Healthy Eating Cuts Costs!

BAGGY

We eat a combination of !!!! and home made stuff.
I dont make bread but buy wholemeal for kids pck lunch = !!!!?
We eat fish fingers or coated chicken, chips and shop bought coleslaw on swimming night. What I call and 'Iceland dinner'.
On the flipside, tonight we have chicken risotto from yesterdays l/o roast.
On the whole it is cheaper to eat unprocessed stuff (I think) but time constraints and pressure from the kids to have certain things, I dont think I do too bad. Each to their own...........

good_advice

I am glad it is now summer and we can grow our own food in the garden.
Tomatoes, cucumber, runner beans, courgette, beetroot and sweet corn. Blackberries in the autumn.

Munchkinsmum

I'm trying to do this but it's lunches for the kids that worry me - if I put too much fruit and veg in their lunchboxes they come home ravenous. Breakfast and tea we have no issues with but what does everyone do for kids lunches and snacks?

joedenise

Munchkinsmum wrote: »

I'm trying to do this but it's lunches for the kids that worry me - if I put too much fruit and veg in their lunchboxes they come home ravenous. Breakfast and tea we have no issues with but what does everyone do for kids lunches and snacks?

You need to put some protein into their lunchboxes to help fill them up, something like boiled eggs, quiche, cooked roast meats etc. Also kids need some fat in their diet so full fat yoghurt is a good way of getting that into them, if they are allowed to have them in their lunchboxes.

You could also send them with things like pasta salad, noodle salads, rice salads.

Try googling "lunchbox ideas" or something similar and loads of stuff will come up.

Denise

BAGGY

My kid's lunch is normally a full round of sandwich with cheese/meat/fish or a large sausage roll. That's the protein and fat covered. I also pop in a treat which is either a hanfull of crisps or a cereal bar /custard cream x2. They have one portion of fruit or veg as they still get fruit at school and a flask of water. Youghurts are on fridays when we dont have after school clubs otherwise they go there covered with yoghurt! Next year they are on the government's free lunch scheme.

GwylimT

We are a family if four with two coeliacs and two lactose intolerant, so as a whole we are a bit awkward to feed, my wife and I both work full time, my wife is also disabled and so while she can cut food to prepare it etc so she cannot do things like use our hob or get good out of the oven.

We very rarely buy anything ready made, I think really the main things must be tomato posatta. At the moment we are spending around £50 a week on food, which considering we have to sometimes pay a premium price due to health, is very reasonable. I'll post this weeks evening meals menu.

Monday butternut squash soup with gluten free bread

Tuesday Pollock and fresh vegetables in a tomato sauce

Wednesday piri piri chicken and salad

Thursday vegetable stir fry with rice noodles and home made sweet and sour sauce

Friday mushroom risotto

Saturday burger and chips (bun is only non-home made item)

For breakfast we tend to have porridge with fresh fruit, often a cut up banana or some berries. As the children aren't currently at school our lunches are slightly different at the moment, but they still contain at least one vegetable, one piece of fruit and some protein.

MrsBi

GwylimT wrote: »

We are a family if four with two coeliacs and two lactose intolerant, so as a whole we are a bit awkward to feed, my wife and I both work full time, my wife is also disabled and so while she can cut food to prepare it etc so she cannot do things like use our hob or get good out of the oven.

We very rarely buy anything ready made, I think really the main things must be tomato posatta. At the moment we are spending around £50 a week on food, which considering we have to sometimes pay a premium price due to health, is very reasonable. I'll post this weeks evening meals menu.

Monday butternut squash soup with gluten free bread

Tuesday Pollock and fresh vegetables in a tomato sauce

Wednesday piri piri chicken and salad

Thursday vegetable stir fry with rice noodles and home made sweet and sour sauce

Friday mushroom risotto

Saturday burger and chips (bun is only non-home made item)

For breakfast we tend to have porridge with fresh fruit, often a cut up banana or some berries. As the children aren't currently at school our lunches are slightly different at the moment, but they still contain at least one vegetable, one piece of fruit and some protein.

We are in a similar situation with the difference that we're only 2. How do you manage to keep a budget of £50/week for 4?
Have you included breakfast and lunches in £50 or do you eat out sometimes during the week?

We spend around £72/week for 2 and in that it's included all our breakfasts, lunches, dinners and occasional picnics. True that we only buy goat milk, einkorn flour, palm sugar or honey, a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables (we eat 200gr of strawberries each easily as a snack), cheese and yoghurt daily as well as meat at least 5 days a week. Our meals always consist of healthy carbs (potato, butternut squash, beetroot etc), fats (coconut, ghee/ goat butter, cheese or yoghurt) and protein (meat and others).
We don't eat gluten free pasta/ couscous or bread often, have 3 meals and about 3 healthy snacks besides that a day. We eat leftovers from dinner at lunch so that can be soup, stew, casserole etc. Never sandwiches and we also use a lot of fresh herbs. We buy bottled water though and no alchohol or fizzy drinks.

We cannot change our diet much due to health reasons but any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Lizling

MrsBi wrote: »

We buy bottled water though and no alchohol or fizzy drinks.

We cannot change our diet much due to health reasons but any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Couldn't you reuse the water bottles by refilling them with tap water, or use a flask?

GwylimT

MrsBi wrote: »

We are in a similar situation with the difference that we're only 2. How do you manage to keep a budget of £50/week for 4?
Have you included breakfast and lunches in £50 or do you eat out sometimes during the week?

We spend around £72/week for 2 and in that it's included all our breakfasts, lunches, dinners and occasional picnics. True that we only buy goat milk, einkorn flour, palm sugar or honey, a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables (we eat 200gr of strawberries each easily as a snack), cheese and yoghurt daily as well as meat at least 5 days a week. Our meals always consist of healthy carbs (potato, butternut squash, beetroot etc), fats (coconut, ghee/ goat butter, cheese or yoghurt) and protein (meat and others).
We don't eat gluten free pasta/ couscous or bread often, have 3 meals and about 3 healthy snacks besides that a day. We eat leftovers from dinner at lunch so that can be soup, stew, casserole etc. Never sandwiches and we also use a lot of fresh herbs. We buy bottled water though and no alchohol or fizzy drinks.

We cannot change our diet much due to health reasons but any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

The children are only 18 months and four, so their portions are small. We virtually have no dairy, yoghurts and cheese can be quite expensive, we don't eat meat on a daily basis and due to a condition I have I can only eat small amounts of protein, so I would have at most two mouthfuls of meat or fish in any meal, so really a meat/fish meal is really only two actual portions as the children don't eat much yet. We generally don't buy from supermarkets, most fruit/veg is either from the green grocer or our local market.

The £50 is all meals, but that doesn't include the household items in out weekly shop.

MrsBi

Lizling wrote: »

Couldn't you reuse the water bottles by refilling them with tap water, or use a flask?

We live in a hard water zone so I try not to drink tap water but it's a good idea. Our water bottles don't cost us more than £6/month.