Meal Plan Monday

Linking today with I'm An Organising Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

First, I would like to share a recipe.

The boys' school organises Seniors Catering once a month as a fundraiser. Once a year, each family is rostered on to provide a menu item and come to the hall to cook, serve and clean up. The Grade Six children are the waiters. It is always a lot of fun and a great way to serve our community and to teach the children about serving others, as well as raise funds for the school. The volunteer parents also receive the meal for lunch, after the Seniors have been served, of course!

This month, it was my turn and on the menu was meatloaf. Now, meatloaf and I are not really friends. Apologies to my mum, but meatloaf in the 70s was pretty much just some mince, some onion and not much else. It did not have much flavour. But this one was yummy! It is baked in its own sauce which caramelises on the top. 

The recipe is from one of those wonderful church cookbooks. 

I've reproduced it below as the picture is not really clear. I know the ingredients sound less than gourmet, but I promise you, the end result is delicious! And cheap too!

500 grams minced steak

250 grams sausage mince

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 egg

2 onions

1 dessertspoon curry powder

salt, pepper, half a cup milk, half a cup water

Method: Mix all ingredients together and cook 30 minutes at 180 degrees C. Then add sauce. Cook another 45 minutes and baste.

Sauce:

Half a cup water

Half a cup tomato sauce

2 tablespoons vinegar

Half a cup brown sugar

30 grams butter

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Put in saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over meatloaf and baste frequently.

I had to add my own oven temperature as so many of these older cookbooks assume that certain cooking knowledge was common to all. This temperature works for me.

I make my own curry powder as I need it, from this recipe. Takes two seconds, if you already have ground spices on hand. 

2 tablespoons ground cumin

2 tablespoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons ground turmeric

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon mustard seed

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Do let me know if you try the recipe. I would love to hear what you thought.

And have a look here for a wonderful post from Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth on DIY Seasoning Mixes. The post includes a free printable with the recipes, gorgeous jar labels and directions for use. I am planning on making up all of these!

Image from Strangers & Pilgrims On Earth

And now for this week's Menu Plan.
I have not used a specific book this week; instead I am just planning a week of old favourites.

Monday
Lasagna with green salad and garlic bread
Fruit salad

Tuesday
Roasted vegetable frittata with potato wedges
Chocolate self-saucing pudding

Wednesday
Roast beef with roast veggies, green peas and steamed broccoli
Fruit salad

Thursday
Chicken wraps with all the fillings
Pineapple upside-down cake

Friday
Homemade pizza
Apple slice

Saturday
BBQ with porterhouse steak and sausages, potato salad, pasta salad and green salad
Lemon meringue pie

Sunday
Roast lamb with roast veggies and steamed greens
Swiss roll with jam and cream

• Chocolate chip cookies - one week, I am not going to make choc chip cookies twice a week, except I'll probably have a mutiny on my hands!
• Monte Cream biscuits - these are a homemade version of Monte Carlos, not sure if these are only Australian?

• Fruitcake
• Cherry, coconut and rosewater cupcakes - these were a bit of an experiment from a few weeks ago and were yummy.

• Lemon iced cookies
• Chocolate coconut slice
• Apple tea cake

Can you tell my boys are growing fast? I really cannot believe the amount of food they can put away! I really, really need to get my fruit trees growing as I am spending astronomical amounts on fruit every week. I certainly don't want to be saying you can't eat fruit, but it just becoming so expensive. 

I would love to hear what you do to fill your kids up! It is so hard to fill them up healthily, but also cheaply.

Happy cooking!