Week of Tuesday 1 September 2026
Short week — starts at Tuesday lunch, ends at Saturday lunch. You leave town Saturday evening. Every dinner cooks 4 portions: 2 eaten, 1 packed for her lunch tomorrow, 1 kept for yours.
Three things are different this week:
- Tuesday lunch has no dinner behind it. It is the only standalone lunch — everything after it is the previous night's dinner, as usual.
- No Saturday batch. You are away from Saturday evening, so a batch would stock a fridge nobody is eating from. Saturday lunch comes from Friday's soup instead. Nothing here depends on the fridge being pre-stocked either.
- The fridge has to land near empty. Quantities below are cut to what the week actually eats, so nothing is left rotting while you are gone.
Main shop is Monday, not Saturday — the week starts before a Saturday comes round.
Shopping
Produce
- Potatoes — 800 g
- Peppers — 2
- Red onion — 3
- Onion — 2
- Courgette — 1
- Carrot — 2
- Garlic — 1 bulb
- Tenderstem broccoli or green beans — 400 g
- Cherry tomatoes — 250 g
- Tomatoes — 4
- Cucumber — 1
- Lemon — 2
- Banana — 2
- Apple — 1
- Berries — 150 g (the other 150 g comes with the Thursday top-up, fresher)
Meat & fish
- Aldi pre-seasoned chicken thigh fillets — 800 g
- Pork mince — 400 g
- Salmon fillets — 4 (about 600 g)
Fridge
- Greek yogurt — 1.2 kg
- Milk — 2 L
- Eggs — 6
- Cheddar — 150 g
- Butter — 250 g
Cupboard
- Bread — 1 loaf
- Pasta — 400 g
- Rolled oats — 500 g
- Brown basmati rice — 500 g
- Tinned chopped tomatoes — 3 tins
- Tinned tuna — 1 tin
- Tinned cannellini or butter beans — 1 tin
- Red lentils — 300 g
- Stock cubes
- Peanut butter, honey
- Walnuts — 100 g
- Almonds — 60 g
- Olive oil, cumin, dried oregano, salt, pepper
Mid-week top-up — Thursday
Small, because it only has to reach Saturday lunch and then you are gone.
- Bread — 1 loaf
- Berries — 150 g (for Friday's oats, assembled Thursday evening)
- Milk — 1 L, only if the first 2 L is nearly out
No salad, no second cucumber — nothing this week needs them, and they would be left behind.
Breakfast rotation
- A — Overnight oats
- B — Eggs and toast
- C — Yogurt bowl
Toast and boiled egg is out this week — it runs on batch eggs and there is no batch.
TUESDAY
— Tuna and bean bowl, 1 portion
— Lunch
— Start Aldi seasoned chicken traybake
— Dinner
— Pack Wednesday. 1 portion into her container, fridge.
— Assemble Overnight oats for tomorrow
WEDNESDAY
— Oats out of the fridge
— Breakfast A
— Her container from the fridge into her bag
— Reheat Tuesday's traybake
— Lunch
— Start Pork bolognese
— Dinner
— Pack Thursday. 1 portion into her container, sauce and pasta mixed.
THURSDAY
— Breakfast B
— Her container from the fridge into her bag
— Reheat Wednesday's bolognese
— Lunch
— Start Salmon, rice and greens — rice cooker first
— Salmon into the oven
— Dinner
— Pack Friday. 1 portion into her container, salmon on the rice.
— Assemble Overnight oats for tomorrow
FRIDAY
— Oats out of the fridge
— Breakfast A
— Her container from the fridge into her bag
— Reheat Thursday's salmon and rice — half power
— Lunch
— Start Red lentil soup
— Dinner, with bread
— 2 portions into the fridge for tomorrow's lunch. No packing — she is home Saturday.
Clear-the-fridge night: the half-tin of beans from Tuesday goes in, and any veg left from the traybake. Both want using up.
SATURDAY
— Breakfast C
— Reheat Friday's soup, both portions. Loosen with water — it thickens
overnight.
— Lunch
Before you go. The fridge should be down to keepers — a little cheddar, butter, condiments. Tins, pasta, lentils and eggs are all spent by design. If a heel of bread is left, freeze it. Bin the milk if it will not survive the trip.
End of plan.