My No Produce Grocery Haul

Those of you who saw Tuesday’s post will know that a few weeks ago I decided to embark on a totally ridiculous challenge. I’m not eating any fresh food for a full week. The idea is to try and eat as healthily as possible with no fresh food to hopefully inspire people to eat a little better when they don’t have time to shop or have a crazy schedule. This post is going to be my no produce grocery haul,  what I bought and a few ideas I have for recipes I could make, and what I’ll be pulling out of my pantry.  

I struggled a little with how to structure this post. When I’ve done grocery hauls in the past, they’ve always been for a £20 Grocery Challenge, so the structure has orientated around the budget. This time, not so much. I didn’t set a budget, I’ve definitely got more food than I need for a week, but it’s not fresh, so that isn’t an issue. Because, y’know, that’s the whole point of this week… One quick note on budget, the groceries for this week cost around £10 less than an average week, and that included things like coffee, a few cleaning products etc. And, as I said, I’ve got more than I expect to use/ need. 

I’ve included the total for the food below but didn’t add in the things like the coffee and cleaning products as they aren’t relevant to this challenge.

In the end, I decided to go structure this by meal. As we all know, I’m the weirdo who eats pasta for breakfast and never eats three square meals. I have no idea why I thought grouping meals together would make this easier… 

My No Produce Grocery Haul

Breakfast  

So, lentil pasta then?

What I bought: 

The basics, GF oats, nuts, frozen fruit and I’ve got a couple of different non-dairy milks. I like vanilla soy in my cherry smoothies and almond for everything else. 

What I’ll be pulling from my cupboards: 

Chia/ flax seeds – I like to add my morning omega 3 to just about everything #healthyvegan.  

What I think I’ll be eating/ making: 

I said in Tuesday’s post that breakfast would be the easiest meal to both eat and make healthy, the nuts and oats will probably end up making some granola (totally not already planning that recipe). If not granola, oats are oats, I can make regular oats, bake them, make oat flour pancakes… 

The frozen fruit will be used for smoothies and making fruity oat dishes. 

Snacks 

Back to that whole never eating three square meals thing, my regular day consists of breakfast, a couple of snacks and an evening meal. So, having plenty of snack options is quite important to me. My usual daily snacks are things like fruit/ nuts/ rice cakes or crackets & nut butter. Emphasis on the fruit.  

What I Bought: 

This week, I got some Urban Fruit Strawberry. I’m sure some of you will remember that I ate a lot of these when I gave up sugar last year. These little packets of goodness are strawberries baked in apple juice, and they’ll likely be the closest I get to snacking on fresh fruit this week. They also taste like healthier fruit gums, which is always good. 

My other snacks are pretty much the same, I got some Graze nuts to dip into throughout the week, lots of Nakd bars and some lentil crackers. The lentil crackers are like rice cakes, but contain a couple of grams of protein and make a nice savoury alternative. 

I’m not sure what other countries recommend, but here in the UK, we’re told we’re supposed to get at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day. I don’t usually mention that because it’s very easily done on a vegan diet. However, given my plans for this week, I thought it deserved a mention. A serving of Urban Fruit and Nakd bars both count as one of your 5 a day, which is part of the reason why I got 500 Nakd bars this week. Or…just 5. The single bars were on offer for 50p each this week, so I opted to get a variety of flavours rather than a box. 

 

Dinner 

What I bought:  

You didn’t seriously think I’d be going a full week without lentil pasta, did you?  

Frozen Mediterranean vegetables will be the vegetable dietary staple for this week. Other basics include beans/ chickpeas and grains like quinoa. 

What I’ll be pulling from cupboards:  

Frozen peas, other beans that I didn’t buy, lentils, tinned tomatoes, rice/ possibly some other grains. And basics such as herbs and spices! Possibly some pesto… 

What I think I’ll be making: 

My meal ideas list for this challenge has been in progress for a while now. This is what we’ve got so far: 

• Chickpea/ some sort of twist on falafel
• Veggie pasta with pesto/ tomato sauce
• Black bean rice
• Pea/ sweetcorn veggie rice
• Veggie quinoa
• Tomato & bean soup
• Mediterranean vegetable casserole
• Vegetable pitta (that would involve making my own bread – which I can’t foresee happening, but it’s an option)
• Lentil dahl

I’m not sure what I’ll end up with, but I’m confident I can make all of those things with what I’ve got, so this list is my starting point.  

How do you guys think I’m going to get on? Is this challenge achievable? Come back on Sunday to see what I ate this week with no fresh produce. Would you have added something else to this no produce grocery haul?

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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