Trying to make positive changes

[Mumstheword1983]

Groceries (76 items)

1 Alpro Almond Milk No Sugars Long Life Dairy Alternative 1L £1.40
1 Alpro Dark Chocolate Flavour Dessert 4 x 125g £1.85
1 Alpro Greek Style Plain Dairy Free Yoghurt Alternative 400g £2.50
2 Belvita Breakfast Honey & Nut with Chocolate Chip Cereal
Biscuit Snack Bars Pack 5 x 45g £2.00
1 Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli & Garlic Stir Fry Sauce 120g £0.75
1 By JS Digestive Biscuits 400g £0.59
1 Cathedral City Mini Mature Cheddar Cheeses 6x20g £1.65
1 Dairylea Dunkers Ritz Cheese Snack 3x43g £2.25
1 Green & Black's Organic Ginger Dark Chocolate Bar 90g £2.75
1 Hovis Seed Sensations Seven Seeds Medium Sliced Seeded
Bread 400g £1.00
1 Jason's Sourdough The Great White Bread 450g £2.20
0.924kg JS Broccoli Loose £2.02
1 JS CHOC CHIP COOKIES 250G £1.30
1.872kg JS Fairtrade Bananas Loose £1.78
2 KTC Chopped Tomatoes 400g £0.90
2 Little Ones Sensitive Baby Wipes x60 £1.12
1 Mcghees Scottish Pancakes x4 £0.60
1 Naked Rice Long Grain Rice Japanese Katsu Curry 78g £0.75
1 Nutella Hazelnut & Chocolate Spread 200g £1.90
1 Peppa Pig Kids Strawberry Yoghurt Pots 6x45g £1.00
1 RYVITA Thins SWEET CHILLI 125G £1.25
2 Sainsbury's 320g British Fresh Skinless & Boneless Chicken
Breast Fillets £4.68
1 Sainsbury's Baby Plum Tomatoes 325g £0.89
1 Sainsbury's Baby Potatoes 1kg £0.85
1 Sainsbury's Baked Beans In Tomato Sauce 200g £0.35
1 Sainsbury's Basmati Rice 1kg £1.79
1 Sainsbury's British Cooked Honey Roast Ham Slices x10 115g £0.88
1 Sainsbury's British or Irish 5% Fat Beef Mince 250g £2.69
1 Sainsbury's Chantenay Carrots 400g £0.80
1 Sainsbury's Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal 375g £0.86
1 Sainsbury's Choco Rice Pops 375g £0.95
1 Sainsbury's Easy Peelers 600g £1.20
1 Sainsbury's Egg Mayo Deli Filler 220g £1.45
1 Sainsbury's Fusilli Pasta 500g £0.60
1 Sainsbury's Ginger Snaps 300g £0.59
1 Sainsbury's Grissini Bread Sticks, Sesame Seed 125g £0.55
1 Sainsbury's Iceberg Lettuce 200g £0.69
2 Sainsbury's Little Ones Organic Pear, Prune & Banana Smooth
Puree 6+ Months 70g £0.90
1 Sainsbury's Multigrain Hoops Cereal 375g £0.79
1 Sainsbury's Pitted Green Olives 120g £1.40
2 Sainsbury's Pure Pineapple Juice 3x200ml £2.80
1 Sainsbury's Red Kidney Beans in Water 215g (130g*) £0.45
1 Sainsbury's Roasted Red Pepper Houmous 200g £1.00
2 Sainsbury's Scottish Semi Skimmed Milk 2.27L (4 pint) £3.30
2 Sainsbury's Small Whole Cucumber £1.06
1 Sainsbury's Soft Medium Sliced White Bread 800g £0.74
1 Sainsbury's Steak Family Pie 700g £3.40
1 Sainsbury's Table Salt Bottle 750g £0.65
1 Sainsbury's Thick Soft White Farmhouse Bread 800g £0.72
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Hawaiian Pizza 385g £1.50
1 Sainsbury's Thin & Crispy Pepperoni Pizza 305g £1.07
1 Sainsbury's Tomato & Basil Soup 600g £1.49
2 Sainsbury's Tomato & Three Bean Soup, Be Good To Yourself
400g £1.26
1 Sainsbury's Wheat Biscuits x24 £1.80
1 Sainsbury's White Large Flat Vitamin D Mushrooms 250g £1.00
1 Sainsbury's Wholegrain Malties Cereal 750g £1.14
1 Sainsbury's Wholemeal Pittas x6 £0.50
2 Stamford Street Co. Double Strength Apple & Blackcurrant
Squash 750ml £0.98
2 Stamford Street Co. Mini Apples x6 £1.98
1 Stamford Street Co. Mixed Size British Eggs Free Range x10 490g £1.95
1 Stamford Street Co. Prawns 250g £2.54
1 Stamford Street Co. Toilet Tissue Double Rolls 4 Equals 8 Rolls £1.65
1 Stamford Street Co. Tortilla Chips 200g £0.57
1 Stamford Street Co. White Rolls x4 300g £0.75
1 Vitalite Spreadable Dairy Free Butter Alternative 500g £1.70
Order summary
Delivery cost £2.00
Subtotal £99.82
You've saved* -£7.35

Hi I'm looking to make changes to my weekly food shop. Currently spending around £85 I can afford to up this. I'm trying to wean the kids off sugary cereal and only have these at weekends. We eat a lot of biscuits as we have weekly visitors of around 8-10 family members and often get the biscuit plate out. I've cut back this week! We would normally have 6 packets in. We are a family of 6. Young children. I haven't bought any break time snacks for the kids this week. I would normally buy Oreo packs or crisps. Again I am trying to cut this back and choose something healthier but I struggle for ideas. My children all get free schools (universal free school meals here) apart from the oldest.

I'm looking for ideas on what to change/ add in as on another thread I took quite a beating about the unhealthy food shop (understandable) it's something I've been wanting to change for a long time. We both work and I was brought up on food like this so it's partly learned behaviour.

4 chicken breasts for 12 meals still doesn't seem enough, and I'm tight with chicken! It is hardly a surprise you're getting through all that cereal and bread as they're not feeling fulfilled at meal time. Plus white bread and sugary cereals dont help with feeling full.

I would add more to your main meals. We spend roughly the same as you for 4 adults, but no white bread, no sugary cereals, no biscuits etc. We do buy wholemeal or seeded bread, plus a sourdough loaf from the bakery. I also make a cake or pudding most weeks to avoid buying ready made stuff. For main meals I add pulses everywhere i can. Beef has lentils (I recently discovered green have more fibre than red), added. Soups have beans added. Curry's have chickpeas. And so on. I also add lots of veg. So a couple if handfuls of kale went into a casserole last night, on top if the broccoli that was in the recipe. Mash is usually a mix of root veg. Serve at least two vegetables as sides, and try new ones. Add chopped cherry tomatoes and avocado to your weekend eggs. Mushrooms too.

Wholemeal wraps/pita breads may help you. Wholemeal pasta and brown rice have been our latest swaps. As well as oat bran to try for breakfasts. I added it to crumble last night, it was great. Left overs for breakfast with yogurt. Overnight oats (ot make a big pan of porridge and save left overs in fridge) with grated apples, chia seeds, nut butters, dried fruits is good for breakfast. Add Greek yogurt if you want. You could start with the chocolate spread you buy and then add different flavours?

Full fat milk, greek style yogurt with as much protein as possible help with filling kids. A stash of boiled eggs in the fridge to add to anything or snack on is also great.

Phew. Sorry it's so long. It is all things we have been doing over the last year or so to keep our food bills down but remain eating healthily.

Plus white bread and sugary cereals don't help with feeling full.
Look up GI index (Glycaemic Index (GI) - BDA).
Foods like white bread, pasta and sugary cereals release energy into the blood system quickly, and you get a slump not long after eating, which makes you think you're hungry.

When you have that false hunger, you'll usually reach for a biscuit or something which will repeat the process.

If the children like sweetcorn, I’ve got a really nice recipe for a vegan sweetcorn chowder if you’d like it. Very easy and delicious.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie , please share it with us.

It’s this one. I just roughly blend it in the pan with a hand blender. Don’t skip the lime juice, as that’s what makes it so delicious. katybeskow.com/sweetcorn-chowder/

And I don’t bother with the celery unless I’m buying it for something else too.

It would be really easy to double it.

Looks delicious but I'm not sure I want to " throw the red pepper, celery, and chilli flakes into the pan "

Must be thrown from the other side of the kitchen whilst making heavy exercise noises.

Get rid of some of the UPF stuff and you will save £17.03

1 Biscuit Snack Bars Pack 5 x 45g £2.00
1 By JS Digestive Biscuits 400g £0.59
1 Dairylea Dunkers Ritz Cheese Snack 3x43g £2.25
1 Green & Black's Organic Ginger Dark Chocolate Bar 90g £2.75
1 JS CHOC CHIP COOKIES 250G £1.30
1 Mcghees Scottish Pancakes x4 £0.60
1 Peppa Pig Kids Strawberry Yoghurt Pots 6x45g £1.00
1 Sainsbury's Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal 375g £0.86
1 Sainsbury's Choco Rice Pops 375g £0.95
1 Sainsbury's Multigrain Hoops Cereal 375g £0.79
2 Sainsbury's Pure Pineapple Juice 3x200ml £2.80
1 Sainsbury's Wholegrain Malties Cereal 750g £1.14

Her other recipes look tasty too. Thanks for the link @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie .

...and where is all the meat or fish??

We have prawn stir fry normally and beef chilli and 2 x chicken dishes. Pizza and salad another night when husband works late. Steak pie or a roast on a Sunday and we eat out Saturday. It's all on the list ☺️ my kids aren't bigger eaters and 2 are only little.

Nice. that's quite similar to the one I used to do except mine had Chipotle in it.

I can never see the word ‘chipotle’ without thinking of jack Black in, ‘School of Rock’ 😂

OI need the laughing emoji back!!! We just watched that with the kids a couple of months ago!

I want to get rid of as much if the UPF as possible but I would really struggle without cereal as it's the one thing the girls can make themselves as I struggle to get out the door on work days dropping them all off at various places before my work at 8am. I only work 3 days though 😄

Honestly, people love to demonise cereal. But it's perfectly okay to prioritise other meals first and come back to cereal, if you want to, later. You're not going to make all of the changes in the first few weeks. Do what you can and reassess periodically. And getting breakfast down them is more important.

Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal
Choco Rice Pops 375g £0.95
Multigrain Hoops Cereal 375g
Wholegrain Malties Cereal 75
2 Belvita Breakfast Honey & Nut with Chocolate Chip Cereal

That's a lot of cereal and they're high in sugars.

Yes. I know. It was worse before. That's my updated list. Trying to wean them off it and have chocolate cereal now and again. They do also like banana/scrambled egg on toast and on weekends they don't have a cereal breakfast but I have bad habits for an easier life to get rid of!

You can buy frozen bags of finely chopped carrot/onion/celery mix - soffrito - about £1 - I use these as a base and to bulk out so many different meals - saves so much time and effort peeling and chopping:

base for tomato pasta sauce
base for curry
base for shep pie
base for bolognaise
base for chili
base for soups

Then add a tin of beans / lentils / chick peas goes in everything - as well as cubes of frozen spinach (fresh if you want) I also chuck in nuts and olive oil for omega 3.

So with this soffrito base once you count up any garlic, chilli, herbs, spices, pepper added, then your pulses and spinach - you are at 10 plant points and you can still add tomatoes, peppers, peas, corn, sweet potatoes, broccoli, salad etc to increase it further. I stir in yogurt to most things for more protein.

With the carb - rice, pasta etc that is the smaller part of the meal - the sauce is the majority. It’s the carb bit that makes them hungry a hour or so later.

I think a snacking habit is not great. I would get them hungry so they eat a full healthy meal - but would also be happy to have a small ‘pudding’ immediately after evening meal - homemade flapjack, dollop of proper natural unsweetened yogurt with grated choc.

Another good filler is skin on wedges done in the airfryer - olive oil and seasoning takes no time. Could be their snack but I would be getting them out of that habit - if they are hungry for a few days adjusting just offer back the uneaten dinner.

@Mumstheword1983 , swap the cereals for ones with less sugar. The worst on your list are:
Choco Hazelnut Squares Cereal
2 Belvita Breakfast Honey & Nut with Chocolate Chip Cereal

Switch to Shredded Wheat or Weetabix (organic if you can). It's low in sugar and portion sizes are easy.

You can save money by buying own brands, which I think you do anyway.

So stupid that they took it away.

This!

Tomato sauce and curry are great places to stack the veg.

Onions, celery, carrot, peppers are the bare minimum.

Tomato sauce likes courgettes, butternut squash,
aubergine, mushrooms, lentils

Curry is good for root veg eg swede, sweet potato, parsnips and also huge bag of spinach vanishes. Also lentils / chickpeas / beans.

Casserole likes pretty much everything!!

I'm not demonising cereal but you can choose healthier ones. You can add fruit to sweeten it.