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Hello! Happy Friday! What a productive week we have had. Our home finally feels like it is coming together. TVs on the wall, painting finished in the living room and lots more. It feels so good to finally be clearing some of the boxes and putting all of Tom’s DVDs where they go. Tom is really happy and I’m so proud of all the work that we have achieved both together and individually.
Having absolutely minimal food waste is always important to me. I’m making things stretch even further at the moment because we still have so many house jobs to pay for. I am taking steps to make sure we are avoiding overspending on groceries. This week I’m keeping the budget low again, and using lots of Simply Cook recipes this week. *Why not sign up and grab yourself a box for £1? < This is a subscription service so be sure to cancel if you don’t want it to auto-renew.

Every week I sit down, for 20-30 minutes, and I plan out a load of lovely dinners. I check Tom’s schedule. Breakfast and lunch are something that I really factor in now, ensuring that we have enough ingredients for home cooking and days when we need something quick or fancy a hot lunch. Often I follow up by having a look in the fridge & chest freezer to see what meat, vegetables and other ingredients we have that need using up. This really helps me avoid food waste and means that we can eat a variety of different dinners each week.
I’ve been meal planning for over 2 years now pretty much every single week. It is a great way for us to save money. As long as I plan dinners around Tom’s work shifts this works well for us and mostly keeps us away from the takeaways. We do love a cheeky Chinese from time to time still though! Chinese Tuesday (5 dishes for £15) is one of our favourites but we’re trying to cut back as the food is quite unhealthy.
Each week I invite other bloggers to link up their meal plans, to try and share recipes around with one another, inspire each other and hopefully drive a little bit of extra traffic too!
The rules of the Meal Planning Linky
Link back to Katykicker on your post or display my linky badge
Comment on this post
Visit other people if you would like to
What I will give you in return for linking up with The Meal Planning Linky
I will comment on all posts linked up
Pin your post on my Pinterest (vertical pins only)
Share your post on my Twitter – at least once every week
A link back to my favourite meal plan each week (Follow link)
Grab the Meal Planning Linky badge
How to link up with The Meal Planning Linky Week #109
Once your post is live all you need to do is hit the button that says “Click here to enter”. This takes you to the link-up page where you can add your post.
The Meal Planning Linky Week #109
I’ve planned 7 dinners this week. Lots of lovely lunches and breakfasts too.
Grab yourself a £1 Simply Cook box!
I recently ordered myself a Simply Cook box (Paid for it myself but as I’m using a referral code here this section of this post is technically an AD just to be clear). You select 4 meals and get sent a little box with 3 spice, herb and stock blends plus a recipe card. Then you just buy the ingredients you need and you can make a fantastic dinner with ease. It’s a little like a Hello Fresh or Gousto box, but without the expense and you have to buy the fresh items still. However, for just £1 you can get 4 of these little kits to liven up mealtimes and get some inspiration. I’ve got a couple of boxes now so that next time I want to cook something a bit different I’ve got the inspiration already on hand! If you want to grab a box for £1 just *sign up to Simply Cook. This is a subscription service so be sure to cancel if you don’t want it to renew at £9.99 – I just set myself a reminder for a few days before the next box needed to be selected.
The meals for the Meal Planning Linky Week #109 are:
Chicken in black bean sauce (Simply Cook)
Shroom dogs with airfryer fries & buns (Vegan)
Chicken & mushroom risotto (Simply Cook)
Crispy chilli beef (Simply Cook)
Shepherdess pie (Simply Cook) (Vegan)
Pad thai (Simply Cook)
Encroutes, fancy potatoes (not sure what yet) and vegetables
This is one of the first meal plans in SO long where I’m barely using my own recipes, but I’m really enjoying changing things up.
If you’re looking for meal planning inspiration then be sure to read my meal planning tips. Also, check out my meal planning with mince post. I’ve also got a post about how to stretch a whole chicken.
Catherine
Friday 7th of February 2020
Ooh, I must give Shroom dogs a try - I do love a hot dog. Intrigued to know what fancy potatoes you decided upon! xxx
katykicker
Thursday 13th of February 2020
We haven't actually had the meal yet, I've rolled it over! x
Charlotte Zealey
Friday 7th of February 2020
Crispy Beef sounds amazing this is sure going to be one to add to a future meal plan. So glad your loving simply cook boxes I need to subscribe at some stage
katykicker
Thursday 13th of February 2020
It was SO good!
Jayne @ Sticky Mud and Belly Laughs
Wednesday 5th of February 2020
It sounds like you are settling in well in your home. It's hard work isn't it?! We have recently moved too and have lots on the to-do list! Lovely meal plan. We had risotto this week too.
Thanks for hosting lovely. x
katykicker
Thursday 6th of February 2020
It is really hard isn't it! Hope things are going well for you Jayne! x
Kim Carberry
Monday 3rd of February 2020
I am so glad your house is starting to feel like a home. It's hard work but it's worth it. All of your meals sound so good. The Shroom dogs sound interesting x
katykicker
Tuesday 4th of February 2020
Thanks so much! They're just from the supermarket - nothing fancy!
Shoestring Jane
Saturday 1st of February 2020
Ooh, how do you make shroom dogs? Sound interesting.
katykicker
Tuesday 4th of February 2020
They are just from the supermarket x