Good morning, everyone.
The low/no spend seems to be going pretty well. I'm running low on a few fresh items but will try to hold out until the weekend or even next Monday. I'm learning (or should I say re-learning) quite a lot about myself. For instance, how strong the urge is to 'get some more', even when really there's plenty still in cupboard or fridge. How much I wonder if I am 'missing out' because I'm not seeing what's new in.
Ridiculous!!
Yesterday's meals:
A rather messy plate of fruit but how I enjoyed it.
The cassoulet leftovers were also tasty and very warming on such a chilly day.
This looks a right mess. It was, in fact the home made salmon and ricotta ravioli and, while it looked awful, it tasted amazing. The photo looks so messy that I looked up photos on Google Images and decided that it's rather hard to make a plate of ravioli look nice unless it's one of those big cheffy ones with stuff arranged over it - and even then . . .
Mind you - making bigger ones isn't such a bad idea . . . less fiddly, for a start
I used 100g pasta flour and one egg plus a bit of oil - and Thermione and it made enough pasta for nine ravioli and one portion of hand cut (ooooh, posh) tagliatelle.
The filling was 90g ricotta (a healthy extra A and not as much as it sounds) plus one smoked salmon fillet which I cooked in Nellie, cooled and finely flaked. I mixed the ricotta and the salmon together, seasoned with black pepper, lemon zest and nutmeg and that was it. I think it did need some salt too but I thought the smoked salmon might be salty enough really
I had five ravioli for dinner (plenty, absolutely loads) and the other four are in the freezer as a bit of an experiment - must remember to write 'cook from frozen' on the bag!
I really meant to save a bit of the cassoulet sauce to put on the ravioli but totally forgot so I just melted some Philly in a splash of the pasta cooking water with black pepper and lemon zest and it was fine.
I had no room left for dessert.
Today's plans:
B: fruit and yogurt
Because I have loads and it's really nice.
SW: syn free
L: chicken in Kashmiri sauce, pitta; fruit
The Kashmiri sauce is leftovers from a takeaway ages ago. It was so nice, even though only the sauce was left, I froze it. Goodness only knows what the syns are; I've looked it up and I think I'm looking at around nine syns for an average portion. I seem to remember it had exotic fruit added - lychees and the like - and chicken. I have mango and pineapple in the freezer so that will do for the fruit.
I won't cook rice but I will use a pitta as a sub for a naan (which I don't have and which would be Very Naughty!
SW: I am calling it a nice, round ten syns for the sauce and whatever I add to it will be free. The pitta is my healthy extra B
D: bacon and mushroom carbonara, side salad; yogurt
OK, so I am going to use up the home made tagliatelle that's been drying off overnight and make a carbonara. The sauce will be beaten egg and grated not-parmesan Italian cheese and I might also add a dash of crème fraiche.
So . . .
Gently spray fry some finely sliced onion until soft. Remove from pan.
Spray fry some cut up lean bacon and some sliced mushrooms. Add the onion to the pan and keep over a very low heat.
Cook the pasta in plenty of salted water until done (if using dried pasta, start this before to do the above as it takes longer to cook.
While the pasta is cooking, mix together one not too big egg and 30g of whatever Italian hard cheese you want to use and season.
Drain the cooked pasta, reserving a bit of the cooking water. Tip the pasta back in the pan and pour over the sauce, stirring all the time. Hold it over the ring and keep stirring until it thickens - add a splash of pasta water if needed.
Stir in the bacon, mushroom and onion, taste, season and grate over some black pepper (or nutmeg might be nice) and some lemon zest.
Serve immediately with a side salad.
Well, that is the general idea anyway!
SW: one healthy extra A for the cheese, one syn for a tbsp crème fraiche and half a syn for yogurt
E: a Snippet first thing and Personal Training later on
Summary:
one healthy extra A
one healthy extra B
estimated eleven and a half syns
What is low spend, no spend?
All I will buy through January is essentials - and by that I mean food such as fresh fruit, veg and dairy/eggs. All other foods will come out of my existing supplies and, to be honest, that may not be much of a challenge. Also included in any low spend essentials are cleaning products and toiletries although I think I am fine for the latter.
Also anything else essential that I won't think of until it lands!
That is the low spend part.
Everything else, unless it is either a regular bill/payment/commitment, will not happen. No sneaky little Amazon purchases, no 'bargains' from the supermarket, certainly no clothes . . .
That's the no spend part.
No comments:
Post a Comment