Tuesday, 21 February 2023

Tuesday, 21-02-23: low spend February

 Morning, everyone!

Yesterday's meals:

A nice, colourful breakfast.  I didn't have any yogurt with it.

It's a bit hard to see the pepper halves that have been stuffed in his photo but they were there.  As expected, I only had room for half so the other half is now in a small bowl, covered and in the fridge and I will reheat it for lunch today.
The drizzle is a bit of salad cream, about half a syn's worth per half pepper.

Having half reduced the healthy extra and syns, of course, but I'm not fussed about that in the slightest.  Nor am I funned about synning the salad cream as I think one cancels out the other.

The burgers look like a pair of googly eyes, don't they.
OK - so I made the burgers with 100g turkey mince, one red onion and rosemary sausage, some softened chopped leek and some crumbled feta, all mixed together and shaped.  It made two burgers so I decided to forego the roll (I was having chips anyway and double carb isn't a great idea) so I just put a slice of processed cheese over each burger and topped them with some onion chutney.
They were lovely.
As usual, I was stuffed and had no room for any dessert.
So that was yesterday!
Today's plans

B:  Pancakes with fruit and yogurt
Today is Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday so, of course, I HAVE to have pancakes.  I've planned fruit and yogurt but I might have that on the side and have lemon juice and sweetener (not sugar, I'm not that decadent!) as well because that's what we always had when I was a child.  
I will be using wholemeal SR flour for the pancakes and I have already explained why I am happy to count it as a healthy extra B in a previous post but, in short, it is higher in fibre than 40g oats, has fewer calories and Bs are all about the fibre you get for your calories.
SW also now says that you should syn if you have one tbsp or more of sweetener - I don't bother.  it is so rare and I am always so well below syns that it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference!
(Sometimes, I can be a bit of a SW rebel)
SW:  one healthy extra B for flour, a bit of healthy extra A for some coconut milk and half a syn for yogurt.  

L:  stuffed pepper and salad
Leftovers from yesterday . . .
I think I will add some grated cheese to the stuffed pepper half to counteract any dryness
SW:  one healthy extra A, one and a half syns for the Mexican pork one-pot filling and half a syn for the salad cream I added yesterday - I don't think it is really that but let's be safe.

D:  steak, chips, salad; yogurt
I will make sweet potato chips as I have a sweet potato that really does need using up soon and I had potato chips yesterday.
I'll make a mushroom sauce for the steak, using a bit of Elmlea.
SW:  two and a half syns for a level tbsp Elmlea, half a syn for yogurt (I often don't have the yogurt because I am full, but safer to include it in.

Ex:   Groove class (so nice to be back at classes again) and C25K

Summary:
up to two healthy extra As
one healthy extra B
five and a half syns

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)


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