Hello Dear Reader,
.......cabbage!!!
Yep, mainly cabbage. I must be deficit in some minerals or others as I keep craving dark green vegetables. If I'm tired and I am for no particular reason, then a pile of veg is just what I need. I bought some chicken breasts and cut each into four pieces and we had two each for supper. Some, gluten free gravy, some broccoli and carrots and that will do. It's also really cheap as we're only eating just under 100g of chicken each, half a 39p cabbage each and 15p each of frozen veggies each.
I would love to show you fancy recipes, something retro or comforting in this endless bad weather but it's just greens. The 'savoy' season is over so now we're eating spring greens, finely sliced and steamed.
I'm also pounding the streets each night by power walking up and down the hilly bits, trying to decrease the excess.
Now, I'm stuffed full of food and off to bed.
Over to you, how do you eat healthily but keep to a small budget?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxx
Buying carefully is my first step. I also make sure to buy food that my family will eat! I also shop the outsides of the shop and leave the aisles alone as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteFortunately potatoes, carrots and cabbage, along with broccoli, are my very favorite vegs. All but broccoli are cheap, and it was on sale this week. I make small amounts of meat enough for more than one meal. I regularly cook one chicken breast for two people--they are usually large, at least 10 oz each--and 5 oz is enough for over 70 years per serving. In fact, I made "chicken fingers" the other day by dipping thin chunks in egg, then a mixture of corn meal, flour and spices. I fried them until brown on all sides, and when we finished there were three pieces left for a lunch. I paid $1.69 per pound for those chicken breasts. I served them with a pasta salad and steamed broccoli. I regularly use small portions for meat and large portions for veg!!
ReplyDeleteI buy carefully, scrounge when I can (!), cut the amount of meat, eat lots of the cheaper vegetables and, most important, plan, plan, plan.
ReplyDeleteJ x
I love my greens too! They really do make you feel better. I crave them after eating rubbish for a few days as well. I save money on food by buying tins of beans, as they're so nutritious. I take black beans for lunch at work with spinach and other veggies. I drizzle on balsamic vinegar. It sounds disgusting but it really is delicious!
ReplyDeleteVeg, Planning, Veg and more Veg!
ReplyDeleteI've been a long time reader of your blog Froogs, and it's helped us out no end and filled me with ideas. This is my first time posting, and I want to give something back, if only one person reads my comment and it helps them; then that's a job well done!
My Fiancé and I are a young couple (24 and 21) just setting up our first home, and planning for the rest of our lives together. We desperately want to buy a house, but understand that we have to do it the right way and control our money tightly. So are saving every spare penny towards a house deposit, whilst at the same time, still trying to enjoy life and do lovely things that we enjoy. This means we're on a strict budget for everything!
I manage to do our food shopping for £20 a week, to cover breakfast, packed lunches for work and dinner plus a few snacks to keep us going, and also including at least our 5 a day! The main things that help me achieve this are:
- Planning. I can not stress this enough, it ensures that when you go shopping you only buy what you need.
- Padding out meat with lots of inexpensive vegetables, carrots, onions, spinach etc. It makes the meat go further and you also sneak more goodness into your diet!
- Buying seasonally and locally.
- Making use of frozen versions of more expensive vegetables, like spinach, green beans etc.
- A cupboard full of seasonings and spices, plus a garden full of herbs. They can turn the most ordinary, bland ingredients into something delicious.
- Batch cooking at the weekends.
- Experimenting with new combinations and not being held back by the culinary 'norms'. Try something new if you think it'll work, you'll quite often be surprised!
There are also simple tricks to sneaking in extra fruit and veg to get to your 5 a day:
- Handful of value raisins on your cereal.
- Small glass of value fruit juice, once a day.
- A carrot cut into batons added to your packed lunc.
- Finely grate vegetables (carrots, onions, leeks, turnips etc) into the base of pasta sauces, lasagnes, currys etc, they all sweat down to nothing! But the goodness is still there.
- Add blocks of frozen spinach to ANYTHING. Risottos, sauces, stews...the list goes on.
My Fiancé has started her own blog recently and has asked me if I'd like to start documenting our food and putting some recipes up there soon, which I will definitely try and find the time to do. There are so many people struggling out there, and they feel like £10 or £20 isn't a lot to feed themselves, but with a little bit of culinary magic and some confidence in the kitchen, then it can go far!
You can check her (soon to be our) blog out here:
http://theendeavoursofacontentedhomemaker.blogspot.co.uk/
I'll stop rambling now.
You're a credit to your community Froogs and an inspiration to lots of people; you've definitely helped us on our way to achieving our goals.
Keep fighting the good fight,
Dene
Well honestly what makes the difference is probably the monthly lidl shop, also the three months a year I grow so many fresh veg that I do!'t need to buy any. That and the dry beans (soak overnight, cook quickly with some baking soda).
ReplyDeleteI have never been keen on broccoli, but I have always loved cabbage! :)
ReplyDeleteI try to follow pouting sizes recommended in the Shape Up programme which is from the charity Weight Concern. The recommendation for protein is size.of a small mathbox. Rice and pasta is 60g dry weight. Weighing and cutting up food is way to go.
ReplyDeleteTonight we had pizzas made mainly from leftovers and vegetables on their last legs! I made a batch of pizza dough, which made enough bases for tea today and lunches for another day. Topped with half a pack of passata (The rest will be the base of pasta sauce), half a red onion, 3 asparagus spears (split down the middle and charred in a skillet first), half a pepper (the other half sliced up and put into the freezer) 3 roasted chicken mini fillets (these were leftovers from another meal, chopped into slices), some tomatoes and grated cheese. It was really tasty and my 5 year old daughter had fun choosing her toppings and sprinkling them on herself!
ReplyDeleteI've recently discovered in the vegetable aisle, that my local supermarket has started bagging up the split packets and the last few loose vegetables when they put out new stock and selling these really cheaply. I got a huge bag of spring onions (about 3 bunches worth) for 22p, some banana shallots for 50p and 1.5kg of baking potatoes for 55p. We've been meal planning around our fruit and vegetable bargains each week and spending very little and each much more of our "5 a day".
Now you have me fancying cabbage too. I've been on a veg fest over the past few days, Lots of salad with tinned chick peas or beans, and veggie soups, but tomorrow it's sausage casserole and I think mashed spuds and steamed cabbage will be the perfect sides.
ReplyDeleteI do a monthly shop at Aldi that works out at around £50 , Included i that is a pack of Aldi minced beef £2.59 , I dry fry the whole pack with two onions and a couple of cloves of garlic that comes in a jar from home bargains , This makes four pasties , Spag bowl and a chilli , Straight away that's eight meals with store cupboard ingredients , A shoulder of pork creates another three meals , Chicken, two roast diners and a stir fry , Home made with pizza with pineapples or hot sliced peperoni All from Aldi in Also in the same shop sausages , gammon teaks , tinned tomatoes , beans, potatoes, fresh vegetables and some sacks ,This together with home bakes of bread and cakes and any top up of things we run out of makes our monthly shop at between £25/£35 per week , This might not be everybody's Idea of healthy eating but its all home cooked with hardly any convenience foods x
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say our garden saves us a bundle. It isn't particularly large but we grow enough to eat fresh and put some up. I buy in season and will freeze extra for later in the year. I purchase meat when on sale and in "family" packs then separate in meal size portions and freeze. If a recipe calls for 1 pound ground beef I use 3/4 pound. Chicken breasts are a favorite and I will take one and slice thinner for 2 servings that look large. I buy a whole pork loin on sale and have it cut with 2 small (rubber) roasts and the rest thin cut chops. I make my own turkey meatballs and portion control them 4 tastes as good as 6. We stay away from pastas, potatoes, rice and minimize our whole grain breads. Sandwiches are often open face (on one slice of bread).I plate smaller portions at the stove and put the least expensive item on the table for seconds if wanted. Often some apple sauce or more of a veggie (mom always did that with the 7 of us).My favorite thing to do is; I look at what I have and think about what I can do with it without buying anything else. Foods with lots of flavor are used in lesser quantity and stretched out. IE: Tonight we had mixed veggie salads with some ham, and shaved parmesan cheese. I had lots of fresh spinach and added some iceburg lettuce in a big bowl each. to each salad I added 3 thin slices of cucumber each cut in half, 1/8 bell pepper sliced thin, 1/8 of an onion sliced thin (strong flavors that go a long way)about a 1/4 cup of my own canned diced tomatoes (strained so the salad would not get soggy (juice saved for another time), 1/2 a chopped hard boiled egg, 2 slices of thin sliced ham normally used for a sandwich sliced in strips and some fresh shaved cheese. I sprinkled a vinaigrette dressing that I added 2 crushed strawberries to. The salads were huge and served with a small glass of wine. For dessert we had a couple of whole strawberries each. It was a lovely, inexpensive healthy meal. There are plenty of all the ingredients except the greens to add to another creation.
ReplyDeleteI crave fresh veggies every spring, after eating canned and frozen for the winter. It's not for everyone but growing and canning is a wonderful way to save. In a small space a lot of tomatoes can be harvested and eaten and preserved. If you only have to buy meat and a few staples like flour and salt it makes a huge difference. We also go to stores that cater to the restaurant trade and buy the huge bags of things, split them up and freeze in small packages. We grow herbs and dry them for the winter but eat fresh all summer and it also adds up a little here a little there.
ReplyDeleteI also eat healthily on a small budget by shopping at Aldi. I use the bigger supermarkets to stock up on offers such as bread flour, toothpaste, Simple soap, laundry liquid and shampoo etc. I use Mysupermarket to keep track of what's on offer at various supermarkets. But for the bulk of the food, it's Aldi, batch cooking and freezing, and making packed lunches every day.
ReplyDelete