healthy food Archives - the whole food diary

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thewholefooddiary

📍West Sussex, UK
Learning to live gently, mindfully + healthily, on a budget, as a family 🌎
kezianeusch@gmail.com
Also: @whole.beauty @kezialouise

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Keep. It. Super. Simple. 😘 One of the ways we stay all organic and plastic free on a smaller budget is keeping food SIMPLE. We eat a lot of the same veggies on repeat cos they’re the ones I can get in my budget, package free ad organic. People often ask me “why do you eat that so much?” Or “don’t you get bored?” But keeping it simple is what works for us. It saves time, it saves money (so much money) and it lets us shop with the values we want. And we make fun sweet treats for sure but still with the ingredients that fit our way of shopping and budget and we always make not buy.
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But by buying things dry, as ingredients not products, by shopping the lower priced items and options and eating a level of seasonally - we can have it all. Or all that we want anyway. I think Instagram and even food shows and advertising can make us think we need fancy, but really we’re about the first generation that’s had access to such a range of foods, it might seem crazy to some people that I’ve bought 4 avocados in 7 months but avocados only came to the UK in the 60s.... and packaged pre made food has a similar story. I’m all for avocados (and packaged food too if that’s what you need and have available) but I’m also ALL for people breaking out of what they think they should be eating based on advertising and social media. We don’t get bored with our food, we eat a lot of beans and pulses, oatmeal’s and oats, spelt flour bread, cabbage, carrots, apples, eggs... and we feel SUPER lucky to have a budget for food. It doesn’t feel like a narrow range of foods to us and we love it. And we REALLY believe in the values we’ve set for shopping so when there’s something we can’t get package free or fairtrade or to our shopping values there’s no contest for us. Oh and we never stress out about our budget cos we hit it every time and feel powerful cos we could spend less if we wanted to cos we know what matters to us! This isn’t a bragging post about ‘look at us we stick to our budget’ (though that took work!) but an encouragement to say it’s ok to go simple to stick to what matters to you! ❤️ What defines the way you shop or what do you want to define it?

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Double tap if you need a VEGGIE CROQUE MONSIEUR (to save food waste!) 🍞 🥕.
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I made this on a whim cos I had leftover cauliflower leaves and stalks and parsnips my kids don’t love... and it was GOOD. It also revives older dry bread so it’s a great food waste win. Plus all the veggies were wolfed down in a snuggly confronting cheesy melty lunch of happiness. .
And then we did it again today. Highly recommend. So here’s a simple recipe for you:
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RECIPE
3-4 cups shredded veggies
3T Oil or butter
2T Oat/spelt/wheat flour
1 cup~ Milk (dairy or non)
Salt
3oz Cheese
3 largest slices Bread

Melt 1T oil in a skillet and add all the shredded (just on a grater) veggies. I used the ends of cauliflower, broccoli, some parsnip, carrot, onion, garlic anything you have. When it’s about halved in volume and is starting to brown, toss in another 1-2T oil to coat the veggies then 2T flour and mix it in well. Lower the heat and then slowly add the milk mixing really well. Keep adding and stirring over a low-medium heat till all (+ more if needed) the milk is added and you have a thick creamy veggie sauce. Salt well to taste. Toast the bread lightly then spread the veggie sauce over the bread and cover with the cheese. I used large homemade @dovesfarm spelt bread slices so it would be about double for shop bought sandwich style bread and it could I stretch too but I putt a good layer on. Then pop it under the grill/broiler for a couple of minutes until bubbly and browning. It. Is. So. Good. Serve it up! 👌🏼

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We’ve got a sunny ☀️ English Tuesday on our hands, what do we even do with that?! And a nap time coffee that doesn’t taste *quite* like this one 👆🏼but we’re rolling with the best compostable packaging, fairtrade, organic one we can find and I’m ALL about choosing those things first over the perfect taste. What’s your top priority for coffee?! 🌎 .
I’m also about holding onto allllll the goodness of our 24 hours away this past weekend, taking those moments out is SO needed and good for the soul, our relationship, my parenting 😆 and I’m going to say the kids love it too! .
Now I’m gearing up for a FULL 10 days, writing writing writing to finish a manuscript (11k/20k done 💪🏼), getting our garden going 🌱 , a quick trip to London, and then leaving (solo!) for San Francisco next week. .
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What’s coming up in your world?! And are you pancaking today?! See my stories for a quick blender recipe to screenshot for breakfast lunch or dinner any day of the year, no one needs to wait for pancake day right?! 😏

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OATMEAL COOKIE FREEZER BARS 🍪 The whole batch (16ish) is sweetened with just 2T molasses which I love for all the goodness in it + some optional raisins, the chocolate on top is sans sweetener and we love it like that. They’re a tiny bit addictive. You’re welcome. 😉 .
I’m all for a sweet treat with lots of sugar sometimes and I love every bite (see: yesterday 😆) but for every day we found we just don’t need lots of sugar to get a real treat feeling that, lets be real, we love and ant basically every day 😋😏 Sometimes I chop them and just have a bite of one if I just need a little fix... sometimes I eat three 🙌🏼 (Recipe: #thewholetreatebook and needs no baking 👌🏼 which the 25% off code BIRTHDAYMONTH is still live for.)
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AAAAND: 💃🏻 check my stories for today’s final birthday week giveaway and come back and comment with your answer to enter! ❤️ *CLOSED*

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👆🏼Just a really relaxed and happy mum + dad after a surprise getaway.👌🏼Jared booked hands down best @airbnb we’ve ever stayed in (based on last night we vote @airbnb.plus is definitely worth it - it also wasn’t that pricey he tells me 🤷🏻‍♀️), walked a windy 2 miles and back to a FAB dinner at @theset_restaurant - chicken liver mousse and granola are a great combo, who knew?! And a bottomless coffee and pastries situation after waking up naturally without the wonderful alarm clock ⏰ of kids. Best. Thing. Ever. And now we’re back snuggling our little alarm clocks, and it’s all the best. Thanks to my parents and brother for letting us go. 🥰 #twfdgoestobrighton

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Time to give something away that I’m in love with. ❤️ Grocery budgeting isn’t sexy, but having it be the worst moments of your marriage for way too long is extra not sexy. In 5 years on the gram and in the foodie online space the number ONE complaint I heard from people way above anything else was how to shop within their budget. So after we learned to ace our own budget and help other people do it too, I started to talk about how we did it, without kids, with kids, eating meat and not, shopping in a small town, big city, buying plastic and going plastic free... and all coming in every month below the lowest USDA figures for spending on our household size. It took WORK to learn how, and it took some sacrifices but it’s the best thing we’ve learned to do consistently and brought us SO much peace. .
To put all the tricks and tips and practices and learning in one place we created a PACKED course last year for people who really wanted to dive in, so some work... but come out acing their own budget for their own way of life. And for my birthday month I’ve opened up two free spots for two of you to get the whole course FREE ✨ you can see all the lessons at grocerybudgetboss.com .
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To enter, post in your stories (this photo or your own video) saying why you would want to win the course and tag me! And I’ll pick two winners tomorrow 🙌🏼 and tag anyone who you think should enter too!

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