3 week shopping list

[Lynda]

I'm new to the site and feel weird asking strangers for help. I am doing a three weekly shop next Friday and am open for any suggestions. I can buy enough fresh fruit and veg for the first week then i'm stuffed. My husband and two kids like a snack after tea. I'ts like have something solid then follow it with something sweet. We allready don't use butter or bread. What bread i do use i cook in the breadmaker, that is usally rye or wholemeal. Any suggestions for a healthy three weekly shopping list would be much appreciated.

Lynda

[Angel]

Lynda

Boy, I have trouble planning my weekly shop, I don't envy you but hope these suggestions help:

low fat yoghurt - I buy Yoplait No Fat yoghurt, eating the vanilla flavour feels oh so naughty but its not.

Fruit in its own juices - canned or Frozen berries - these could be added to the yoghurt

make your own icypoles - I'm not sure where you buy the mold but you could use low joule cordial for these.

Never tried these but frozen banana - sounds weird but I'm told its like having a banana icypole

Mum used to freeze grapes and cut up oranges for us as kids

Mum also use to blend different fruits together and make a sorbet and freeze - it would be like having Vitari

What about the low fat version of what you were having?

That's about all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope these ideas help.
Angel

[Butterfly_Dawn]

dried fruit can be rehydrated and it's almost like fresh stewed fruit. (just pour some boiling water over them at night, and by morning they're rehydrated) That might be an option.

If you can get them home, frozen veggies are a pretty good substitute nowadays. A few brands do mixed vegies in one pack now.

make sure there are lots of wholegrain things. Get some good muesli for breakfast (not the sugarfilled, toasted kind) which can also be cooked into porridge on cold days. Try buying some grains to put in the bread you make (linseed, rye, try buying organic wheat or rye grains and sprout them, then mix in the dough)

Speaking of sprouts, buy a range of organic grains (organic because they haven't been chemically treated and therefore non-growable) and put them on some moist cotton wool on your windowsill to sprout (like alfalfa sprouts). This will give you fresh, wholesome greens whenever you need them.

If you can, get some herbs growing in pots like parsley etc - at least that will give you something green and fresh too.

Maybe buy up BIG on fresh vegies and do a whole bunch of freezable foods (eg vege pasta sauces, soups etc). Add pearl barley to a vege soup for a bit of grain too - very yum.

Hope some of those ideas help

Tegan

[Lesley]

Hi Lynda, frozen and tinned fruits are good, as long as they are in natural juice. You can make healthy muffins with tinned apples (pie apples) or any fruit desired, as well as use any tinned fruit and/or frozen fruit for fruit crumbles. Pancakes can be filled with fruit of choice and served with lowfat, homemade custard. Baked custard can be spiced up with fruit and spices. Low fat trifles can be made from diet jelly, low fat custard and fruit (you can add a little cake if your family desires). Low fat jellies can be made with canned carnation milk. Serve with tinned or frozen fruit. Serve baked pears (tinned work), or apples with custard or diet jelly. Tinned or frozen fruit can be made up in filo pastry - just spray each sheet with cooking spray instead of brushing with oil or butter. Just type into your browser cooking with tinned/frozen fruit and see what comes up. There should be loads of recipes out there.

Hope this helps. Cheers, Lesley

[Lynda]

Thank you all for your replies. The first thing i have to ask, Growing things on cotton wool? Never heard of it. But other suggestions are great i am really getting excited about this. Dieticians have always given me a piece of paper with fresh fruit and veg i have never heard of some of your suggestions. Big question, where do i buy things that sprout, i think my kids would like or eat something like that.

Lynda

[Butterfly_Dawn]

if you have a wholefood shop, they will probably be able to help you. Here's a link I just found. Basically, sprouts are newly germinated plants. They're referred to as 'living foods' because they're growing and living right up until you put them on your salad or sandwich - they don't sit at the bottom of your fridge for a week. That site doesn't use cotton wool - but I rmember doing it at home when i was a kid.

http://www.teachatoz.com/grow_sprouts/

[emma21]

Maybe another alternative to having veggies is buying fresh veggies in bulk and blanching them and then freezing them. Also, depending on how you store your fruit and veggies, will depend on their life in the fridge.

As for doing a 3 week shop, I would sit down and work out what you and your family will be eating for the next three weeks (breakfast lunch and dinner plus snacks and whatever else).

Keep a list of what you're going to eat handy (on the fridge) so when you feel the urge to eat, you know what you can have....

Emma

[kymbahlee]

You can definitely grow sprouts on cotton wool, I usually grow alfalfa sprouts with my JP class for a science experiment. But I have only ever used tap or rainwater, if you are on bore water don't know how that will go.

[linda]

maybe put some of your shopping funds to one side so you can get fruit fresh each week. When we were kids my parents only shopped once a month, I hated it.