When is a MTD not a MTD?

I have been making MTD's for a long time now, I think they are a great way to make a dinner time a bit of fun, a once a week fun treat. There is though a resemblance to a Japanese meal, I'm not talking about the cute picks, I am talking about the little bowls, I don't do the full Japanese meal thing very often mainly because I can't be bothered, I am not a slave to the stove! and then there is all the washing up, it uses sooo many dishes to do the whole Japanese meal lark. Now, I should say, I do cook Japanese food, we often have okonomiyaki, oyakudon, nikujaga that kind of thing but they are all one pot type of dishes. I am very English in that respect, just shove it all on one plate! 

This is what Ebi-kun had the other night, we didn't have any miso, so no soup.

From the left, simmer tofu, steamed carrots and beans, simmer pumpkin, steamed broccoli, tamago-yaki (rolled omlette) and rice. If I had put them all in muffin tin liners it would have easily been a muffin tin dinner.

And this is the washing up after lunch at the in-laws, the main dish had been sushi that had been ordered in so there was no big plates for that, these are all the little plates for the side dishes!

I often get asked by Japanese people here what kind of food I cook at home, I'd say we have a very international diet. A typical week will have pasta a couple of nights (everyone's favourite), some kind of tortillas, something Japanese, tagine, pizza. In the summer we have salads in the winter soups and stews. I have tried menu planning but it always fails because you can bet your life when I go to the supermarket they haven't got the main ingredient for the dish, so it is more a matter of buying what looks good then deciding what to do with it!

And here is this weeks actual MTD...

From the top, cucumber, yellow pepper, trail mix, crisps, sausages, pasta and cheese cubes in the middle.