Meal Plan #3; with a little help from DinnerTime UAE

This is my first meal plan that will be totally cooked on my beautiful new cooker in my beautiful and big new kitchen.  I am so happy with our new house right now you wouldn't believe!

I am however a little restricted on what I can cook because my doctor has threatened me with bed rest more than once and due to my blood pressure spikes he has told me not to be on my feet for too long.  Fine by me, but not so good in the kitchen, especially as I have a freezer to fill with nutrition before I have the baby.

Now I may have mentioned in last week’s meal planthat I used a recipe from DinnerTime UAE, well this week I have gone one better and I actually had the DinnerTime box delivered to me.  Win-win as I haven’t been on my feet shopping and my exhausted brain hasn’t had to think of new food to try that is healthy as that task has been done for me!

So this week’s meal plan, though retrospectively what we ate last week, is mainly courtesy of the lovely people from DinnerTime.

For those of you who aren’t sure of who DinnerTime is, or what they are trying to achieve, well I will tell you.  The concept is pretty simple, how often are you confused at the thought of what to make for dinner?  Or bewildered in the supermarket over which ingredients to buy.  And more often than not in Dubai, being stood in the supermarket wondering what that vegetable actually is…..and then if you are like me throwing in a slightly fussy husband and a toddler who is starting to declare his independence through refusal of food more often than not….you are led to wondering how to get healthy meals into you all.  Healthy HOMECOOKED meals at that.

Which is where DinnerTimecomes into play.  As they say, simply put, they deliver the freshest ingredients and recipes to your door, and you do the rest.  With each recipe taking in the region of 30 minutes to prepare then it isn’t too much of an ask I don’t think, and voila a healthy meal on the nights you need it, I could be a 1950’s housewife yet….

Look at these lovely ingredients delivered to my door!

Without further ado I shall now lead you to my menu plan for the week, I’ve noted where I can’t take credit, and as the days go on and I get more pregnant with the 2 year old in tow my imagination becomes less as you will see, hence why DinnerTime has arrived at a crucial period of our lives.  The lovely man even brought it right into my kitchen for me so I didn’t have to carry anything.

Now all photos below are courtesy of DinnerTime, but I will be sharing recipes in the coming weeks so you can see what my version looks like too! 

Monday; Pan Grilled Chicken with Basil Cream Sauce and Roast Cherry Tomatoes

A DinnerTime recipe; quick grilled (and I part baked) chicken with a herby, creamy sauce.  Served with roasted tomatoes for a splash of colour, kale for a bit of crunch, and potatoes for a bit of carb loading!  I served with the sauce poured all over the top, but I am a sauce fiend, and had bread to mop it up as well…..

Tuesday; Grilled Lime Fish Kebabs with Kale Salad

Using Nile Perch rather than the standard Cod I was excited to try these as fish is something I have been a bit wary about out here.  Mainly because I don’t know how to cook with it, or what to cook, because it is different to the standard cod/haddock/salmon that I got used to back in the UK.

DinnerTime says “Zesty and fresh, mildly spiced fish kebabs served with an easy and super healthy kale and tomato salad on the side” well they didn’t fail to disappoint.  I left out the tomatoes because we don’t like them raw, and had a job convincing the husband to eat the kale…incidentally that was another great thing about DinnerTime, they told me how to prepare Kale, did you know that you need to massage it first?!  I didn’t!

Wednesday: Carrot and Ginger Soup with Cheesy Pull Apart Bread

Now here, myself and DinnerTime are in complete agreement that soup is a great meal.  The husband does not agree, so me and the toddler had this for lunch.  Our favourite part?  The Cheesy Pull Apart Bread, which sounds complicated, but involves no kneading or rising or anything along those lines.

Thursday: Takeaway

Some things can’t be taken away even by healthy good food…..it’s become a weekly tradition now, Daddy finishes work, we all have takeaway, we all collapse asleep in bed early.

Friday: Meatball and Pesto Pasta

We’ve had a lot of pesto from a jar with marathon training.  And I have been meaning to look up a recipe and give it a try but couldn’t face looking up a recipe and then searching out the ingredients.  More fool me as it is simple to source and you can add more than just herbs.  Spinach, basil, walnuts, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil……lots of lovely green there.

And meatballs with oats added to them?  Yummy. Though I do still love my Delia pork sausage meat meatballs I can’t lie, but these are a delicious alternative.  And expensive jarred pesto when I can make my healthy own?  I think Sacla will be resigned to the shelves from now on.

Saturday: Roast Chicken dinner with Yorkshire Puddings

Seeing as Saturday here is the UK equivalent of Sunday and we are getting close to having a little one join us, we decided to make the most of this and have a big family sit down meal this week, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, lashings of gravy, and Yorkshire Puddings.  I know they are for beef, but we LOVE them.  So they make every roast dinner in our house.  And yes, I do make them from scratch (thank you Delia Smith for teaching me how)

Sunday: Popcorn Shrimp, Potato Wedges and Salad

OK so my DinnerTime box ran out, and I admit that this is actually a freezer pre-packaged dish.  But the breaded popcorn shrimp tastes just like scampi, and as the toddler declared “delicious” so I don’t feel too bad, especially after all the healthy, fresh veg I managed to pack in with the DinnerTimerecipes.

WIN a DinnerTime Box

Now the lovely people at DinnerTimeare also letting me share this week’s recipes with all my readers.  They will be on the blog over the next few weeks, in my “Food for Thought” slot on a Tuesday.  And for those of you in Dubai who are still skeptical?  There is also a chance to win a week’s box.  

To enter please complete the Rafflecopter below, UAE residents only.  Giveaway ends at midnight next Wednesday the 15th of April, so you can get your order in before the 4pm delivery slot rolls round on Thursday.  Prize valid until the end of April.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And as DinnerTime are expanding you have plenty to choose from; standard, gluten free, Paleo, Vegetarian menus, with all details on what you could be eating found here.  

Last week I was completely torn between the Paleo box and the standard box but the cheesy pull apart bread won me over (and for good reasons too).

Can’t wait to find out more?  Well there is a sneaky promotional video which showcases what sort of food you can expect to receive and more importantly WHY its good for you….

What's stopping you?


Disclaimer: I received a free weekly box in exchange for this honest blog review.  All opinions are my own.