Meal Planning Monday - Doubling Up

I am guilty of serious blog neglect.  I am just so busy at the moment, the recession is certainly over for me.  I've had so many site starts it's untrue! Great, but I'm working out how to juggle everything.  I've also had work coming in from unexpected sources.  I've been recommended by two people I don't know and had a decent stream of work from People Per Hour.

Meal planning has gone right out the window.  We've just been grabbing food and never have we eaten so much takeaway in one week.  I've a strange week this week though so will have time to cook whilst at home between appointments.

Everything I do cook though will

Slow Cooker Gluten Free Spaghetti Bolognese

A batch cooking staple.

Number of batches: 4 batches of 4 servings

Ingredients

1.5kg minced beef
3 knorr beef stock pots
1 large onion
2 sticks diced celery
2 medium carrots - grated
3 tbsp mixed herbs
3 cartons of passatta
2 tins chopped tomatoes
500g sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Put all the raw ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

If the batch is needed in 4 hours, brown the mince first before adding to the slow cooker.

Simple eh?!

The Big Three Courser: Sunday 21st April 2013

Sunday lunch is so easy to do and the ingredients are more readily available and affordable, the tradition of a sit down family meal has sadly declined.  This coupled with the fact that a restaurant meal for a family is somewhat horrendously expensive, I am instigating The Big Three Courser - a restaurant-style family meal.

Easy Instructions for a Three Course Meal

So every week, I'll be posting easy to follow instructions to make your big meal.  As one of my rules of life is to prepare food in advance, I can assure you as much as possible will be from the freezer!

This week, our restaurant choice is Italian.

-o0o-



 

Menu

 

Starter

 

Melon or Garlic Mushrooms

 

Main

 

Spaghetti Bolognaise with Tomato Garlic Bread

 

Dessert

 

Chocolate Tirimisu

 

-o0o-

 

The melon should be prepared on the day.  It can be plated in the morning covered with clingfilm and put in the fridge.

 

The garlic mushrooms can be prepared a day in advance and refrigerated.  They are quite garlic heavy though so cover well in the fridge.

 

The Spaghetti Bolognaise Sauce can be prepared in a batch of huge proportions and frozen.  Just defrost and heat through whilst the spaghetti is cooking.

 

The pizza base recipe I use is one I found on the fab Mortgage Free In Three blog.  Cook the base then cook down a tin of chopped tomatoes so they go more concentrated add about 4 crushed garlic cloves, dependent on your taste and a little butter.  You will need to prick the pizza base when the topping is on to infuse the bread.  Grill until it looks right.  Again, this can be done in advance and kept in the fridge until you are ready.  Why not prep a few and put them in the freezer for a quick side dish?

 

I've not attempted Chocolate Tirimisu yet but have linked the recipe I will be following.  As I've not made it before, I can't comment on how it fares in the fridge but it must be ok as its chilled!

 

So there you have it.  Melon cut up on the day, Mushrooms and tirimisu done the day before and the spag bol sauce and garlic bread defrosted on Saturday night.

 

Do you feel inspired to put on a three course spread?  I've added a linky below for you to share your Big Three Courser Menus.  Feel free to pinch the logo above and tweet your posts with the hashtag #big3course

 

I'm really looking forward to getting some inspiration for next week!