Eating healthily when you are feeling a bit skint can be a challenge. When I am trying to focus on cutting our grocery bill, I tend towards using store cupboard ingredients. My week of frugal food for this week’s meal plan uses inexpensive but nutritious items such as frozen white fish (whatever is cheapest), pulses (in small quantities or they upset my IBS), lower cost meats like mince or pork fillets and vegetarian dishes.
We also eat a lot of soup, as it’s nutritious yet cheap and easy to make.
I always go through the fridge to make sure I incorporate any ingredients that are getting close to their use by date, or half used jars of anything. Meal planning helps us reduce food waste, as well as saving money. Here is my plan for another week of frugal food.
A week of frugal food
Saturday
Salmon with vegetables plus new potatoes for Mr S. I will make a creamy lemon sauce to go alongside this.
Sunday
Cheesy pork chops with roasted sweet potatoes and carrots. I am loving sweet potatoes at the moment and eating loads of them!
Monday
I will use one of the last Simply Cook mixes in the cupboard to make a halloumi salad. Simply Cook is brilliant to have in the cupboard for when you are lacking in inspiration.
You don’t have to subscribe (I did for a bit but stopped it to use up what we had already) and can just order the odd box.
As we only have one more left, I ordered more yesterday. You can get a FREE trial box, if you want to try it using my referral code.
Monday
We have so many cans of chick peas in the cupboard, so I will make a cheap and cheerful chick pea curry. As we also still have loads of canned coconut milk, I will serve it with coconut rice.
This is a quick and comforting dinner and healthy too.
Tuesday
More of my favourite sweet potatoes, since I bought a large bag in Lidl! I will make a fish pie with a sweet potato topping and broccoli.
By the way, I discovered last week that if you download the Lidl app you can get £5 off a £25 spend, so I took advantage of that.
You also get money off vouchers and currently I can get a free Halloween doughnut. I won’t pop in specially, especially as it won’t be me that gets to eat it!
Wednesday
I bought a big pack of peppers last week, which I have yet to get round to using. So I will make stuffed peppers using cheese, rice and bacon, and serve this with a salad.
Thursday
I am still working through the Lo-dough pizza bases I ordered online a couple of weeks back. They are good flattened slightly and used as a lunchtime wrap, I have discovered. However, we have mozzarella still so I will make pizzas, along with a winter carrot salad.
Friday
As the weather has turned so chilly, I think it is time for a nice warming casserole! I plan to make a large slow cooker Spanish chicken affair, using the rest of the peppers and tinned tomatoes, enough for Saturday too so that I don’t have to cook.
So that’s my week of frugal food ideas. What are you planning for this week?
I am joining in with Katy Kicker’s meal planning linky. Check out her meal plan this week too. You can see more of my favourite food ideas and recipes here.
Katy Stevens says
I’m still cooking the odd Simply Cook box. It’s a great way to have a different meal isn’t it!
I love your idea about using frozen white fish too, we used to do this and I’ll have to get some in for a few fish dishes!
Sarah - Mud Cakes and Wines says
Your week sounds lovely lots of different ideas. Chickpeas do make a great curry and its very filling. Love halloumi salad and makes a nice lunch with the following day.
Sarah - Mud Cakes and Wines says
Your week sounds lovely lots of different ideas. Chickpeas do make a great curry and its very filling. Love halloumi salad and makes a nice lunch with the following day. Great week x
Louise Fairweather says
Oooo I like the sound of the grilled halloumi
WonderCollie says
I’m careful about our fish. I won’t buy Tilapia (terrible farming conditions) or fish processed in China. Fish is very expensive when you live in the middle of a prairie.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I guess it must be! It’s pretty good here, but then we are an island and fishing is a big industry.
Kim Carberry says
What great ideas for eating healthily when you’re skint. We often have weeks like that.
Great meal plan! The chick pea curry looks so good. x
Lucy_Angele says
I’m a big fan of sweet potatoes too! Annoyingly I received a bag of rotten ones in my latest Tesco shop that were already mouldy. My online food shops are designed to last for 2 weeks at the current time, and I HATE food waste, so it was a real shame to have to throw them out, but they were unuseable. The problem with shopping online and not being able to choose out your own veg I guess!