WITH the nation officially in lockdown and supermarkets running low on basic necessities due to coronavirus, parents are scrambling to make make the most of what they have to get them through.
But to avoid panic-buying and cooking up endless batches of pasta, a thrifty mum has come up with a cheap two-week meal plan to get her family through the coronavirus lockdown while still providing a variety of healthy and nutritious rich meals.
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Lorna Rich, 33, from Somerset, created her Instagram page @athriftymum in January while on maternity leave to help others learn the art of cost- cutting.
But while most of her content focuses on thrifty fashion finds and second-hand home goods, the mum-of-one often shares tips on how she limits the amount of food she buys for her family – husband Jon, 32, and five-month-old Casper.
When considering meal-prepping, Lorna revealed that the best food items to prepare are root vegetables and the occasional stew, which both do well frozen and can be kept for a long period of time.
While she still agrees that batch cooking is the way to go, Lorna says that it’s important to still consider using healthy, fresh and nutritious food where possible.
Lorna’s 14-Day Meal Plan
WEEK ONE
Sunday
- Breakfast: Crumpets and fruit juice
- Lunch: Root veg soup – make a big batch for the freezer too
- Dinner: Pot roast chicken stew, roast potatoes, green beans
Monday
- Breakfast: Eggs on toast with tinned tomatoes (or fresh)
- Lunch: Cheesy beans on toast
- Dinner: Chicken or Quorn fajitas with black beans
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Bananas on toast with fruit juice
- Lunch: Quesadillas – butternut squash, chickpeas, cheese, wraps
- Dinner: Chicken noodle soup and homemade soda bread
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Porridge with frozen fruit, fruit juice
- Lunch: Jacket potatoes, tuna and sweetcorn
- Dinner: Dahl, rice, poppadoms
Thursday
- Breakfast: Beans on toast, fruit juice
- Lunch: Dahl soup (blend up last night’s leftovers), naan bread
- Dinner: Tuna pasta bake
Friday
- Breakfast: Cereal, frozen banana smoothie
- Lunch: Pasta with broccoli and pesto
- Dinner: Veggie chilli, sweet potato wedges
Saturday
- Breakfast: Banana pancakes, frozen fruit, fruit juice
- Lunch: Black bean quesadillas, cheese, sweet potato wedges
- Dinner: Tinned salmon, frozen pea and mint risotto
WEEK TWO
Sunday
- Breakfast: Eggs on toasted rye bread with frozen spinach
- Lunch: Beef or veggie sausage stew with root veg mash
- Dinner: Dahl soup
Monday
- Breakfast: Porridge with frozen fruit and honey
- Lunch: Omelette, frozen spinach, cheese
- Dinner: Beef or Quorn sausage stew, root veg mash, frozen broccoli
Tuesday
- Breakfast: Cereal with frozen banana smoothie
- Lunch: Jacket potato with baked beans
- Dinner: Veggie curry (frozen from week before) with rice
Wednesday
- Breakfast: Porridge with tinned fruit
- Lunch: Soup, crackers, cheese
- Dinner: Pasta with tinned tomatoes, tinned sweetcorn, frozen peas, and cheese
Thursday
- Breakfast: Beans on toast – use your frozen loaf
- Lunch: Jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn
- Dinner: Homemade salmon fishcakes, frozen broccoli, frozen spinach
Friday
- Breakfast: Cereal with a frozen fruit smoothie
- Lunch: Soup, crackers, cheese
- Dinner: Shepherd’s pie with root veg
Saturday
- Breakfast: Banana pancakes with frozen fruit
- Lunch: Leftover shepherd’s pie with baked beans
- Dinner: Homemade spiced bean burgers with sweet potato wedges
She said: “It’s not 500 ways with a tin of spam – but it’s thrifty and it’s cheap.
“This isn’t a super scrimpy meal plan – it’s buying sensibly and making higher priced ingredients, such as chicken, go a long way by padding out with veg and healthy grains – it’s a fresh, healthy, wholesome set of meals that are going to keep your immune system up.”
While the mother insists she is in no way a qualified nutritionist or health expert, she does admit to ensuring her family eat healthy meals that are loaded with fruit and vegetables.
While Lorna created the plan to suit her own family, she insisted that all meals are versatile and any ingredient can be swapped out depending on what is already in your kitchen pantry.
Lorna’s Self-Isolation Shopping List
Fruit and veg:
- Bananas – buy green so they can ripen at home!
- Apples – last for ages in the fridge
- Butternut squash
- Suede
- Parsnips
- Carrots
- Celery
- Garlic
- Onions
- Potatoes – baking potatoes are helpful!
- Sweet potatoes
- Celeriac
- Peppers
- Fruit juice
Herbs and spices:
- Mint, coriander, dill, basil, thyme – fresh or dried, cumin, chilli powder, paprika
Dairy:
- Cheese, butter or spread, milk
Meat:
- Chicken – whole or Quorn pieces
- Beef – braising steak works well for Lorna’s recipes, or use veggie sausages instead
- Mince or Quorn mince
Frozen:
- Peas, broccoli, spinach, fruit for smoothies
Store cupboard:
- 12 eggs Crumpets Bread – two loaves so one can go in the freezer
- Burger buns – freeze these
- Long-life rye bread
- Wraps
- Naan bread
- Crackers
- Pasta – one pack will do
- Rice
- Poppadoms
- Risotto rice
- Cereal – two boxes
- Porridge oats
- Stock cubes – chicken, beef, or veggie
- Chicken gravy granules
- Chickpeas
- Black beans
- Kidney beans
- Baked beans
- Tinned tomatoes
- Tinned sweetcorn
- Tinned salmon or tuna
- Red lentils
- Pesto
- Coconut milk UHT milk or any alternative you like
- Tinned fruit
- Honey
- Vegetable oil
While Lorna’s shopping list does consist of packaged items such as pasta, canned goods and frozen vegetables – food items many have been stockpiling – she insists there is absolutely no need to stockpile as so much can be done using a variety of ingredients readily available.
That said,the thrifty mum recommends five items that should always be in every home-cook’s kitchen – frozen vegetables, some kind of dried carbs or pulses, tinned tomatoes, stock cubes and porridge as each can be used and stored in various ways.
She said: “When food shopping, apply the same principles that you would when buying something new. Ask yourself – do I really need this and do I really want it, or is it just an impulse purchase?”
While the Bristol based mum does try to offer variety for her family of three, she understands the pressure many parents face when trying to provide food their kids will actually enjoy.
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But to help challenge the picky eaters in the house, Lorna also recommended getting the kids involved with the cooking which could help take the pressure of parents while giving the kids something fun to do.
She said: “People need to give themselves a bit of a break – just relax and do what you can.
“Try and get the kids involved in cooking if you’re happy to do that, – but if they end up eating pasta with tomato sauce on for five nights a week, it’s not going to kill them!”
And with lockdown now in full swing, parents are looking for any excuse to get the kids involved with household chores such as cooking and cleaning – so why not start with healthy cooking?
We recently shared that people are making flatbread after coronavirus stockpilers snapped up all the loaves -and it only takes three ingredients.
And, a mum shares a brilliant way to fight kids’ boredom during coronavirus lockdown with an activity bag full of ideas.
Meanwhile, a dad was shocked to discover his eight-year-old daughter’s heart-rending coronavirus ‘preparation’ sheet in her room.
