Total 125.25 euro two weeks grocery hauls for 2! (Bonus meals pics and results)

Location: Belgium

Another biweekly groceries haul (and meal ideas) from yours truly. We restocked some pantry things and spent a bit on the higher end of the budget (100 – 125 euro). But we did save a decent amount of money from the discounted things. We had some people coming over for dinner, lunch and coffee so it was super nice that we managed to get some too good to go pastries and bread from the local bakery. From the same app we also got discounted fresh fish. They went straight to the freezer and i'm looking forward to grilled mackerels once the temperature cools down a bit.

I've also started making my own yoghurt, after successfull attempt making cow milk yoghurt, next i want to try making my own soy yoghurt. It's really significantly cheaper since we usually get our yoghurt from the bulk shop. They have really nice yoghurt from the local farmer that we can get without packaging, but it's also more expensive than the ones in the supermarket. Buying milk instead to make yoghurt saves us at least €1.50 per 500ml. We also don't need a lot of energy to make yoghurt, we simply need to warm up the milk up to 85°c (takes me +/- 15min), let it cool until 45°c and add in the yoghurt starter which is the previously made yoghurt. Then we wrap the warm pan in hooimadam for about 8 hours or so until the yoghurt is set. Hooimadam works like a haybox, it's a cooking bag made from cotton and wool that insulates pans without electricity. We use it to make soup, stock, stew and now yoghurt. It's extremely handy to have to save on those electricity bills.

Especially when i had to have the fans constantly on because the weather suddenly heated up and reached above 30. This also meant switching up meal plans to use as minimum heat generating cooking appliances as possible. You can see in the meal plan that we suddenly made a lot of salad and used mostly our air fryer because it produced less heat than oven. We don't have a bbq grill nor a garden for it, so we were extra reliant on our air fryer. But it was a nice challenge that i quite enjoyed 🙂

So this is the list of the biweekly grocery hauls and the dinners we made:

Fresh protein:
– 220g tempe – €1.43 (rp. €1.59)
– 2 mackerels and 200g cod – €3.99 (rp. €12.00)

Fresh produce:
– 750g grapes – €2.49 (rp. €3.58)
– 11 bananas – €2.42
– 75g rocket – €0.59 (rp. €0.79)
– 2 green lettuce – €1.40 (rp. €1.98)
– Pointed cabbage – €1.75 (rp. €2.19)
– 150g white mushrooms – €1.08 (rp. €1.35)
– 200g cremini mushrooms – €1.44 (rp. €1.80)
– 3 cucumbers – €1.77 (rp. €2.37)
– 200g mungbeans sprouts – €0.99
– 600g tomatoes – €0.60 (rp. €0.99)
– 3 large onions – €1.80
– 1kg paprika – €2.99 (rp. €4.99)
– 750g peas – €1.83 (rp. €2.15)
– 200g spinach – €0.99 (rp. €1.65)
– 400g flat beans – €1.69 (rp. €1.99)
– 3kg potatoes – €4.50 (rp. €5.10)
– 2 lemons – €0.80
– 2 bunch of radishes – €1.82 (rp. €1.98)
– 4 carrots – €0.49 (rp. €0.69)
– 1 bunch of parsley – €1.18 (rp. €1.39)
– 80g field salad – €0.79 (rp. €1.18)

Dairy:
– 300g young passendale – €5.35 (rp. €7.35)
– 200g gorgonzola – €1.99 (special promo)
– 150g mozzarella – €1.49 (special promo)
– 125g creme fraiche – €0.91
– 500ml yoghurt – €2.50
– 500ml soy yoghurt – €2.50
– 18 large eggs – €9.00

Pantry:
– 700g olives – €2.29 (special promo)
– 1kg granola – €7.75 (rp. €8.15)
– 1kg coffee beans – €26.50 (rp. €27.82)
– Flammkuchen dough – €0.99 (rp. €1.99)
– 250g TVP – €1.50
– 400g honey – €3.50
– 250g chocolate hazelnut paste – €3.37
– 500g yellow lentils – €1.43 (rp. €1.59)
– 500g red lentils – €1.43 (rp. €1.59)
– 2 bags of 250g chickpeas – €1.98 (rp. €4.10)
– 2 bags of 250g kidney beans – €1.98 (rp. €4.10)
– 370g kidney, white and brown beans mix – €0.99 (rp. €2.67)
– 370g kidney, brown beans and corn mix – €0.99 (rp. €2.56)

Bread and pastries – €7.98 (rp. €27.00)
– A loaf of whole wheat bread
– A loaf of white and corn flour bread
– 4 viennoiserie (one already eaten before pic)
– 5 petit four

Total: €125.25
Total rp: €173.74
Saved: €48.49

Meals:

1. Lentils and mushrooms köttbullar with potato gratin and salad with lettuce, cucumber, radishes and lemon mustard vinaigrette. My partner lived in sweden for 6 years and when i went to visit him i sometimes got swedish meatballs and potato gratin from the supermarket buffet. So when i saw this recipe online, it kinda gave me the nostalgia. The gravy was really good tho the meatballs were a bit too heavy, i probably used too many lentils. But it was pretty easy to make and for sure budget friendlier than the meat version
2. Lemony salmon and onion flammkuchen with salad of lettuce, rocket, cucumber, radishes, grapes, gorgonzola and white wine vinaigrette. Flammkuchen is like pizza from the alsace region in france. It's usually made with creme fraiche, onion and bacon. Instead of bacon i used some salmon cooked with lemon because that's what we had. I liked it better because it gave a nice refreshing summer taste that fit very well with the sweet caramelised onion
3. Bao bun with marinated tofu and pickled radish, paprika, carrot and cucumber. I had some time in the weekend and i had always wanted to try this recipe since i came accross it on youtube. The bao bun was easy to make, it required flour, yeast, water, sugar and some sesame oil. I marinated the tofu with soy sauce, five spice, ginger, garlic and spring onion. And i quick pickled the veggies with vinegar and sugar. I got too ambitious with the serving of the veggies haha but the tofu was there for sure. 3 buns were more than enough to keep me full and happy
4. Lentils bobotie with yellow rice and salad with lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, cucumber, rocket and chili lime dressing. Another new recipe! We got some people over for dinner and a dish like bobotie is great because we can just make a big batch and pop it in the oven. The recipe called for brown lentils but we didn't have them so my partner used the yellow ones. We got a homemade apricot jam from my in laws and he used it in the bobotie. It was sweet, refreshing and extremely filling. For sure a great budget meal to make if you want to make big sized meal
5. Gado gado with spinach, cabbage, bean sprouts, cucumber and peanut sauce, rice, and air fried tempe. Gado gado is an indonesian salad made from blanched veggies served with peanut sauce. It's very popular in the netherlands. We made our own peanut sauce since i like mine to still have that crunch, hence the thicker and lumpier texture. You can also add eggs and potatoes to make it a filling meal on its own. For the tempe i made a batter of flour, water, salt and coriander powder before air frying them
6. Chickpeas and cannellini beans salad with lettuce, rocket, parsley, paprika, cucumber and lemon tahini dressing, and toast with gorgonzola and honey balsamico figs. We really didn't want to cook because of the heat, so we made this salad. We got some figs from my in laws and they were getting soft so we brushed them with some balsamico and olive oil and popped them in the air fryer for 5 minutes. We toasted the bread and melted the gorgonzola in the air fryer too. Then we drizzled in some honey and a bit of pine nuts
7. Pasta salad with field salad, fusilli, black beans, peas, corn, cucumber, paprika, tomato and yoghurt lime dressing. Another salad dinner because it was so dang hot outside and inside. It's a caribbean inspired salad and very simple to make, but quite filling and super refreshing. You can mix in any veggies or fruits you want, i think some nice tart apples would be great here too
8. Fish and chips with salad of lettuce, paprika, tomatoes, cucumber and mozzarella. It's friday and i really felt like having some fries. My partner offered to make fish and chips and i simply couldn't say no. He used some panko to make the fish extra crunchier and he chopped the fish into smaller bites which is my preference and with a a drizzle of lemon juice they were so light, fluffy and refreshing. Yum!
9. Mondanyaki with cabbage, carrot, shiitake mushrooms and egg noodles. We make okonomiyaki from time to time to use up scraps of veggies, and this time i tried mondanyaki which used noodles. It turned out a bit deconstructed because i'm terrible at flipping pancakes. I also didn't add in mayo because i don't really like it. But one thing for sure the noodles really helped to bulk the okonomiyaki up, making it not only super delicious but even more budget friendly.
10. Sweet and sour tamarind soup with courgette, tomato, cabbage, carrot, chickpeas and rice. FINALLY the temperature went down and in celebration i made this sweet and sour tamarind soup. It's perfect for summer because it has a very fresh taste that goes perfectly with the seasonal veggies. I put in whatever leftover veggies we had left and some chickpeas, mixed in some rice and voila, a very tasty and homey soup ready to be served!