Aldi Feed the Family Together Challenge Review
Reviewed by Louise Totton
I think it’s a real shame, with the fast paced lives that we all lead, and all of the convenience foods that are available to us, that very often we find ourselves eating in quite an insular manner these days. It wouldn’t be unusual, several nights a week, for my husband and I to be eating a different meal to the children. It means that we miss out on the conversations around the table together, hearing about the rest of the family’s day, and building relationships.
People also often feel that it is too expensive to eat freshly prepared meals together every day, and that pre-prepared convenience foods are cheaper to buy and make; add in the time factor as we work such long hours these days, and it seems an expensive and daunting task to cook a family meal every day.
I decided that I would challenge myself this week to not only feed the family for under £70, but each evening meal would be eaten together, made from fresh ingredients rather than convenience foods. I’m lucky that my children are not overly fussy eaters, but I had to adapt some of my usual recipes to reduce spice levels or the strength of some flavours to suit all of us, but I was pleasantly surprised that not once during the week did either of the kids ask for sausages, chips or pizza.
As I have mentioned in a previous article, my husband and I eat very little processed food as I can’t eat anything containing gluten, but we usually give the children something along these lines a couple of times a week when we eat separately.
My meal plan for the week was as follows:
Wednesday
Breakfast: toast and cereal
Lunch: packed lunch for my husband and younger daughter, school dinner for my eldest, and mackerel fillets for me
Dinner: chicken thigh, potato, carrots and broccoli pot roast
Thursday
Breakfast: toast and cereal
Lunch: packed lunch for my husband and younger daughter, school dinner for my eldest, and soup for me
Dinner: Turkey mince chilli with rice, wraps and salad
Friday
Breakfast: toast and fruit
Lunch: packed lunch for my husband and younger daughter, school dinner for my eldest, and lunch in town for me
Dinner: Pork shoulder curry with 1/3 of the joint, with salad, rice and chutney
Saturday
Breakfast: boiled eggs and soldiers
Lunch: cheese, ham and tomato crumpets from Aldi’s website
Dinner: Pork, cider and juniper casserole with 1/3 of the joint
Sunday
Breakfast: ham omelettes
Dinner: roast chicken dinner with cauliflower cheese
Tea: sandwiches
Monday
Breakfast: toast and yogurts
Lunch: packed lunch for my husband and younger daughter, school dinner for my eldest, and soup for me
Dinner: paprika meatballs with sour cream and potatoes
Tuesday
Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: packed lunch for my husband and younger daughter, school dinner for my eldest, and mackerel fillets for me
Dinner: fish and chorizo stew with potatoes
As I did last month, I spent £60 in my initial shop, keeping £10 aside to top up with fresh bits like milk and bread during the week.
I tried a different branch this month, avoiding Huddersfield town centre and opting instead for the Milnsbridge store. There was plenty of carparking, and I found a space with ease. I also did my shopping at a much quieter time of the day (8pm), so found browsing a much more pleasant experience. I was able to take the time to look at the offers that were on, as well as pick the best fruit and veg on offer.
The Aldi Super Six on fruit and veg really makes feeding the family fresh, nutritious food affordable. This week, there was a superb range on offer, including cabbages, packs of tomatoes, whole cauliflowers, onions and baby carrots, all at 39p. I had checked the website prior to my shop, and build my meal planner and shopping list around these, maximising the meals we could get within our budget. All of the produce was lovely and fresh, and all of it lasted the duration of our week’s meals.
As the kids are back to school, we’ve had to include food for packed lunches into our shopping, and we found Aldi to be great value for packed lunch staples such as bread, cheese spread, yogurt tubes and cereal bars. The quality is every bit as good as the branded equivalents, and is a fraction of the price. It clearly passed the taste test, as the lunch box came home empty each day. A particular find this week was the Hazelnut Chocolate Spread, which is every bit as good as the branded one, and fabulous both on sandwiches, as well as toast or stirred into porridge in the mornings.
As a family, we really enjoyed eating together every evening. Eating fresh meals means that we know what is on our plates, and it isn’t packed full of additives, salt and sugar. The children actually ate really well and thoroughly enjoyed the fresh food, not complaining about having plates full of vegetables at all.
I also found that wastage was cut right back by eating in this way. The roasted meats and veggies that we had on an evening make excellent soup for lunch for the following day, and my husband happily took leftovers to go into a Tupperware for his packed lunch. Doing things like this just isn’t possible after having ready meals or pizza and chips, so although on the surface, the ingredients may appear more expensive, it is possible to get a lot more value from them.
Some of our favourite meals this month were the paprika meatballs (the kids), and the fish and chorizo stew from the excellent fish pie mix (my husband and I). We also really enjoyed looking at the Aldi website for inspiration, and were really impressed with the cheese and ham crumpets which made a super quick and filling lunch for the kids.
As before, there is absolutely no difference in the quality of the produce at Aldi vs much more expensive shops; the fruit and veg is superb, and so reasonably priced, and we are really impressed with how much meat we can afford on a limited budget.
We actually have some meat left to carry over to next week; a third of a joint of pork, a joint of gammon and a packet of gammon steaks. We have made a £3.99 pork shoulder joint last for three substantial meals (a curry, a cider casserole and a paprika pork for after the week was over). We did this by making sure there was plenty of veg on our plates and adding beans and pulses to the recipe.
An absolutely fantastic week of eating at a superb price. Well done Aldi, proof that with planning, it’s possible, to eat super healthy family food together on a limited budget.
Rating: 5/5
For your nearest Aldi store visit www.aldi.co.uk.
