Menu planning

I've tried over and over again to write out a menu plan and grocery list and stick to it. But I can't seem to do either. I don't know for sure why I can't seem to do either but one thing I know for certain is that I'm lazy when it comes to cooking dinner. Don't get me wrong, I love cooking, and trying new recipes, but I find I only really try out new recipes when it comes to snacks and baking. Dinner in our house hold usually consists of meat and 3 veg (love love love it lol) or something easy and lazy such as tacos, spaghetti, stir fry etc (all from a store bought jar not home made).

We could have a pantry full of food, but if I don't see that stir fry sauce jar, I won't make stir fry, even though I have plenty of items I could easily whip up into a yummy home made sauce.

So as usual, today I got out the sausages for the kids and myself, and a steak for the husband. As much as I love bangers and mash (sausages and potato), I really wanted to use up at least 1 of the 3 tins of creamed corn... I had no idea what I could do with it apart from a side to a salad... So I looked at other ingredients I had in the fridge/pantry/freezer that I could use up and stall my need for going grocery shopping and having to part with our hard earned money.

I saw the big bag of pasta and thought about making a pasta with a white sauce/creamed corn sauce. Well I did and it was fantastic (will post recipe later)! I think I've finally got the idea of using what I have instead of using up the easy stuff then taking the cheats way out and going grocery shopping instead of putting my brain to work and coming up with different foods.

I was supposed to be going grocery shopping tomorrow as we've ran out of eggs, snacks and cordial (we will also need bread soon, but we now buy that from our corner store as its fresher and nicer). So I've been googling egg less snack recipes, so that cuts two items off my grocery list, and as for cordial, we have plenty of milk and water, and plenty of milk flavourings if the kids get bored. Plus they don't need cordial anyway. I've also noticed the kids are eating more fruit since we've ran out of cordial, so that's a win win. That just means we'll have to grab some fruit throughout the week but that's fine, my husband will grab it when he grabs the bread next time.

I had a quick look in the pantry for future meals, tomorrow night I will do the meat and veg as I need to use up that meat I pulled out for tonight. There's a can of diced tomatoes plus a taco sauce jar (and plenty of garlic/herbs) pasta and mince, so I can make a big batch of spaghetti and freeze some. Plenty of carrots, potatoes, peas, meat, pasta, sauces (stir fry and others), so I can make plenty of soups.  I still have 2 tins of creamed corn and noodles, so I could make a similar dish as tonight. Plus have plenty of baking supplies as I did a quick shop yesterday for baking goods, so I can try a dough and make pies and use up some of that meat.

So dinners are sorted, Lunches are pretty much sorted as we'll have left overs where possible and we bought a 4kg box of chicken nuggets which we all love on bread with mayo ( to me it tastes almost like KFC minus the lettuce) and are no where near getting sick of it. Breaky's - there's plenty of cereal, porridge, semolina, bread for toast, fruit etc, if we run out I'll make egg less pancakes or try a new recipe. Snacks - I'll be making, plus there's plenty of fruit. One thing I wouldn't mind getting is rice, as I found this awesome custard recipe and when it thickens right up, it tastes like the rice puddings or rice custards you can get in the cans (I absolutely love them), and they'll be great for the kids snacks for pre school.

Apart from tomorrow night, I'll be trying to use up the "harder" items first, meaning the ones I need to think about, because I know if it slip back into using the easy items, I won't learn anything and will be right back where I started.

I won't aim for a specific day to go grocery shopping again, I'll just try and use what we have and see how we go.