Our #thriftyorganic Meal Plan for this week

I was delighted to be asked to compile a thrifty Meal Plan for Organic UK to celebrate Organic September which is part of the Organic Trade Board’s ongoing ‘Organic. Naturally Different’ campaign.  I've joined in with their #ThriftyOrganic challenge and swapped my regular weekly shop for an organic one, to see how much of a difference there is in cost and taste.

We grow as much of our own organic produce as possible and it does taste better, perhaps due to the work that went into producing it, or maybe because it has been freshly picked.  At the moment we've got an abundance of late summer produce so I have included some of that in our Meal Plan this week.

A budget of £80 was set to feed all 6 of us this week, using as much organic produce and products as possible. I have supplemented our shop with homegrown produce such as greens, salad, herbs, and foraged berries and other fruits.

Breakfasts will be porridge with apple compote, made with apples from the trees in our back garden.

Packed Lunches will be Versatile Vegetable Pasties with homemade hummus and vegetable crudites, yoghurt with homemade fruit compote and a small baked treat.

Bubs and I will be having Root Vegetable and Red Lentil Dhal and Red Lentil Bolognese for our lunches at home.

Weekend Lunches will be Mini Frittatas and Twice Baked Potatoes.

Dinners

Green Goddess Pasta - Meatfree Monday

500g organic wholewheat pasta
380g organic chickpeas, drained (reserve 80ml chickpea water)
80ml olive oil
juice of 1 organic lemon

200g orgaic spinach
100g organic kale
2 handfuls fresh basil leaves
4 cloves organic garlic, peeled and minced
75g grated cheddar cheese

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Cook pasta according to packet instructions.  Whilst the pasta is cooking make the sauce.  Put all the ingredients in a power blender or food processor in the order listed then blend until smooth.  Add a little of the pasta cooking water to thin the sauce if necessary.

Drain the pasta, pour over the sauce and mix to combine.  Serve with a little finely grated parmesan and sliced cherry tomatoes if you wish.

Roast Chicken with steamed greens and roast vegetables

Chicken Soup packed with vegetables and added brown rice to fill us up

Muffin Tin Chicken Tarts with steamed greens and baked potatoes

Sausage, Summer Vegetable and Potato Traybake 

Onepot Vegetable and Chickpea Curry

Brown Rice and Vegetable Bake

Shopping List

32 items: £80.20

Packets and Cereals

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Porridge Oats (750g)                                          £3.20

1x   Doves Farm Organic Fine Plain White Flour (1Kg)                              £1.75

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Fairtrade Golden Granulated Unrefined Cane Sugar (500g)       £1.10

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Brown Rice (500g)                                              £1.45

1x   Crazy Jack Organic Red Split Lentils (250g)                                       90p

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Wholewheat Fusilli (500g)                                   £1.05

Dairy and Eggs

2x   Sainsbury's Organic 2% Fat Natural Yogurt (500g)                              £2.40

4x   Sainsbury's Organic Fresh Whole Milk 4 Pints (2.27L)                         £7.40

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Butter - Unsalted (250g)                                      £1.60

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Grated Cheddar (200g)                                       £3.70

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Woodland Free Range Mixed Eggs (12)              £3.70

Frozen

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Garden Peas (750g)                                           £2.20

Tins, Jars & Cooking

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Chopped Tomatoes in Tomato Juice (400g)         80p

3x   Sainsbury's Organic Chick Peas in Water (380g)                                £2.25

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Naturally Sweet Sweetcorn (150g)                       65p

Fruit and Vegetables

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Full Flavoured Garlic Bulbs (3)                            90p

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Salad Spring Onions (100g)                                85p

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Mixed Peppers (3)                                              £5.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Savoy Cabbage                                                  £1.40

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Courgettes (3)                                                    £4.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Lady Balfour Potatoes (2Kg)                               £2.50

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Sweet Potatoes (750g)                                        £2.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Baby Salad Potatoes (750g)                                £1.50

1x   Sainsbury's Lemons Loose                                                                 35p

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Carrots (750g)                                                    £2.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Leeks (400g)                                                      £2.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Butternut Squash Loose (Approx 655g)               £1.24

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Celery                                                                £1.20

2x   Sainsbury's Organic Cucumber                                                          £2.50

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Medium Flavour Red Onions (500g)                    £1.00

3x   Sainsbury's Organic Fairtrade Bananas (Approx 800g)                        £2.88

Meat, Fish and Poultry

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Pork Sausages (6 per pack - 350g)                     £3.00

1x   Sainsbury's Organic Whole Chicken (Approx 1.75Kg)                          £11.73

Prices and special offers reflect those of the online grocery websites, and are correct as of 6 September 2015.
Prices may vary in different in-store locations.

We shopped at Sainsbury's this week, mostly from their So Organic range. At the moment Tesco have a 3 for 2 offer on organic vegetables.  Keep a look out for other supermarket offers which make shopping organic more affordable.

You can also check out Organic UK on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with their campaigns and find out more information about organic farming and produce.

** Commissioned Post **

3 comments Chicken, Dinners, Lunches, Meal Plan, Meatfree Monday, Pasta, Pork, Rice, Snack, Snacks, Vegetarian