Meal Plan Monday- Budget Meals

Hi guys!! Well, the weekend is over and the new week has brought freezing weather here in Northern Ireland! I just can't seem to get warmed up even with blankets, hot water bottles, fluffy slippers and a lit stove! But on the bright side, today is meal plan Monday, so you know what that means, that's right, it's the day I share with you all what I will be eating this week. I've got some good meals planned and I'm quite excited, a couple are new recipes I've not tried before and some are old favourites. This weeks meal plan is a budget meal plan to show you can eat healthy home cooked meals on a pretty strict budget. Just to give you an idea, I did my shopping for all of this in Tesco and a local butcher and the total came to £37!!! That's £37 for 2 people's breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks for 8 days! That works out at about 77p for each meal, what a bargain! But they won't taste cheap (hopefully!) at all but will be delicious, warming, healthy and comforting! Just Perfect! 

As I have a particularly HUUUGE spice collection, I did not have to buy any herbs or spices for any of the meals. A wee tip for you is to gradually build your spice and herb collection one or two at a time, each week. It spreads the cost so you won't really notice it and means that the amount of tasty meals you can make instantly increases.

I used two of my favourite recipe books for this meal plan, A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe and Save with Jamie by Jamie Oliver. I highly recommend you get your hands on a copy of these books if you are in need of budget recipe inspiration, the recipes are so easy to follow and so tasty. A Girl Called Jack is particularly useful in helping to cut down food costs, she has loads of helpful hints and tricks to cut costs but also to make leftovers and meals go further. You should definitely check out her book or even her blog which is equally helpful.

So here we go, these are the meals that we will be eating this week:

Monday: Mexican Chocolate, Chilli and Black Bean Soup with cheese toasties, A Girl Called Jack (are you sensing a theme here? I've got to have the those toasties!)

Tuesday: Peach and Chickpea Curry with Rice and Peas, A Girl Called Jack

Wednesday: Spring Piggy and Mustard Mash, A Girl Called Jack

Thursday: Sausage and Beer Casserole and Green Veg, A Girl Called Jack

Friday: Sicilian Squash and Chickpea Stew with Couscous , Save with Jamie

Saturday: Sweet Potato and Spinach Fritata and Green Veg, Save with Jamie

Sunday: Sweet Pea Fish Pie, Save with Jamie

Monday: Chicken and Chorizo Paella, Save with Jamie.

I'm especially looking forward to the Sausage Casserole, perfect winter warming food! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I spent the weekend baking a mammoth chocolate and salted caramel cake, shopping and going to see Fantastic Beasts ( which is pretty epic and you have got to go and see it!) My husband and I also attempted to bake our second sourdough loaf. This sourdough malarkey is a bit of a challenge, not going to lie, but we are going to persevere with it and hopefully we will produce a loaf-like sourdough. So far we have managed to bake a sourdough brick and a sourdough Frisbee, really not sure where we are going wrong, oops! Well anyway, have lovely week and I will be back during the week with a catch up on how the meals are going and maybe a sneaky recipe! Thanks for reading,

Rachael xx.