Aldi launches meal plan to help shoppers feed a family of four for less than £2 per meal

With rising vitality payments and food prices going up (opens in new tab), households all over the place are feeling the influence of the price of residing disaster. Making an attempt food hacks (opens in new tab), utilizing a supermarket loyalty card (opens in new tab) and switching to the cheapest supermarket (opens in new tab) may help customers to save money on food (opens in new tab), however a weekly meal plan may also assist to maintain meals prices down and reduce food waste (opens in new tab). 

To mark the first-ever Frozen Meals Week, TV nutritionist Lily Soutter (opens in new tab) has created Aldi’s frozen family meal plan PDF (opens in new tab) to assist households eat nicely for much less because of some easy frozen meals swaps. In addition to serving to households spend lower than £29.77 per week, the plan options recipes that are full of nourishing components and type a part of a well-balanced weight loss plan. Dishes embrace King Prawn Fish Pie, Pesto Hen Traybake and Plant Sausages with Mustardy Mash. Every household meal prices as little as £1.98 or beneath 50p per head utilizing gadgets accessible at Aldi.

Along with engaged on Aldi’s frozen meals meal plan, Lily has shared these high suggestions for profiting from your freezer:

Lily Soutter’s high 10 frozen meals suggestions:

• 1. Don’t worry frozen fish – Frozen fish is a handy technique to incorporate the government-recommended two parts of fish per week into our weight loss plan. Attempt including a frozen fish combine to your fish pie or step it up a notch with Aldi’s Jumbo King Prawns. For these important omega-3 fat, defrost some sea bass or salmon and grill with olive and lemon juice. The important thing to utilizing frozen fish is to soundly defrost by following the directions on the meals label.
• 2. Get savvy on the meals you by no means thought you could possibly freeze – Ever tried freezing bread? Merely slice first and freeze to increase the shelf-life. In case you’re uninterested in these mouldy avocado halves within the fridge, merely dice your avocado, and freeze. Frozen avocado supplies a beautiful cool creamy flavour to smoothies and is a supply of fibre and heart-healthy monounsaturated fat!  In case you’re seeking to scale back waste, freezing herbs and spices is a should. Attempt chopping garlic or onion, add to ice dice trays with a touch of oil, and freeze. Pesto and tomato sauces additionally freeze nicely in ice-cube trays and is an effective way to portion out simply what you want. You’ll be able to even freeze pizza dough and cheese, which makes pizza night time way more handy.
• 3. Freeze meals flat – In case you’re quick on freezer area, maximise storage by putting your meals into freezer luggage flat on a desk while guaranteeing that extra air is eliminated. Stack the baggage into the freezer flat and intention to go away no water on the skin in any other case they might stick collectively. Attempt portioning out your frozen meals and sauces into separate luggage relatively than one giant container. This implies you need to use simply what you want for every meal, and it’s a lot faster to defrost. Use the identical technique for storing frozen items similar to berries and sweetcorn because it’s way more area environment friendly than storing items in a single giant clump.
• 4. Replenish on frozen fruit – It’s simply as nutritious as recent. There’s a giant false impression that frozen fruit is much less nourishing than recent, however this couldn’t be farther from the reality. Analysis has illustrated that frozen produce retains nutritional vitamins, minerals and even antioxidants, that are helpful to well being. Higher but, they’re usually cheaper than their recent counterparts, significantly when having fun with produce out of season.
• 5. Eat your frozen greens – The outdated saying ‘eat your greens’ shouldn’t be ignored. Broccoli, inexperienced beans and peas are jam-packed with fibre, nutritional vitamins and minerals. With simply 8% of kids and 27% of adults consuming their 5-A-day many people are merely not consuming sufficient. Having frozen greens with an extended shelf life can improve our probabilities of together with them with out our weight loss plan.
• 6. Freeze your meat (and plant-based options) – Frozen meat is the right answer for a busy family; it’s adaptable as you’ll be able to defrost and prepare dinner it every time is handy with out the strain of it going off. Meat supplies the high-quality protein required for sustaining bone and muscle well being, however it may well shortly spoil with a brief shelf-life. Due to this fact, having a batch of frozen meat handy within the freezer can imply fewer journeys to the grocery store and fewer waste.
• 7. Save time and problem with this one frozen ingredient – The onerous nature of butternut squash requires persistence and a few critical work within the kitchen. Choosing Aldi’s frozen butternut squash chunks can get rid of the trouble of chopping and prepping this vegetable. What’s extra, there isn’t any compromise on the diet profile! Roast the butternut squash from frozen with herbs and oil and check out mixing it right into a scrumptious soup.
• 8. Say goodbye to watery eyes with frozen onion – Within the busy world we dwell in right this moment, frozen onion is without doubt one of the greatest time savers. Pre-chopped and able to prepare dinner, there’s no faffing with peeling – and no watery eyes. Merely add a handful of Aldi’s frozen onion to your dish to shave off minutes of prep time. This frozen veg tastes glorious in a tomato-based sauce for pizza and pasta dishes, in home made burgers, fish pies, soups, casseroles and stews. The checklist is limitless!
• 9. All the time label your frozen meals utilizing a everlasting marker – If you end up defrosting your night dinner with out figuring out what it’s or if it’s nonetheless even edible, labelling your frozen meals might be a game-changer! Utilizing a everlasting marker on freezer luggage, mark what the merchandise is and the date that it was cooked. While frozen meals has a considerably longer shelf-life than recent, it doesn’t final perpetually, and labelling may help prioritise which freezer items to eat first.
• 10. Defrost and scale back meals waste – Whether or not you are batch-cooking freezer meals or freezing leftovers, your freezer will be your greatest good friend within the kitchen! And there is nothing extra irritating than treasured area being taken up by blocks of ice. Defrosting the freezer is hardly a beloved process for many of us however doing so may help you to cut back meals waste and even save vitality.