After last week’s fabulous holiday in France, I need to get back to my Slimming World regime. However, post holiday means we also have to watch the pennies. So this week’s meal plan is Slimming World on a budget!
I hate to think what the scales will reveal at my next weigh in. Oh well, you can’t worry about these things all the time.
We ate, drank and were merry. We also walked for miles, as we always do, but not enough to burn off the thousands of calories from milky coffees, croissants, fresh baguettes, wine and crepes.
Planning is key
The beauty of meal planning is that it saves both time and money. No last minute rushes to the shop for one key ingredient and coming out with a bag full of groceries we don’t really need. Or grabbing a takeaway when we are late in – I make sure to have something very simple ready to go on those nights.
I have found that, as long as I write a meal plan and a shopping list based on the plan, Slimming World on a budget is easy.
Eating meat
One change that I decided on whilst away was to begin to eat meat again a couple of times a week. Having to restrict my diary intake on Slimming World has made me realise how much my meals revolve around cheese.
I suffer quite badly from IBS and my system just can’t deal with a lot of healthy vegetarian staples such as pulses, soya ( which actually makes me ill) and Quorn. Nasty, tasteless stuff. I have also realised recently that onions affect me too and I can’t eat a lot of mushrooms. So bothersome! I have been existing on a lot of eggs!
I already eat fish so will continue to do so, but will supplement this with some free range (and organic if we can afford it) meat as well.
A Slimming World on a budget meal plan
Saturday
We fly home on Saturday morning so will do a quick shop at Lidl. Dinner will be cod with a tomato, garlic and pepper sauce, broccoli and new potatoes.
Sunday
Syn free Spanish chicken and rice. Nice and simple to make. I will serve this with green beans from the freezer.
Monday
This may sound weird, but I love eggs with rice! As it is just me at home on Monday, I will have more of the Spanish rice with hard boiled eggs chopped into it and a green salad.
Tuesday
Tuna penne, made with wholemeal pasta and Frylight instead of oil. We will have a nice big salad with this. The olives have a few syns, so will count them in.
Wednesday
Salmon with a home made herb sauce, air fried chips and peas.
Thursday
Slimming World crustless quiche with carrot salad (no oil).
Friday
Home made ratatouille with rice, made with Frylight and served with reduced fat grated cheddar as one of my healthy A extras.
Other meals and snacks
I plan to make some easy pea soup for some of this week’s lunches. Puddings will mainly be fat free yogurt, fruit and the odd shop bought creme caramel or low fat chocolate mousse.
After last week I will be knocking the alcohol on the head for a bit and sticking to water, tea and the occasional sugar free bitter lemon.
So that’s my plan for a week of Slimming World meals on a budget. It should get me back on track as I would like to lose at least another half stone to fit easily back into my size 12 clothes. Anyone else watching their weight?
I am joining in with Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. Check out her meal plan this week too.
Su says
Onions affect you but garlic doesn’t? All alliums affect me and I don’t have IBS, just a strange digestive system. It is a real pain eating out.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Garlic does but it’s ok in moderation, thankfully. Can’t eat leeks either, which is a shame as I love them!
CurlyTop says
Hi Jane
I have had IBS for nearly 25 years. Recent years have seen me follow FODMAP. I struggle with fresh onions but have found a way around this ….. frozen onions. I think the freezing process waters them down and this means that I can put them in stews. In respect of spring onions, the green part is much milder and under fodmap, they recommend you eat that. I only have one green part in a salad. For garlic, I use garlic granules as again it’s in a weaker form. Hope this helps
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
Frozen onions? I vaguely follow Fodmap too but have been struggling lately with symptoms so trying a bit harder. Very interesting about frozen ones!
Joleisa says
Glad you had such a fab time away. You do have a job on your hands to try to eat healthily, within budget, and also with your food intolerances. You just gotta keep trying. Fingers crossed for you that the scales will go easy on you at your next weigh in.
I’m not really watching my weight, too many others are watching it for me, lol . (That’s not really true, but I love saying it).
Louise says
I think the problem with quorn is knowing how to cook it. I went on an event with them and the food tasted great, but you can’t cook it like meat. Think I need to look up your crustless quiche – that sounds great.
Katy Stevens says
I hope you get back on track well and the weeks dinners sound delicious.
Thanks for linking up!
Sarah - Mud, Cakes and Wine says
Your holiday sounds amazing. Must be so hard trying to come up with meals, your doing a great job. We get all our meat from our local farm shop so can buy smaller quantities.