Eating healthy, nutritious foods is beneficial to both mental and physical health (find out more about that here!). Cooking can be a fun, creative activity and many of our recipes can be adapted to suit dietary requirements, or to use up things you have left in the cupboard. Our fantastic team at Food For Thought have created some great recipes for you to try at home. Click on an image below to see the recipe!
As food costs continue to rise, eating healthily on a budget can be a challenge. Our Food for Thought team have shared some tips that may help.
Planning meals helps reduce waste, and helps you budget so that you only buy what you need. Use recipe books or websites for inspiration and ideas (or the recipes we feature above on this page!)
When you have planned your meals, write a shopping list. This will help you only buy what you need. Shopping online can also help you avoid the temptation to pick up things in store which aren’t on your shopping list. Avoid offers which tempt you into buying things you don’t need.
Avoid buying ‘ready meals’ – they are more expensive and often less nutritious than home-made. Avoid convenience foods too – grating your own cheese and cutting and preparing your own fruit, vegetables, meat and fish is much cheaper and healthier than buying pre-prepared foods or highly processed foods.
You may choose to prepare one portion at a time, or you may batch cook and freeze extra portions. Batch cooking can sometimes enable you to avoid food waste and save on cooking time.
You may have enough food leftover to save some for lunch the next day, or you could adapt leftovers to make something different and new – for example, leftovers from a roast dinner could be made into a pie.
Use beans, pulses and legumes (such as lentils) to replace meat proteins on your meat-free days. Soya or Quorn can also replace meat in many dishes.
Generally it is much cheaper to buy loose items rather than pre-packaged, but it’s worth remembering to check the ‘per 100g’ price to compare items if you’re unsure.
Buying frozen fruit and vegetables helps avoid waste. You only use what you need and the rest will always keep for another time.
Buy reduced items if shopping in store – only if they are on your list. Many things can be frozen until you need them. You can freeze leftover bread, meat and other foods to use another time instead of throwing them out.
Takeaway food can be expensive and may be of lower nutritional value than home-made. If you have a favourite takeaway food, such as a curry or pizza, try to recreate this yourself at home.
