Vegie Smugglers

Ask and ye shall receive.

It appears you all like it when I’m bossy. Weird. But I hear that some people also like whips and to dress in odd leather outfits. Not my thing, but you all go for it.

Anyway, I am an eager-to-please personality type, so against my better judgement, I’m answering the requests for dominance and here I offer you another weekly meal plan. If you missed the first one, you can revisit it here.

Knowing that I’m a bit lucky and at home more than most mums, I put out a call for a guinea pig to share their schedule so that I can create a plan that will be achievable in real-life situations.

It was interesting to get two identical pleas for help from mums who both have the problem of working evening shifts. One works Wed/Fri/Sat nights and the other Thurs/Fri/Sat. Now, not saying that men are crap (since there’s been a huge shift in the numbers of them now being the primary carer), but in the majority of households, it seems that the menfolk need to keep things simple. If they’re looking after the kids, then quite likely, rustling up a complicated meal at the same time is too tricky. So with this plan, I’m answering the question of “what can I cook ahead and have ready for my hubby to heat up and feed my starving darlings?”. So let’s go…

SUNDAY

A chance for family time, and one time in the week where you can cook and eat sequentially (how quaint)…

If you’re having breakfast or brunch, let’s have these oven-baked hash browns…

Perfect on Sunday mornings – home-made hashbrowns.

For dinner that night, roast a chook and have this cous cous salad. Of course, if your kids are too fussy to face that, they might prefer the vegie mash instead – which you can cook and freeze in suitable portions. The good thing of course, if that both the chicken and cous cous leftovers are great for lunchboxes on Monday.

Roast chicken is always a winner.

MONDAY

Let’s enjoy Autumnal flavours and take part in meat-free Monday with this Corn & Lentil soup.

Food alchemy.

TUESDAY

At the opposite end of the scale, swing back to meat with this pink meatloaf.

Pink enough to interest meat-phobic girls.

WEDNESDAY (Make ahead/freeze)

Leftover meatloaf can be used up in toasties or in baked potatoes. If you don’t have quite enough leftover, make a batch of these individual meatloaves. Use what you need and freeze the rest – then next week you’ll already have a dinner ready to go.

My kids love these so much, they don't care about what's inside.

THURSDAY (Make ahead)
An easy dinner to make is this Chicken & tarragon one-pot. If you do a double batch, then you can freeze half and you’ve got ANOTHER meal ready for next week (you go girlfriend!).

Chicken, tick; pasta, tick; one pot, tick.

FRIDAY (Make ahead)

If you’ve got beetroot leftover from the meatloaf, why not whip up a weekend treat – these beetroot brownies.

I just can't help myself, I've even got a fresh root in here.

For dinner, you might want something end-of-the-week simple to eat. These tuna, rice & zucchini puffs are perfect. All dad has to do is reheat them. Microwave is ok, but under the grill or in the oven is best.

Remind dad - no metal cases in the microwave.

SATURDAY

By Saturday night, I think you can have a rest. Everyone has eaten well this week and surely dad can cobble up a toastie, noodles or boiled eggs. Perhaps he might want to whip up some okonomiyake. Super easy, and he can sound tres internationale as he expertly pronounces the Japanese name (remember, equal emphasis on all syllables).

Sneak cabbage and carrot in with this super-quick dish.

If you’ve got leftover cabbage, then tomorrow, whip up the crispy noodle salad and put hubbie to work on the BBQ. And there you have it – not just a week but 8 days of meals!

Here’s the shopping list for this week to download. As always, there’s a useful key, to help simplify your life.

So get to it [insert whip crack here].