7th October - Meals by Mitch

If you're not yet following @MealsByMitch, you need to be. Sure, you have to sit through the quite frankly stomach-churning, disgustingly nauseating, Brummie accent, but the results are (just about) worth it. I first found Mitch's page when casually browsing through TikTok, and after realising that a lot of what he made looked pretty delicious, I started to follow his recipes this week. His idea is simple, that he can show you meals to make, which feed a family of 4, for a total cost of under a fiver. The only slight downside, is that I've recently been eating pretty healthily which means low carb, high protein. Mitch's meals tend to be quite carb-heavy, hence the idea of filling 4 stomachs on a budget. But if portioned correctly, the meals can still serve a real purpose in a calorie controlled daily allowance.

The first thing to add here, is that I'm usually not a fan of 'gimmick' meals or trends. I've never owned a cookbook or similar in my life. Cooking is pretty simple really, and so much of the enjoyment of it comes from your own creativity and originality in the kitchen, so the idea of following someone else's 'rules' has never turned me on. I understand why some enjoy things like 'Hello Fresh', or 'Gousto' (I even tried the latter myself for a little while), but overall, I found it finicky to keep having to refer back to the instructions cards for step-by-step details. Where Mitch differs, is that his videos are fully complete within 60 seconds, and the instructions are minimal and easy to follow without too much faffing/fuss. 

I hopped on over to his page and picked out 5 recipes which I liked the look of (homemade pizza baguettes, cheese and potato pie, fajita wedges, cheese and bacon loaded skins, and Greek koftas in flatbreads). I then jotted down the ingredients for each and headed to my nearest Sainsburys, with my total trolley coming in at under £25, for 5 meals. I was pretty astounded by such value, especially as much of this trolley included 'fresh' ingredients, like peppers, onions, garlic, potatoes, chives, mint, jalapenos, etc, and very few items were 'processed' or 'junk' orientated. Even if just for a week, give it a go, and you'll find yourself pretty amazed, especially during this 'Cost of Living' crisis, just how much it helps, to follow...

... Meals by Mitch.