EHS - Shop Twice a Week for 14 Nutritious Meals

Shop Twice a Week for 14 Nutritious Meals

Have you ever thought about “shop twice a week can prepare 14 nutritious meals”? It is not difficult at all if you plan your menu ahead.

Eating nutritious food with varieties requires frequent shopping is actually a myth. We can achieve this by planning our menu in advance and keeping some staple food at home, for example, snow fungi, shitake mushrooms and some dried beans. They are not just high in fiber, but also increase the food varieties. On the other hand, we can keep some frozen food at home, such as mixed vegetables, chicken steak, pork chop and fish fillet. The nutrition values of frozen food are almost the same as fresh ones.

With the staple food and frozen food at home, we can start to plan a 4-day menu for the week.

For breakfasts, we can fully utilize the staple food at home by making 4 different breakfast combinations, such as on Monday, we have oatmeal with skimmed milk and saltine cracker; On Tuesday, we have mixed vegetables and egg macaroni; On Wednesday, we have congee with bean curd sheet and gingko, and on Thursday, we have oatmeal with skimmed milk and walnut.

The next step is to think about the lunch and dinner menu. For vegetables, we could buy broccoli and Chinese flowering cabbages with 320 gram each for 6 meals, 1 piece of angled luffa, an eggplant and 1 white radish respectively.

For meat, we could buy 240 gram grass crap for 2 meals, 260 gram lean pork for 3 meals and 2 small boxes of pre-packaged tofu.

With these ingredients, the dried food and frozen food stored at home, we can come up with a 4-day menu:

On Monday, we can make “Angled Luffa and Grass Carp in Rice Vermicelli soup” for lunch, then “Steamed Grass Carp with Tofu” and “Stir-fried Chinese Flowering Cabbage” for dinner;
On Tuesday, we can make “Stir-fried Broccoli with Minced Pork” for lunch and “Braised Tofu with Lily Flower, Black Fungus and Broccoli” for dinner;
On Wednesday, we can prepare “Eggplant with Minced Pork” for lunch, then “Braised White Radish with Pork” and “Stir-fried Chinese Flowering Cabbage with Garlic” for dinner.
On Thursday, we can cook “Steamed Egg with Shitake Mushroom” and “Stir-fried Broccoli” for lunch; then “Steamed Chicken Steak with Black Fungus” and “Blanched Chinese Flowering Cabbage” for dinner.

With this plan, we can draft our shopping list for easy shopping.

For the other 3-day menu planning, please refer to our next episode. Stay tune!

From the last episode, we have shared how to shop once for 8 nutritious meals. At this episode, we are going to share how to shop once more and prepare the remaining 6 nutritious meals.

For the other 3 days, we can apply similar rationale on the menu planning. Firstly, we can make use of the staple food at home again by making 3 different breakfast combinations, such as on Friday, we have congee with black-eyed peas and fresh lily bulbs; On Saturday, we have tomato and egg rice vermicelli; On Sunday, we have oatmeal with skimmed milk and tea biscuits.

The next step is to think about lunch and dinner menu. For vegetables, we could buy 3 pieces of cabbages and 3 tomatoes for 2 meals, 1 pack oyster mushroom, 480 gram Shanghai cabbages and 1 piece of carrot for 3 meals respectively.

For meat, we could buy 480 gram lean pork for 4 meals.

With these ingredients, the dried food and frozen food stored at home, we can come up with a 3-day menu:

On Friday, we can make “Stir-fried Tomato sliced Pork” and “Stir-fried Shanghai Cabbage” for lunch, then “Stir-fried Pork with White fungus and Carrot” and “Blanched Shanghai Cabbage” for dinner;
On Saturday, we can make “Fish Filet with Mushroom and Corn” for lunch, then “Minced Pork with Mashed Potato” and “Blanched Shanghai Cabbage” for dinner;
On Sunday, we can prepare “Meatball with Carrot and Cabbage Casserole” for lunch, then “Pan-fried Fish Filet with Carrot and Zucchini” and “Blanched Cabbage” for dinner.

“Shop twice a week can prepare 14 nutritious meals” could be easily achieved if you plan your menu ahead. From now on, you could enjoy nutritious meals with variety without frequent grocery shopping.