Easy but tasty unprocessed food please… stuck in a boring processed food rut.

[WishfulThinkingToday]

I am so bored with my weekly shopping!

Everything is processed, and fast catering for a busy house of 7. Including goujons, quorn fillets, pizza, chicken wraps, pies, tacos, pasta and sauce, lentil soup (the only non-processed thing I love to make).

It would be brilliant to have some good inspiration for next week’s shopping please. What can make this shop healthier and more interesting? I feel like we have fallen in a food rut, and this rut is getting more and more expensive every week.

I use Harissa a lot with veggies/ chicken etc. a spoon of Greek yoghurt mixed in makes it really creamy and less spicy if your toddler will eat that?

No problem with guacamole it’s super healthy and very quick to make - great with fajitas but also lovely on toast with egg, on top of a chilli etc so make a decent size batch and keep the stone in it for freshness. Another one we love is shakshuka with egg a really lovely stove top tomato dish served with eggs cracked in lots of herbs and spices. We have it with broccoli or spring greens and add some nice crusty bread if you’re hungry.

I started an entire thread on easy to cook/cheap and cheerful meals. Take a look for inspiration and feel free to join in.
www.mumsnet.com/talk/food_and_recipes/5417035-meal-planning-sharing-recipes-and-ideas-to-make-the-weekly-budget-go-further

Roasted veg isn’t a meal

My go-to quick meals that limit UPFs are:

Prawn linguine. Just fry prawns in olive oil with garlic, lemon and peas and then toss through cooked linguine. DH and I add chilli flakes to ours.

Super green pasta (Jamie Oliver recipe). But essentially it's just steamed green leafy veg blitzed with seasoning and a soft cheese in the blender then added to pasta. I usually do spinach, broccoli and mascapone but you can do kale, cabbage, ricotta, cream cheese, cavolo nero etc.

So many wraps. Crosta and Mollica are UPF free. We have them with falafel and hummus, or fajitas made with mixed beans and chickpeas, or fish tacos with cooked fish, avocado, lettuce and chilli sauce etc.

Sticky peanut noodles. Boil egg noodles, add veg/meat/fish/whatever you want. Make a sauce in a frying pan by cooking sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey, lime juice and a big spoonful of crunchy peanut butter. Stir everything together.

Today we had pork chops, mash, carrots, sprouts & gravy.

Tomorrow we are having a chicken thigh traybake with peppers, red onions, cherry tomatoes & garlic, with loads of herbs thrown in. I'll probably do brown rice with that, and some broccoli that needs using up.

Bold bean website, bbc good food, ChatGPT, Tesco recipes, Sainsbury’s recipes, Waitrose recipes, asda recipes. Type in what you like and off you go. Everyone in the house takes it in turns to cook a meal in the week. Boring dinners a thing of the past!

We had this tonight as I too wanted to try something different. Was really easy and tasty. More like a cassoulet than a soup.

Served with rye bread. I added bacon lardons which weren't really needed. Served DH and me with enough for a couple of work lunches. I used butter beans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/smoked_paprika_orzo_soup_15130

I've found the Taming Twins website really good for slow-cooking and freezing:
Pulled Pork: gets frozen for making tacos, with leftovers for lunch wraps. it's really quick to defrost too as the meat is already shredded into small pieces.
Chicken and bacon casserole: I add extra veg, thicken it before freezing then use portions for a pasta bake, 'pie' with mash on top or proper pastry pie.
Chicken Korma: I add red lentils and chickpeas too.

I only found the site a year ago but I use it a lot as the meals are easy and really tasty.😊

meals we've had in the last few weeks:
cottage pie (quorn or lentil version for the veggies) & veg
ramen with salmon
chicken enchiladas (or beans) Chicken enchiladas recipe - BBC Food make double the amount of sauce and then freeze it
chicken (ham - added extra from the recipe) and leek pie - could use chunky mushrooms for the veggies Easy chicken and leek pie recipe - BBC Food
spag bol
jacket potatoes and slow cooker ham
Morrisons do a bag of frozen casserole veg which makes a great soup if you just boil it with some stock and then blend. 4 portions for about £1.50!
chorizo gnocchi Chorizo gnocchi recipe - BBC Food