A couple of days ago I reviewed August’s spending and surmised that I need to do better with dining out. Then I promptly went out and spent £72.05 on dim sum, tons of Prosecco, an excellent cappuccino & Baileys as well as a below average burger. I really need to cut back on dining out and eat more meals at home. So I went to the grocery store to get ingredients that I love individually and hopefully create some tasty yet healthy meals that would prevent me from dining out and hopefully help me lose some weight.

~ £21 worth of meat and veg to get me through the next week

So what was my plan?

I found this image online a few months ago:

My mission was to fill that hole!

What did I buy?

I reckon I’m a pretty good cook – mainly because I do well with improvising and making dishes based on ingredients I like as opposed to recipes. Normally though, I make a lot of sandwiches, pasta and rice based dishes and I really wanted to have a go at making meals centred around vegetables and protein. I rarely eat breakfast and when I do, it’s fruit or Oat so simple porridge. So, I got the following items to get me through a week of lunches and dinners.

• Spinach
• Spring onions
• Bell peppers
• Salad tomatoes
• Scotch bonnet peppers
• Red lentils
• Mushrooms
• Broccoli
• Diced turkey thighs x 2
• Diced beef
• Red onions
• Chopped tomatoes x 2

What did I make?

Spinach and beef stew: I seasoned and created a stock with the beef first then sautéed some red onions, spring onions and tomatoes. I added the stock and all of the spinach to the onions and tomatoes and simmered for 15 minutes or so. I will probably eat this with a side of rice or potatoes. I can also eat it alone for dinner. The recipe should yield 5 meals if I eat it with something else or 3 alone.

Diced turkey thigh, mushrooms and peppers: I sautéed the diced turkey thighs with the red onions, spring onions and a couple of tomatoes. I then added a bit of water, the peppers and mushrooms and simmered until most of the water evaporated. This made an excellent donburi for dinner. The recipe will yield 3 – 4 servings.

Diced turkey thigh, mushrooms and broccoli : I cooked this the same way at the version with mushrooms and peppers. I took some to work on Monday and I had it with a side of potatoes. I should get 3 – 4 servings from what’s leftover.

Ready to freeze

I forgot that I’d be babysitting at my second cousin’s from last night so I’ll have to eat most of that next week. It felt pretty fab to have prepped so many tasty meals ahead of time and I only spent £20.93. Let’s see if I can do better in the future but for now, bring on the easy meal planning.

The diced turkey thigh, mushroom and peppers donburi (in a non-traditional dish)