Week Five Meal Planner – Brie, Chicken and Eggs

Something a bit different this time. This plan is an extended version (2 more days added) of a Live Below the Line 2014 plan I did for ActionAid. It looked quite nice, so I thought I would add it to our meal plan list. It is harder to do £1 a day for one person because of the restriction of buying whole packets of things. If you need to budget at this level, you will be very well aware of that!

This is our Fifth Meal Plan. As for all the others, it shows 3 meals a day, plus some cakey extras to fill any gaps, for 7 days, but this time, it is for 1 adult, not 2 as previously. Easily adapted to two or more by multiplying the shopping list. The same caveat applies to change the meals around to suit yourself, combine the shopping list of ingredients in any other way that suits you, add extra ingredients that you may have, just use one of the recipes, leave out anything you don’t like or need or change anything else that you see fit.

The calories this time don’t quite make the 2000 a day, it adds up to an average of 1810 a day. If you need more than this, you may need to add a couple of hundred more. If you have milk in tea/coffee, you may well be having 200 more anyway. Only you know what you need, I will leave this part of it to you to adjust. Many of the recipes are freezeable, so if you have the facilities, you could freeze the extra, or carry the ingredients forward to the following week.

If you do use anything from here, I would love it if you let me know how you get on.

The basket is priced from Aldi using Aldi.com as at June 2024

Loaf, 22 slices, 45p
Flour 1.5kg 70p
value Jam 39p
10 eggs £1.79
Brie 200g, £1.69
Spread, Beautifully Buttery 500g 95p, only use 250g
1kg carrots 65p
1kg onions 99p
Roosters crispy chicken steaks, 380g, 4 pack, £1.69
Total £9.30

All the pancakes use the method as for the Breakfast Pancakes, so they are thick, drop scone, type ones, not flat, crepe ones. Although of course, if that is what you prefer, do crepes

Use the spread on the bread and for cooking the pancakes, flatbread and nan.

Breakfast
1 day – 3 toast, 2 eggs. Cook the eggs any way you like, and use the bread as a sandwich, dippy soldiers or toast
2 days – Pancakes, jam. Make pancakes as for the Breakfast Pancakes. Use as much flour as you like, there is plenty for the week. 100g makes 3 large pancakes.
2 days – 3 toast, 25g Brie, 1 egg. Do a poached egg on toast with sliced Brie, or make a sandwich, or toast the sandwich.
2 days – Pancakes, half a chicken fillet. Pancakes as above

Lunch
1 day – Soup of 200g carrots, 200g onions, dumplings
2 days – 3 toast, 2 eggs, on toast, as a sandwich
2 days – 3 scones, 50g Brie
2 days – half a chicken fillet,  in a sandwich

Dinner
Using your flour, use 1 set of the ingredients and pair it with….
1. a 100g flatbread 
2. a Nan – prep it in the morning, or even the previous evening, and leave, covered, until you need it
3. Plain Pancakes
4. Or make pasta with the flour, maybe using 1 of the eggs. Can be kept in the fridge for a few days. For the pasta, mix flour with water, or egg + water if you need it, to make a firm dough. Knead for a few minutes. Roll out to the thickness of a credit card. Cut into lasagna sized sheets, tagliatelli strips or anything else you want and drop into boiling water for just a minute or two. Drain well and serve immediately with your ingredients
5. Dumplings – mix flour with water to make a dough. Break off walnut sized pieces and drop into boiling water for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy looking.
You can use as much of the flour as you  like, to fill you up. There is plenty available in this week

1 day – Roasted 200g onions, 200g carrots
2 days – 1 egg, 50g Brie, 100g onion
2 days – 200g onion, caramelised by cooking long and very slow, with 200g carrots, grated and sauted
2 days – plain pancakes, a chicken fillet, 100g carrots, 50g onion. Sauté veg.  Pile on top of pancake

If using pasta, do a Carbonara type dish on the days using egg, Brie and onion. Fry the onion. Cook the pasta. Beat the egg. Chop the Brie up small. Drain the pasta and add the onion and Brie. Stir briefly, add the egg. Stir again. The residual heat from the pasta will cook the egg.

Snacks
Scones and jam, use 250g flour, 100g spread to make the scones. Make once and freeze until you need one.
Pancakes and jam
Toast and jam, half the loaf is used in the week, so half available here

As usual, use these Cakes and Bakes at any point during the week when you need them, as an extra at lunch, a pudding after dinner, for supper, or any other hungry moment. Or if you don’t need this many calories, healthwise, these would be the best things to leave out.

Nutrition. If you eat everything on the shopping list, and nothing else, you will have…
A total of 12671 Cals /1810 per day,   Protein 13.36% (govt recommends 10-35%),  Carb 57% (govt recommends 45-65%),  Fat 27% (govt recommends 20-35%), Fibre 20g per day
Fruit and veg portions are a little light on this plan at 13 orange and 13 white, 3.7 portions a day, 1.3 short of the 5 a Day. If you can afford 1 piece of fruit a day, you will bump it up enough. Apples are usually the cheapest. If you have access to a market, you may be able to get cheaper fruit and veg, maybe even some free stuff at the end of the day. Or in the summer, barter with a gardening neighbour, or you may even have access to grow some yourself

Depending on your height, weight, gender and activity, this may or may not be enough calories for you. Please use your own judgement if following this plan