Life in France: The Healthy Eating Challenge
Since moving to France we’ve fallen into some pretty bad habits food-wise. Think white bread, full-fat cheese, yoghurts, charcuterie, pasta, and so on. On top of that we also had, for a while, an intense relationship with multipacks of chocolatines which, thankfully, we’ve managed to break. Although I’ve not been gaining weight (okay, maybe a little) I had started to feel a bit sluggish – lack of exercise and lack of sleep were also contributing to this feeling of course – but a recent trip to the doctors with a higher than usual blood pressure reading gave me the kick up the bum I needed to take a closer look at our diet.
Another reason to make the change is to save money. Food here is expensive! Whether its because of the crappy exchange rate and because we do generally still think in pounds rather than euros, we’re spending much more than we thought we would on food each week and with two small but growing and occasionally ravenous small people to accommodate, those bills aren’t going to go down unless we change the way we eat.
Before we moved we ate pretty well, combing limited red meat and pork-products with chicken, fish, and meat-free options. Here, possibly due to laziness or two-child-related time-challenges, we were suddenly eating a lot of meat, especially pork, in part because DD can always be persuaded to eat sausages and pasta and sometimes it’s easier just to cook what I know she’ll eat. For one the sausages here are high in fat, low in actual pork, and also pretty salty. Pasta, on the other hand, is cheap as long as you’re buying white pasta. Wholemeal is hard to come by in the supermarkets which means making a trip to one of the specialist Bio (organic) shops and paying through the nose.
So, how to reduce our bills while also improving our diet? Well, there are few different ways. First, I’m reducing our meat intake, totally eliminating our charcuterie intake (except for now and again) and adding more pulses and grains into our diet. This is more akin to the way we used to eat pre child #2 and our house move. I don’t think these things take any more time to prepare but they do need a little more organisation because beans and pulses need to be soaked and also sometimes precooked. Plus to make tasty veggie food you need to have a nice selection of herbs and spices handy. We’re buying in bulk again too – just like we used to – but swapping Sheffield-based Lembas who delivered to Manchester for Internet-based Buy Wholefoods Online* who deliver anywhere within the EU free for orders over £100, which makes them excellent value. So what’s on the menu?
To make sure we’re getting plenty of protein but also cutting back on salt and cash, I’ve replaced ham and pork with chicken so instead of buying anything sliced or processed each week I buy two whole chickens which I roast. We eat hot roast chicken on the day of cooking then save the rest for lunches and dinner through the rest of the week. Then I make bone broth with the carcasses, which usually makes enough for two hearty soups. This week we tried Cock-a-Leekie (made with rice instead of barley), which went down a storm. Other weeks I’ve thrown some carrots, ginger, and peas with pasta or noodles (to soak up the broth to make sure the kids get some of it into them) which is really lovely and gives us an excuse to eat some bread. The chicken gets used through the week as sandwiches or wraps (chicken, avocado and basil is our favourite at the moment) or thrown into stir fries or a curry of some description (green thai is our current favourite.)
I’m still buying and cooking beef, which we cook either cook into a simple bolognese, adding extra vegetables to pad it out into two meals-worth, or I skip the tomatoes and mix it up with carrots, brown lentils and cumin. This is my favourite way to eat it. Adding the lentils works really well, making the meat go further, adding healthy protein, and also soaking up the flavours. James didn’t even know they were there the last time I made it.
As for the grains and pulses, so far we’ve had Aduki Bean Burgers, using a variation of the recipe on Veganuary, which went down well with James but were totally overlooked by the two small people; On-the-Fly Hummus (made from a recipe in my head) served with carrot and cucumber crudites, which is lovely; and – a regular on the scene now – Sweet Potato and Lentil Red Thai Curry, yum!
I’m not organised enough to do any meal planning yet. That tends to happen on a day-by-day basis. I’m sure we’d save a bit more money if I could do that but we rarely waste any food so I think I’m doing okay at meal planning on the fly. The main reason to get on top of this would be to reduce my mental load, as I do spend a fair amount of time staring into cupboards wondering what I can rustle up with the contents.
Of course the other way to save money is by growing your own. From the garden we’ve had tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuces, and radishes, with more to come.
And then there’s foraging; with so much wild, free food around here it would be rude not too. Both of these activities are also way more fun and interesting (for us and the kids) than a trip to the supermarket! I currently have a huge stash of hazelnuts begging to be turned into cocaonut spread and a similar quantity of walnuts, which I plan to make into pesto. Then there’s fruit – we’ve had damsons, grapes, apples and pears so far this year – and currently it’s mushroom season and foraging is no effort at all as there are field, parasol and even chanterelle mushrooms within 10 minutes walk from here so no excuse and what could be better than a freshly-picked mushroom! Yesterday we ate garlic mushroom and leek risotto (again, swapping the rice for barley) for lunch then used to the walnuts to make walnut, basil and feta pesto for dinner. Yummy! I’ll add the recipes for all these things in future posts.
I doubt it’s possible to live off the land without making that a focus and devoting a good amount of time to making it work, but with the right knowledge plus some outdoor space and access to plenty of water (plus the time to work on it) there’s plenty of opportunity for growing all and foraging year-round and reducing our costs while also ensuring we eat good quality organic produce. Since you pay through the nose for that here (I’ve no idea why it’s so expensive!) growing and finding food is undoubtedly the way to go. Lucky for us that’s one of the reasons we wanted to move here!
Despite not having our own land yet, I’m happy that we’re doing the best we can and it’s nice to be eating better again. Already, only a couple of weeks into the healthier eating regime, I feel better: less bloated and more energised. Hopefully that will translate into a lower blood pressure reading the next time I go to the docs rather than a symptom of the peri menopause, as she suggested. Thanks for that, doc!
Do you have any cost-saving tips for feeding a family? Maybe you’ve relocated from the UK to France or elsewhere in Europe and are surprised by the cost of food and have found clever ways to reduce your bills while also eating healthily. I’d love to hear your tips and ideas!
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