I mentioned in my weekly round up post that I did my shopping in Morrison’s this week and got some great yellow sticker bargains. They were all tucked into the freezer the same day, along with what seems like a never ending supply of broccoli that I appear to have panic bought at some point!
I don’t mind frozen vegetables, but much prefer fresh broccoli. Even when I steam the frozen variety, it still seems to come out a bit soggy.
Anyway, I will be incorporating these reduced items into this week’s yellow sticker meal plan and trying to plough through the broccoli to make way for more interesting items.
Saving time, money and waste
Meal planning helps me to save money and reduce food waste. It also saves time and the effort of thinking about what to cook each day, which I appreciate. Especially at the moment when I am generally uninspired.
However, because I am never 100% sure when I will go shopping, whether it will be an online shop or I will actually venture out, who I will be feeding and what reduced items I may pick up along the way, I tend towards flexibility.
However, having discovered that driving out of town to my nearest Morrison’s on a Monday morning finds the supermarket pretty empty, I think I may be doing this fairly regularly in future. It also seems to be an excellent time for reductions.
I didn’t eat low carb all of last week as it was Mr Shoestring’s birthday and I knew there would be cake and other goodies. This week I will be back to avoiding carbs.
This week’s yellow sticker meal plan
Saturday
I picked up a nice piece of beef brisket in the yellow sticker section. This is something I rarely buy – I’m not sure why, as it tends to be quite good value.
I am cooking this in the slow cooker with vegetables, stock and red wine. Hopefully, this will be delicious with some mashed potato and some of the dratted frozen broccoli! (I will pass on the mash.)
Sunday
As I am expecting to just be feeding myself today, I am hoping for leftover brisket. I will eat this with some kale and peas.
Monday
I will have a cooked breakfast for my dinner tonight – I love this. Fried eggs, bacon, tomatoes (these were also reduced, so need eating up) and mushrooms will make a nice, easy tea. Monday tends to be a busy work day, so it’s good to have something quick planned.
Tuesday
Lemon and garlic chicken, probably something like this recipe, although I may adapt it slightly and use cream. Mr S and his mum will have theirs with brown rice and veg, but I will just have the veg.
Wednesday
Another of my yellow sticker items was some filleted rainbow trout. Both me and Mr S love this cooked quite simply with some chopped parsley in a bit of butter.
Our parsley from last year is going to seed now, but I should be able to find enough. I really need to get round to sowing some more, as it’s easy to grow.
Thursday
I need to use up the last of a bag of potatoes, as they are going a bit sprouty! So sausages and mash will be a good choice for tonight, with cabbage, more broccoli and some gravy. Again, I won’t have the mash.
Friday
I will make some keto garlic bread tonight and make a kind of spicy Bolognese come chilli. Red kidney beans don’t agree with me, so I will leave those out, so not a proper chilli.
Snacks and stuff
Having eaten quite a lot of cake and some delicious chocolate truffles my daughter made last week, I am not eating sugar at all this week, and certainly no traditional cake.
However, I do rather enjoy a keto mug cake, so will experiment with some different recipes. The one above was a chocolate one, which was really nice with cream and strawberries.
I might also try these keto cinnamon butter cookies, which look very straightforward and quick to make.
What is on your menu this week? Are you meal planning or eating whatever you can easily pick up?
I am linking up with Katy Kicker in this week’s meal planning post. For more of my ideas for frugal meals, check out my recipes page.
Joan Colvin says
Frozen broccoli is delicious, I use this recipe from Budget Bytes: https://www.budgetbytes.com/oven-roasted-frozen-broccoli/
Mo Finn says
Thank you, will def try this x
Sam says
Last week I did a major shop then just listed all the meals to try and get to the end of the month. We will switch up a bit, but mostly a lot of chicken, some burgers, and hot dishes (casseroles). I love broccoli with rice I dishes, so would be happy for a surplus of frozen stuff.
Katy Stevens says
Sounds like another delicious week of meals from you, as always! I miss going to the supermarker for reductions!
Christine H Hancock says
What delicious sounding meals you have planned. We are having brisket today, as it seemed a different type meal for us. We’re not doing our own shopping but managed to get a click and collect from Asda, a different supermarket for us. So looking forward to that today. We miss getting our own shopping and delivery slots are a bit hit and miss, but grateful when we get one.
shoestringjane@outlook.com says
I enjoyed the brisket!
Annastasia Ward says
Blend cooked broccoli with salted butter and it makes a delicious sauce.
Emma T says
I’m meant to be doing keto too, although had a terrible last week with way too much normal eating and sugar involved. Struggling to keep to my meal plan rather than snacking on what’s available.
Kim says
Well done with your yellow sticker items. I used to get loads from our local Tesco but they’ve not had much reduced recently.
All of your meals sound so good. You can’t beat sausage and mash! Yum x
Paula @ Mummy Vs Work says
What a great haul with the yellow stickers, your meals sound yummy. You can’t beat a fry up after a busy day at work.
Sarah - Mud, cakes and wine says
Good wok with all the yelow stickers and glad the supermarket was not too busy. and wow rainbow trout what a find x
karen says
I think this is a great way to plan and eat. Yellow sticker is handy because you still get good food but save money. When I worked in Tesco as a student, we were allowed to get first dibs on stuff before it was yellow stickered for the public and it was so helpful because I was very tight for money. At the moment we are doing online food shopping due to Covid but this is something I need to do when we get back to normal.