Your Slimming Essentials – The Weekly Pinch of Shopping 25.10.24
Happy Fright-dayyy! You’ll have to excuse us, we’re pretty excited that Halloween is just around the corner. We couldn’t wait to go on the hunt for ghoulish goodies, and we’ve dropped plenty into this week’s Spooky Pinch of Shopping for you!
If you’re feeling brave enough, start with the oozy Mac ‘N’ Slime Cheese Bites that you can easily whack in your air fryer. We’ll tell you where to find them below.
Plus, there’s an absolute must-try for Biscoff lovers on this week’s list: an indulgent-tasting Caramelised Biscuit Gateau. Who doesn’t love a budget-friendly spooktacular showstopper?
We’ve been revealing never-before-seen recipe titles from our upcoming cookbook, Pinch of Nom: All in One all week on Instagram and Facebook! Don’t worry if you missed any of our posts, we’ve dropped a video with ALL of the dishes in ONE video below for you.
And yes, every single dish you see here can be made in one pot, pan, tray or your slow cooker…when your copy arrives on November 21st!
If you’ve already pre-ordered your copy, thank you so much. It feels crazy that there’s only 1 MONTH TO GO before All in One is at your fingertips. You can pre-order by tapping here.
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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.
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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!**
Bramwells Roast Vegetable Seasoning – 29 calories per 1/4 pack
We absolutely love roasting veggies. This Bramwells Roast Vegetable Seasoning will take the natural sweetness you’ll get from oven-baking vegetables even further, by tossing everything in a herby, mildly spicy, honey-sweetened coating.
Just imagine how lovely a sprinkling tastes over chopped carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, onions or sliced aubergine.
Now all we can think about is our very own Autumn Vegetable Traybake. When you don’t need the convenience of ripping open a sachet, follow our trusty recipe to make the perfect veggie coating with store cupboard staples instead.
We’ve also added a low-calorie lemony yoghurt drizzle for good measure!
Bramwells Roast Vegetable Seasoning is available from Aldi, priced at 59p per pack.
Flora Smoked Garlic Butter, Limited Edition – 71 calories per 10g (approx.)
This Flora Smoked Garlic Butter is only a limited edition, so any vampires in your kitchen don’t need to worry for too long. Spread the vegan-friendly butter over freshly-toasted bread and bagels, or add new depths of flavour to your lunchtime sarnie.
You can also add a knob of butter to grilled veg, meats or pasta for a luxurious boost of garlic buttery goodness.
Why not try a touch with our Creamy Garlic Sprouts? These ones are baked in a homemade sauce that’s so irresistible, even fussy eaters at your dining table won’t say no.
If you’re as passionate about garlic as we are, you might want to take a scroll through our blog full of garlicky dishes.
Flora Smoked Garlic Butter, Limited Edition is available from Sainsbury’s, priced at £1.75 per pack (or £1.00 with a Nectar card).
Myprotein Sweet Chilli Salmon Fillets – 230 calories per fillet
It’s always a good idea to have fish on your weekly menu. These Myprotein Sweet Chilli Salmon Fillets are great for busy days where you need something nutritious in a hurry.
Simply pierce the pouch, pop them in the microwave on a sturdy plate and wait for the ‘ping’. The steam in the bag will do all the hard work for you.
When your fillets are fall-off-the-fork ready, and the sweet chilli glaze is shining, you’ll need some tasty greens to serve on the side. That’s where our Chilli Roasted Greens come in!
We’re talking about broccoli florets, asparagus and courgettes, roasted to perfection in punchy chilli, ginger and lime. Our mouths are watering already…
Myprotein Sweet Chilli Salmon Fillets are available from Iceland, priced at £10.00.
Swizzels Squashies Squeletons – 71 calories per serving
You don’t have to go trick-or-treating to nibble on something sweet! These Swizzels Squashies Squeletons are creepy, colourful and only 71 calories per serving.
There’s a roulette-style mix of strawberry, orange and sour apple in each bag, and they’re available to pick up from Iceland for a quid. Brace yourself for the tangy ones!
There’s nothing tricky about our brand-new Halloween Skeleton Biscuits. The method is frighteningly simple to follow, and they’re oodles of fun to decorate!
We used a gingerbread man cutter to shape our skeletons with the cinnamon-spiced dough, but there’s nothing to stop you decorating a batch of round-shaped biscuits instead.
Swizzels Squashies Squeletons are available from Iceland, priced at £1.00 per bag.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Cinnamon – 1 calorie per 250ml
Stop what you’re doing if you love cinnamon! You need to try Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Cinnamon in a glass of ice with lemon. It’s the fizzy drink you know and love, with an autumnal kick.
Plus, we’re not tricking you when we tell you it’s only 1 calorie for 250ml.
Cinnamon spice is what makes our Cinnamon Roll Baked Oats recipe so comforting. Whether you tuck in first thing in the morning, or enjoy it as a syrup-topped dessert, it’s guaranteed to be a hearty hug in a bowl.
You can even use the same mix to make individual-sized spiced muffins to tuck into while you’re watching Bake Off instead.
Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Cinnamon is available from Tesco, priced at £1.85 for a 2-litre bottle (or £1.25 with a Clubcard).
Let’s Party Hoisin Duck Bao Buns – 59 calories per bao bun
These Let’s Party Hoisin Duck Bao Buns stood out to us as perfect for ghostly gatherings, especially if you add some edible eyes to make them look like little monsters!
Filled with duck, vegetables and hoisin sauce, you can satisfy takeaway cravings with one delicious mouthful.
We’re still surprised that our Crispy Duck recipe comes in at just 177 calories per serving. It’s the ideal shareable appetiser for a Chinese-style fakeaway feast, and it’s far quicker to make than you’d think.
Roll the duck pancakes with spring onions, sliced cucumber and a splash of hoisin for maximum ‘wow’ factor.
Let’s Party Hoisin Duck Bao Buns are available from Aldi, priced at £1.99 per pack.
Tesco Plant Chef Vegetable Spring Roll Selection – 47 calories per mushroom spring roll
You can never have too much fright-night finger food. This Tesco Plant Chef Vegetable Spring Roll Selection will be fully crisped up without a fuss after just 17 minutes in the oven, or even less time in your air fryer.
Once your guests bite into the rolls and find an aromatic, plant-based blend of mushroom and hoisin inside, they’ll never miss the meat.
You can also make your own batch at home right now by grabbing your copy of our Enjoy cookbook. Turn to pages 196-199 for our Vegetable Spring Rolls with Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce recipe.
Whether you enjoy them as a snack, starter or side, these filo-wrapped veggie packages are an utter delight to dip!
Tesco Plant Chef Vegetable Spring Roll Selection are available from Tesco, priced at £3.00 per pack.
Halloween Mac ‘N’ Slime Cheese Bites – 46 calories per bite (ovenbaked)
If you can be brave enough to try these Halloween Mac ‘N’ Slime Cheese Bites, you won’t be disappointed. They’re coated with a crispy, golden layer of breadcrumbs, while the filling is oozing with 3 different cheeses and macaroni pasta.
They’re perfectly simple, crowd-pleasing party food. Pop them in the basket and let your air fryer work its magic!
Nothing puts a smile on our face at this time of year quite like these Halloween Sausage Mummies. They’re just as fun to cook and eat, as they are to look at!
The chipolata ‘mummies’ come wrapped in light puff pastry bandages, giving them a lower calorie yet devilish crunch.
Will you dunk them in ketchup, BBQ sauce or another go-to dip?
Halloween Mac ‘N’ Slime Cheese Bites are available from Iceland, priced at £1.00 per bag.
M&S Spooky Kookie Dough Bites – 128 calories per serving
It’s a tough job trying out tasty treats like M&S Spooky Kookie Dough Bites, but someone’s gotta do it. These salty, fudgy, brownie-like cookie bites are coated in a layer of milk chocolate and white chocolate streaks, so we didn’t enjoy them at all (yes, we are tricking you!).
They’re banging with a cuppa, if you can get your hands on a pack.
While we’re on the subject of boo-tiful treats, we have to mention these adorable Boonanas. Our classic version is vanilla-flavoured, or you can step it up a notch for big kids…
We like to play a ghastly game where we whip up a ‘flavour roulette’ batch – some Boonanas are delicious, and others are less so (think spicy chilli or marmite filled ghosties).
Trust us, it’s a lot of fun if you can handle the chaos!
M&S Spooky Kookie Dough Bites are available from Ocado and M&S, priced at £2.75 per bag.
Dessert Menu Caramelised Biscuit Gateau – 209 calories per 1/8 gateau
This is the showstopper for the end of the night that’ll have everyone talking: Dessert Menu Caramelised Biscuit Gateau. It’s got all the caramelised biscuit deliciousness from your Biscoff dreams, swirled into a mousse-filled vanilla sponge.
You can pick it up from the freezer aisle at Aldi, before everyone else finds out about it!
There’s nothing more impressive than making your own scrumptious dessert for everyone to enjoy! This Halloween Spooky Sponge makes for the perfect scary centrepiece, and the calories aren’t terrifying either…just 75 per slice!
Our light and fluffy vanilla sponge is topped with a sticky-sweet layer of reduced-sugar apricot jam – and creepy-crawly themed decorations, of course.
Dessert Menu Caramelised Biscuit Gateau is available from Aldi, priced at £2.89.
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 extra-special Super 6 offering (where all of the items are specially priced at 69p!), along with some recipe ideas for you
Sweetheart Cabbage – 32 calories per 100g
There are so many delicious ways to cook cabbage. Sweetheart cabbage is milder and sweeter in flavour than green or white cabbage, making it perfect for salads, stir-fries, and soups.
Did you know that you can use cabbage leaves to make a lip-smacking Chinese-style fakeaway side dish? Turn to pages 220-221 of our Comfort Food cookbook to try our spicy and aromatic Stir-fried Savoy Cabbage.
Swede – 38 calories per 100g
As soon as we spot swede in the Super 6 deals, we get the urge to make our Vegetable Coconut Curry. The tender chunks pair so well with the flavours of coconut, chilli and lime! A surprisingly versatile root veg that’s yummy in soups and stews, it’s also great as a side dish mashed-up with carrots, or with potatoes for a comforting gratin.
Garlic – 5 calories per clove
There’s no such thing as too much garlic in our house. While they’re in the Super 6, it’s well worth picking up a bag of bulbs for just 69p. They’ll last nicely as whole bulbs until you’re ready to cook with them.
You can’t have our hugely-popular Bolognese and Garlic Swirl Pie without garlic! You’ll use 4 peeled and crushed cloves in the garlic ‘butter’ for our low-calorie puff pastry swirl pie topping.
Large Flat Mushrooms – 16 calories per 100g
We’re kind of obsessed with the versatility of mushrooms. Flat mushrooms are just as low in calories as their smaller cousins, and they can be chopped into lots of different dishes to bulk them out.
Try chopping them into our velvety Cream of Mushroom Soup for the best rainy day lunch. Thickened with low-fat cream cheese, every spoonful is brimming with punchy garlic, fresh thyme and mushrooms for deep, savoury flavour without all the calories.
Mini Apples – 53 calories per 100g
You’ve got to love a crunchy mini apple. An easy way to give your day a sweet boost (and for only 53 calories), we love to keep them handy to snack on.
They’re also scrummy chopped into fruit salads, baked into warming sweet treats, or as an autumnal porridge topper. Don’t believe us? Try our cinnamon-infused Apple Pie Porridge.
Pears – 58 calories per 100g
These sweet pears are the answer to your mid-afternoon sugar cravings. Juicy and soft, you’ll love snacking on them, or slicing them into a fruit salad.
Seeing pears makes us want to crack out the custard and pour a glug over our crunchy-topped Pear and Ginger Crumble. Better yet, it’s ready in just 30 minutes.
**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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