Meal Planning Adventures

Last week I admitted how rubbish I was at varying the meals we eat and our New Year goal to try something new each month… Last week I tried Fish Pie – this wasn’t totally new as they have had it before but not for a long time. I did an internet search for easy fish pie recipes / dairy free fish pie and didn’t have much success so thought I’d make it up as I went along…

Our Random Fish Pie:

I covered the large pyrex oven dish with frozen ‘white fish’ (think it was pollock but who knows!) and then sprinkled over frozen prawns. I covered this with dairy free plain yoghurt (thought soya milk might be a bit runny but then panicked it looked too thick so sloshed a bit of soya milk on too), sprinkled some dried herbs and ground some pepper over the top and put it in the oven for 20 minutes… I made mash potato – a large-ish potato per person, splash of unsweetened soya milk, couple of generous scoops of dairy free margarine and the  remainders of the ‘dairy free cheddar cheese style spread’ and some ground pepper. Then I put the mash on top of the fish mix and put it in the oven again until it was going golden brown on the top. Served with the standard peas and carrots (so even if they refused the fish pie I knew they’d eat something on the plate!).

Verdict – both adults ate it without complaint (although I admit it probably didn’t need the milk and the yoghurt as it was a bit runny)… 2/4 children ate it without any complaint at all and declared they LOVE prawns, 1/4 children said he didn’t like prawns and we agreed he can pick them out – he left 5 (yes FIVE) on the side of his plate so I think he probably ate some given that I’m sure each portion had more in than that! and 1/4 children (Miss Littlesheep) cried she didn’t like her dinner and then fell asleep… so fairly successful with the boys and we’ll have to try again with Little Miss.

This week:

So I’m inspired to try something new again and I’m hoping that blogging what we are eating will make me keep it up…

So…

• Monday: Pasta bake (any one care to share their favourites?)
• Tuesday: Pizza (eventually I will get round to home made ones but for now Tesco’s will do!)
• Wednesday or Thursday: SOMETHING NEW!
• Thursday or Wednesday: Jacket potatoes, some form of protein (depending on what happens with the something new and pasta bake) and veg
• Friday: Fish Fingers, chips and baked beans (sorry it’s tradition and it’s unlikely to change)
• Saturday: No idea (I’m in London for a meeting and Mr Littlesheep is on duty – probably lasagne or spaghetti bolognaise!)
• Sunday: Chicken / Turkey in gravy with vegetables – maybe batter puddings and either jacket potatoes or if I feel like it roasties.

Inspired from reading around the linky last week for the something new I would put  Sweet Chilli Chicken & Coconut Rice from Daisies and Pie – she didn’t have a recipe on her blog so I googled and found this one which seems simple enough but I will need to remember to get the ingredients so that might have to be next week… I also liked the idea of Chicken & Wild Rice One Pot that The Mini Mes and Me suggested – again I couldn’t find their recipe and found this one that will probably work as a base to work from.

Come back next week and see how it all turns out! (and I’ll go and join in at Mrs M again and see what other ideas I can get from there).