Meal planning...

This is working out so well for us....this whole meal planning malarky! They say it takes 21 days to make a habit....and we're past that now! That's not to say we haven't made effort to meal plan before but it's never really stuck. Honestly I think a big reason it's working well for us right now is that since our trip to Chicago we have been making a concerted effort to eat out less.

Once again we pretty well stuck to the plan. This was how last week looked;

Last week - Oct 25-31

That Crockpot Mongolian Beef was a hit. I'd made it once before and it was awesome, but I always reckon on trying it out a second time before it's official. And it is now official!! I posted the recipe here.

Crockpot Chicken Teriyaki got traded out for a Crockpot Chicken curry that my husband was inspired to cook up - ain't never gonna complain when I get the evening off when I wasn't expecting!

Cedar Plank Salmon is one of our favourites - and with company last Friday it was the perfect meal to prep and cook up on the BBQ - it got the thumbs up all round - even from Rick who'd never eaten Salmon before!!

Love a good homemade pizza - I have a great pizza dough recipe that I'm super happy with - then we load it chock full of veggies, and a little cheese - and my dough recipe makes enough for 2 meals so guess what's on next weeks plan?!

Now on to next weeks plan.

This week - Nov 1-7

I made the most of what we had building up in the freezer - I've run out of tupperwares and freezer dishes so it's time to start eating up!

I love working with 'what you have'. I find it a fun challenge, a great way to 'tidy up' your pantry and freezers and a good way to have a 'cheap week' at the grocery store! Plus it's interesting reading to see just how long you're supposed to be storing stuff in the freezer - here's a great easy to use chart listing just about everything and the recommended storage periods in both fridge and freezer. I had no idea that bacon is really only good for a month - even in the freezer (Think ours goes a while longer than that sometimes!).

Turkey Cannelloni is taking up freezer space and has been for probably a couple of months - time to eat up!

Pizza Dough is already in the fridge from last week - add to that any random toppings lurking in the veggie drawer of the fridge that need to get used up!

Minestrone Soup - now isn't that an excuse to throw whatever veggies, beans and grains you've got lurking and calling it done?! (because every recipe is different - there IS no recipe!!)

And Pasta Ruccola is one of my own creations - basically wholewheat pasta mixed up from fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, baby arugula & spinach, pesto and a little Parmesan and black pepper - it's an absolute go-to quick and easy meal for us and great way to use up tomatoes (Specially the slightly soft ones). Since we've got 3 flats of tomatoes from the garden slowly ripening in the utility room it's time to up the tomato usage in the coming weeks - we can't eat them fast enough!

Once again I'm linking up to the Meal Planning Challenge hosted by Jill and Laura.