Go food shopping..STILL no food in house WHAT

[Thinkpositive23]

I'm pulling my hair out. Literally.
I go food shopping for a big shop come home and there is still no food in in terms of something I can make a meal from or a go to snack..

How do you do your shopping?? What do you buy??

I'm so rubbish

Do you not meal plan?

I feel like this.
Do you get all the usual suspects?
Ham, cheese, fruit, salad stuff, bread, bagels for snacks
pasta, mince, chicken, vegetables for meals. That sort of thing. I often do crap shops though,

I sit down and plan means first, around what I already have in, what we’re doing that week etc and then write down what else I need to. It to bring it altogether.

So say I have some chicken thighs in the freezer, I might buy leeks and potatoes and a sachet if chicken casserole mix and have casserole one day.

If we have a day with a really quick turn around between getting back from work and an evening activity, and I have baked beans in, I’ll get big potatoes to bake in the oven while I am at work (timer), and some cheese to have with them.

That kind of thing.

Meal plan?!

I’m better online shopping when I need to buy ingredients for meals as the items I need are prepopulated from previous shops so less effort to think about when walking round the store

Before I had my DC I’ve been known to spend £70 (would be over £100 now) without actually being able to make one meal so I sympathise

Meal plan and list writing

What are you buying if it's not stuff to make meals out of and things for snacks?

Write down all your meals for the week and buy the ingredients you need for that.
Include breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.

My MIL is exactly the same - she spends twice the amount we do on food shopping (we shop for 4 adults and 2 teens, she shops for 2 adults) but there’s never anything to eat for dinner.

The difference is we meal plan and she doesn’t.

Some supermarket websites do the sort of thing Day suggests. Find a recipe in the recipes section you like the look of, and there's a link to 'buy ingredients' where everything you need automagically appears in your shopping basket. If you shop in person, I would have thought you could print the list to take with you.

If you keep things like bread, eggs, cheese, fruit and dried fruit/nuts in, you can always make an omelette, toast, cheese sandwich, egg on toast, or snack on the other stuff.

When you look at your fridge or cupboards, what are you looking for? Buy that.

Meal plan.

I'm bemused by people who just shove stuff in a trolley and then have "no food".

I try to meal plan and I have on occasions done that however it never seems to sodding work. I buy all the usual suspect stuff butty stuff bread milk veg chicken mince etc but when it comes down to it I am literally like what the hell I'm missing most!!

What kind of stuff do you guys have on a meal plan? Need some inspo xx

Plan 7 dinners, buy ingredients.
Buy bread, sandwich fillings, salad, soup for lunches.
Cereal/breakfast stuff.
Milk and fruit.

I go food shopping for a big shop come home and there is still no food in in terms of something I can make a meal from or a go to snack

How can there not be? If you buy meat and cheese and veg and fruit and potatoes and pasta and rice etc,there are thousands of combinations of meals you can make. If you buy snack food then you have snacks.

How can you be doing a big shop and have no food? Its an oxymoron.

I always get 3 for a tenner meat/fish and plan 3-4 meals round those (a whole chicken, mince, fish)
Then another 3 dinners eg pizza, pasta bake, lentil curry.

Feed 5 sometimes 6 of us and four or five of those are adult portions.
I work out who's home what days and then buy seven meals worth of food. Little one often has different and eldest works lates so I try and do two slow cooker meals a week for the work days in later finishing then it's easy to dish up for whoever and different times.
The other days I do school pick up so feed the kids and then me and dh eat later as he finishes later.
So two slow cooker meals (chilli,or chicken in a sauce normally)rice to go with and steamed frozen veg in individual bags.
Cod for fish night with chips and peas. Roast on Sundays,gammon mash and egg on another day with veg and then pies to go with veg,some pizzas dough balls etc for easy nights and can be cooked at varying times.
Also top up lots of cheese ham bread rolls crackers peppers is and fruit etc so stuff for lunches and snacking.
Varies weekly from £90-£130 depending on what cleaning washing powder etc I need.

Veg :I always have onions and carrots in. Usually celery. Some greens too but they may be in the freezer.

Carbs: rice, pasta in cupboard and bag of potatoes weekly.

Also always in fridge eggs, cheese, milk, plain yoghurt.

Store cupboard : tomatoes, beans, dried lentils, spices , herbs, stock cubes, dried mushrooms.

Now I can buy a pack of sausages and make a pasta meal out of it.
Or buy a chicken and have a dinner.
Or a curry sauce ( because I'm a poor cook of curry!) and have potato and chickpea curry and rice.
I could cook a frittata/ Spanish omelette concoction.

I find it much easier to do my shopping online. I use either Tesco or Ocado, and look for their usual '3 for 10 quid' meat/main ingredient offers, then I plan meals around those. So, for instance, looking at the current Ocado offers, I'd get minced beef, stewing steak and chicken breast fillets. The minced beef would be a) shepherd's pie, and b) chilli, so I need potatoes, onions, mushrooms, gravy granules and Cheddar for the shepherd's pie. Next, I check the cupboards to see what I already have, then add what I need to the online shop. The chili needs onions and mushrooms too (I don't use beans), plus peppers, chilli powder and beef stock. Add rice to serve it with, and use some of the remaining Cheddar, grated, on top. The stewing steak will make beef and carrot stew (so add carrots, the onions are already on the list), can be served with boiled or mashed potatoes and a green vegetable (add vegetable if none in freezer), and maybe a beef curry (with rice already added for the chilli). The chicken mini fillets could be breaded (using stale bread from last week made into crumbs) - add eggs, check flour supply - and served with home made chips (using the rest of the potatoes) and baked beans (check cupboard), and/or added to a stir fry (add stir fry veg to the online shop, plus a sauce, or ingredients for one).

That's how I do it anyway - plus always buy the staples, like bread, butter, eggs and bacon (I'm the low carber in the house!). If there's a really good special offer on (half price leg of lamb, for example) I'll add it and freeze it for another week. Hope that helps a bit - you could do the same thing by looking at the website before you go shopping, and making a list, if you can't/don't want to shop online of course.

I do
something potatoes
Something with salad
Something with rice
Something with pasta
Something with chips
Roast
Something with eggs

So 6 main meals to sho for (I always leave a 7th for a cupboard day

Roast
Stew veg and mash
Chinese Curry and rice
Sweet and sour chicken with rice
Sausage pasta bake
Tuna pasta
Egg and chips
Fishfingers and chips
Chicken wraps and salad
Eggs or cheese on toast
Omelette

Throw in jackets potatoes, we do cheese beans pasta scrambled eggs sausages

Sometimes I do an Indian curry rather than Chinese

Sometimes pizza or calzone

Sometimes we have soup and sandwiches

Meal plan and stick with it

We meal plan too and also start writing a list after beginning of the week so when we run out of something it goes straight on the list so we're not having to remember it days later when we're going to the shop. We tend to do:
one red meat dish per week so bolognese or chilli, or cottage pie.
One or two chicken dishes, Nigella does a great one pot wonder with chorizo and chicken thighs. And then chicken with mozzarella and basil maybe
One or two fish dishes per week, we like salmon with rice and veggies and then a healthy fish and chips done at home.

Try Google! Type something like "meal plans for families". The BBC Good Food website will come up with lots of good ideas, and they provide a shopping list too, so all the hard work is done for you.

Make a list of everything in your store cupboard before you start, so you're not buying things you already have in the cupboard.

You will soon get the hang of it, and start saving time and money.

I try to be good but often have to do top up shops because I forget essentials even though I shop online and could easily check every cupboard before I start.
I also get carried away with things like nice cleaning products or toiletries that make me stray from my budget.
I am a total rubbish shopper. 😕

I plan 6 meals as something will inevitably come up one night or I can’t be bothered and we’ll have a takeaway.

I normally buy either a chicken or ham joint for Sunday roast and then use it in leftovers the next day. So leftover chicken will become a stir fry or risotto and left over ham will normally be gnocchi bake or carbonara.

Have a mince dinner so either lasagne, shepherds pie, chilli, tacos etc

Then a stir fry or pasta (whichever wasn’t used for leftover day)

A jacket potato with leftovers chilli, beans and cheese, tuna and sweet corn etc

A traybake to use up random veg left over and normally sausages

So although most weeks we will have the same dinners it’s never the same combination so we don’t get bored. When the season changes wo do the dinners. So when the weather gets a bit warmer we will have more grilled meat, different salads and potatoes, and when it gets cold there are more stews and casseroles.

When you get in the hang of it you’ll wonder how you coped before!

Also I try to do leftovers not the next day but have a meal in between if that makes sense. So we might have chilli and nachos Tuesday and then jacket potato with chilli Thursday. Makes them seem less like leftovers!

Look at actual recipes. I just think of actual meals that we will have that week and check what ingredients I need so;

Roast dinner - chicken, potatoes, peas, thyme, lemon

Mushroom risotto - risotto rice, veg stock, onions, garlic, mushrooms, Parmesan

Bolognese - mince, onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, courgette, carrot, herbs, spaghetti

Etc

I use bbcgoodfood, Jamie Oliver and delia websites for recipes.

Do this for lunches and breakfast too.

Have staples in the house like bread, butter, cheese, salt, pepper, oil, spices, eggs, tea, coffee, sugar

Have some things in the freezer too for days when you can’t cook or don’t feel up to it.