Meal Plan Monday – getting back to normal

Welcome to Meal Plan Monday and getting back to normal after not only the school holidays but also a break here from sharing our weekly meals and what we eat. It’s nice to be back and we will be be sharing every week. You know you have missed it. This post may contain affiliate links that if you click on and make a purchase, I earn a small amount of revenue. These will be marked with *

Each week I share what we are eating, planning to eat or cooking and how we meal plan for a family of four with food allergies and Coeliac disease on a budget. We shop at Aldi and Asda mainly for convenience and also for food allergy product accessibility.

We are also delighted to host a weekly link up, so read on to the bottom to find out more about that and how to join in.

We have landed into back to school for the autumn, and the weather is getting slightly colder. Our heating won’t be going on yet, but I am trying to cook warming meals that work for the cold and longer days as we are back to school, homeschool and our usual busy routine. Back to normal for us is busy, but we try to sit down to eat together in the week and enjoy family time.

With the cost of living crisis and issues around energy bills rising, we are doing our bit this autumn and winter to try and keep our bills lower, and I know that using my slow cooker will help with this, because slow cookers use a little bit less electricity than ovens, and are easy to set up and run so you come home to a warm meal, or you can cook in bulk with. I have a very large slow cooker* which is great for making meals I can freeze or for more than one day.

Because the teen has coeliac disease, we eat gluten free at home, or as much as possible, so all our meals are based around that. I am currently experimenting with making our own bread using this recipe from the Gluten Free Alchemist and I also want to try and make corn bread too, because I have eaten it a few times and love it and I think it will be a great accompaniment for meals like soup, or chili.

I am back at work this week, although it is a shorter week due to the bank holiday. Our home school plan this week has us out both on Wednesday and Thursday so I am planning meals that are easy as well as filling for what seems to be endlessly hungry tweenage and teenage tummies these days.

Monday 19th – I made some bolognese at the weekend and made enough for a pasta bake for another evening.

Tuesday 20th – home made burgers and buns, with corn on the cob. If you are looking for a good meat free burger, we recommend these although they do contain barley which is not safe for coeliacs but my teen isn’t meat free so it’s just me that eats them.

Wednesday 21st – the teen is cooking with her weekly online Smart Raspberry class so that’s a night off for me and always a meal we look forward to and enjoy.

Thursday 22nd – we have a busy day and kiddo is out at dance and Scouts so it’s a quick and easy meal for us and I am making stir fry rice

Friday 23rd – slow cooked chicken curry is on the menu. I can throw it in the slow cooker and leave to do it’s thing for when we get home from work, activities and swimming.

Saturday 24th – I think the husband and I are going out for dinner, but if not we will have a family pizza and movie evening.

Sunday 25th – I am cooking a community lunch which my family will join in with, and it’s a big roast lunch for about 20-25 people. I will be making my famous chocolate mousse for dessert and then when I get home we will have what I call “stretch or starve” where it’s everyone for themselves for supper, usually eggs on toast or toasties.

And that is our week. Getting back to normal, which feels good after the summer break.

What are you eating this week?

Our meal plan linky will be back next week for everyone to join in.