven't done this yet, I'll post the recipe soon.  Sometimes I cook sliced potato in olive oil and water in the bowl, with the veges steaming on top - that works nicely too. 

Well, I hope you all have lots of great meals this week - aren't we blessed to live in a country where we need never go hungry!  So many times we are guilty of wasting what we have, which is why I find it useful to plan a couple of 'leftovers' meals into my menu plan, to make sure everything's used up.  I also find it helpful to write down any unexpected leftovers, or meals I've frozen, onto my menu list on the fridge, so I remember they're there - it's so easy to forget and end up with a fridge/freezer full of unrecognizable stuff that ends up getting chucked out after a week or two!  (Okay, so I don't clean out my fridge as often as I should - I'm working on it!!!)

Here's my plan for this week - for help with planning your meals, go to 'Menu Plan Monday' at 'I'm an Organizing Junkie'.  And if you're a Thermomix-er, you'll get plenty of ideas on the Thermomix forum!

[TMX = prepared in and/or cooked in my Thermomix]

Monday:

(lunch) Gemuse Eintopf (TMX) & sausages

(dinner) out at cooking class - kids are having taco salad

Tuesday:

(lunch) Baked chicken with cashew satay sauce (TMX) & steamed veges (TMX)

(dinner) Omelettes (TMX)

Wednesday:

(lunch) Salad & spelt bread rolls (TMX)

(dinner) Scalloped eggs with broccoli (TMX) & salad

Thursday:

(lunch) Pasta & egg salad

(dinner) Lamb chops marinated & cooked in crock pot with baked potatoes & coleslaw (TMX)

Friday:

(lunch) Raw pasta sauce (TMX) on zucchini strips

(dinner) Lentil bolognaise (TMX) & salad

Saturday:

(lunch) Salmon patties (TMX) & salad

(dinner) Balti chicken curry & rice (TMX - from Indian cookbook)

Sunday:

(lunch) Leftovers

(dinner) Steamed spicy meat filled chinese buns (in Varoma) (TMX)