Info all Articles

Hi everyone, so glad we are almost at the weekend!

This morning I decided to have a bit of a later start at work so I could get a few things done. I started with my yoga and core workout (5 min cardio warm up, yoga for runners podcast and core exercises) then made myself a tasty breakfast:

Big bowl of Dorset Cereal High Fibre Muesli (yum) with 3 chopped plums and rice milk plus a fabulous fresh juice made with an apple, carrot, celery, spinach, ginger and lemon.

I got a quick grocery shop in then headed up to my local farm shop for more veggies:

All organic: bag of kale, bananas, courgette, peppers, pears, mushrooms, garlic, broccoli, farm fresh eggs

I am really loving being able to get an additional cheaper organic shop of fresh produce to top up my usual grocery shop and the organic veg box delivery I get once a fortnight.

Lunch was leftover black beans with brown rice, mango and coriander from last nights dinner on top of lots of spinach. I also had an orange and some red grapes:

Mid afternoon snack was more of my tasty squash dip with carrot and cucumber for dipping:

Dinner was a mix of veggies with chickpeas and pesto inspired by Tam. I steamed some broccoli and brussel sprouts then stir fried them alongside mushrooms and red pepper then mixed in some chickpeas, spiralised courgette and two heaped teaspoons of calorific La Sacla vegetarian organic pesto and served up with some steamed kale:

I think I may have gone a little overboard with the veggies – this plate was huge! It tasted wonderful though and I actually ate the lot :-)

Dessert was two chopped apples with some coconut flour paste for dipping (1 tbsp of coconut flour mixed with water):

So good!

Now that I’m having to take a serious look at my finances I need to start reigning in my grocery shopping again. When I did my big budget challenge last year I found it really useful to look at what my regular must have grocery items are so that I can identify the most cost effective method of purchasing them. As my diet (and the hubby’s) has changed dramatically since then I thought it might be worth taking another look at this:

This list tends to represent the things I buy on a weekly or at the very least monthly basis. I do try and buy organic whenever I can afford it if its not vastly more expensive than the regular option. In addition to my organic veg box delivery I do try and get fruit and veg from the supermarket that is on offer – today I got some strawberries and cherries for £3 (although I do feel guilty for the food miles). The cheaper supermarkets such as Aldi or Lidl can sometimes have some real bargain fruit and veg as well as random finds – I recently bought a load of cartons of rice milk on the cheap from Aldi!

I also know that organic pink lady apples aren’t a best value option, but I love them and don’t mind forking out extra pennies on one of my favourite foods!

Obviously it would be incredibly time consuming to shop in all these different places each week so I’m going to try and get myself organised so I can take advantage of the better value options when I can. A weekly supermarket shop is a given, however I’m going to try and get around some of the other cheaper sources of groceries when I can too. I also need to think about having a balance between eating more expensive foods like the flavoured tofu and instead eating more beans which are cheaper.

As long as I have a fridge, freezer and cupboards stocked with this stuff I’m happy I can whip up a healthy meal for the both of us. Luckily I already have a crazy stash of chocolate, frozen baked goodies, grains, noodles, pasta, dried fruit and nuts and snack bars that could probably see me through a nuclear winter and I plan on eating my way through these as best I can!

What are your key grocery items? How do you approach grocery budgeting?