Monday, 20-02-23: low spend February

Morning, everyone!

I was so impressed with the peshawari style baked chicken recipe that yesterday I set to and made a batch of the sauce - just the sauce, without the chicken or the red peppers.  It made five good portions which I can use with chicken (raw or cooked) or with other protein such as chick peas, turkey, etc, and they are all a bit of a healthy extra A plus either half a B and two syns or five syns (the half B is for the ground almonds).

On to a new week and I'm planning lovely meals (lovely to me anyway) that use up my stash and work with the Slimming World plan.  It seems to be endless, my stash, but at this time I can only be thankful.  At some point, I will run out and have bigger shopping lists again, but for now it is saving me money and giving me great satisfaction so no complaints.

Yesterday's meals:

Breakfast.

I added a Dairylea light cheese slice to the omelette before adding the bacon and mushrooms and it was yummy.  It was a third of an A so I can adjust the cheese for dinner accordingly.

The fruity pork was really lovely.  The sauce boiled down to a thick and sticky consistency which went perfectly with the apple and the onion.  It would be nice with gammon too, I think, or chicken or a turkey steak.

I had a few grapes for afters.

Dinner was good old toasties (made with hm bread so even nicer than usual) with a salad and it finished off a good day's food really nicely.  No room for anything else so that was that for the day.  xx

Today's plans

B:  fruit and yogurt

SW:  I plan to use 0% yogurt so that will be syn free.

L:  stuffed red peppers, leftover veg, maybe salad if needed; fruit

I plan to use one of the portions of Mexican rice one-pot to stuff two pepper halves and top with some grated cheese or, maybe, some crumbled feta (because you get more cheese for your healthy extra!)

I might make the stuffed pepper last two days (as there will be two halves) but I will see how hungry I feel after circuits.

SW:  three syns for the one-pot and half a healthy extra A for the feta

D:  cheesy chicken burger, salad, chips; yogurt

I will make the burger with 100g chicken mince (or turkey mince, whichever comes to hand first) and mix it with a red onion and rosemary sausage and some wholemeal breadcrumbs plus seasoning as needed.  The sausage lightens up the texture and tastes really good as part of a burger.

I will add one processed cheese slice and build up the burger with salad, red onion, cucumber and tomatoes.

SW:  a healthy extra B for a wholemeal something - a roll or maybe a protein thin. half a healthy extra A for the cheese slice  and I might make the chips with a tsp oil for two syns.  Half a syn for a yogurt.

Ex:   circuits starts again now half term is over and I must do a garden jog as I didn't do one yesterday.  I'm staying on week 1 of C25K for a few more sessions before moving on to week 2.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

six and a half syns, more if I have yogurt

What do I mean by low spend?

February is a low spend month.

Through January, I spent very little on non essential food and other items.  The idea was to spend nothing on non food things and I didn't quite achieve that but I was happy with how it went, all the same.
I was so pleased to be able to make some charitable donations as a result; it's so nice to see positive outcomes.

'Essential' means  food such as fresh fruit, veg and dairy/eggs and other essentials including things like cleaning products and toiletries although I think I am fine for the latter, plus anything necessary that comes up through the month

As for all other spending, there are a few items I need but not an awful lot so I'm really hoping it will also be low spend.

(Of course, all regular bills, direct debits, etc, will still be paid as usual)