Little rituals

 Some things start out as chores, but over time they evolve into the rituals that keep me going through the daily noise, lack of plans and general lovely havoc that is my life at home with a toddler (how do people manage with big families? How? We'd better hope we feel complete at two children, because more will mean our home becoming the living embodiment of chaos).

Anyway, menu planning is one of those things. It sprung up originally as a side effect of our major budgeting drive. As I often go on about at great length may have mentioned, we take budgeting to whole new levels in this household. We live a wonderful life - Adam does a job he enjoys, I get to stay at home with Teddy and work on my crafty stuff, occasionally even making some money from it - largely because I am such a fiend when it comes to budgeting. I could go on endlessly about how much lovelier our life is than when I was commuting into London every day and earning a decent wage, but that's a story for another day and another post.

One of the results of this is that I have a whopping £167.89 per month (see, I told you I was a budgeting fiend!) to spend on all our food, which is almost entirely organic. No mean feat, but now a weekly challenge that I (dare I say it?) actually look forward to now.

Once a week, usually on a Tuesday afternoon (or evening, depending on whether Master Theodore has deigned to take a nap), I sit down and work out a menu plan for the coming week. Our food week runs Wednesday to Tuesday because our Riverford organic veg box delivery comes on Wednesday morning. One day, when we finally have the space to grow more of our own vegetables, we hopefully won't need it, but I like the way planning our food from a Wednesday divides the week up. There's too much stuff in every week to make it all happen on a Monday.

I plan our evening meals, the occasional lunch (usually lunch consists of leftovers, which take minimal planning), and the week's baking (I generally bake once or twice a week, depending on how much time/energy I have to spare). Breakfast pretty much takes care of itself - scones, toast or muffins if I've baked recently, porridge if not. You can see my beautifully divided up notepad in the image up top.

 I have a library's worth of recipe books, but my staples for recipe planning are those that are organised by seasons and/or are less structured (e.g. 'take one white fish fillet and some breadcrumbs') - makes life easier when you're eating seasonally (and once you eat decent, organic vegetables in season, you'll never go back to insipid December tomatoes). Number one resource is definitely Nigel Slater'sKitchen Diaries, but here are a few more of my weekly go to books:

1. Tender, also by Nigel Slater
2. Bake, by Rachel Allen (lots of basic goodies that you might never think to bake, like english muffins and bagels)
3. River Cottage Everyday, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A new addition, but it's shaping up nicely
4. Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver. Brilliant pizza dough/topping recipes, among other ideas

I also dip in and out of our two dozen or so other recipe books, as well as regularly borrowing from the library. I've currently got The Cook and the Gardener, by Amanda Hesser, out, and it's a lovely look at seasonal eating with lots of lovely, not too expensive but tasty looking recipes scattered throughout.

(ps, apologies for the poor pics - I have to take them when I get the chance, which is often in the dark!)