In the words of my 13 year old, “Oooft”.

I have seriously lost my mojo when it comes to food. January is meant to give you this boost and make you want to ‘be the best you’ or some gubbins. All it gave me was the desire to hide under a big blanket until either some order enquiries appeared in my inbox (self employment, eh!) or it stopped being too damn cold to concentrate on anything.

With that in mind this month has basically carried on the December trend of replacing many meals with just handfuls of cheese and meat whenever I passed the fridge. I pass the fridge often.

However, this cannot last forever and thankfully we are down to our last box of shortbread so I have to concede that it’s definitely time to start eating green stuff again. I know that meal planning helps with this. So here we go!

Actually, before we begin you should probably be aware that January is not a month where the hoards flock to begin steadfast wedding planning so funds are low and this week will feature a lot of “yeah that’ll probably taste alright together” type meals. Please note, I am offering no apology for this. Neither should you.

This week in food 

Friday: Everyone else is having Pizza. I am off to my Stepmums for dinner which will be a surprise!

Saturday: Going to go fridge diving for this one and use what we have. Jack Monroe made a sausage and bean casserole type meal on This Morning the other day so will use what we have to make something similar. Yes, I will be rinsing the sauce off my baked beans. I can stick this in the slow cooker oven in the morning and it will stop me calling for a takeaway.

Sunday: Off to a trade show with my sister so either I will pack some lunch and take it with us or, and lets face it this is more likely, we will just grab something en route. Everyone else has pasta and meatballs.

Monday: Ramen bowl. The kids love this one. Cheap instant noodles, Chopped chicken, Mange tout (aldi super 6 this week), grated carrot, sweetcorn, peas, a little bit of chilli and ginger and a peeled boiled egg. You can add whatever you have to this one and it is really quick. Can also cut down on the salt content by not using the little noodle seasoning sachet and substituting with a better stock.

Tuesday: Chicken casserole with dressed greens and crusty bread and butter – I try to make sure we have those part baked rolls in the cupboard.

Wednesday: Chicken and veg pesto pasta

Thursday:  Toasties night (ham and cheese or beans or my personal fave pilchards in tomato sauce)