weekly meal plan: need dinner inpiration?

Do you need some dinner inspiration? It's getting warm here in Sydney and this is my meal plan for the week. This could be applied to lunches too. Some of the ingredients can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge for when you need it, to save time!

Do you use a similar concept for your meal plan?

this week's meal plan

It's a pretty straightforward week for dinners. We have a preschool information evening on Wednesday and everyone is bringing a plate so I'm going to make my trusty carrot cake.

I've made Thursdays dinner today so I can reheat it after work on Thursday evening. My secret ingredient for bolognaise is a good lug of wine which evaporates while it simmers. I also add plenty of veggies. The Vietnamese eggplant dish comes from our visit to the Red Bridge Cooking School in Hội An, Vietnam. I found a little surprise in an onion today... grubs.

What are you eating this week? Do you plan your meals ahead of time or do you grab ingredients on your way home?

Monday - Vietnamese eggplant in clay pot
Tuesday - Pizza night at our local (& really yummy) gourmet pizza restaurant. Two for $20 on Mondays & Tuesdays.
Wednesday - Preschool information evening: nibblies.
Thursday - Meat with four veg aka bolognaise with zucchini, carrot, tomato & onion.
Friday - Omelette with fresh eggs.

Vietnamese eggplant in clay pot - serves four

Ingredients
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 clove garlic - finely chopped
2 tomatoes - quartered, inner section and seeds removed
1 lemongrass stalk - finely chopped (keep stalk)
1 spring onion - cut into 3cm lengths
2 Asian (long & thin) eggplants, cut not 4cm long & 1cm wide pieces
1 red chilli - cut into thin strips
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce*
1 teaspoon sugar
1 pinch turmeric
1 punch of pepper
Basil

Method
Put medium sized clay pot** on heat, add oil and stir in garlic until fragrant.
Add tomato and lemongrass to the pot (not lemongrass stalk).
Add 2 tablespoons water and stir.
Allow mixture to simmer for approx 2 minutes.
Add fish sauce & sugar - mix well.

Add eggplant and pour in a cup of water.
Add another 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce and sugar - mix well.
Add turmeric, pepper & lemongrass stalk.
Allow mixture to simmer for approx 5 minutes (until the eggplant is tender).
Add the spring onion lengths and simmer for a further 2 minutes coating the spring onions with the juices so they caramelise.

Garnish with basil, coriander and chilli.

Serve hot with steamed rice.

* I had run out of fish sauce so I dissolved a teaspoon of shrimp paste in a 1/3 cup of hot water.
** I used a heavy bottomed frying pan.

meal plan

Saturday: dinner: whole bream stuffed with lemon and herbs, wrapped in aluminum foil & cooked on the BBQ, served with a Greek salad.

Sunday: lunch with friends - chicken, salads: beetroot, pumpkin and feta with lots of mint and roasted nuts, basil & parsley, pavlova with fresh strawberries, mango and cream. Leftovers for dinner.

Monday: Luke Nguyen's tamarind beef salad (thanks to Citrus and Candy's Blog for posting the recipe)

Tuesday: Neil Perry's chicken kapitan with fragrant rice

Wednesday: eggs on toast

Thursday: pumpkin risotto with beans (I am counting on Sydney's high 30ºc temp's to come down so we can eat this)

Friday: another slack dinner. I have tins of lentils and boxes of felafel mix in the pantry, cheese for cheese on toast, plenty of veggies so I'll just whip something up... or get take away!

* I also plan to try the festive chocolate raisin cake again and experiment with a few spices.

meal plan

Each week I make certain I have a meal plan. Whilst I may not stick with it exactly and things tend to come up during the week it helps me to devise (and committ to) a shopping list (and budget) and do a regular inventory of my pantry and freezer.

Our children (1 yo and 3 yo) now eat what we do. I don't hesitate to add chilli and a tonne of garlic to our meals. I tell my son "you love chilli" and his response is "yeah. I love chilli!"

So often I hear parents say, in front of their children, "Oh. He doesn't like that." I believe this reinforces fussiness in eating. A rule we have with our children is that they must try everything. So often they find something they really like - just by trying it.

Yesterday I sat down on my bed, surrounded by a few cookbooks and a cup of tea deciding what we'd eat for the week.

This week's meal plan:

Mon: Peking duck salad. The delicious Peking duck comes from a local butcher- Millin's Fine Food Butcher. With green leaves, crunchy noodles, loads of mint, julienne carrot.

Tues: nori rolls with cucumber, carrot and a small seared salmon steak.

Wed: eggs on toast with asparagus ($1.30 a bunch at the moment)

Thurs: lamb cutlets with veggies or salad.

Fri: pizzas with prosciutto, pesto, feta, olives, marinated eggplant.

I must say that this week seems quite meat heavy. My incredible grandmother came to visit last weekend and insisted she bought me a freezer full of meat from Millin's. Millin's sells meat that is as close to organic without being certified. They sell hormone-free, chemical-free, free range meats. You can walk in and buy a ready-to-cook meal and they'll label it with the cooking time and temperature.

We've continued our running order with Harvest Hub. Each Wednesday a large insulated bag of fruit and veggies (they also deliver local dairy and nut products now too) is delivered to our front door. Over the weekend I can log-in to my order and add or take-away products from my order but if I don't get the time the bagful is always a perfect combination of good quality local seasonal produce.

How do you plan for your meals?