Recently, we’ve increased our budget because I need to eat more energy dense foods (nuts, avocado etc.) to put the weight back on I lost last year. But we just bought more junk food instead.
£5 per week may not sound like much, but it works out at £20 per month, and £240 per year. That feels like a lot for some cereal bars that don’t have a lot of nutritional value in them.
I am working on simplifying all areas of my life, and today, it’s time to simplify a big part of our weekly food shop; cereal bars and snacks. 20 cereal bars cost £4, and they're laden with all manner of ingredients no one can pronounce. I’ve gone through fits and spurts caring about the ingredients in my food, but sometimes I lose motivation.
It’s time for me to get back on the healthier eating, know-where-your-ingredients come from bandwagon.
This will involve some baking each weekend, as I will need to make these to take to work. I live close to a shop where you can buy every dry ingredient you can think of by the scoop. I’m taking a trip to it on Monday to stock up on supplies. I will likely get some apple rings, raisins, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, and anything else that could work in a cookie/biscuit/cereal bar recipe.
I’ve found some recipes I’d like to try too:
I'll also be trying to replicate my favourite mid-morning snack. Apple and sultana Go Ahead slices. I have them with my banana during my first break at work. I have some ideas as to how it could work, and if I manage to design a recipe, I will let you know!
Over to you
Do you make your own snacks? Do you have a weak spot in your weekly shop that eats up more than its fair share of money? If so, is there a way to replace it? Do you know any awesome recipes for me to try? I'd love to hear from you in the comments.
These look fantastic. It is scary when you start adding up all those little amounts.
ReplyDeleteI bake but mostly cakes and cupcakes, although I only those this once in a wonder, if I baked them I would eat them. Yours is such a great idea to make healthier treats.
I agree, it is scary to add these things up. We once got away with a £35 weekly shop, and we haven't achieved that in weeks. so many offers on all the time, and mostly on junk food!
ReplyDeletemm cupcakes. I don't have a muffin tin so they tend to just go flat. I love making cookies though, and this will be a good challenge for me, to create some healthy, energy dense snacks to get me through the day.
It's a a really great idea to buy your ingredients in bulk for this kind of thing. We have made some amazing granola bars at home - I think the recipe was by Nigella Lawson and they nearly broke the bank. They were absolutley amazing and so much better than anything you could buy in supermarkets and they didn't go stale all week in a sealed box. The problem was that all the seeds and fruit we needed for them came in small packets which added up to a huge amount.
ReplyDeleteI feel hungry now - just going downstairs to have some toast!
There's definitely a weak spot in my weekly shopping for sweet foods and junk!!
ReplyDeleteI eat my share of fruit and veg and I think it's okay to have one chocolate bar a day. I've cut crisps right back to weekends only (although, that often includes my half-day Fridays and I tend to have a few Mondays off work...).
I've always enjoyed two Digestive biscuits with a cup of tea straight after work (a reward). In the last two months, I've somehow added THREE chocolate Digestives to that, every day!! They were initially to replace the extra chocolate bars I was buying for the same time and I'm trying to think of a smart analogy to state that I've clearly replaced one with the same...
My mum keeps 'borrowing' my bananas. Usually she replaces but, last week, she bought me a pack of Jammie Dodgers instead (another special offer) and I've found a new urge to have something to eat along with a mug of green or redbush tea late in the evening (which does help me to sleep). I bought a pack of custard creams yesterday to carry on with once the Dodgers are all gone.
As this comment slides further down the hill; I've developed a habit of buying bags of sweets, which have also been on special offer lately. I'll treat myself to a bag of Wine Gums when I have an evening course or session (not food-related!) to cope with after work. This week, I bought two bags and have almost finished consuming the second this evening!!
I tend to buy a pack of four something from the supermarket bakery (usually muffins or cookies) and I'll keep two for myself but will give the other two to my mum and sister. I know they appreciate that.
I do believe it's important to recognise our reasoning behind this and I'm almost certain mine is to do with my mood problems. I admire you for being able to make your own snacks. I can spend under £20 a week and live on that, with perhaps only a few small evening meals included (I often skip days). Or, I can spend £25 and the extra will only be spent on junk food and non-essentials.
I know I wouldn't give myself the time to make my own and I'm not sure what I could replace some of this with. Fruit isn't getting any cheaper, that's for sure.
oh goodness, yes, the little packets of seeds and dried fruit are so expensive in the supermarket!! The shop I mentioned has some things that are about half the price the supermarkets charge. and you can buy as much or as little as you want.
ReplyDeleteMy partner recently made some cashew nut butter, and I'll be baking with that soon (maybe tomorrow!)
Hey Olly, thanks for reading!
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if you're replacing your required calorie intake (to keep you going) with empty ones (i.e. sugar)? I understand about the mood problems, I'm partial to chocolate and all sorts when I'm not feeling great. Cake is my weakness, I want to eat cake all the time.
It does take time to make your own, and I admit I'm not the best at motivating myself to do so. This week I have to because we didn't buy the usual stuff I take to work this week. I've already made some oat-peanut butter cookies, and they are awesome.
I only stumbled upon your reply this morning! I'm actually amazed and grateful that you did, because I completely went off on one and I felt really awkward after posting it on what is YOUR blog... :-S
ReplyDeleteYou could be right. I certainly hadn't looked at it that way but then, I guess it's 'mostly' women who take note of those things anyway.
Okay, I now know what NOT to make you for your birthday!! :-D I still want to make one of those 'cake in a mug' recipes sometime but I don't feel like it'll happen here, in someone else's home.
I should mention that I'm halfway through a bag of Wine Gums right now (to be fair, I've had them since Thursday night) and that's after eating FIVE biscuits... But, I did have two plates of roast dinner this afternoon! More importantly, I think I only skipped the one evening meal this week. I forced myself to have a soup one night and the pasta I had on Thursday was delicious, even though I only topped it off with a tin of baked beans! :-)
"Cake is my weakness, I want to eat cake all the time."
Sorry, I don't know why but that line makes me smile... :-) I can just imagine it on a photo of someone, like one of those Lolcatz-type photos that always pop up on Facebook.
No need to feel awkward about replying. This blog wouldn't be anything without the community and the conversation. So I very much appreciate the in depth comments :)
ReplyDeleteI have a bit of a thing about biscuits too, and have been eating a lot of them of late. I'm planning to overhaul my food shopping, going towards much more fresh produce and lots more vegetables. We'll be shopping at the local greengrocers weekly from now on, and I'm very excited!
The image of a meme (I think that's what they're called, the ones with a photo plus big bold text), is making me chuckle to myself. I like that you pointed it out, cake certainly is my weakness!
MEME! That's the word!! :-D
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I find that people not native of this land know the language better than I do... My other friend (who you've met) recently reminded me that a 'baby goat' is in fact called a kid. :-P I vaguely remember learning that early in primary school but it had long since been forgotten.
Billy-Goat; Billy the Kid... That's my new trick for remembering that fact. Now, I just need one for the word meme... However it's pronounced! ;-)