The Aldi Shopping Trolley
So, following on from the last post, today I am starting to show you the way that I used the foods that I bought. If you missed the first post in this series explaining what I'm doing and why and showing the receipts and the rest of the food ... it's HERE.
I'm keeping it simple and just showing the food and some of the preparation photos. I am well out of practice with challenges and I have to admit to forgetting to take some photos, so I am simply going to use the same photo over and over when necessary.
Breakfast was a particular forgetful moment!!
MONDAY
Breakfast - PorridgeI thought that as I had a full kilo of porridge oats, I would try to eat 75g each day instead of my usual 50g. It was way too much for me, so some was saved to be used the next day in a slightly different way and I stuck to 50g for the rest of the week.
As I am not usually a big fruit eater and yet I wanted to keep this challenge as healthy as possible, I decided that rather than make myself eat an apple a day I would simply cook up all six of the little apples that I bought from Aldi. I do love stewed apple/apple sauce and I thought it would be a brilliant addition to my morning porridge each day.
On the worktop in the kitchen were these sorry looking specimens that had fallen off the tree in the garden the day before so I decided rather than waste them I would peel, chop and add them to the Aldi apples.
Dinner - Banana and Coffee
After all the chopping and sampling of the stewed apple I just wasn't that hungry at dinner time, so I simply had one of the bananas and a cup of coffee.
The makings of a good old vegetable stew, with lentils for a bit of added protein.
Almost ready on the hob, but it looked sadly lacking in 'green'.
So you might think this is cheating a bit, but I went to the vegetable bed in the garden and picked three of our spring onions. We have so many left and I do want to try and use them before the first frost gets to them.
The green tops went into the stew pan and the white ends were saved to be used in another recipe.
Tea - Vegetable Stew
I pulled out two portions of stew and then whizzed up the rest of the pan to make almost a litre of vegetable soup.
TUESDAY
The leftover porridge from the day before had been popped into the fridge overnight, but rather than just reheating it I decided to try frying it.
Breakfast - Porridge Patties and Stewed Apple
It didn't work very well, usually I would have added a spoonful of flour to bind it better but I didn't have any, yes I could potentially have whizzed up some of the oats to make oat flour but we are talking about 7.30 in the morning here!! 😄
It was tasty in it's own way and the apple sauce was delicious.
Lunch - Vegetable Soup
Lunch was half of the soup made on Monday ... yes I forgot to take a photo!!
Straight after lunch I started making the dahl for my tea. Dahl is always best when cooked slowly and left to stand before eating.
It doesn't look much in my large pan but it made a lot.
Tea - Dahl and Rice
Four more single-serve sized pots of dahl went into the fridge, and two others were put straight into the freezer along with six portions of rice.
My £1 challenge ready meals at their best. 😁
I always find that it's good to get ahead and make large portions of things at the start of the week before my enthusiasm begins to run out ... and of course it makes for less washing of pots later in the week too.
I'll be back with more days worth of food next time.
Any questions just ask away in the comments, but to nip any portion size comments in the bud, I have made all the portions that I am eating this week to suit me and my usual meal sizes. If I had wanted bigger portions I could easily have had more porridge oats and a lot more rice, but I cannot physically manage any more than is photographed in these pictures.
Sue xx
Breakfast - Porridge
Great idea to cook the apples up and have them ready as sauce. The dahl is also something I like and would be happy to have that with rice for some meals. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIt was one of the best decisions of the week, those apples made for a lovely tasty sauce without the need for any added sugar. I LOVE dahl and could happily eat it every single day. :-)
DeleteVix was absolutely spot on in her comment, this is a masterclass in " budget food shopping and meticulous meal planning!" I love your way of having an apple a day, because it's something I struggle with even though I ~know~ it is good for me. I shall be shamelessly nicking that approach - thank you, x
ReplyDeleteIt also proves just what can be done on almost no money at all and whilst by our Western standards your meals may be considered bland and uninspiring, all around the world different cultures have existed on very similar for millennia, and populations did not decrease other than through periods of drought, flood or disease.
The apple idea will be my 'go to' from now on I think, what a lovely easy way to eat an apple a day and actually enjoy it. Happily there was nothing bland about my meals, I had the seasoning that I needed, and all were seasoned perfectly for me. A mix of salt, pepper and cumin is used all over the world, simple foods seasoned well are so much better than ultra processed ones containing far too much sugar and salt aren't they.
DeleteHaving come back to read the comments which followed mine, I feel I owe you an apology. I absolutely did not mean to say your meals were bland, even though that is what I wrote. 🙀
DeleteWhat I was trying (and failing) to articulate is that you had planned a solid week of meals that did not rely on highly processed flavourings or other chemical tweaks.
Don't worry I understood what you were trying to get over in your comment. 🙂
DeleteI’m the same with apples, much prefer them cooked like that and makes them more versatile.
ReplyDeleteFor me the serious side of reading about your foodie challenges is that it helps me acknowledge if push came to shove we could survive on very little, the light hearted aspect is that it’s fun seeing just how you adapt…..inspiring.
I saw cumin in your shopping, it’s a great spice that I use a lot too.
Alison in Devon x
Cumin has always been a favourite spice of mine, it's good in curries, dahls and hummus too, it's very versatile.
DeleteThis is so interesting - I do
ReplyDeletelove lentils and should make them more often.
That was something that I have taken from this week, I will definitely be eating a lot more lentils of all descriptions going forwards.
DeleteRice and dhal is a complete meal, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, it's a perfectly balanced, and very tasty meal. :-)
DeleteTwo of my favourites there. Porridge and dhal. I could happily eat those every day.
ReplyDeleteMe too, it was a very tasty and simple week of food, and I was very happy with my choices.
DeleteVery well done. I love how you realized that there was too much porridge and cut back.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Thank you. I thought that an extra 25g would just fill me up more, it really wasn't needed.
DeleteA good start. I like how you made one cook/one set of ingredients in to two different meals with the stew then the soup.
ReplyDeleteI like anything that means I can cook once and then eat multiple times, less work and less washing up. :-)
DeleteA great start. I much prefer stewed apple to fresh apple too. Not so keen on dahl though.
ReplyDeleteAngie
I think stewed apple is my new daily fruit of choice. It's a good job apples are cheap at the moment, I can make lots for the freezer. :-)
DeleteI'm away but when I get back I'm going to buy exactly the same as you and see how much it costs in Canadian dollars. The exchange rate is currently just under 2 dollars to the pound but food is much more expensive. A weekly grocery shop for us, two seniors, averages around the equivalent of 100 pounds. I'm interested to see how the pound a day compares in purchasing and nutrition power.
ReplyDeleteThat would an interesting comparison. 🙂
Delete