Well, yesterday's lunch might have lacked 'coherence' but it was OK and jolly filling! I do like a nice boiled egg!
I did rice to go with the potato and chickpea curry. I'm allowed such a small amount, I wouldn't have bothered, if Beth hadn't been round for dinner. I cooked loads and now, as well as what we had for dinner, I now have six pots of double portion rice (I'm allowed two carb portions for dinner but yesterday there was one portion already in the curry), quickly cooled and straight in the freezer. That will save me time and trouble another day.
The curry was OK. I did add a bit more veg but it was spinach and I don't think that's going to sabotage anything much and I tossed in a small amount of lentils to make a flavoursome and thicker sauce. It could have done with a good dollop of mango chutney, some coconut milk and more veg but there you go, it was OK so I'm more fortunate than nine tenths of the world's population (I think that's right) in having hot, nourishing food and enough of it so I won't whinge too much.
Today's plans are:
B: 30g muesli with milk and natural yogurt. I like this and it is plenty
L: I'm going round to a friends and she's doing tuna and salad. That should work OK.
D: I'm still doing pasta bake but instead of mince, I'm using chicken because I (deliberately) cooked more than was needed yesterday. Instead of the grated cheese, I will use some soft cheese as the dairy portion. That's nice with pasta. So the chicken is the one portion of protein, a bit of onion, pepper and mushroom is the veg portion, the cheese with a splash of the pasta water is the dairy portion and pasta is the double carb. Again, I might also throw in just a few spinach leaves which should make no difference to the effects of this diet.
Ss: apple and orange
From the freezer
Just the chicken - and I got that out yesterday.
The frugal factor
The muesli is a gift - my dad keeps me supplied as he gets a delicious (and expensive) kind online and orders more to keep the postage cost down - that's his excuse, bless him.
I'm not paying for lunch but, of course, I will take over some flowers and something nice as a thank you so no frugality there
The pasta bake will be reasonable. If it was a chickpea bake it would be even better, but it isn't! Pasta is cheap, there's precious little veg involved and the cheese will be Savers.
Getting there!!!
Explanation:
I have to have my gallbladder out and have been put on a short term 'liver shrinking diet' by Dr C. So, for the next three or four weeks, my plans/food intake need to:
conform to the rules of the diet
be frugal
use up stuff from freezer and cupboard
Well done Joy, these diets are really making us think out of the box aren't they?!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sooze. Yes, they are, and a very good thing it is too. :-)
ReplyDeleteJ x
Please can you tell me which rice you cook and how you cool it down, then fridge and freezer it, also how you reheat when you need it? I'm currently buying the frozen rice packs as I love rice but I know there's something you need to be careful of when cooking and cooling/reheating. I've looked on online but it all seems confusing, easier to ask someone who's doing/done it, and lived to tell the tale! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHi. It's just ordinary basmati rice (I love basmati) from the supermarket. I wash it, semi steam it in salted water and then rinse it first in boiling water to take off the rest of the starch and then in cold to cool it. Drain it well, pop it into individual serving pots and freeze.
DeleteBy semi steam, I mean the water bubbles up just enough to touch the rice but I think plain old boiling would be fine too. The nice thing about basmati is that it doesn't seem to 'mush' like other rice.
When reheating it depends what I want it for. I let it thaw (doesn't take long) and add it to the dish or re-heat to piping hot in the microwave like bagged rice, depending on what's needed.
I know they say you have to be careful but I've never had any issues doing it this way (or keeping rice overnight in my fridge).
Hope this helps
J x
Thanks for that, I'll give it a try, will be a nice little moneysaver as I use the frozen rice a lot.
Delete