Plan 2026-W39 · Monday 21 – Sunday 27 September 2026
A week of food for Emily
Seven days of food to fuel a full-time dance timetable at about 2,580 kcal a day, from one Aldi shop of about £30. Two or three breakfasts and lunches on rotation, and dinners that take about 20 minutes, cooked each night. Every figure below comes from USDA FoodData Central and the quantities in each recipe.
Against the targets
Weekly average
kcal
Protein
Fibre
Sodium
Potassium
Sat fat
Emily
25912450–2700
146 g≥ 110 g
43 g≥ 30 g
1989 mg—
5228 mg—
26 g—
On fibre. Emily averages 43 g a day, against a floor of 30 g. The floor is the UK recommendation for adults. Emily can eat up to 30 minutes before class without trouble, so there's no special low-fibre day.
Drinks aren't counted. Tea, coffee, juice and anything else to drink sit outside these numbers.
The first week. Every dinner takes about 20 minutes, apart from Sunday's traybake, which spends most of its time in the oven. Monday to Thursday's dinners each make a second portion that goes to college the next day as lunch, so a weeknight's cooking covers two meals. Only Monday's lunch is made in the morning.
On the shop. Chicken thighs, pollock and the mince are the heavy protein this week. When you get home, split the chicken: three fillets in the fridge for Monday, the rest in the freezer in two bags of three, moved down the night before Thursday and Sunday.
Rinse 160 g dry rice and boil it for 10–12 minutes until just tender. Drain it well and spread it out on a plate to steam dry while you do the rest.
Cut the chicken into small pieces. Grate the carrot, slice the spring onions and crush the garlic.
Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a big frying pan or wok over a high heat and fry the chicken for 6–7 minutes until it is cooked through with no pink left. Add the carrot, garlic and frozen peas for 2 minutes.
Push it all to one side, add the last teaspoon of oil, crack in the two eggs and scramble them. Then tip in the rice and the soy sauce and fry everything together, stirring, for 3 minutes. Spring onions in at the end.
Eat half now. Spread the other half in a lunch box and let it cool for 20 minutes at most, then straight in the fridge — rice has to be cooled quickly and kept cold to be safe the next day.
Put three slices of bread in the toaster. Beat three eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Warm the teaspoon of oil in a small non-stick pan over a low heat, add the eggs and stir slowly with a spatula. Take the pan off the heat while they still look slightly wet — they finish cooking on the plate.
Eggs on the toast, the tomato halved beside them. Ten minutes from start to finish.
Monday's box straight from the fridge into the bag. Microwave it at college, lid ajar, for 2–3 minutes, stirring halfway, until it is piping hot all the way through.
Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots and crush the garlic.
Heat the oil in a big pan and brown the mince over a high heat for 5 minutes, breaking it up with a spoon. Add the onion and carrot and cook for 5 minutes more.
Add the garlic and oregano for a minute, then both tins of tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until it is thick.
Meanwhile boil the pasta: tonight's, plus the amount Wednesday's lunch lists, together in one pan. Drain it, and box the lunch share straight away.
Three portions: one tonight, one boxed with the extra pasta for Wednesday's lunch, and one in a box on its own in the freezer for Saturday. Let the boxes cool with the lids off before they go in.
Cut the potatoes into 1 cm cubes, put them in a bowl with a splash of water, cover with a plate and microwave for 6 minutes until just soft. That is the shortcut that keeps this under half an hour.
Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan and fry the potatoes, sliced pepper and onion for 8 minutes until golden. Stir the spinach in until it wilts.
Beat the four eggs with salt and pepper and pour them over. Turn the heat down low and cook for 6 minutes without stirring, until the edges have set.
Grate the cheddar over the top and put the pan under a hot grill, or in the oven at 200C, for 3–4 minutes until the middle is set and the top is golden.
Cut it in half. One half now; the other cooled and boxed for Thursday's lunch — it is good cold, or microwaved for a minute.
Put three slices of bread in the toaster. Beat three eggs with a pinch of salt and pepper.
Warm the teaspoon of oil in a small non-stick pan over a low heat, add the eggs and stir slowly with a spatula. Take the pan off the heat while they still look slightly wet — they finish cooking on the plate.
Eggs on the toast, the tomato halved beside them. Ten minutes from start to finish.
Air-fryer pollock with paprika potato wedges and peas
Per portion
2 pollock fillets240 g
300 g potatoes, skin on
100 g frozen peas
2 tsp oil9 g
1 tsp smoked paprika2.3 g
Method
The pollock goes from the freezer to the fridge on Thursday night, or straight into the air fryer from frozen with 4 minutes added.
Cut the potatoes into wedges, toss them in a teaspoon of the oil with the paprika and a pinch of salt, and air-fry at 200C for 20 minutes, shaking halfway.
Brush the fish with the other teaspoon of oil and season. Add it to the air fryer for the last 10 minutes of the wedges, until it flakes.
Microwave the frozen peas for 3 minutes. Two fillets are a proper Friday dinner after a full week; the other two in the pack stay frozen for next week.
Tip half the tin of beans into a bowl and microwave for 2 minutes, stirring halfway. Put the other half in a lidded box in the fridge — it is Sunday's lunch.
Toast two slices of bread, pile the beans on and grate the cheddar over while they are hot.
Cheddar and sliced tomato between two slices of bread. Cook it in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, pressing down with a spatula, 3 minutes a side until golden and melted.
Microwave the box of bolognese, lid ajar, for 3–4 minutes, stirring halfway, until it is piping hot all the way through. Boil the pasta fresh while it heats.
Pick a big potato, or one and a half small ones. Prick it all over and microwave it for 10–12 minutes, turning once, until it is soft in the middle. If there is time, 10 minutes in the air fryer at 200C after that crisps the skin.
Microwave the half tin of beans from Saturday for 2 minutes, split the potato, pile the beans in and grate the cheddar over.
Paprika chicken traybake with potatoes, carrots and pepper
Per portion
3 chicken thigh fillets300 g
350 g potatoes, skin on
2 carrots160 g
1 red pepper160 g
2 tsp oil9 g
1 tsp smoked paprika2.3 g
Method
Oven to 200C fan. Cut the potatoes into chunks and the carrots into thick slices, toss them with half the oil, the paprika and some salt and pepper on a tray, and roast for 20 minutes.
Add the chicken and the sliced pepper, tossed in the rest of the oil, and roast for 25 minutes more, until the chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are crisp.
It needs you for ten minutes and the oven does the rest — Sunday evening, before the new week.
Quantities are what the week actually uses, summed from every portion of every meal, then converted into what you would put in a trolley. One shop a week, carried home, so tins and big bottles are kept to what the week needs. There's one fridge shelf and one freezer drawer in a shared kitchen, so anything eaten after Wednesday that won't keep goes in the freezer as soon as it's home. Tick as you go — the ticks are remembered on this device until you clear them.
Fruit and veg
the week uses 9 bananas
the week uses 4 apples
the week uses 1½ baking potatoes
the week uses 2½ onions
the week uses 2 red peppers
the week uses 1 bag of baby spinach
the week uses 3 spring onions
the week uses 6 cloves
Chilled
the week uses 1.1 kg
about 2 pints per litre
the week uses 12 medium eggs
a small block is plenty
Fish and meat
Freezer
Cupboard
no added salt · the week uses 1.2 kg
the week uses 24 slices of wholemeal bread
dry weight — it roughly two-and-a-half-times when cooked
the week uses 420 g
sold in boxes of 24 · the week uses 12 wheat biscuits
the week uses about 2 tbsp
the week uses about 1 tbsp
the week uses 2 tsp
the week uses 2 tsp
Store cupboard items — oil, spices, pastes and nut butters — are listed as one jar or bottle each. Check what you already have before the shop rather than buying seven of them.
Where the numbers come from
Generic ingredients resolve to a pinned USDA FoodData Central id (SR Legacy and Foundation Foods, downloaded in full rather than queried, so the figures are reproducible offline). Pulses use the no-added-salt or cooked-without-salt entries, which is what a rinsed UK tin actually gives you. A handful of items are not in FoodData Central and carry label-sourced figures instead — worth checking against your own packs:
Sodium figures assume no salt is added at the table or in cooking.