Menu 1

• Monday – Mayflower Chicken Curry
• Tuesday – Gammon, Egg & Chips
• Wednesday – Pork Stew
• Thursday – Carbonara
• Friday – Corned Beef Pasties, Salad & Chips
• Saturday – Maggi Garlic Chicken, Hassleback Spuds & Veg
• Sunday – Chicken, Bacon & Leek Pie & Veg

• Weight Watchers white wraps (green pack)
• Princes reduced salt Corned Beef tin 340g
• Tinned new potatoes
• Leeks
• Maggi So Juicy Garlic Chicken cook in the bag
• Bonesless & skinless chicken thighs
• Eggs
• Jacket potatoes
• Grated Parmesan cheese
• Smoked bacon
• Gammon joint (around 1kg)
• Lean pork loin / diced
• Mayflower Chinese Curry powder
• Blue Dragon long grain microwave rice
• Seasonal winter stewing veg
• Whole chicken

This is my menu plan for the week. In our house there are 4 adults & 1 child who eats like an adult. I haven’t added the store cupboard staples to the list, this is because it would be a lot longer to type up (I’m super lazy) & because the staples should be in ya kitchen all the time. In our house we all work (the child is at school), so we’re leaving & coming in at different times, so I like to make meals that are easy (& safe) to reheat and/or dish up.

The recipes for these meals can all be found online- http://www.slimmingworld.co.uk or via Google.

Let’s talk gadgets, I cannot live without my air fryer. The paddle broke on my first one, after about 2 years of everyday use & it’s now the reason we have an Amazon Prime subscription. They are amazing. Chips mean the world to me, a world without chips is not worth living. Kids or chips? CHIPS! Using an air fryer gives you the most fluffy-on-the-inside & crispy-on-the-outside chips, but finding one that suits you is super important, like finding out if you can still wear thongs in your late 30’s without it feeling like a cheese grater between your cheeks. My Mr. Right is Tefal Actifry XL. He suits my needs. Which is absolute minimal attention & fuss. Throw your chips in, spray the Fry Light stuff & switch that beast on. Come back in around 40 minutes (5 servings remember?) to perfection. They’re also badass when it comes to jacket spuds, roasts, wedges, new spuds, sausages, steaks, freezer food (nuggets, fish fingers ect) I’ve heard you can even cook risotto in it but i’m not that posh.

My next most used gadget (in the kitchen!) is the Pressure King Pro. It’s a savage when it comes to cooking stuff. Rice cooked to Chefs satisfaction, I always end up with crunchy rice or rice I could mash & hang wallpaper with, this does all the hard work for me. It can cook a stew in 45 minutes that tastes like it’s been slow cooked for several hours. Joints of meat & whole chickens, cooked & melting in ya maw in under an hour. It also saves a rack in your oven meaning there’s more room for roast spuds (if your doing a Sunday roast, carrots & parsnips go in the air fryer). There are lots of different types & sizes so get one that’s going to work for your family.

My weekly food shop is around £75 – £85 for ALL of us! This includes topping up my store cupboard, dog food, washing stuff, the lot. Not just these meals. Buying & cooking joints of meat is alot cheaper than buying cuts. For example the 1kg gammon joint is less than £4 from tesco so this covered Tuesdays & Thursdays meals (10 meals in total). A whole chicken from Tesco comes in at around £3 so cooked in the pressure King, shredded off the bone (omg it just melts in your maw) & chucked into a curry means you get so much more meat for your bucks (wah-hey!). Another top tip is frozen veg, bags of frozen chopped peppers & onions are an absolute life saver!