Let's talk money - suppers

Post 1 on breakfasts here
Post 2 on lunches here


This post is probably the easiest of the lot because we all eat together and yay, it's all the same food.

Except for Connor with his hatred of potatoes.

Yes, I also don't know where he gets that!

I took the time over the years to make a list of favourite foods everybody likes - first time years ago when it was just the two of us - and then again late last year.

If I'm stumped, I have a look at my list and add some of those things into the rotation.

So what do we eat?

Rice X 2 - we cook 2 cups a week - that's enough for the two meals
Pasta X 2 - we cook 1 500 g bag - that's also enough for the two meals, when I add some garlic bread into the second rotation
Pizza X 1 - I buy one bag of swiss chard, Nanny S chops it and we make a lot of pizza bases once a month, partially bake it and freeze)
Potatoes X 1 - 6 - 8 potatoes lasts us two weeks....
Sandwiches/ wraps X 1 - wraps are expensive (R28,99 for 6 for the small ones, and R39,99 for the big ones) but we like to make cheese and apple quesadillas. Just discovered Se7en's wraps so will try later this week.

chicken, fish, beef stir-fry, sausages, mince, probably one night meat-free (not really intentionally about being "meat-free" but more about convenience).

My one friend has a set menu for every night - "oh, it's Tuesday, that means it's bobotie". I can't do that because I'm way too spontaneous. Yes, the one place I'm unstructured is the kitchen - the menu plan is the last bit of structure - and yet if it's followed 5 nights a week, I'm very happy. At some point, I just like to clear out the fridge so we'll eat a hodge-podge of things. Someone will have one set of leftovers, another will eat something else and the kids will eat something else.

A typical menu:

M - stirfried beef, veggies (a bag of coleslaw and some broccoli) and rice
T - pasta and bolognaise sauce (in summer, with a salad; in winter, I make the sauce with more veg. My sauce has onions, tomatoes, carrots and sometimes pumpkin and broccoli but no-one knows!)
W - baked potatoes/ spinach pizza, chicken/ fish in a box, carrots
T - rice, chicken casserole with mushrooms/ broccoli, carrots
F - soup, toasted cheese and tomato/ toast with baked beans/ toast and egg
S - creamy pasta like macaroni cheese (again, I hide carrots - no one knows - shhhh!) because it's the day I get weighed so there's a whole 7 days to fix my eating)
S - light supper with whatever needs to get finished

When I cook, I cook 500g of chicken at a time, and 500g of mince (ground beef) for bolognaise sauces.

Chicken - feeds us all properly for one meal with rice (300g), and for the second, will feed us all if I use pasta.
Mince - I add so many other things including 2 cans of tomato that it makes a TON. E.g. I cooked a big pot last week of April and we'll finish that tomorrow because we had about 4 - 5 portions. We can all eat at least 2 meals and there's enough for a D and M portion too.

I portion out things immediately. When the pot of food is cooked, I dish, put the rest into a container, label and when it's cool, put into the freezer and add to the "inventory".

Bolognaise sauce - same story. I usually cook this in addition to something else so I'll have about 4 containers out of food when this pot is done.

I know there are a lot of you who eat no carb and low carb and whatnot... I eat carbs! I follow Weigh-Less portion sizes; the rest eat as they want but we all eat everything.

haven't made this for a while; will make it tomorrow, I think :)

Laura was very good at estimating how much it cost for each meal for the month; I have no idea because I don't think like that.

Because we eat such a variety of things, I don't buy meat and chicken every week, or even every month.

So my best guess is about R125 - R150 for the meat portions  per week. Actually that's scary because I spend that on ME ALONE eating out once at Doppio Zero....

We buy extra lean everything as far as the red meat is concerned... and de-skinned, de-boned chicken br.easts, usually the Goldi frozen 2 kg bag of br.easts for R90 at Checkers once every 4 - 6 weeks because our PnP just never seems to have it anymore. The chicken/ fish in a box is about R40 a box for one meal for us. If there's an extra piece left, the kids will have that one to share the following day for their protein with lunch.

Has this helped anyone? I feel like I'm going into my default - too much detail!
Did you get any tips on what to do or what not to do?