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ACCEPT Menu Planning - May 2018
When meal planning as most of us do - I do an inventory of my fridge, freezer and cupboard first. Then when deciding what my meals will be for the fortnight I utilise what I call my ACCEPT strategy. I find that this allows for a balanced diet but also helps to keep the cost of each meal down. I aim to have at least 6 meals at $5-6 and the rest under $10 to feed a family of 5.
A - Anything. I allow two nights per fortnight, usually towards the end of the fortnight to use up any leftovers or anything that looks like its getting close to its used by date. Basically making something out of nothing. These are my "free" meals.
C - Chicken/Fish Dish. I generally use a lot of chicken as it is cheap so is often used in my budget meals as well. Fresh fish is limited to once a fortnight as it can be quite expensive but I do include tinned tuna in my meal planning.
C - Cheap or budget meals. I love recipes from 4 ingredient cookbooks, student cookbooks, leftover grub cookbooks and school cookbooks as these only require minimal ingredients which helps to keep the costs down. I often include roast lamb or beef in this category, as it provides us with several meals throughout the fortnight - think meat patties, souvlaki and pies.
Eggs - Egg dishes are frugal not to mention good for you. I include 4 egg dishes such as - quiche, bacon & egg toasted wraps and bacon & egg salad.
P - Pasta. My pasta dishes can be incorporated into several categories such my Anything meals, Cheap meals or Chicken/Fish meals. It also helps to bulk out a meal.
T - Takeaway. I plan these meals for Friday and Saturday nights and this is where we get most of our iron rich red meat from. Takeaway night includes meals such as hamburgers, souvlakis, fried rice, wraps, Mexican and other mince recipes.
This strategy makes it so much easier to plan my meals and helps me to save money on our grocery bill.
Contributed by C Briggs
A - Anything. I allow two nights per fortnight, usually towards the end of the fortnight to use up any leftovers or anything that looks like its getting close to its used by date. Basically making something out of nothing. These are my "free" meals.
C - Chicken/Fish Dish. I generally use a lot of chicken as it is cheap so is often used in my budget meals as well. Fresh fish is limited to once a fortnight as it can be quite expensive but I do include tinned tuna in my meal planning.
C - Cheap or budget meals. I love recipes from 4 ingredient cookbooks, student cookbooks, leftover grub cookbooks and school cookbooks as these only require minimal ingredients which helps to keep the costs down. I often include roast lamb or beef in this category, as it provides us with several meals throughout the fortnight - think meat patties, souvlaki and pies.
Eggs - Egg dishes are frugal not to mention good for you. I include 4 egg dishes such as - quiche, bacon & egg toasted wraps and bacon & egg salad.
P - Pasta. My pasta dishes can be incorporated into several categories such my Anything meals, Cheap meals or Chicken/Fish meals. It also helps to bulk out a meal.
T - Takeaway. I plan these meals for Friday and Saturday nights and this is where we get most of our iron rich red meat from. Takeaway night includes meals such as hamburgers, souvlakis, fried rice, wraps, Mexican and other mince recipes.
This strategy makes it so much easier to plan my meals and helps me to save money on our grocery bill.
Contributed by C Briggs