February Meal Plan

Lemon and garlic chicken with cous cous and salad

I did not end up doing a monthly grocery shop for the month of January because we had heaps of extra food left over from Christmas. I diced the extra ham and turkey and put it in the freezer to use for meals and instead tried the $21 challenge which you can read more about here . It is essentially trying hard to stay out of the supermarket and use up what you have on hand to build meals for a week. The $21 figure is based on 4 people and should be used only to buy ingredients to add to the meals. It is a great tool to use occasionally when you just need to save a few extra dollars fast, or need to use up food in your freezer!

Because we still had lots of meat, frozen vegetables and fruit this was easily achievable. Plus I finally got to use up some random items of food lurking in my pantry.

Roast beef with potato, pumpkin and peas

Which now brings us to February and here are the meals I planned:

1. Roast chicken with roast potato, pumpkin, peas and homemade gravy.
2. Chicken risotto (using leftover chicken)
3. Tacos with lettuce, cheese and tomato
4. Spinach quiche and green salad
5. Pan fried fish and vegetables
6. Potato croquettes with broccoli and carrots
7. Roast beef with roast potato, pumpkin, peas and homemade gravy
8. Slow cooked beef and barley casserole (using leftover beef)
9. Tomato and ham pasta bake
10. Tee hee min and rice
11. Cheese and onion pie with vegetables
12 Peri peri chicken and salad wraps
13. Vegetable fried rice and pork steamed buns
14. Pork roast with roast vegetables
15.BBQ pulled pork and salad (using leftover pork)
16. Meatball casserole and pasta
17. Coconut vegetable curry and rice
18. Spaghetti or beans on toast (mama cbf cooking night)
19. Roast lamb and vegetables
20. Hot lamb rolls (using leftover lamb)
21 Nachos
22. Chrorizo and lentil soup
23.Omelets and vegetables
24. Potato bake and salad
25. Curried sausages mashed potato, carrots and peas
26. Vegetable pizza subs
27. Lentil and potato pie
28.Stuffed potatoes and salad

 Being summer I try to avoid using the oven where possible as it heats up my house too much. I have learned to adapt the majority of these meals to be made in the slow cooker.

Slow cooker meatballs with pasta

For snacks I also made:

Muesli
Homemade yoghurt
Banana bread (using frozen bananas)
Orange and cranberry muffins
Blueberry muffins (frozen blueberries)
Peanut butter balls
Anzac slice
Mango icypoles (frozen mangoes)
Sweet chilli dip (served with vegie sticks)
Rice bubble slice
Choc muesli slice

I always have a variety of fresh, frozen or dried fruit on hand for snacking. Also by making cakes, slices and lunch box bars from scratch really impact positively on the budget. I can make these things for only a few cents each compared to buying the processed, heavily packaged version available in stores.

What types of meals are always on your plan?