What I Ate This Week With NO Fresh Produce

What I ate this week with no fresh produce. I know, healthy eating with no fresh produce doesn’t sound easy, but it’s time to find out if it’s possible. This is the final of three posts in this series. If you haven’t seen the others, click here to view Tuesday’s post about why I’m doing this challenge and the rules I’ve set myself. And click here for Thursday’s post detailing what I bought this week and meals I’m planning on having.  

For this challenge, I wanted to include some Cronometer shots of my nutrient intake for each day but that isn’t possible. Food labels in the UK include macronutrient information, but don’t have to include any micronutrient information. Some do, but a lot don’t. Obviously, if you’re eating fresh produce, it puts the nutrient information in for you. But with packets, you have to go by the information you’re given. I’m going to include basics like protein intake and if I managed to get enough fibre and give some sort of information about vitamins and minerals, but I won’t be able to include details.  

I’m creating some recipe posts on what I’ve eaten this week, which I’ll leave links to where appropriate. For all of the other meals, I’ve been posting the simple recipes daily this week on Instagram so head over there to see the dishes you like the sound of.  

SNACK DISCLAIMER: I’m not about to start weighing out my nuts before I eat them for this challenge. For things like the pack of Graze nuts and Urban Fruit, I made the decision to add whole servings to my Cronometer for however long it would take to eat the bag. The overall consumption for the week is 100% accurate, the day-to-day is more of an estimate.  

Wednesday  

Day 1, my shopping order for this week is arriving between 1 and 2pm, so breakfast is some stuff I already had in the house. Some granola and an Alpro cherry yoghurt. I checked, the yoghurts have about three weeks date on them, so for the basis of this challenge, they would still qualify.  

Breakfast: Alpro Yoghurt and Granola, with a crushed Hobnob?   

Snacks: Nakd bar and Graze nuts.  

Dinner: Berry quinoa – This was the final Recipe A Day May recipe that I made so you can check out that recipe here. I’m also aware that this is a breakfast food, but food blogger life is eating things at random times so you can take photos.  

DAILY NUTRITION: Protein 51g, Fat 44g, Carbs 150g & 22g Fibre. Fibre on day one is slightly less than I’d like, but I got my regular amount of protein, higher than average fat (35-40g is average for me). I got 100% omega 3 from the chia seeds and some vitamins and minerals from the fruit and Alpro products. 3/5 a day fruit and veg. 

Thursday 

Pre breakfast: Okay, I’m aware this isn’t an actual meal, but I do this quite a lot. I wake up, I either don’t want breakfast yet or don’t know what I want, so I have something like a Nakd bar then I have my actual breakfast closer to lunchtime. Anyone else? 

Lunch/ Breakfast: Chocolate oats with berries 

Recipe ½ cup GF oats, 1 cup almond milk, ½ cup frozen berries, 1 tbsp chia seeds, 1 tsp sugar 

Dinner: Pesto Veggie Pasta. This is the first true evening meal of this challenge and as far as health goes, I think we’re doing well. The lentil pasta is a good protein source, I’ve had a serving of frozen vegetables and could have made it healthier by making a tomato sauce instead of opting for pesto.   

One serving pasta, 1 tbsp free from pesto and some med veg with extra chilli flakes and dried oregano.  

Evening Snack: Some Salt & Vinegar Kettle Chips. I know this challenge is can I eat healthily with no fresh produce and this certainly isn’t healthy. But it’s a real life food diary and I ate crisps this day…so… 

DAILY NUTRITION: Protein 49g, Fat 53g, Carbs 175g, Fibre 28g. Omega 3 from chia seeds and other healthy fats from the nuts. Berries and frozen veg serving provided some vitamins and minerals. 4/5 a day fruit and veg, which I think is pretty good for no fresh produce.   

Friday  

Breakfast: Smoothie bowl topped with some GF refined sugar free nutty granola. I’ve wanted to make a refined sugar free version of my original nutty granola recipe for a while now and produce free week seemed like a good time to try it.  

Snacks: Nakd bar, some lentil crackers.  

Dinner: sundried tomato chickpea burgers with Mediterranean vegetables.  

 

DAILY NUTRITION: Protein 56g, Fat 51g, Carbs 143g, Fibre 27g. Healthy fats and vitamin E from the granola. And some vitamins from the frozen vegetables and frozen cherries. 4/5 a day.  

Saturday 

Pre breakfast: Yes, I’m going to continue to call this a meal. Another day, another Nakd bar.  

Breakfast: Same as Friday.  

Dinner: Quinoa with a portion of Mediterranean vegetables and peas.  

DAILY NUTRITION: Protein 57g, Fat 47g, Carbs 144g, Fibre 27g. 4/5 a day. The overall theme continues, higher fat but still managing to get some vitamins in. 

Sunday  

Breakfast: Oat flour pancakes with berry sauce. I knew this challenge was an excellent idea when I realised this could be my breakfast.  

Post gym snack/ lunch: Alpro yoghurt and granola and Urban Fruit.  

Dinner: Those Mediterranean vegetables again, this time made into a casserole with some chickpeas.  

2 servings Mediterranean vegetables, 1 can chopped tomatoes, 1 can chickpeas, half a cup vegetable stock + seasonings  

DAILY NUTRITION: Protein 35g, Fat 30g, Carbs 200g, Fibre 32g. 5/5 a day!!! Breakfast berries, Urban Fruit, Mediterranean vegetables, chickpeas and tinned tomatoes. Although this day is low on protein, it’s probably my best day so far in terms of vitamins and minerals.  

Monday  

Breakfast: Berry oats 

Lunch?: Small cherry vanilla smoothie bowl topped with granola.  

Dinner: same pasta dish as Thursday.  

DAILY NUTRITION: 3-4/5 a day, pretty poor. Protein 62g, Fat 34g, Carbs 177g, Fibre 26g. Although this day was lower on fruit and veg, in terms of macronutrients, this is probably the closest day to what I’d usually eat. The only real difference is that if I was eating fresh produce, I would have probably snacked on something like an apple and had some fresh berries to top my smoothie bowl with. And would have used fresh, not frozen veg in my pasta.  

Tuesday  

Breakfast: Chia pudding with berry compote  

Snacks: Nakd bar (what a shock) 

Dinner: Rice & beans. The end of the week is starting to feel like an ‘I’m a Celeb’ special. But rice and beans combined to make a whole plant protein and I’ve added some beans and a tomato sauce so this dish alone contains 3/5 a day. Very basic, but definitely healthy.  

DAILY NUTRITION:  

Overall 

How healthy this week has been is up to your own interpretation. However, I will say that I think I’ve done very well given what I started with. I managed to get at least 25g (RDA) of fibre on 6 of the 7 days and got an average of 4/5 a day. While this definitely isn’t as healthy as a regular week would have been for me, it’s a lot better than I’d assume a week with no fresh produce would look like.

If we got back to the concept behind this challenge, people not eating well for lack of time or resources or not wanting to waste food due to hectic schedules, this is a real success. It’s a lot healthier than a week of ready meals or takeout.  

If you read the original post on Tuesday and found yourself relating to some of the scenarios I explained there, I really hope you found this mini-series useful. I had a goal of not wanting to repeat meals to show that you could still have variety with minimal ingredients. And if you saw the grocery haul and meal suggestions on Thursday, you’ll know that I had several ideas that I didn’t end up eating, so there’s definitely room to do more with very little.  

How do you think I did? Would you have done things differently?  

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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