What's For Dinner? Planning Meals

 
It’s fairly easy to “wing it” for breakfast and lunch by having some choices written down and keeping  a supply of the required foods handy, such as yoghurt, fruit, wholegrain bread and cans of salmon and baked beans.

Dinner however often requires some additional planning and is best planned weekly, fortnightly or even monthly.  Knowing exactly what you are going to have ensures you can have the required food on hand and saves frustration and wastage.  It also means you are much less likely to resort to less-healthy and more expensive takeaways. A dollar saved is a dollar earned!

I always take into consideration these factors:

Health And Nutritional Value.  I like to emphasise plenty of healthy vegetables and some quality protein, also low fat, low sugar and low salt.

Cost.  Staying within the budget is very important.

Home Produce. Using eggs, chicken, vegetables, fruit, nuts and other food which is home-grown is very satisfying.  Few things have ever pleased me more than serving a delicious and nutritious meal and knowing everything served has been produced at home.  Freshly picked vegetables are especially good to eat.

Reality.  I don't want to cook every night. Sometimes I am not able to cook every night. Accepting that and making contingency plans such as making a large batch of beef casserole and mashed potatoes and freezing some as meals means that some nights I can just heat a home-cooked meal in the microwave.  You can also plan extra for lunches or to give away to those who need or would appreciate a few home cooked meals.

Seasonal Availability.  One of the simple pleasures of life is to eat fresh asparagus when it is being picked or feast on fresh summer fruit.  Everyone craves those first, new, sweet potatoes when they are ready to dig.  Summer is a great time for fresh salads and winter the best time for wonderful hot soups. When you plan menus it's easier to remember to incorporate seasonal delights into your meals and often at low prices if there is an abundant supply.

What Is Already On Hand.  Sometimes I might have quite a few spare cans of baked beans because I bought them at a greatly discounted price in case I decided to eat some for lunch, but now I have the option of using some of them for dinner, such as making baked bean hash.   I can consider what will be available from the vegetable garden that month or, if the hens are laying plenty of eggs, decide to use more eggs and less meat. 

Once I consider what is easily and cheaply available that month ideas for meals made from those ingredients start to come much more readily.  If I think I have plenty of eggs for example I can start thinking about quiches, frittata, omelettes or curried eggs.

Protein As A Base. I find it easiest to start planning meals based around the protein which will be served.  Generally I like to aim weekly for an average of about:

2 fish dinners.

1 - 2 egg, cheese, soup, bean or otherwise meatless dinners.

1 -2 chicken dinners.

1 - 2 red meat dinners.

Working out exactly what form that protein will take is the next step. When I consider price and availability my potential ingredients list will often be similar to this:

Fish - fresh or frozen white fish fillets, smoked & canned fish fillets,  green-lipped mussels, prawns or large shrimps, salmon.

Chicken - Whole chickens, chicken thighs or drumsticks, boneless breast fillet.

Red Meat - steak mince, sausage meat, lamb's fry, bacon, porterhouse steak, stewing steak, lamb shoulder chops.

From there it is easy to see how these could be made into meals such as:

Seafood chowder

Fish in parsley sauce

Frittata

Chicken chasseur

Roasted, stuffed chicken

Chicken chow mein

Meatloaf

Curried mince

Lamb's fry, onions and bacon in gravy

Grilled steak

Beef casserole

Slow cooked Irish stew.

Now all you have to do is plan the accompaniments to go with them such as the vegetables, rice, pasta, bread or sauce.

Recipes.  Keeping a file of tried and trusted recipes is also very helpful.  You could simply start a folder marked "Dinner Recipes" and divide it into sections for mince, chicken, eggs, fish, beans, lamb or whatever other main protein you wish to base your meals around.  In each section keep a copy of your favourite recipes for easy reference, for example:

Mince
Spicy Meatloaf
Curried Mince
Lasagna
Tasty One-Pan Meatballs
Spaghetti Bolognaise

This makes it even easier to complete your menu plan. 

Roasted Cherry Tomato, Garlic & Red Onion Comfit

Andrew's mother Verna recently gave me some beautiful red and yellow cherry tomatoes that she grew.   They were sweet and perfect to eat in their raw state but I decided to make the last of them into jars of comfit along with some red onions and garlic. 

The roasting and caramelizing of tomatoes, garlic and red onions in extra-virgin olive oil makes them quite delicious.

In this case I simply cleaned the cherry tomatoes, placed them in a roasting dish and sprinkled them with celery salt, black pepper, finely diced fresh chives and a generous amount of extra-virgin olive oil, then roasted them in the oven for about 25 minutes at 180C (about 350F). 

I peeled and cut into pieces (about the size of a man's thumb) 6 red onions, then peeled around 30 cloves of garlic which I left whole.  I sprinkled these with the same mixture of celery salt, black pepper, chives and olive oil and then cooked them at the same temperature for about 50 minutes (till they seemed nicely caramelized).

Using a sterilized spoon I layered the tomatoes and then the red onions and garlic alternatively into sterilized jars. 

I mixed some more olive oil in with the remaining juices in the pans and used this liquid to top up the jars so that all of the tomatoes, red onions and garlic was well covered before I applied sterilized lids.  They are now safely in my fridge where they should keep for several weeks. 

Next time I will add some balsamic vinegar but for now I am more than satisfied with the result and it was so easy! 

Plum And Blackboy Peach Sauce (Spicey)

Ingredients:
2.75 kgs (or 6 lbs) mixture of plums and peaches (half of each)
12 cups of malt vinegar
6 cups of brown sugar
10 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp of ground mace
 2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp of ground cloves
One quarter of a teaspoon of paprika

Instructions:
Remove stones from the plums and peaches and place into a large saucepan on a moderate heat to start breaking down.  

Add all the remaining ingredients and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently. 

Turn the heat down and simmer for around 20 minutes till the mixture is nice and pulpy, still stirring often. Turn off the heat and allow to cool.

Once cooled enough put the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth. 

Return to the pan and bring back to the boil. 

Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Pour into sterilized jars and seal.

Below : Andrew poses with the jars and bottles from our session.

 

Below : Some of the peaches and plums we used. 

 

Blackboy Peach Butter Or Sugarless Jam

This is perfect to make for those who are trying to limit their intake of sugar and makes a nice jam-equivalent for diabetics.

Simply clean your peaches and remove any bad/bruised bits and the stones.  I leave the skins on. Put the peaches into a blender and slowly make a thick puree.  The peaches are best if they are only just "blitzed" - any large pieces are blended but the pulpy mixture is still thick.  I generally have to add a little water for this part to get my blender to process the peaches.  If you don't have a blender you could try a potato masher or breaking them down some other way.

Place your pulp into a large pot or pan, without a lid, bring to a boil and slowly simmer away for around 45 minutes.  Stir frequently to ensure the mixture doesn't stick and burn.

Once it seems about the consistency that you prefer you can add sugar or honey or artificial sweetener if you wish.  I made a big pot and added 1 tbsp of an artificial sweetener till it was to the liking of the diabetic relative I was making it for.  You can add spices such as cinnamon or ginger as well if you would like to.

This mixture can be used right away or alternatively some can be frozen in pottles or poured into hot, sterilized jars and sealed. 

From one bucket of peaches I made a large pot full which resulted in 6 and a half jam sized jars as shown below.