To Cook: Hunger on Hump Day

Since being MIA for a little while, I have been catching up on reading some blogs that I have subscribed to. I am really starting to take an interest in Meal planning and freezer cooking, so I thought I’d share with you my first week of meal planning.

If you are at all like me, you succumb to the dreaded twelve shops a week. You only need one thing, and somehow you come out with ten items (and often, not one of those ten things are the original item you came to purchase!). This has started to become an issue as far as financially, and in food wastage and I don’t particularly feel like being on a first name basis with everyone at my local shopping centre.

I do my shopping mid week (pay day woo hoo!), so I wanted to start my weekly meal plan as of Wednesday. The print out starts from Sunday, but those meals will be for the following week, not the Sunday just gone.

I created a template that allows me to plan the three basic meals of each day and break them down into ingredients needed to create each dish. This way, my meal planner can be taken to the shops and used as a grocery list quite simply.

Here is my meal plan for this week:

I did a big shop last week, so most of the things I’ll be buying this week will purely be items needed for this menu.

***As a side note, the spaghetti sauce for Tuesday night has been pre-cooked and is currently sitting in my freezer. All I need to do is add pasta. I haven’t been freezer cooking for long, but I feel as though spaghetti and lasagne are my two favourite dishes to freeze because they aren’t altered all that much by the freezing process. Trial and error has taught me that some other dishes don’t freeze quite so well.

Hope you guys enjoyed the method in my madness.

I'd love to hear some other people's "go to" freezer meals.

With Christmas quickly approaching, I'll be posting some crafty little numbers very shortly!

Thanks for reading

To Cook: Pretty Patties

Do your kids love Spongebob Squarepants?

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I insist you Google Spongebob immediately!

For those who do know the lovable sponge and his underwater friends, you must try these with your little one.

Spongebob is a fry cook who works at the Krusty Krab. He had dreams of creating a Krabby Patty with a twist

And so did the Ankle Biter and I one day when we were filled with boredom and I had nothing for dinner.

I started with:

• 1kg of mince (any kind, I used chicken because that's what we like best)
• Garlic minced
• Mixed herbs
• 1 large onion, grated
• 1 carrot peeled and grated
• And of course, multiple food colourings

1. Wash those grubby hands!!
2. Pull out a few bowls and separate the mince evenly amongst them, mixing through the garlic and herbs (I like to do this with my hands as it's fun for the kids and I find it's the best way to really get the flavour through the meat)
3. Add the grated goodies to each bowl and mix in (I like to include carrot just to add a bit of veg. I've tried capsicum, but that was NOT a hit with the family. You can add anything extra you like, but I'd suggest to make it small)
4. Put in a couple of drops of food colouring, but make sure that you add it gradually. You can easily make them darker, but making them lighter is not so easy!
5. Once you're happy with colour and consistency, heat some Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a pan OR fire up the barbeque
6. Roll your mince into balls and chuck them into your pan/onto the BBQ. I used the end of my potato masher to squish them into little burger patties

(these ones are uncooked but the colour really does stay better than I thought it would once you cook them)

And Voila! You have a gorgeous plate of pretty patties that the kids are bound to enjoy