Weekly shop and meal plan

Anyone who knows me knows that I love food. I actually feel like going to the supermarket is part of my self-care because I just feel so relaxed going up and down every aisle.

I wasn’t planning on writing this post this week because I don’t usually buy so much produce when I have to walk and carry it home myself but one thing led to another and I kept filling my basket. It was a little bit of a struggle walking back with two heavy bags and my rucksack but I managed.

Before I go to the supermarket, I almost always make a list because without one, I always forget at least one item. Before I make my list, I have a think about the types of meals I want to make that week which quite often involves me consulting my lovely selection of cookbooks and HelloFresh recipe sheets.

This week I decided I would make a mushroom and broccoli gnocchi recipe from HelloFresh and a lentil and fish recipe from Classic Mary Berry. I checked for ingredients that I might already have and made a note of any I needed. I also checked my breakfast and lunch items to see what needed topping up.

I returned from Sainsbury’s with a beautiful array of vegetables (whilst shopping I decided to add a noodle stir fry to my meal plan), fish and tasty treats such as philadelphia cheese pots and wholemeal bagels.

I was a little bit disappointed by the amount of vegetables I had to buy wrapped in plastic. I try so hard to buy fruit and veg loose but unfortunately, the vegetables for the stir fry came wrapped in packaging.

I’ve also been eating crisps quite often with my lunch so I thought I would try packing a small handful of nuts and seeds for lunch instead. I also haven’t bought avocados in a while so I treated myself to a pack to enjoy with my bagels.

My housemate is vegetarian so I’ve been eating a lot less fish than usual and I had no more fillets left in the freezer so I stocked up on some sea bream, salmon, tinned tuna and fish fingers for those cold afternoons when you just fancy a fish finger sandwich. In terms of dairy, I try where I can to reduce my consumption but I love cheese so much! I haven’t bought dairy milk in nearly three years and more often than not I stick to vegan yogurts. Eggs are a big part of my life and I would never buy caged hen eggs.

Food cupboard items consist of bread, bagels, quinoa, mango chutney, pesto for pasta, stock and herbs, sauce and puree and a sugar jelly mix. I’ve got a tin of peaches in the cupboard that I’ve been wanting to throw in a jelly for a while now and I feel like the time has come. My sliced bread lives in the freezer now as I mainly use it for toast.

From all this food, I created my meal plan for the week with main meals consisting of gnocchi (which I bought before this shop), roasted vegetables with quinoa, salads, stir fry, and the fishy lentil dish from Mary Berry. I also plan my breakfast and lunch in advance so I don’t feel stuck wondering what to make. The meal plan sheet stays in the kitchen, attached by a magnet to the boiler (our fridge isn’t magnetic). Below, you can read exactly what I had planned to eat during the week.

Behind the scenes…

Whilst I was unpacking all the food and taking the pictures for this post, Alaska, my housemate Lydia’s cat, was watching my every move and was very interested in all the food on the table. I managed to get some shots of her watching the scene.

She was very annoyed that I wouldn’t let her near the veg to take a closer look.

I really hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed creating it and that it may have given you some ideas for future meal plans. Food blogging is probably my favourite theme to write for but finding the time to do it is difficult. I also share a lot of food images on my Instagram, particularly on my story, if you wanted to follow them or check them out.

My favourite meal that I’m most looking forward to this week is the roasted vegetables with quinoa! What’s your favourite meal? Are there any meals on my plan that you would like me to write a blog post on? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!