Part time vegetarian?

To keep within our food budget and to buy good quality meat we often have a couple of meat free nights a week. We also try and stretch meat out in meals by bulking it with beans and veg. A whole chicken can now last use three/four meals, it used to last us two.

I went to a friends house for dinner on Wednesday and tried quorn mince for the first time. Her family have been using it as part of their slimming world meal plan. I must admit I wasn't looking forward to trying it as I've always have the mindset that I would rather go meatfree than to use a meat alternative. She cooked it in a spaghetti bolognese and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't think it had as much flavour as used beef mince but it got me thinking I could possibly use it again.

The price of quorn mince also makes it appealing. I noticed it in aldi yesterday and it was priced at £1.48 for 300grams. Have you tried meat alternatives before? Do you have a recipe it works well in?

Here are some meatless meal ideas if you need to stretch your budget this month:

• Omelettes
• Stuffed peppers
• Quinoa burgers
• Fried rice
• Veggie pasta
• Black beans and rice
• Sandwiches for dinner
• Muffins or bread with veggies/fruit such as courgette muffins 
• Veggie curry
• Dinner picnic style with chopped veggies, fruit, crackers and cheese
• Smoothie
• Cheese/beans/eggs on toast

Meal plan 16th February - 8th March

So after meaning to do a new meal plan for about a week I finally ticked it off my list tonight. This time I've done a three week meal plan which takes us up until we go away. Our cupboards are still pretty full after our tesco shop and I'm hoping we have enough meat to last us the next three weeks. There is currently only one night I'm out so I have planned a meal for most nights.

16 beef stew with salad on the side
17 salad and stuffed peppers
18 I'm out. My husband will have fish
19 chicken quarters and veg
20 chicken or veggie pasta
21 gammon steaks with pineapple and homemade chips
22 I have some mince. I'm thinking of doing either lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.

23 whole chicken in the slow cooker with veg
24 egg fried rice with leftover chicken
25 pasta with leftover chicken
26 pork chops
27 omelettes
28 homemade quiche
1 leftovers


2 chicken quarters and veg
3 something with chicken breasts
4 quinoa burgers
5 chicken pasta with leftover chicken
6 omelettes and salad
7 veggie curry
8 leftovers


I've figured this week I will need to buy eggs and gluten free flour to make a batch of Yorkshire puddings with but hoping that I may be able to have a week spending very little. I'm planning on spending no more than £150 again this month and will take what we don't spend as spending money for our week away. Deducting £14.21 from our tesco shop we have £135.79. What's on your meal plan this week? Claire

Tesco food haul

After our  Last shop we had £27 left in our budget. Tesco send  an email with a £15 off a £60 voucher and I also had a voucher though the post for £5 off £25. I decided if these worked together and that we could save £20 we would use it before they expire and take the extra money out of next months budget. The total shop came too £41.81. Therefore we will take £14.21 out of next month. I didn't take any photos but I will list the items below and include some recent pictures of our puppy towards the end.

Fruit and vegetables:

• Organic potatoes
• Pears
• Bananas
• Organic lemons
• Grapes
• Organic pink lady apples
• Mixed peppers

Fridge

• Cheese
• Organic Greek yogurts
• Organic milk

Meat

• Chicken leg quarters
• Chicken breast packs x2
• Steak x2
• Streaky bacon
• Gammon steaks
• Diced beef
• Salmon fillets

Other

• Popadoms
• Curry sauce
• Passata x3
• Ice cream
• Granola
• Cleaning spray for pets

Meal prep Monday and a food haul.

At the beginning of the week I like to try and get as organised as possible. Yesterday morning I made some Slow cooker porridge with some frozen apples and raspberries. I also used a couple of blueberries that we had left in the fridge that were getting a little soft. I also went shopping today so I took some time to wash all my fruit and to clean out my fridge. The last thing I did was hard boil some eggs for snacks. Doing this now means we have 6 breakfasts and our snacks are ready to eat. I find the helpful to have something healthy to grab. I also peeled the garlic that I brought and put this in our garlic jar.

After our Pantry challenge update we had £64 left. At the weekend we used £9 on some potatoes, baking potatoes, chocolate, pears and apples. Today I spend £28 on what you see below. I also got some toilet rolls which didn't make it into the picture.

Doing this challenge I realise that we use a lot of fresh produce which is generally my main reason for going to the shops. We have mainly red meat in our freezer so I decided to buy the chicken breasts. We had some left over chicken in the fridge to use for tonight's meal but I wanted to add a little more. The majority of this pack went in the freezer. There were a few organic products on offer and I'm happy with the amount of organic in this shop. After these two shops we have £27 left. I'm hoping that by doing a produce shop at aldi next week we will come in on budget.

What's in my pantry.

After doing my What's in my fridge and freezer post I thought I would show you my pantry. We keep most of our food items in one tall cupboard this is an over view below.

One the top shelf we have a couple bags of pasta. I brought these as they were reduced to clear at 62p each. We have two boxes of quick cook white rice and one brown. A couple tomato passata  that we use instead of jarred red sauce. I won a competition not that long ago which is why we have so many naked products. Coconut water is used either in smoothies or mixed with orange juice as I don't like the taste of it by itself.

On the next shelf we have most of our tins. These contain fruit, vegetables, spare sauces that don't fit I. The fridge such as jam. Small pots of honey and jam are from varies gift sets. There is more rice, some lentils, beans, quinoa and seeds. The next couple of shelves normally look a lot more organised than they do right now. We have some cereal, rice cakes, noodles, flaxseed and some popadoms. The bottom shelf is generally our snack area which has fruit pouches, pineapple pots, some quick cook oats, cereal bars, nuts and some larger jars of honey. At the bottom of this cupboard we keep long life almond milk and juice. The container keeps my corn flour in to make tortillas with and there are some gluten free ice cream comes in the back. We keep our spices and cooking supplies in a separate cupboard which you can see below. We keep most of our herbs on a spice rack but store back ups in here. Once I've opened dry goods I like to store them in jars. On our work too we have rice, pasta, cereal, homemade granola, slow cooking oats and our garlic pot.

What's in my fridge and freezer!

This month we are doing both the 100 days of real food mini pledges and Good cheap eats pantry challenge. These go very much hand in hand as each week we get a different challenge with 100 days so this enables us to eat the food in our pantry that may not meet each weeks challenge. With our pantry challenge this month we are hoping to keep to a budget so by using our pantry and freezer to the max we are hoping for a low spend. Once we have a pantry that isn't quite so full we we hoping to be able to restock on more clean foods.

Starting with our fridge. On the top shelf we have butter, mustard and  some chopped garlic. The next shelf down we have some cheese sticks, some jam that has now been used up and a couple of innocent drinks. We then have regular full fat cows milk and almond milk. At the bottom is a bottle of seasoning that my husband likes to use on meat occasionaly.

In the main bulk of our fridge on the top shelf  we have some BBQ sauce, some nandos sauce, tomato pasarta, not from concentrate orange juice and some maple syrup. There is also a couple of small Greek yogurt pots. In the plastic tub we keep things like cheese and lunch meat. We currently have some chorizo and German ham.

Next there is some wine from when we had guests the other day. I don't drink alcohol and my husband does very rarely but it seems a waste to throw it away. There are two tubs of yogurts, some left over sweet potatoes in the bowl and a bagged one in the back. Behind the bowl is a box with some Healthy truffles. Also there is a pot of soup.

On the bottom shelf there is some leftover chicken in a Tupperware box and also some cut up pineapple in the red one. There are some wrapped bacon lardons in the back. There are strawberries, hard boiled eggs and some salsa.

In the drawer there are apples, carrots, brussle sprouts, onions and peppers.

Our freezer is a jumble sale right now! We have a selection of meats, a couple whole chickens, beef mince, meatballs, pork joint, some fish, pork chops and some diced chicken.

In our other three drawers we have a selection of frozen fruit and vegetables. Homemade chicken stock, a couple different bits of leftovers and a couple of ice lollies.

Do you know what's in your fridge and freezer. Later I will be posting about what's in my pantry.

Last weeks food

Here are a few pictures of some of our meals from last week.

What did you eat this week? Have you done a meal plan?

Food shop at waitrose

Waitrose is my favourite supermarket. I love their range of organic/free range food and also that you can find things that are just a bit different. I shop here whenever our budget allows and right now they have some great offers on.

Starting with frozen and chilled.

I got my husband some frozen fish mainly for his lunches. I love how convenient frozen vegetables are. We used to have a small fridge so I think I am still in the habit of getting these but they do tend to avoid waste. We try to live by the 80/20 rule with eating healthily so the frozen yogurt is a treat.   Again for my husband are the Rachel's yogurts and the liberte yogurts are for myself. The soup will be for lunch one day and the ham and cheese for things such as sandwiches and omelettes. We didn't really need meat this week but the chickens and mince were half price so I thought I would get them for the freezer. The bacon lardons are for egg muffins and also to go with our brussel sprouts. The burgers and meatballs are things we haven't tried before but with being organic and gluten free I wanted to try them. I also thought the price wasn't bad as they were two for £5. We didn't need a huge amount of fruit and veg this week. Between us we eat 3-4 apples a day so I got two bags as these were half price. I ribboned veg are for a stir fry one night. We don't have children but we do like to have some of the Ella's pouches on hand. I often have one in my handbag with a cereal bar for a snack or we may have one after dinner occasionally. For the cupboard we got some organic sweet corn and rice pudding. I do like to try and make my own rice pudding but this is handy for a quick dessert. The dragonfly tea is also a new thing to try. The crisps are a rare treat but were on offer. When we open a large bag like this I like to portion them out into zip lock bags to avoid over eating. Hiding in the back are some tiger bread rolls for my husband. The plastic containers were reduced to clear so I purchased these. I do keep looking at glass containers but these are practical for my husband to take to work. My shop today came to £71 and some change. A while ago I came across a pantry challenge on good clean eats blog. I will be doing a post about this which includes tracking our spending on this blog too. Did you find any good deals this week? Do you have a budget for your family? Claire

Weekly food shop at aldi - including organic

Today I did a weekly food shop in preparation of our 100 days of real food mini pledges that starts today. The challenge this week is to eat two pieces of fruit or veg at each meal. We were lucky enough to receive a voucher for a local farm shop for christmas so we managed to stock up on meat there a few days ago.

Aldi has recently been stocking more organic produce at very reasonable prices. The organic product in my shopping today

• Carrots
• Potatoes 
• Onions 
• Bananas 
• Broccoli 
• Apple sauce in tubes

We didn't need them today but aldi also has great prices on organic milk and eggs. To find out more on aldis organic range see this article.We try to buy as much organic produce as possible however there is a lack available in our area. Our local aldi also does local food such as Norfolk mushrooms. I wash all produce well once I'm home from the store so that we can grab it and go. I also wash anything with a skin such as lemons and limes in case there is any bacteria on the skin.