€92.64 2 weeks grocery haul and the resulting meals

Hi all, I did a smaller grocery haul this time and some of the things i bought were not necessarily the cheapest, but i did save a bit more money. Not as impressive as some of the hauls i've seen recently in this sub, you guys are sharp eyed. I tried to follow the tips and tricks like I monitored the websites/apps of all of the shops around me and we actually do a grocery run (or more like a walk, they are all within 15 min walking distance) to multiple grocery stores to get em deals. I also prioritised buying loose produce that are about to be thrown out as they tend to be marked down heavily and it also prevents food waste. It's not the best strategy if you are not using up the produce right away, but i've also learnt to meal prep (again, thanks sub!) and to either keep my produce properly in the fridge or in the freezer. It keeps me creative as well, i like meal planning around it and i also like making jam, soup, sauce, pickles, and dessert with these less than perfect produce. We've also planted some extra veggies in our balcony garden, and now we have 5 tomato, 3 cucumber, some onion, two lettuce and some herbs plants growing happily and we can't wait to harvest them!

However, we also have some priorities that are not per se budget friendly but i would like to acknowledge anyway. I try to buy as many produce without packaging as possible. I understand plastic is often used to keep produce fresh longer and sometimes buying a large amount of produce in a plastic bag is cheaper than buying the same amount without packaging. But again, i want to prevent food waste and to also prevent plastic waste. Luckily all of the shops we go to sell loose produce that are often on discount and this way we can still keep to our budget. It of course works differently depending on where you are and the size of your household. Do what makes sense for you 🙂

Anyhoo, some not so cheap things we got the past 2 weeks. Got my partner's coffee from the local bulk store, quite on the pricier side (€16.95), but we did get like a kilo of coffee beans and they make really nice coffee and it's ice coffee season :D. We also got 18 eggs from the local egg farmer, again a bit on the pricier side in comparison to the ones in the supermarket but we thought we could contribute to local businesses too. These are of course choices we consciously made and not recommendation if you are on a tight budget. A good tip perhaps (tho you probably know this already), check out too good to go for nice things. We always get our bread there from our standard local bakery. We eat a lot of bread for lunch so it's for sure worth it.

This is the list of the things we got with €92.64:
– 10 bananas
– 450g strawberries
– 5 lemons
– 2 aubergines
– 150g mushrooms
– 2kg potatoes
– 1kg brussels sprouts
– 2 multicolour lettuces
– Green lettuce
– 3 cucumbers
– 4 paprikas
– 500g green beans
– 500g tomatoes
– 500g broccoli
– 500g cauliflower
– Spring onions
– 2 large onions
– 200g caprice des dieux
– 18 eggs
– 400g olives and feta
– 500ml yoghurt
– 500ml soy yoghurt
– 2 mozzarella light
– 2 gnocchi with mozzarella
– 1kg coffee beans
– 1kg chocolate and hazelnut granola
– 55g instant yeast
– 4 mini garlic and coriander naan
– 3 loaves of bread (multigrain, white, sourdough)
– 9 sweet pastries
– 4 milk bread
– 3 bread rolls
– Sausage roll

Produce left at the end of 2 weeks:
– 500g brussels sprouts
– 3 lemons
– 3 bread rolls
– Half of white bread loaf
– Half of sourdough bread loaf

And these are the dinners we made:

1. Berbere grilled tofu and black lentils stew with carrots, tomatoes and paprika on a bed of couscous. We still had some veggies from the big hauls of the previous 2 weeks so i made this dish to use them up and it's my first time using ethiopian berbere spice mix, i'm lovin it!
2. Steak with mushroom cognac sauce, homemade fries and salad with lettuce, cucumber, radishes and honey mustard dressing. Fancy dinner my partner made in celebration of our first ever vegetables harvest (radishes!!). We bought a piece of steak from the local butcher two months ago and it's a really good piece of meat. Of course steak is nowhere near budget food, but for such a bougie meal it costed us less than €7 p.p
3. Grilled aubergine, courgette, paprika and chickpeas orzo with pesto and a side of salad with lettuce, cucumber, sundried tomato, olives, feta and red wine vinegar and mustard dressing. I over grilled the aubergine so it was quite brown but it added a nice crunchy texture
4. Panfried gnocchi filled with spinach and mozzarella, and salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and mozzarella with honey balsamico vinegar dressing. We didn't have much time to cook so i just quickly pan fried the gnocchi and chopped up some veggies for the salad. I quite like it tho and i looove crispy gnocchi!
5. Shakshuka with paprika, courgette and tomatoes, and a side of garlic and coriander naan and salad with lettuce, feta, olives, cucumber and tahini sumac dressing. Love shakshuka, a simple, fresh and delicious dish. My partner put 4 eggs in but they were kinda hiding and not that obvious in the picture
6. Airfry cauliflower with gochujang sauce and fried rice with broccoli, carrot, soy beans, spring onion and homemade kimchi. We made cabbage, pak choi and cucumber kimchi a few months ago. It was our first try and i was surprised that it came out pretty delicious haha. I used up the last of the kimchi for this dish and we're for sure gonna make more!
7. Frittata with potatoes, brussels sprouts and onion, and a side of salad with lettuce, radishes, mozzarella, cucumber, paprika and lemon and italian herb dressing. I grilled the brussels sprouts to get a nice crispy texture then i mixed them with the air fried potatoes and whipped eggs so they weren't soggy. Unfortunately i cooked the frittata too long in the pan so it came out quite brown but it wasn't burnt at least….
8. Spicy aubergine and green beans stirfry with marinated tempe and jasmine rice. I made two indonesian spice mix for this dish. I used a chili based red spice mix on the aubergine and green beans stirfry and i added in a lemongrass, some lime leaves and coconut milk. I cooked the tempe with a turmeric based yellow spice mix and water until it absorbed all of the spices, and then i pan fried it. It's not the most beautiful dish but damn it was such a flavour bomb
9. Dahl with yellow lentils, courgette, paprika, tomatoes, and a side of garlic coriander naan. Like shakshuka, simple dish and yet so hearty, healthy and cheap! My partner made a spice mix of cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric, garlic, onion, curry and cayenne pepper powder and he used coconut milk to cook the lentils slowly with the veggies and onion
10. Quesadillas with cheese, refried white beans, jalapenos and paprika, and a side of grilled chili honey lemon brussels sprouts. The brussels sprouts were spicy, a bit sweet and fresh from the lemon, surprisingly a great companion to the cheesy quesadillas