As regular readers will know, our car is currently broken. Which means that I’m shopping for 6 people on a tight budget on foot. Today I set out to walk to Lidl with my trusty trolley, and as I went, it started to snow.
Snow. It’s British Summer Time tonight. I walked past a fruiterers with strawberries in the window – something is confused, and I’m not altogether sure what it is. (I didn’t buy the strawberries by the way. They weren’t expensive – 69p a punnet – but I try to keep our food miles down. Although it worries me that they will be wasted after their journey, because who is looking for strawberries now?)
Lidl is a mile from our house. It’s not a bad walk. Not a very interesting one, but not bad. it gave me time to think about what I was going to buy. We don’t need dinner for tomorrow, as we’re going out, but lunch for today, and dinner, then food for Monday given that shops are shut tomorrow. So plenty of bread, milk, yogurts. Some fruit, potatoes, bit of meat.
It’s difficult to serve up meals in our house that everyone will eat. It’s not that they are fussy eaters as such, more kind of precise. it makes planning nutrition for kids challenging at the best of times. I spend a lot of time online looking at what they need, how I can deliver it, working out menus. All within a limited budget, and right at the moment, from a limited choice of shops. (Due to the car thing. Keep up.) I’m worried about Big’s protein intake, as she’s gone off most of the meat we eat. Smallest is finicky at the best of times, while Small is, as I said, precise. Thursday night is pizza night. Homemade, two types of cheese, tomato paste topping.
Tigerboy is the only one who is easy. He’ll eat pretty much everything. And now that I’m not vegetarian, but I still like vegetables, he gets a good spread. I don’t subscribe to the five a day theory for children – I think as long as they get a fair balance they’ll do OK. It’s just how do you present that balance to 6 people, every day, without overspending and while remaining true to your environmental and ethical convictions.
It’s not easy. I’m open to suggestions.
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