Cath's Meal Plan 26th July - 1st August

Tom tells me this is a great week for meals, he's given it a 10/10!

Joanne commented a while back about how often we have roast lamb and roast beef and she queried how they could possibly fit into my $320 a month grocery budget.

Well firstly I only ever buy legs of lamb or roasting beef (or any meat really) on sale. That means when legs of lamb are $6.99/kg or less I stock up. I've been known to buy 12 at time, bring them home, wrap them and put them in the freezer.

Secondly a leg of lamb gives me at least 12 serves. That''s two roast dinners and two serves to use in French Shepherds pie or wraps or a sweet lamb curry. The bone is used to make soup and/or stock.

On Sunday when Wayne is carving the roast, he'll slice it all up. Then I'll dish up five serves, put five serves into a Tupperware container and two serves into a smaller container. When I make the gravy I'll make a double quantity, use half on our dinner and pour the other half over the five serves of lamb in the Tupperware container. The secret to doing this is to make sure all the lamb is covered in the gravy. Then I seal the container and pop it into the freezer.

Next time roast lamb is on the menu, the meat just needs to be thawed and reheated. I don't need to have the oven or the barbecue on for a couple of hours to cook a leg, it is already cooked.

The average leg of lamb I buy is around two kilos and costs between $13 - $15 and I get six meals for my family of five from one leg: two roast dinners, one other dinner and three soup meals. That brings the average cost per meal to between $2.32 and $2.50.

And that is how we can enjoy our roast lamb dinner once a month on my $320 a month grocery budget.

Sunday: Roast lamb, baked veggies, gravy

Monday: Hannah’s choice (birthday dinner - but it will include cake and ice cream!)

Tuesday: Spinach & ricotta cannelloni in tomato sauce, salad

Wednesday: Stuffed drumsticks, baked potato, pumpkin, broccoli, corn

Thursday: MOO Pizza

Friday: Sausage casserole, sweet potato mash, greens

Saturday: Pumpkin soup, toasted muffins