Supermarket Trip and Meal Plan

Today I did a massive supermarket shop that left me exhausted and in a daze. I decided recently that i'll try and shop every fortnight rather than every week. Of course i'll have to buy fresh vegies and maybe milk every week but I can just go to a green grocer for that. I wrote an extensive list and planned out most meals for the next two weeks. Here it is my haul.

My meal plan goes something like this (in no particular order)....

• Middle Eastern Chicken with Chickpea, Herb & Feta Salad from delicious magazine
• Lamb, Bean & Feta Salad from Food Ideas magazine
• Chicken Pie & Chips
• Biryani
• Chicken Burgers
• Fajitas
• BBQ with Rainbow Sausages & Corn
• Parma
• S&B Golden Curry

We will be flexible, eat out a few times and probably have some simple dinners like soup or salad but this list will be the what I base my cooking on for the next fortnight. I'm excited to be so well planned and doubly excited about not to having to visit the supermarket for 2 weeks!

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

T loves his exercise and often likes a big pasta dish on a Friday night. Here are some of the latest carb loaded meals meals I've made.

This was roast vegies and spinach in a tomato based sauce with penne.

Here is a simple tomato sauce (tomatoes, onion, garlic & Italian herbs) and fetta with ravioli. Served with a side salad.

I had two half finished packets of pasta (penne and spaghetti) so I cooked them up and used both to make a pasta bake. The sauce came from a jar but I also added mushrooms, zucchini and some delicious tomatoes. I grated some tasty cheese and a little parmesan cheese on top. I love the crunchy top pieces when it comes out of the oven!

I served the pasta bake with a mini garlic bread.

Making fancy pasta sauces isn't my favourite thing to do so I often use a jar of sauce as my the base to which I then add different vegies, bits and pieces. For this pasta I used Creamy Tomato & Mozzarella Pasta Bake sauce by Dolmio.

This was a very quick meal. I just boiled the pasta, chopped up a tasty tomato and 2 spring onions, mixed the sauce through all the other ingredients, heated it up a little more and sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese. Yum.

                                                   

Nandos for Dinner

Nandos

Address:  376 Warrigal Rd, Heatherton
Phone: Phone: (03) 9551 5292

I must admit I have never been a big fan of Nandos but this visit was beyond disappointing and a big waste of money.
This is what we ordered; a Supremo Wrap, Half Chicken and in the small bowl is some sauce from our jar of Hot Perinaise. The total cost of our meal was a few cents short of $30.

I ordered a Supremo Wrap ($8.10), the menu said it consisted of a wholemeal wrap with marinated & basted tenderloins, mixed lettuce, tomato, sweet chilli PERi-PERi sauce & light cream cheese. I tasted the cream cheese in only 2 of my bites and when I opened the wrap to look inside, I could hardly see any.

The chicken was minimal too. To the right of this wrap you can see a tiny strip of chicken. As well as some of the more important ingredients barely being seen, a few of the lettuce leaves were slimey.

T had his usual half chicken with chips in a meal ($16.10). He commented that the half chicken must have been from a very small bird, he was left hungry and unimpressed too.

The interior of the 'restaurant' was nice but there was a subtle, unpleasant smell in part of the eating area.

The only positives were the clean, well decorated interior and the man at the counter who took our order. Needless to say, we will not be going back to this store!

Dinner from Souvlaki House, Oakleigh

Souvlaki House 
Address: 9 Warrigal Rd, Oakleigh
Phone: 95682838

T had been craving a souvlaki for a few weeks so yesterday we headed to Souvlaki House, a take-away store we often drive past.

When reading the chalk board menu I was pleasantly surprised to see they serve souvlakis in small as well as regular size.
I ordered a small lamb souvlaki ($8) minus the onion. The bread was lightly grilled and contained garlic sauce, tomato and lettuce. There was plenty of lettuce which was good because I often find souvlakis lack enough salad (but that may just be me). The lamb was of a decent quality and seasoned with rosemary, amongst other things.

After a few bites.

T had a regular sized mixed; lamb & chicken souvlaki ($10). His had all the same fillings as mine plus extra onion.

T and I agreed that the souvlakis were average; we've had better but we've also had much worse.

Chicken & Bacon Risotto

We bought a rice cooker about 6 months ago and I hadn't used it before today. Soon after we bought the cooker I saw some Recipe Bases in the supermarket and picked up this one, I thought I'd give it a go.

I followed the directions on the packet exactly, super easy. Unfortunately when the risotto had finished cooking the chicken was a bit dry.

I spooned the risotto directly into a container because it was made for T's lunch, not to be eaten fresh.

I wouldn't normally make a risotto without any vegies but because I was using the flavour base this risotto was pretty plain. I wasn't particularly impressed by the little taste I had. It's always good to try something new but I won't be trying this one again.

Chicken Parmagiana in a Sandwich

When T had his pie and chips for dinner I had a tasty toasted sandwich. I made the most of the oven being on and cooked myself a Steggles Chicken Breast Parmagiana. I then cut it into strips and used half of them in a sandwich. I cut the other half of the parma chicken breast into smaller pieces and had them in my sandwich for lunch the following day.
I put the chicken pieces between two pieces of toast along with a slice of cheese, cucumber, tomato, capsicum, lettuce, avocado and tomato sauce.

It was pretty yummy.

Chicken Pie and Chips

Neither of us eat beef so when it comes to pies, chicken is our is our usual choice and luck for us, Coles makes a great chicken pie!
This was a super easy meal. The pie and chips went straight from the freezer into the oven. The salad was rather average but I had few ingredients to work with. It was made up from finely diced tomato, cucumber, capsicum and corn with pepper and a little dressing.