Your Slimming Essentials – The Weekly Pinch of Shopping 14.06.24
Happy Friday! Can you believe that you’re about to read the LAST Weekly Pinch of Shopping article before our NEW Air Fryer cookbook comes out? We don’t know where the time has gone either!
This edition is all about tasty barbecue bites and shareable goodies to watch the Euros with. We were so excited to pick up a pack of LIMITED EDITION JAFFA CAKES with a Cola Bottle inspired filling! They’re 40 calories each and – we might get in trouble for this – we’ve heard a whisper or two that they’re tastier than the original…
Plus, if you’re obsessed with M&S crisps like us, you’ll love sharing the brand-new flavour in their Combo Mix range…Smoky Pepperoni Pizza!
Oh and for when the sun does (finally!) decide to shine, we’ve got you covered with a box of refreshing Pink Lemonade Ice Lollies – thank you, Aldi.
We can’t believe we’re typing this but our most-requested cookbook ever, PINCH OF NOM: AIR FRYER, is out NEXT WEEK on the 20th of June!! It’s so so exciting and we just have to say THANK YOU SO MUCH if you’ve pre-ordered a copy already…you are the BEST community we could ever ask for!
All 75 scrummy, slimming-friendly air fryer recipes will be with you next Thursday (ahh!) – and you can pre-order a copy here if you haven’t already.
Don’t forget you can scroll down the page in the BRAND-NEW air fryer section of our website to spot our very special Ninja Air Fryer offer! We’ve partnered up to bring you a Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone AF400UK for £149, instead of the RRP of £249.
Click here to visit the air fryer section and redeem the offer!
Make sure to let us know if you spot any yummy-looking, slimming-friendly new products on the supermarket shelves – we might just feature them in our next article! The members in our incredible Facebook group are always happy to have a good old chat about lots of these shopping items. You can join the group by clicking here.
Our Weekly Pinch of Shopping list aims to show you slimming-friendly products that you can find online or in one of your local supermarkets. We try to make it as easy as possible for you to pick up these items as part of your usual weekly shop, and we’ll always include the calorie information and the RRP for you.
Please remember that, although all prices are correct at the time of writing, supermarkets can change their prices often, so this should be used as a guide only.
Along with our favourite new finds from the supermarket shelves, each week we include details of the Aldi Super 6. Every fortnight Aldi discounts a selection of 6 fruits and veggies that you can pick up for a fraction of the price. There’s a fresh selection this week, so scroll down to find out what’s included, along with some ideas on how to make the most of the ingredients.
Want to make sure you never miss a Weekly Pinch of Shopping? You can sign up to receive the Weekly Pinch of Shopping in your inbox here, so you’ll always be the first to read the new articles.
**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!**
Sainsbury’s Asian Inspired Tenderstem Broccoli Salad Summer Edition, Taste the Difference – 144 calories per 1/2 pack
There’s no such thing as a ‘boring lunch’ with Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Asian Inspired Tenderstem Broccoli Salad on the menu. It comes chock-full with enough fluffy quinoa, soya beans, carrots and broccoli to feed two.
It’s all brought together with aromatic lemongrass and a lip-smacking red pepper, miso and chilli dressing for drizzling on top. Tuck into it as it is, or add your choice of ready-cooked protein for a heartier meal.
You can really taste the chilli and lemongrass in the luscious Thai-inspired sauce our Coconut and Lime Chicken is bathed in. While the thick, creamy sauce looks and feels indulgent, we’ve used a lower-calorie coconut dairy-free milk alternative to lighten things up.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Asian Inspired Tenderstem Broccoli Salad Summer Edition is available from Sainsbury’s, priced at £3.25 per pack (or £2.75 with a Nectar card).
The Tofoo Co. Tex Mex Burgers – 125 calories per burger
Tofu never fails to make Meat-free Mondays tastier, but you might not always fancy doing the prep. These ready-shaped The Tofoo Co. Tex Mex Burgers go straight in the oven for 20 minutes with no messing around, and they’re already seasoned with a selection of smoky barbecue-inspired herbs, spices, beans and veg – including tangy sliced jalapeńos!
Our very own Tex Mex Burgers use lean 5% beef mince patties to bring the calories down, without compromising on juiciness. You’ll have to get your hands dirty when you’re squeezing the mince together with a mix of herbs and spices like fiery chilli and smoky chipotle, but having those flavours in every bite is so worth it!
We like to pile them high on a wholemeal bun with slaw and a side of Sweet Potato Fries.
The Tofoo Co. Tex Mex Burgers are available from Tesco, priced at £3.00.
Ashfields Grill 5% Fat Beef Kebabs – 189 calories per kebab
Aldi has a whole selection of barbecue-friendly goodies at the moment, and we had to pick up these Ashfields Grill 5% Fat Beef Kebabs. Made with a leaner mixture of beef, ready-threaded onto wooden skewers, they don’t just lower the calories, they’ll save you having to prepare kebabs from scratch too.
Add your choice of herbs and spices, or keep things simple with salt and pepper, before you pop them in the oven.
You can also turn them on the grill and serve them with a colourful side like our eye-catching Pesto Potato Salad. It’s really easy to put together and absolutely bursting with summery flavours from our homemade creamy, lemony sauce.
For more slimming-friendly BBQ recipe ideas, take a scroll through our BBQ recipes collection.
Ashfields Grill 5% Fat Beef Kebabs are available from Aldi, priced at £3.49.
Specially Selected Pink Lemonade Lollies – 70 calories per ice lolly
As soon as the sun’s out, we make room in our freezer for slimming-friendly bites like these Specially Selected Pink Lemonade Lollies from Aldi. Made from lemon juice concentrate and juicy-sweet Scottish raspberries to give them their gorgeous pink colouring, they’re delightfully tangy and refreshing at just 70 calories each.
Now’s the time to crack out your favourite pitcher and put our Pink Lemonade at the centre of the table. This easy-peasy summertime beverage is just as zesty and thirst-quenching as shop-bought versions, for only 20 calories per glass.
The key is to use sweetener with the same weight and texture as sugar, adjusted to your taste. Serve over ice with a garnish of mint leaves and raspberries to make things feel fancier!
Specially Selected Pink Lemonade Lollies are available from Aldi, priced at £2.09 for a pack of 4.
The Gym Kitchen Chicken and Mushroom Flavour Noodles – 288 calories per pot
You can always count on The Gym Kitchen to bring out a brand-new, protein-packed product. These Chicken and Mushroom Flavour Noodles give traditional Pot Noodles a run for their money, with a plant-based no-cook recipe that you can prep by adding boiling water and a sachet of seasoning.
Whether you pick up ‘Chicken and Mushroom’ or ‘Original Curry’ from the range, there’s well over 20 grams of protein to twirl around your fork and leave you fuelled for the day ahead!
If you don’t believe that chicken and mushroom is a delicious flavour combination, our Chicken Mushroom Fakeaway will change your mind. This classic recipe is on pages 52-53 of our first-ever cookbook and it’s still on repeat in our house…5 years later!
This one’s also suitable for freezing, meaning you can rustle it up almost as quickly as a Pot Noodle when you’ve next got a hankering.
The Gym Kitchen Chicken and Mushroom Flavour Noodles are available from Asda, priced at £1.50 per pot.
Sainsbury’s Summer Vegan Mediterranean Veggie Sausages – 106 calories per 2 sausages
These Sainsbury’s Summer Vegan Mediterranean Veggie Sausages are packed with so much flavour from the off. Inspired by Mediterranean cuisine, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, herbs and black pepper are swirled into every mouthful, with blended aubergine, courgette and beans used as sausage ‘meat’.
You can crisp them up in your air fryer, or use them to oven-bake a vegetarian version of our hugely-popular Sausage Traybake. Pop them into an oven dish with your choice of chopped-up seasonal ingredients – we’ve gone for apples, spuds, onions and carrots.
The most important thing is covering everything in the irresistible honey and mustard sauce. Trust us, the way it caramelises in the oven is heavenly!
We’ve got more tasty dishes you can make with sausages on the blog here.
Sainsbury’s Summer Vegan Mediterranean Veggie Sausages are available from Sainsbury’s, priced at £3.00 for a pack of 6.
Fruit Shoot Berry Galaxy Squash – 3 calories per 250ml (diluted)
Robinsons is mixing things up a bit with two brand-new squash flavours inspired by Fruit Shoots: Tropical Jungle and Berry Galaxy. You can pick up the orange and purple 750ml bottles from Ocado right now, just in time to quench everyone’s thirst while the Euros are on.
One bottle pours roughly 30 (250ml diluted) glasses of Fruit Shoot flavoured drinks, meaning your pennies will go that bit further than investing in a pack of the classic pull-top bottles.
If you’re looking for more fun, crowd-pleasing treats for the weekend, now’s your cue to refrigerate a batch of Rainbow Jellies. Each layer makes the most of a different fruit, with sliced strawberries and red jelly at the bottom, mandarin and orange jelly in the middle and blueberries with purple jelly at the top.
Don’t forget to add a swirl of reduced-fat aerosol cream to finish things off!
Fruit Shoot Berry Galaxy Squash is available from Ocado, priced at £1.25 per 750ml bottle.
Iceland Slow Cooked Chicken Shawarma – 276 calories per 1/2 pack
This Iceland Slow Cooked Chicken Shawarma is our latest obsession! The marinated chicken thigh meat has already been slow-cooked, leaving you a choice of microwaving it in minutes, or leaving it to cook in the oven for half an hour.
Either way, you’ll be left with shreddable succulent chicken pieces to fold into flatbreads with fresh, mixed salad and a garlicky sauce.
The aromatic seasoning would pair really well with our Middle Eastern-style, golden and crispy Za’atar Fries. They’re coated in a sumac-rich spice blend, giving them a zesty freshness with notes of lemon, lime and berries.
If you’re thinking to yourself ‘What is Sumac?’, we’ve got everything you need to know in our blog just here.
Iceland Slow Cooked Chicken Shawarma is available from Iceland, priced at £5.00.
M&S Smoky Pepperoni Pizza Flavour Combo Mix – 137 calories per 1/5 pack
Hands up if you agree that no one does crisps quite like M&S! This new-to-the-shelf Smoky Pepperoni Pizza Flavour Combo Mix caught our eye earlier in the week and we knew we couldn’t say no.
You’ve got the usual variety of ridged crisps, tubes, pretzels and rings, coated in a smoky pepperoni spice mix. We’d recommend portioning them into a bowl (rather than sitting down with the whole bag!) before you tuck in.
We don’t blame you if all of that above has left you dreaming about pizza. To curb the cravings for fewer calories, our Pizza Swirls are a cracking alternative. You can even personalise them with a variety of fillings – just be sure to adjust the calories accordingly, if you’re counting!
M&S Smoky Pepperoni Pizza Flavour Combo Mix is available from Ocado and M&S, priced at £2.30 per bag.
McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Original Chocolate Biscuits Cola Flavour Cakes – 40 calories per jaffa cake
As soon as we heard about McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Original Chocolate Biscuits Cola Flavour Cakes, we had to run to our local Asda for them. It’s no secret that we love a new twist on old favourites, and these cakey snacks don’t disappoint!
With a squidgy cola bottle sweet inspired centre, and a layer of dark crackly chocolate on top, they’re so moreish and only 40 calories each.
That might sound good, but we can do better with our own Jaffa Cakes recipe at 33 calories per cake (or biscuit, if you’re on that side of the debate!).
We’ve used sugar-free orange jelly to keep our version of the signature centre slimming friendly.
McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes Original Chocolate Biscuits Cola Flavour Cakes are available from Asda, priced at 85p per pack.
NEW 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 the rundown of this week’s Super 6 offering, along with some recipe ideas for you.
Beef Tomato – 20 calories per 100g
You know barbecue season has properly arrived when beef tomatoes are out to play. Easy to slice and the perfect size for a burger-loaded bite, we love having these in the fridge ready for when we’re having dinner in the garden.
Why not use a slice to add a juicy burst of tomatoey goodness to Turkey Burgers? They’re packed full of delicious flavour for only 176 calories per bun.
Radishes – 16 calories per 100g
Mild and peppery in flavour, radishes are so easy to prep and throw into salads or stir-fries. They’ll add a scrummy crunchy texture to your lunch, for the bargain price of 39p per bag in this week’s Super 6 – don’t mind if we do!
You can try them as part of the rainbow-coloured salad that’s piled high on our Katsu Curry Burgers.
Cherries – 50 calories per 100g
Cherries at a budget-friendly price is always a good thing! Keep a punnet in the fridge as a light, sweet snack or turn them into a scrumptious slimming-friendly dessert. We’ve lowered the calories in our Cherry Pie Turnovers by swapping out the pastry, and preparing our filling at home using simple store cupboard ingredients.
Mini Easy Peelers – 35 calories per 100g
You can’t go wrong with a few mini easy peelers in your fruit bowl. Next time you’re craving cake or chocolate, reach for one of these instead and the sweet, juicy citrus treat will keep you going.
Full of vitamin C, they make a great addition to your breakfast spread, no matter how you like your eggs. If fiery’s the way, try our lip-smacking Harissa Eggs recipe – then sweeten the deal with an easy peeler afterwards.
Jersey Royal Potatoes – 75 calories per 100g
At the heart of a meal or on the side, it’s hard not to love potatoes! Mashed, boiled, fried or oven-baked, they’re a nutritious crowd-pleaser you can count on.
With a firm texture that holds even after boiling, Jersey Royal potatoes are perfect for fuss-free light lunches like our Smoked Salmon Potato Salad. You can even throw them into the pan with the skin on!
Red Pepper – 31 calories per 100g
We don’t have to tell you how versatile red peppers are! From fresh salads and pasta dishes to curries and stews, there are so many different ways to enjoy their crunchiness and slightly sweet flavours.
While they’re often on the side or chopped into dishes, there’s no reason they can’t be the main event with a recipe like our Mediterranean-Style Stuffed Peppers in your meal plan.
**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!**
Love our Weekly Pinch of Shopping articles? Remember to sign up to our newsletter to get first access to the next one.
And if you’re not already part of our Facebook Group then make sure you join as we love seeing all of the new products that you share – not to mention all of the amazing support and motivation!