February Meal Plan & Beef Pot Pie

I menu/meal plan every week.

Every. Week.

Early on, when I became a Mom I realized that one of my biggest stresses every day was wondering what I had in the house to make for dinner. Especially when the kids were really young and I had to come up with breakfast and lunches too! It didn’t take me long to realize that this particular major stress in my life was completely avoidable if I just planned ahead! I also hated throwing out food because I would just go to the store and pick up whatever suited my fancy and then I didn’t use it all! I hated that. I also hated that we kept on going to prepackaged foods because it was easier and that was what was in the house.

I used to plan a week at a time but since Covid I have been planning a month at a time. By doing this I can limit my shopping trips. Once I know all the meat we need for the month I can go to the butcher, once. I also pick up all of the pantry items in one go and only have to stop in for fresh produce.

So, I have 6 helpful tips that makes meal planning easier!

1. I like to write it down on a calendar so that I can see it. When I can see the whole week or month right in front of me, I can see if I am repeating any food items. This sometimes happens when I have a craving for something while meal planning. Sometimes I look over the week and see chicken parmesan, lasagna, and chili all in one week 😆 ummmmm is someone craving tomato sauce?? 🤣.

2. The easiest way to avoid repetition is to make a theme on each day of the week! If you’re doing it by the month you can switch up the themes, for example every Tuesday does not need to be taco Tuesday but you can have taco Tuesday one week and enchiladas the next Friday! These themes can be as easy as breakfast, Mexican, pasta, fish, Asian, barbecue, meatless, and my favorite… Surprise. Once you have a theme it’s easier to pinpoint a meal you’d like to make that day.

3. Make sure to always check your pantry, freezer, and fridge before you meal plan each week! This will make less waste and more savings in your wallet! Sometimes seeing what you have inspires the whole menu that week! A budget tip: I am a PC points getter so I always check my weekly point flyer each week to optimize my savings. If you’re planning for the month this is the perfect time to stock up on pantry items that you will need in the future!

4. Know that you don’t have to stick to the plan! I always make sure 1 or 2 of my dinners can be moved around. I may not feel like spaghetti on Monday but at least I have the ingredients in case I want it on Saturday! For most of the week the Girls dance around dinner time. This makes it hard to put dinner on the table for all 4 of us at the same time. Sometimes we all have to eat quite early to make sure we’re having a good healthy dinner, sometimes it’s later. So for the most part the dinners I choose for the weekdays tend to be time sensitive. As in, they don’t take much time to make 🤣. One day HBear gets home at 4:20 and SBean’s first class starts at 4:50. So I plan for something that I can make at different times instead of a one pot meal that can’t be timed for 2 different dinner times. I hope that made sense LOL. So yesterday we had salad that could be prepped early and grilled cheese sandwiches. We also always plan for take out or/and support local 1-2 a week. 

5. I add my menu to my phone calendar. By doing this I can add the recipe link to the notes section so that I can have the recipe close at hand.

Beef Pot Pie

2 cups leftover beef roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ onion, finely diced
2 carrots, peeled & sliced (1/2 cup if using frozen veggies like I did)
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 potatoes
1/2 cup red wine
1 bay leaf
2 cups beef broth
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen sweet corn
salt and pepper
1 double deep dish frozen pie shell 
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.

Poke potatoes with a fork and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Cool and dice into small squares.

Add onion, carrots (my carrots were frozen so I threw them in with the peas and corn), and celery. Saute until onions are soft and translucent. 

Add potatoes and heat for a couple of minutes while stirring.

Add wine, reduce to ½ volume. Add bay leaf.

Add broth and milk, bring to low boil, reduce heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.

Slowly add flour to desired consistency.

Add mustard, Worcestershire sauce and leftover beef roast, stir and continue to heat on low simmer.

Add peas, corn, (frozen carrots) salt and pepper to taste.

Add beef mixture, using slotted spoon to tart shell. (Remove bay leaf.) Add about ½ cup of sauce to top of beef mixture.

Top beef mixture with second pie shell, conform edges to perimeter of pie. Cut slits into the top of the pie and brush top with egg.

Place in oven for 35 to 40 minutes, until golden brown.

Allow to sit for 5 minutes before serving.

This week was quiet. Every week seems to be quiet these days. We had cuddles, watched Gilmore Girls while HBear iced/heated her sore dancer body, I had a budget committee meeting and both of the Girls were home sick for a day this week and even Ninja spent a day in bed enjoying sicky snuggles 💛. 

When he was feeling better he surprised me with doughnuts, Starbucks and flowers followed by my absolute favourite lunch in town! Egg salad from The Bench Market!

We had date night with RASBesty and Lady Friend, SBean made us crepes for breakfast and homemade buns for dinner
and we enjoyed a delicious bottle from Clos du Soleil which is co-owned by Dr Bonnie Henry. We supported local with a 
delicious dinner from Loki’s Garage and we made/ate lots of yummy dinners for the rest of the week.

I am still going strong with my 30 day Yoga with Adriene, we registered for a safe distance public skate with a few of our friends from dance and we ended our week with fresh falling snow!