Dept. | Item | Approx. cost |
Fresh veg: | Garlic clove | €0.39 |
Ginger | €0.39 | |
Courgettes: 2 x 500g (€0.89 each) | €1.78 | |
Peppers: 2 (€0.69 each) | €1.38 | |
Salad potatoes: 1 pack of 1000g | €0.99 | |
Butternut Squash: 3 (€0.79 each) | €2.37 | |
Fish: | Kiln-roasted Salmon fillet: 3 packs of 185g (€3.19 each) | €9.57 |
Dairy: | Feta Cheese: 4 packs of 200g (€1.79 each) | €7.16 |
Ardagh Lighter Mature White Grated Cheese: 1 pack of 250g | €1.59 | |
World: | Brown Rice: 1 pack of 1kg | €1.15 |
Balsamic Vinegar: 1 bottle of 250ml | €1.99 | |
Eggs: | Free Range Large Eggs: 2 packs of 6 (€1.89 each) | €3.78 |
Frozen Veg: | Broccoli Florets: 1 pack of 907g | €0.49 |
Spinach: 1 pack of 907g | €1.09 | |
Green Beans: 1 pack of 970g | €0.69 | |
Cauliflower Florets: 1 pack of 907g | €0.79 | |
Kale: 1 pack of 750g | €1.09 | |
Other: | Tofu: 4 packs of 300g (€1.99 each) | €7.96 |
Tamari: 1 bottle of 250ml | €3.45 | |
Total: | €48.10 |
Veggie meals with 20g protein!!
Last year, my guilt about climate change and niggles about animal welfare finally got too loud to ignore. So I resolved to turn veggie as much as I could.
At first, I did the obvious thing: I extracted the meat from my meals, and increased my starch and vegetables to the same volume of the missing meat. However, starches and veggies are not as protein-dense as meat. Consequently, I was not meeting my RDA of protein, and I was not a happy camper: I was consistently grumpy and hungry.
Then I hit gold… a little bird (who happens to be a professional dietician) told me of a magical index which listed the macronutrient composition of all foods available in the UK. And – this fact makes me so happy to live in the 21st century – this incredible resource is publicly available!!
The amazing index is the “McCance and Widdowson’s composition of foods integrated dataset” . It’s available in both .pdf and Excel format here.
Me being me (i.e. a total nerd) I downloaded the magical Excel file, and calculated veggie food combinations that would give me 20g protein per meal.
At the moment I don’t have a lot of time for cooking. So I’d describe my creations as ‘how to quickly throw quantities of food together’, rather than ‘haute cuisine recipes’. But, in case you, too, are a busy bee who wants to lessen their ecological footprint, I share my fave food combos below.
Or … why not download the McCance and Widdowson dataset yourself, and design your own protein-rich veggie food combos? And then … share them with me? 😉
Scrambled Egg, Mature Cheddar, Courgette, Kale
Feta Cheese, Cauliflower, Green Beans
Smoked Salmon, Squash, Peppers, Potato
Marinated Tofu, Spinach, Broccoli
Update 26/01/2019: to make your life easier, I’ve now added a shopping list for those recipes, plus some batch-cooking tips.
Also, in future I’d love to try making a second draft of these food combos which uses the amount of food in a single packet (e.g. broccoli comes in packets of 907g. So it would be really handy if my tofu recipe used exactly 907g of broccoli, rather than its current 880g.!) Less measuring = fasterrrr!
And I’d also love to try pairing foods which are in season at the same time. So watch this space…. !
Complete and utter disclaimer: This blog is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this blog or materials linked from this blog is at the user’s own risk. The content of this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard, or delay in obtaining, medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.
Marinated Tofu, Spinach, Broccoli
I added a marinade inspired by chef René Ortiz to this tofu combo!
Nutritional info of one portion (not including marinade)…
Energy (Kcal) | Carb. | Protein | Fat |
281kcal | 32.3g | 19.9g | 8g |
Approx. cost per portion: €1.88
Ingredients | 1 portion | 8 portions |
Broccoli | 110g | 880g |
Rice, brown wholegrain (exchange for quinoa* if you’d like) | 100g | 800g (320g dry) |
Spinach | 100g | 800g |
Tofu, regular | 125g | 1000g |
Balsamic vinegar | 30ml | 240ml |
Soy sauce | 30ml | 240ml |
Ginger | 2″ piece | 2 x 4″ pieces |
Garlic | 1/2 clove | 4 cloves |
Method:
Put balsamic vinegar and soy sauce together in a big bowl. Chop the tofu up into whatever size you want. Add tofu to bowl of balsamic vinegar and soy sauce. Leave it there to marinate for at least 1 hour.
Start the brown rice cooking; get it to the simmer stage.
Start the spinach and broccoli cooking, however you wish; I steam them.
Mince garlic; grate ginger.
When tofu has been marinated: heat oil in a non-stick frying pan or pot. Add ginger and garlic and stirfry them until beginning to brown.
Drain tofu, reserving marinade.
Add tofu to frying-pan and cook for around 5–7 minutes.
Add the reserved marinade to the frying pan.
Hopefully your rice, spinach, and broccoli are cooked now; add them to the frying pan.
Let simmer until marinade is reduced.
*267g dry quinoa yields 800g cooked. Nutritional info of 1 portion with quinoa:
Energy (Kcal) | Carb. | Protein | Fat |
256kcal | 23.1g | 21g | 8.8g |
Feta, Cauliflower, Green Beans
Nutritional info per portion …
Energy (Kcal) | Carb. | Protein | Fat |
373kcal | 28.5g | 20.1g | 19.9g |
Approx. cost per portion: €1.22
Ingredients | 1 portion | 8 portions |
Green beans | 80g | 640g |
Cauliflower | 80g | 640g |
Feta cheese | 90g | 720g |
Rice, brown wholegrain | 80g | 640g (256g dry) |
Method:
Cook cauliflower and green beans however you want. I steam them.
Cook rice.
Mix everything together… feta begins to melt over everything… yum…
Scrambled Egg, Mature Cheddar, Courgette, Kale
Nutritional info per portion:
Energy (Kcal) | Carb. | Protein | Fat |
338kcal | 24.7g | 22.8g | 16.4g |
Approx. cost per portion: €1.17
Ingredients | 1 portion | 8 portions |
Courgette | 80g | 640 |
Curly kale | 130g | 560 |
Egg | 1 | 8 eggs |
Reduced fat mature cheddar | 20g | 160g |
Rice, brown wholegrain | 80 | 640g (256g dry) |
Method:
Cook courgette and kale however you want. (I grill courgette on a George Foreman grill; I steam the kale).
Cook rice.
Mix egg and cheese together.
Throw all ingredients into a pan and scramble until egg cooked.
Hot-Smoked Salmon, Squash, Peppers, Potato
Nutritional info per portion:
Energy (Kcal) | Carb. | Protein | Fat |
295kcal | 37.6g | 19.8g | 7.3g |
Approx. cost per portion: €1.80
Ingredients | 1 portion | 8 portions | |
Peppers | 40g | 320g | |
Potatoes | 128g | 1024g | |
Salmon (hot-smoked) | 60g | 480g | |
Butternut squash, baked | 205g |
|
Method:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Go off and do something else for 20 min.
Cut squash in half length-ways, scoop out seeds, and put baking in oven (I follow the instructions here )
Cook potatoes however you wish – I buy baby potatoes and cook them in the microwave.
Chop up peppers and cook however you wish- I grill them on a George Foreman grill.
Chop salmon into bite-size pieces.
Mix all ingredients together.