My Organized Meal Plan Shopping Lists for Busy Moms…

TIPS TO REDUCING THE SHOPPING AND THE HASSLE OF THINKING WHAT SHALL WE HAVE FOR DINNER TONIGHT:

1. Look through the leftovers in the freezer and start the meal plan by thinking of meals to use that stuff up (also saves on how much stuff you need to buy)
2. Write simple meals – do easy quick meals and take-aways on the days we have no evening time or only 15 mins to cook for example.
3. Shop for the whole 2 weeks, only topping up fruit and veg after week 1.
4. Go to the butchers to get the meat – better quality and usually cheaper
5. Go to LIDLs get everything possible – their prices are good!
6. Go to the other supermarket to get anything you couldn’t get yet.

I often find that using this method I get a free week – where I have overcooked or not cooked or find that I have enough excess food to do a whole week without shopping at all…

Week One Menu

Mon - Homemade meatballs and pasta
Tues – (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – Fish, wedges and peas
Thurs – Chinese chicken and rice
Fri – Spaghetti bolognaise
Sat – Chicken pie, veg and small potatoes
Sun – Roast beef, veg, rice, roast potatoes – apple crumble

Week Two Menu

Mon – Mackeral in scrambled egg with chips and salad
Tues – (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – Seafood pie (prawns and white fish) with mash topping and peas
Thurs – Chicken kebabs with rice and fruity sauce
Fri – Fish chips and sweetcorn
Sat - Beef casserole, carrots, potatoes, celery, swede and rice
Sun – more casserole with rice and roast potatoes

Week 1&2 shopping list example:
Butchers: mince x 2, chicken fillets x 2, beef for the roast, beef for the casserole
LIDLS: bolognaise sauce, pasta, 3 cheese pizza, 2 tuna pizzas, onions, potatoes, lettuce, lemon, garlic, frozen green veg, frozen peas, rice, curry sauce, herb de province, tin of fruit, brocolli, carrots, apples, nectarines, flour, sugar, juice x 12, milk x 6, crème fraische, beer, wine, bread x 4, butter x 3, cake mix, snacks for kids x 2 packets, 6 cokes for son, lemonade x1 bottle, oil for fryer (3l), 2 bags croissants, 2 bags chocolate brioches, 20 fruit corners, choc cereal bars, sandwich bags, cling film, black bags, oven cleaner, cheese x 2, coleslaw, washing powder, carton drinks, ice cream, eggs, hot sauce, frozen white fish (bag of 1kg), fish fingers and frozen chips (backup).
Other supermarket – for anything u could get.

Week Three Menu

Mon – Honey chicken, rice and runner beans
Tues – (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – salmon salad and wedges
Thurs – Shelphers pie and brocolli
Fri – Turkey in pitta with crème fraische sauce and salad
Sat – Beef loaf, wedges, peas or veg
Sun – Roast chicken, rice, veg, Yorkshire puddings, roast pots – fruit pie

Week Four Menu

Mon – Tuna burgers salad and chips
Tues – (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – Stir fry chicken, beansprouts, peppers, onions, noodles
Thurs – home made moussaka, wedges, brocolli
Fri – curry chicken, pineapple and rice
Sat – fish and chips
Sun – Roast chicken

Week 3&4 shopping list example:
Butchers: chicken fillets, turkey fillets, chicken to roast x 2,
LIDL’s: 2 x cake mix, salmon slices, mince x 2, eggs, chips, crème fraische, brocolli, chilli peppers and hot sauce, rice, potatoes, cucumber, pineapple, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, carrots, frozen peas, apples, bananas, pizzas x 6, brown bread x 4, curry powder, dishwasher tablets, honey, chocolate mousse, snacks for kids, biscuits, butter, beansprouts, tins of tuna x 4, coleslaw, sweet and sour sauce, marmalade, powdered brown sugar, coffee, black bags, 4 x orange juice, 4 x apple juice, muffins x 8, 2 bags of croissants, chocolate brioches x 10, waffles x 1, crisps x 2 big packs, yoghurts x 18, beer, wine, lasagna slices and aubergine for moussaka,
Other supermarket – for anything u could get.

Week Five Menu

Mon – Homemeade apple and beef meatballs with rice
Tues - (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – Fish, wedges and salad
Thurs – Spaghetti Bolognaise
Fri – Jacket potatoes, salad and chicken burgers
Sat – white fish with pasta and salad – crispy garlic bread
Sun – Roast chicken

Week Six Menu

Mon – Beef loaf, mash, peas gravy
Tues - (do Pizza for 3 girls after private lesson)
Wed – Chicken stirfry with noodles
Thurs – Kebabs
Fri – Fish n chips and sweetcorn or salad
Sat – Chinese or roast (depending on man’s flight schedule!)
Sun – Roast or leftovers with pasta and bread!

Week 6&7 shopping list example:
Butchers: 3 chicken fillets, chicken to roast
LIDL’s: pizza 2 tuna 2 beef 2 cheese, eggs, butter, chips, potatoes, garlic, brocolli, carrots, cauliflower, caugettes, flour, sugar lumps, coffee, ice tea syrop, cokes, cartons not orange, chocolate spread, marmalade, wine cartons, port and brandy for xmas stock, limous champage (3.99!) frozen baguettes x 2 packs, burger buns, 2 x choco breads, 2 x bags of croissants, 4 x sliced bread, cheese x 2, coleslaw, yoghurts x 20, 8 orange guide, 4 apple juice, 2 any juice, milk x 6, toilet roll x 12 min, toilet duck x 3, crisps, noodles, snacks for kelisse, tin sweetcorn, tin mushroom, cooking oil, olive oil,
Other supermarket – for anything u could get or prefer their brand: mayonnaise, mice, ginger root, frozen peas, black bags.

Marseille's Famous Sunday Fish Market

Down at the Old Port every Sunday there is a fish market. The fishermen pull up in their boats and unload the fish from the nets - you can't buy much fresher than that.


Plenty of different varieties, some I have heard of and plenty I hadn't: Loop, Merlon, pink fish, rock looking fish, squid, and even the remains of a tuna (its tail fin) that had obviously been cut up during the morning.



A great sunny Sunday morning thing to do in Marseille at any time of the year. A quick wander around the port watching the bustling fishermen and their wives selling, gutting and chopping to order. Another Marseille Must Do!

IKEA marseille la valentine

First we Visited the market - a local one, dropped daughter at horse riding and at Plan de Cuques we visited a superb market for clothes, shoes and stuff, reasonable prices, like La Pleine without having to visit centre ville! I will be back and Mum did manage to treat me to one or two things while we were there - great little market. Could do more time next week!

And wow! How easy it is to do a makeover with IKEA - u can think it, look it up, go get it easily and fix it up same day - for peanuts! - I AM LOVING THAT. The whole house has had a makeover except my daughter's room. So, with 2hrs to spare today I took my Mum. I have got to say even for marseille that is the most packed I have ever ever seen IKEA at La Valentine! a wet week, near to xmas, during the holidays, it waas mahem! Still with some determination we managed to find the necessities and a bit more to take the final room in the house to another level and returned to deal with the usual IKEA click clack flip flap furniture that I will finish tomorrow. Can't wait - Tidy house, tidy mind!

I am in it with IKEA, i know the layout the floorplan, where u can get that, what aisle, if u can get it downstairs, i am miss IKEA, so i can rush through or even check the map and do a left to miss out the kitchens, u know u have to be like that if you have kids or limited time! lol. Mum wants to browse and though its nice, before I realise it we are at 1hr to go until child collection and I know the till will be ram! I try to put the pace on, not to lose mum but to speed up somewhat out of browse mode into get it done get out on time mode. We do, but when we get out its 5 on a saturday and the traffic is BAD!, lucky i did get to my daughter ontime and I wasnt really stressin but imagine Mum, I need to give her more of a holiday chilled experience even though she does love to be a part of sorting my life out and making it better - which this is..

And, this week, I AM LOVING MY MUSIC - as an expat I think sometimes u gotta make yourself feel at home and comfortable, MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC is such a healer, for everything - I am really feeling some!

I'm glowing inside, maybe not enough on the outside, I'm really loving my man, I'm really appreciating my music, and most of my life really tho I admit it is tough at times and there are areas that test us more and more, for all of us in whatever way, its a struggle but lets LIVE IT!

Standard Visit Parents England Trip

Well, that was what I thought it would be, but it actually resulted in me destressing, playing and chatting with my kids AND my parents. No disputes, no stress, no rushing, had a really chilled visit.

I think it was mainly due to me not planning to see lots and lots of friends, I stuck to seeing the mother in law, and my sis-in-law and our mutual friend with kids the same age.

Did all the usual stuff, stocked up on Worcester Sauce, Brown sauce, Jelly and that dried cheese we like to sprinkle on our bolognaise. Couple of pairs of trainers, watches and jeans combined with a MacDo breakfast (something the French don't do) - we were set!

Great to see Mum and Dad, had a good time with Dad asking loads of questions on the PC, and for once Im able to help him - that course I bought for his birthday did him the world of good. And Mum, always my biggest supporter in life, within about a day she has made me feel so much better about some of my biggest worries.

Had a bit of a rememberance to why we left UK when a man in Superdrug cleared off with a whole shelf of deoderants before my very eyes. But overall, the vibe was very chilled, I visited Battersea park for the first time, Hylands, Maldon and the local village park - all superb places to visit in G.B.

Back in France now, was great to be hit by that HEAT!!!
yes it was great, but now hubby back from work early and Brother's family due tomorrow - kind of sorted.. kind of ready.. havent hosted for a bit though!!!

Have a car to see locally and some courses in mind for the coming year - along with WORK ideas ! yes really!

Shopping Therapy - The "East Street" Market of Marseille

Having lived here for over a year, I still crave shopping in the cheapy markets of London, where you can still get a dress for two pounds and some shoes for five. Every visit back to UK involves a lot of shopping and picking up essential outfits for children etc..

But today, my prayers were answered, and my son showed me a superb little market La Pleine. Two stops on the tube and we arrived at my heaven in the sun.

A colourful bustling array of fruit, clothes, toiletries and all the everyday stuff we need to be buying at budget prices. The photo above doesn't do justice - I will take my own next time.

Kids Birkenstock style for 5e, adults same and real Birkenstocks for 30e. Dresses and tops galore from 1e-5e - even the most expensive designer items were a mere 20e or so...

My son and I went to buy trainers... we didn't find them but... despite me saying I wouldn't buy anything..

I bought him two pairs of shorts and a top, my daughter 3 pairs of shoes and a shorts set. Hubby some 3/4 linen shorts and a nice t-shirt, and myself 3 dresses a pair of shoes and a bijoux (necklace). So much for not spending any money LOL - but it was great. Feel like a new woman!! He bought himself some RayBan sunglasses.

My son got off the tube two stops before me with his new t-shirt and shorts in a bag ready to meet a friend and go straight off to the beach! - ah what a life.

This market is open Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings - I will be back!

How to get round your Ebay Ban ...

Forget paying 20 pounds for the information in an e-book - if you like what you read below, please click on one of my adsense links on this page.

So, you are reading this because you have probably been banned from Ebay like I was a couple of times... mostly totally my own fault selling my old designer goods without the receipts so the ebay police think that they are dodgy. And then the last shutdown was totally unfair - awarded by four bad feedbacks - from the same buyer who wanted me to reduce my postage by an unreasonable 23 euros.

So can we start again?
YES

1. You need to clear the cookies on your PC first.

On your internet browser to to TOOLS - CLEAR PRIVATE DATA - and check - CLEAR COOKIES..

This gets rid of the massive 59 cookies that Ebay manages to set on your system.

2. Get a new email account

Use hotmail or yahoo, simple and free

3. Get a new paypal account

Use your new email address to open a new paypal account.
(Add a new bank/credit card so that you will be able to trade on Ebay - if you only have one bank card you will need to go into your old paypal account, empty your funds and close the old paypal account with that card attached before you continue)

4. Open a new ebay account

Use the new email address, the new paypal account and you should be up and running straight away.

After all these times of being banned and trying to reopen my account by getting one or the other of the above sorted out - I realise that you DO need to go back to the root and delete the cookies and get new everything to proceed on Ebay without incurring repeat problem within 48hrs or so.

BUT - HEY IT WORKS - AND MY INFO IS FREE - PLEASE CLICK MY ADSENSE IF YOU LIKED THIS!

France Telecom - "Extreme Shopping"

WOAH - this is "extreme shopping" - to buy something from France Telecom. It should be like one of those Japanese game shows, to see how much humiliation you can endure in one shop!

I bought a simple item from France Telecom yesterday, queued for an hour to get served, then it took about half an hour to process the sale on their computer system and then when i left the shop I was told, it will activate in the next hour or so.

Waited for the rest of the day, the night and the next morning went down there again. Big queue, at least 5 people in front wanting to buy stuff, so took my not working item to the desk and explained that I have actually been waiting nearly 24hrs seems a little unfair to wait 2 more while they sell some more stuff that doesnt work.

A man came out with some bingo tickets to organize the queue, he gave me the first ticket, then proceeded to the rest of the people, gave them out tickets and came back to me and said that I would be served after the rest as I came in last - despite the fact mine is an after sales problem and that I queued yesterday. I suggested that he organized the queue into after sales problems and new sales as it might be a bit fairer - he looked at me like an alien.

Waited best part of an hour, then when it was my turn, they tested everything, re-registered it and told me it will work in the next 24hrs (but they all looked uncertain that this was reality). I said that its not good enough to leave me like this, petrol and time are expensive and I will not leave the shop without a piece of paper that gives me the right to jump the queue if there is the need to go back to the shop again.

Oh this was a big problem - the alien wants something from outside of the box ! - but in the end the manager signed something and I have left it like this. They expected me to say thanks and be happy - even though the item I bought, that has already taken up 4 hours of my time, is STILL NOT WORKING and now I must wait 24hrs and still there is still a big chance I may need to go back to the shop and do it all again!

Talk about banging your head against brick wall some days!

grrr

PART TWO:
Called Orange this evening as I just can't imagine going back to the shop and keeping myself composed - they said the card is not registered properly and there is nothing I can do but go back to the shop, call Orange while I am in there, and don't budge until its fixed...
I have a plan - to go in - they will recognise my alien self (and anyway I have my priority queue jump ticket from this morning) - I will leave them with the problem to sort out and tell them what the Orange man said tonight, go to Lidl's and shop, then come back and call the man, if they haven't fixed it... (which you already kind of know they won't have, they will put it to one side until I get back most probably)

grr - how can buying a small item take up so much time and effort? only in this land!

France - Life beyond the croissants...

Sometimes from our sleepy villages and slow siestas the world could almost pass us by.. thats why its not a bad idea to find out whats going on in the news from time to time - to remember we are in 2008, living in a supposedly democratic society, its an olympic year and many people in the world are at still at war, suffering terrible famine or fighting the backlash of natural disaster.

China are boycotting Carrefour after the fiasco with getting the olympic torch through Paris. They have over 100 hypermarkets in China so this will undoubtedly affect finances. There have already been protests outside some of the stores and the Chinese are taking it as a very serious insult from France.

Nicolas Sarkozy (Mr Boombastic for those of you who watch Headcases - The new spitting image) is not helping the situation with his refusal to rule out a boycott of the opening ceremony. But Im sure his wife will look good in her kimono eh!?

And sadly, just last night half a ton of canabis was seized coming here to the South of France from Morrocco... in a helicopter! - these guys are high tech and they have money to jet set in private helicopters - I am surely in the wrong game with my green fingers! 600000 euros worth of smoke that will not be hitting the streets of Marseille and Cannes this summer - bit of a shame for the mellow laid back vibe really!

Well off out to the real Marseille, to face the long queue in the supermarket even at the swipe and go counter - I actually think they have programmed their checkouts and tills to work slower to suit their pace of life.. Next stop this morning to get some forms filled out by various members of the community (doctor, mairie, bank, insurance - this is just to get an application for my son to get to Lycee in September - though you really would have thought this would be mandatory, and perhaps done for you in the education system - oh no! another folder of paper commences! lol)

oooh oh oh got to go - everything still shuts at 12 you know! and soon it won't reopen til 3pm because of the intense heat! ah siesta life!

Amsterdam Shopping

What heaven it was to find the market near to CentreBaum... like how East Street used to be in the better days before it went downhill. An abundance of boots, clothes, watches, handbags, underwear, cosmetics and traditional stuff too. A really lively market, where you could get just about anything for a very decent bartered price. Of course my partner had already bought an abundance of things for me, so we browsed only and decided to come back to that market and those shops later in the week. In fact there are several great shopping areas in Amsterdam, of which we only explored this one, so I always have another excuse to go back to this city.

On returning to the market, Tuesday, I managed to buy 2 pairs of boots, 2 pairs of shoes, a dress, skirt, several tops, some jewellery and a few other bits.... It was SUPERB! Forgot to buy presents and postcards - does that make me shallow?
(sorry to all family and friends - but i hell i look good LOL)

A day in the life...

A normal day so far in the life of marseille mum..

just going around doing and thinking and thinking and doing..

went to the post office to send off a couple of ebay shop items and collect some - collection ok - a deisel tshirt that i thought i had been knocked on and a G-unit tag that wasnt worth what i paid for it. The items to post ok except i had completely misjudged how much one would cost and decided to come back home and ask the buyer for a few pounds more to save any loss..

next stop bank - usually a very friendly place since ive been here but a new lady was training someone on the caisse and also chatting to her friend on her mobile, so took ages to ask simple question, which resulted in me needing to have an appointment to ask! will go next thursday (this is why some things take so long here!)

next stop car wash - nah maybe not - a bit cold still after the SNOW this week - YES SNOW - first time in 3 yrs they have had it YUK..

next stop geant to check out their cheap digi picture frames - fantastic buy bought 10 - will give some as presents and sell some... back to 1, 2, 3 euro shop (which im not sure why its called this as i always spend more than 20 euros when i go there!) - bought a million small items for presents and ebay shop and came out xx euros lighter as usual... struggled across the car park who's queue was now backing up into the main road through marseille and headed home...

ok so i didnt make the car wash - so, one large cuppachino and big spliff later - got my washing up bowl out and washed it anyway - its a 15 minute job really being a convertible its only like half a car to wash - fab - job done - took photos to sell it...

only now i need to clean the inside to get a few roof down shots... am pschying myself up for phase two with another coffee and another ...

ebays going ok but need to make more profit and quicker profits.. have a few d&g jackets for sale in the next couple of days so will have to see what prevails...

no more thoughts for right now, but i like this bloggy thing... living here with no one to chat to except myself some days gives me a little outlet... clears a space for a little more thought..

gone now
to do car interior (using pledge - hope thats ok)
get the roof down and take some pics
(im sure the people who live upstairs already think im mad so it wont matter to be putting the roof down on such a frosty day)