Your Slimming Essentials – The Weekly Pinch of Shopping 07.02.25
It’s time to scroll through your first WEEKLY PINCH OF SHOPPING for February 2025!
Making it through January calls for a treat (or two!), and we’ve thrown plenty of goodies into this week’s basket.
Finish the day with an Ambrosia Apple and Cinnamon Flavour Deluxe Rice Pot, or a ramekin of Specially Selected Gastro Vanilla and Mixed Berry Crumb Topped Cheesecake – either way, you’ll be in dessert heaven!
You can even kick-start the day on a sweeter note too with Weetabix Crispy Minis in Caramelised Biscuit flavour. This crunchy cereal is sure to remind you of a certain famous caramel-spiced biscuit – say hello to the whole family’s new-favourite breakfast!
We sent a really exciting email to our website members this week, announcing our brand-new 2 WEEK PINCH OF NOM MEAL PLAN EBOOK. It’s available to download right now for anyone who’s already registered (or for all new website members from today!).
Finding the motivation to meal-plan every single week isn’t always easy. We’ve done the hard work for you, by planning out two weeks’ worth of meals, counting the calories and writing out printable shopping lists you can take on the go with you.
If you’re not signed up, head to our registration page now to fill in your details. It only takes a few moments, and you’ll be able to print our eBook ready to use this weekend!
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Spotted any yummy-looking, slimming-friendly new products at the supermarket lately? Share them with us – they might feature in our next article! You can also join the discussion in our Facebook group here.
Our Weekly Pinch of Shopping highlights budget-friendly, slimming-friendly products available in local supermarkets and online. We include calorie information and RRP, though prices may vary.
Each week, we also feature Aldi’s Super 6 deals – a fortnightly selection of discounted fruits and vegetables – along with recipe ideas to help you make the most of them. This week we’ve given you a reminder of the current selection, so hurry down to Aldi to pick up some bargains before a fresh selection goes on offer next week!
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**A note on our shopping list: we do not take payment, promotion or gifts for including any of the items mentioned in these articles. We bring them to you because we love them and hope you will too!**
Plant Menu Peppered No Salami Slices – 64 calories per 7 slices
January might be over, but that doesn’t mean we’re cancelling Meat-free Mondays! These Plant Menu Peppered No Salami Slices make for a really easy, delicious swap wherever you’d normally enjoy a slice of meat.
Think plant-based sarnies, pasta dishes, salads or soups – there are lots of places where salami’s signature peppery flavours are welcome.
You could use it as a plant-based topping for our Cheesy Chilli Pizza. We promise, even the fussiest eaters at the table won’t know the difference!
They’ll be too busy enjoying the gooey goodness we’ve loaded onto our home-baked naan base. With no shortage of Gouda cheese, and a generous helping of sweet chilli drizzle, this one always goes down a storm on family pizza night.
Plant Menu Peppered No Salami Slices are available from Aldi, priced at £4.75 per pack.
M&S Purple Crunch Stir-Fry – 37 calories per 1/2 pack (approx.)
Throw this M&S Purple Crunch Stir-Fry into your wok, and you can have a colourful, nutritious, satisfying meal on the table in minutes. A medley of purple broccoli, cabbage, chopped chillies, ginger and garlic, it’s just the ticket with your go-to protein and noodles.
Don’t forget about adding a tasty sauce! We use a handful of store cupboard staples to make the aromatic sauce for our Broccoli and Mushroom Stir-fry recipe.
Fiery sriracha, sticky honey, oyster sauce and soy sauce provide the perfect balance of sweet yet spicy flavours. Water chestnuts are a less common ingredient, but they’re really easy to find at most supermarkets and well worth adding in.
They’ll boost the savoury flavours in your dish and give everything an irresistible crunch.
M&S Purple Crunch Stir-Fry packs are available from Ocado and M&S, priced at £2.75.
Manomasa Jalapeno Barbecue Popped Corn Chips – 79 calories per serving
Sometimes, you just need to grab something quick, easy and full of flavour to munch on instantly! That’s exactly what you get with a bag of Manomasa Jalapeno Barbecue Popped Corn Chips on standby.
Popped rather than deep-fried, they come in lighter than deep-fried potato-based alternatives, at 79 calories per portion.
Instead, you’ll be nibbling on a blend of corn, potato, chickpea, red quinoa and black bean – all tossed in a smoky jalapeńo coating.
You’ll find similar chipotle-inspired flavours packed into our Chilli Bean Lasagne. There’s not a single ounce of mince in our layers; we’ve made an alternative vegetarian ‘chilli mix’ using a blend of mixed beans and vegetables!
Manomasa Jalapeno Barbecue Popped Corn Chips are available from Waitrose, priced at £2.20 per pack.
Nordpak Plant-Based Vegan Spread With Buttery Taste – 65 calories per 10g spread
After seeing lots of buzz online about this Nordpak Plant-Based Vegan Spread With Buttery Taste from Aldi, we had to give it a try! True to the reviews, it spreads like a dream and has the creaminess you’d expect from a classic tub, without any dairy on the ingredients list.
We think the best places to test it are in a sandwich, on a slice of toast or melted on top of a jacket spud.
You can spread some over a wholemeal bread roll while you stack up our Breakfast Sliders. They’re piled high with cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon and sausage – basically, everyone’s favourite bits from an English cooked breakfast!
Will you squeeze red or brown sauce on yours?
Nordpak Plant-Based Vegan Spread With Buttery Taste is available from Aldi, priced at £1.99 per pack.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Mushroom Goujons with Hot Honey – 299 calories per 1/2 pack
We can’t visit Sainsbury’s at the minute without leaving with something yummy from their Taste the Difference range. With these crispy-coated Mushroom Goujons, the ‘Hot Honey’ caught our eye straight away.
While we pop them straight in our air fryer to brown and then drizzle with the moreish dressing, there’s nothing to stop you baking them to perfection in your oven if you’d prefer.
If you like the sound of a crunchy mushroom-based side dish, our Cheesy Mushroom Bake is the recipe to try next.
It’s ready in well under half an hour with a short list of simple ingredients, and you can keep it frozen ready to fill a hole on your midweek plate at a moment’s notice. Bear this one in mind for mixing up your usual go-to side veggies!
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Mushroom Goujons with Hot Honey is available from Sainsbury’s, priced at £3.50 per pack (or £3.00 with a Nectar card).
Iceland Crispy Potato Slices – 116 calories per 100g serving
There are a few different ways to cook and serve these Iceland Crispy Potato Slices. From frozen, you can either air-fry, deep-fry, pan-fry or ovenbake them.
As you’ve probably guessed, when we pull this bag of time-saving spuds from the freezer, we’re on Team Air Fryer! They’re a cracking, golden ready-to-go topper for pies or casseroles.
You could crisp them up to scatter evenly over our warming Chicken and Vegetable Hotpot. Underneath the fluffy topping, you’ll find tender chicken and veggies cooked in a creamy, thyme-infused sauce.
We’ve added carrots, peas and sweetcorn to keep this one family-friendly, but the recipe works just as well with mushrooms, peppers or some frozen mixed vegetables.
Iceland Crispy Potato Slices are available from Iceland, priced at £1.00 per bag.
Weetabix Crispy Minis Caramelised Biscuit – 152 calories per 40g serving
Your cereal cupboard just got an exciting new addition! Say hello to Weetabix Crispy Minis in Caramelised Biscuit flavour.
Simply add to a bowl, add milk and enjoy the Biscoff-like spiced caramel goodness crammed into these wholegrain minis. We’re not kidding when we tell you, the whole family is going to fall in love instantly (if they’re huge fans of Biscoff like we are!).
We like to tuck into these mini biccies with banana slices stirred in – as our Air Fryer Biscoff Banana Bites recipe proves, caramelised biscuit flavours are a match made in heaven with everyone’s favourite snacktime fruit.
To ramp up the indulgence, they’re coated in a cinnamon and nutmeg-infused layer of panko breadcrumbs. Turn to pages 176-177 of our Air Fryer cookbook to make a batch later.
Weetabix Crispy Minis Caramelised Biscuit are available from Asda, priced at £3.60 per pack.
Tesco High Protein Chilli Chicken – 312 calories per pack
The word ‘protein’ seems to be everywhere at the minute! This Tesco High Protein Chilli Chicken really does have a fair amount packed in, with 22 grams in a ready-to-heat serving.
It’s a chow mein inspired combination of noodles, shredded chicken, red pepper, choi sum (Chinese cabbage) and julienne carrots, tossed in a mildly fiery chilli sauce.
Quick and convenient, it’s an easy way to get 2 of your 5-a-day when you don’t feel like cooking something from scratch – and it’s better for your budget than a takeaway version!
If you’re part of our Facebook group, you’ve probably seen lots of photos of our Chilli Chicken Masala this week. Our community has been cooking it nonstop from their copies of our latest cookbook, All in One.
We are so jealous of how incredible Kerry T’s bowl looks…thank you for sharing your photo in our website Gallery, Kerry!
Tesco High Protein Chilli Chicken is available from Tesco, priced at £2.00 per pack.
Ambrosia Apple and Cinnamon Flavour Deluxe Rice – 132 calories per pot
Imagine the rice pudding pots you and love, with a luxurious twist! You might have already spotted Ambrosia’s Deluxe Rice pots in Madagascan Vanilla or Salted Caramel – we tried those for the first time back in 2023.
Now, you can try two brand-new warming flavours as part of the thicker, creamier range: Caramelised Biscuit or Apple and Cinnamon flavour pots.
Don’t know about you, but we’ll be looking out for both while we’re shopping this weekend!
For our own Chai Rice Pudding recipe, we use unsweetened almond milk to keep things silky and rich without ramping up the calories.
With chai tea flavours stirred through, you’re basically tucking into two warming treats in one gorgeous bowl. Whatever you do, don’t forget to top it all off with a sprinkling of cinnamon!
Ambrosia Apple and Cinnamon Flavour Deluxe Rice pots are available from Asda, priced at £1.60 for a pack of 2.
Specially Selected Gastro Vanilla and Mixed Berry Crumb Topped Cheesecakes – 212 calories per cheesecake pot
With Valentine’s Day around the corner, we’ve noticed lots of romantic-looking treats appearing on the supermarket shelves. These Specially Selected Gastro Vanilla and Mixed Berry Crumb Topped Cheesecakes are no exception from Aldi – they look and taste really fancy, and yet you can take home a pair for £2.99.
Since we’re talking about a velvety vanilla centre bursting with tart berries, and a decadent biscuit crumb topping, it’d be rude not to really…
Looking to impress? We can promise, our Millionaire’s Cheesecake recipe is the key to their heart. We’ve used reduced-fat swaps to keep the calories low without spoiling any of the fun.
Just make sure you don’t compromise on the unsalted butter – it’s the key to making your shortbread buttery and crispy.
Specially Selected Gastro Vanilla and Mixed Berry Crumb Topped Cheesecakes are available from Aldi, priced at £2.99 for a pack of 2.
REMINDER Aldi Super 6 Fruit and Veg Selection
We love Aldi’s fortnightly selection of fresh fruit and veggies! They choose different items for a special offer where you can pick them up for much less than the normal price.
Here’s our reminder of this week’s Super 6 selection:
- Red Onions – 41 calories per 100g
- Easy Peelers – 35 calories per 100g
- Cherries – 50 calories per 100g
- Blueberries – 57 calories per 100g
- Lettuce – 16 calories per 100g
- Limes – 30 calories per 100g
**Remember: we do not take payment, promotion or gift for any of the items mentioned in these articles. We bring them to you because we love them and hope you will too!**
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