Menu plan 29 January

A few ideas for dinner and lunch this week

I'm back with another menu plan after a bit of a break. It's easy to get stuck in a groove of cooking the same few recipes on repeat (in fact that was a big reason for me starting this blog!) so I hope offering a few fresh ideas is helpful and inspires you to try some new recipes.

I should add that not all of these recipes are my own - so some links are to other sites - but each and every recipe is one I cook regularly at home, so you know they are reliable! I've added my own photos for each one so you can see what they really look like 😊

I've included 5 dinner ideas and a couple of lunches too but I haven't been prescriptive about what to eat when or even offered suggestions for every day. I'm guessing most of us have days when beans on toast will have to do or we give ourselves a night off from cooking, so I've tried to keep this very flexible.

As always, I should say I'm not a qualified nutritionist but I've aimed for a balance of meat, chicken, fish and veggie options across the week and a range of veg and grains too.

Here are the recipes:

This week's Sunday dinner suggestion is my lamb tagine recipe, served with couscous and a green salad. This is a long slow cook, but the hands on prep time is fairly quick, leaving you to get on with your Sunday. Flavoured with ras-al-hanout and packed with chickpeas, butternut squash and dried apricots, it's a great healthy and tasty dinner.

For an easy fun family dinner, how about chicken fajitas? This fun family dinner is a firm favourite in our house and pretty relaxed now my kids are old enough to build their own. It's a very sociable meal and everyone enjoys customising their fajitas - none of us eat them in quite the same way!

Pinto bean chilli from River Cottage's Veg Everyday book (one of my favourite books that I use all the time) is a hearty veggie one pot that reheats so well so it's great for busy evenings. At this time of year I make it with squash and mushrooms. We like to eat it with rice, Greek yoghurt, grated cheese, shredded lettuce and guacamole.

For a super quick pasta dish that also covers a portion of oily fish, how about Jamie Oliver's sardine spaghetti? Be generous with the capers, garlic and chilli for a dish that's full of the big flavours Jamie does so well. I usually serve it with some steamed broccoli.

Goan prawn and green veg curry is a light fresh tasting curry that's also really quick - so again it's great for a midweek dinner.

For lunch, can I suggest a beetroot salad? With green lentils and feta, this makes a tasty and substantial lunch. The chilli and mint are a fab contrast to the earthy flavours of the lentils and beetroot.

And finally, for a hug in a bowl kind of lunch you can't do much better than bacon and lentil soup. Make a big batch of this and freeze some portions and you have several lunches all sorted.