Five portions a day?

madge7

flis21 wrote: »

Go with what's seasonal. Also I don't know where you shop, but I shop in Tesco and buy their 'value' leeks, swede, apples etc. which helps with the cost. Also remember that things like tinned baked and red kidney beans (buy the value ones again) also count and you can buy other tinned veg / fruit. You could get cheap frozen veg which also counts towards your 5 a day.

(Can you tell we are dieting on a budget!!).

I shop mainly Asda and then Aldi sometimes. I didn't think about beans counting, what about chickpeas and things like that? I have tinned fruit too and thats fairly cheap isnt it.
Dieting on a budget must be hard!!

Psykicpup

If you prefer fruit to veg there are recipes that use fruit to add sweetness to a savory meal, such as pork in cider (uses apples & onions) dont forget the veg that are in the food you eat; so easy to miss....
check out http://www.cookitsimply.com/ a site I found today that has some lovely recipes
Dont forget a glass of fruit juice classes as one of your 5 (but only once- 5 glasses dont count lol)
Personally I prefer veg to fruit so I often choose the vegetarian meal from the canteen at work - not sure if that counts as a 2 or a 3!
For a lot of things a palmful is a portion so if you have a lot of something ( I love sweetcorn salad) then as long as its not every day I would count it as maybe 1.5 or even a two....

G-G_4

madge7 wrote: »

I have just been down to Aldi today ... bought spinach, broccoli, pots, mango, avocado, cauliflower and bananas!

Crawleygirl- I pretty much like most things, dont find myself buying much meat as it is quite expensive. My Mum gives me chicken, sausages and fish. I am not a conventional meat and 2 veg girl so thats why I need help! Thank you xxx

can you class potatoes as one of your 5 a day? thought i read that you couldn't?

fruit and veg can be cheap. frozen veg is good. avocado, mango etc is fairly expensive, so are strawberrys, pineapple etc..

what about apples, oranges, pears?

if you buy a bag of mixed veg, then just boil it in the pan to go with your meal, and there is a good part of your daily 5. banana with your weetabix in the morning? i know tescos do about 10 bananas for about £1.50.

grapes are nice

x

moanymoany

All veg count towards your 5 a day, whether fresh, frozen or canned. It's the same with fruit. This makes life much easier.

One tip - dried peas - not fancy stuff, but those you make mushy peas out of. If you buy a bag, soak and cook them all at once you can divide them into portions and they freeze like a dream. If you have no freezer do enough for 2 days and keep one lot in the fridge. They are really good for you, full of fibre and protein. They only take 20 minutes to cook after soaking them overnight or through the day. Pour boiling water over them in the morning and boil when you get home to get dinner. They are very cheap, working out at pence per portion. The water they were boiled in makes great soup.

Especially good value are tins of value sweetcorn, value tinned tomatoes, value tinned red kidney beans - 1 portion counts a day towards the 5 and they tins of value are very cheap, value tinned peaches - just drain off the syrup if you don't want the sugar. A tin of value peaches will give you 2 good portions of fruit for pence. Convenient, cheap and lovely - keep a few cans in the cupboard. That's the beauty of canned stuff. The value pineapple is also good and will do for two goes.

I buy value fresh oranges and citrus. Sometimes they are sour, but not often. If they are sour make them into orange fruit salad with a bit of sugar. I'm allergic to apples, but they do value packs which I've given to people in packed lunches and they've not said anything - ate them up. Value bananas are good.

This is all Tesco, but I'm sure other supermarkets do similar, if not the same, ranges.

It's not hard to get the 5 a day. Once you understand they don't have to be fresh.

Boxes are expensive.

flis21

It presents new challenges that's for sure! Yes, chick peas count as well.

Oh I forgot to say about fruit juice as well. We get the value orange or apple juice and a glass of that in the morning counts as one of your 5 a day.

Try going to http://www.5aday.nhs.uk/ for ideas etc.

flis21

No potatoes don't count, they are classed as the 'carbohydrate' part of your meal.

madge7

THANK YOU!! Why the hell wasnt I thinking of when I use tinned toms and stuff like that? Stupidly when I thought 5 a day I was thinking all fresh! I'm off to asda tomorrow to stock up on tinned fruit ... also will check out the NHS website, I reckon that will be useful.

Thankyou all for making me see that 5 a day on a budget isnt as hard as I thought!

xx

donny-gal

Lidl often have 70% off their veg. My F&V these days either comes from Aldi, Lidl or the local market. I usually buy what is on offer. Can't help being tight.

betheebee

I also do my shopping in Lidle they are so cheap for F+V. Morrisons and Tesco always have fruit reduced for a quick sale, I buy them then make a smoothie. Today I had overipe bannanas, squishy pears, overipe melon and 4 soft oranges all wisked up in a smoothie blender. Enough for 4 days total cost £1.37p

beemuzed

Thia has been a useful thread - I too tended to assume that fruit & veg need to be fresh to count! Daft, aren't I? We use loads of tinned toms - and I never counted those!