The weekly food shop

 I'll just put it out there... I don't like food shopping. For me, it's a pain in the ass. Effort and a life necessity unless you get it delivered but I'm too picky. So it's that time of week again where your fridge is looking like a sorry mess and the veg is limp, the fruit is not much better and you're eating beans on toast for your dinner. *Must go food shopping tomorrow*

Food shopping normally happens on Friday or Saturday for me and it's always Aldi. It used to be Asda but the difference in cost was just ridiculous. So I'm a loyal Aldi shopper. Once a week we meet, I take stuff from the shelves and in return it feeds me and my partner happily for a week.
I'm going to do a short post just on what I buy and what I use the products for (I get asked this quite regularly). I sometimes write a list, but the supermarket is so small that I rarely forget anything and tend to buy the same things each week with just small variations. All the food below lasts 5-6 dinners and 6-7 breakfast and lunches.

Here goes...

The 'naughty cupboard' and other dried food

 

Tomato Puree and Passata is a must for me. Adds instant flavour to anything, adds moisture to dry food and thickens sauces and syn free providing it contains no extra oil.  The biscuits and chocolate are mainly for the other half but I do have one now and then - none of them are higher than 3.5syns per biscuit. Bran flakes are my cereal of choice as you're allowed 40g for a hexb (bonus!). Benefit light bars allow you to have two for a hexb choice also. I buy pasta to have as a back up, I do mostly red days but if I'm craving carbs I love a bit of pasta. The teddy faces are basically a rip off of pom bears and they actually taste nicer! (They're 4.5 syns per bag.) Sweet chill sauce and light salad cream (yum). I've also bought some wholemeal sandwich thins this week to make a 'steak bake' (hello!) and fat free yoghurt to have with fruit in the evening. Mature cheddar (35g for hexa). You still with me?

 Tins glorious tins

 

Pretty straight forward, chopped tomatoes for making ratatouille, curry, chili, bolognese (basically everything). Corned beef because I love it (3.5syns per 100g). Stewed steak to make my steak bake is 4syns for the whole tin. New potatoes in the tin are a life saver - I pop them in the oven coated in herbs and they crisp up (thank me later). Strawberry conserve, to pop on my toast in the mornings. Tuna tins - free if in brine or water. I like to treat myself to one in sunflower oil every now and then, the taste is much much nicer and perfect for a salad.

 Meat, Fish and Meal Foods

 

Bacon, for the weekends or for wrapping round chicken (always cut the fat off). 5% fat mince - syn free. Perfect for batch cooking, makes good stuffed lettuce wraps, chilli and bolognese. I like to buy a whole chicken, nice and easy and perfect for sandwiches or salad the next day! Venison burgers are 5syns each but absolutely delicious (save a hexb for these so you can have a proper burger) I also love the spicy bean burgers (they're amazing)  5.5syns each (on an EE day)

The Holy Grail

 

If you're going to give slimming world a good go you have to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables. Before slimming world I didn't really eat fruit or much veg to be honest but now I eat it like it's going out of fashion and actually enjoy it. I buy a lot because I mostly do red days. So mixed within this lot is a few bags of salad for lunches at work. Kale - because I love it. So quick and easy and great accompaniment to any meal. The large flat mushrooms are great stuffed with cheese for your hexa. Fruit - lots of apples, peaches, kiwi and banana's. Butternut squash for a potato alternative, messy but delicious. Bag of peppers - very versatile. Dammit, just remembered I forgot to buy courgettes (sad face). Beetroot and celery are perfect salad additions, easy to prepare and full of flavour. 

So that's about it. Besides diet coke, paracetemol and a bottle of squash this is my weekly shop. Same time next week? - Blergh, don't mention it.