Friday, 10-03-23: more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Today I'm possibly going down the calorie route, the reason being that I'm lunching out at Prezzo with my grandson, Alex.  The calories are all on the menu nowadays and, while they might not be 100% accurate, it's an indication.

Having said that, to be fair to SW, there are a huge number of the Prezzo meals on their food data base, giving syns - mostly horrendous but there are some that would work with Slimming World.  I'm especially pleased to see that one scoop of raspberry sorbet is just half a syn - I love sorbet.

So - we will see.  No excuse to go bonkers though!

It is weigh day too, fortunately before Prezzo, not afterwards!

Yesterday's meals:

The eggy bread was lovely - one egg, some sweetener and some iced cinnamon bun skinny syrup.

There are so many lovely breakfasts you can have on SW.

325 calories

I cooked some frozen peas to add some green to the peanut butter chicken pasta and it worked really well.  Must remember that one.

Afterwards, I had an easy peeler.

371 calories

The cheesy topped chicken went really well.  I hammered out the sizzler and cooked it in a pan with a bit of spray oil.  The cheese mix was basically grated cheese, an egg yolk, some Henderson's, some seasonings and I decided to add a tbsp of Elmlea double which added two and a half syns and made the mixture a but sloppy but it tasted great.  I didn't want anything more so skipped the yogurt.

566 calories

Total for the day:  1,262 calories - that's better!!

Today's plans

B:  fruit

Keeping it low because of lunch.
SW:  syn free

L:  eating out at Prezzo with Alex

I've looked at the menu and there's a nice selection between 600 and 800 calories so that's good.  I quite fancy the penne arrabbiata with chicken and, maybe, the raspberry sorbet, as mentioned at the top.  I am sure Alex will go for a pizza.

SW:  if I have the penne arrabbiata, it is four and a half syns and I will count the chicken as free although I don't really know how it is cooked.  Two scoops of sorbet will be one syn.

D:  cheesy beans on toast; yogurt

I'll want something in the evening and, as I have some baked beans in the fridge to use yp, why not have them with toast - filling, satisfying and very SW friendly.
SW:  one A and one B plus half a syn.

Ex:  walking around town.

Summary:

one healthy extra A

one healthy extra B

possibly as low as six syns (so I could have some olives too!

What do I mean by low spend?

At the beginning of this year, as part of a de-cluttering thing, I did a detailed audit of all the food I had in cupboards, fridge and freezer and was somewhat horrified at how much stuff I had.
So I determined to make a huge effort to reduce it down and use it up with minimal waste.

January and February were no spend and low spend months respectively.  March is going to be another low spend month with just a few exceptions and, of course, all the essentials.  It has got to work with Slimming World.

'Essential' means  food such as fresh fruit, veg and dairy/eggs and other essentials including things like cleaning products and toiletries as needed.  A few other things will come up through the month but generally it is just real essentials as I see 'essential'.
Of course, all regular bills, direct debits, etc, will still be paid as usual - hey are essential.

It's really helping in these difficult times.  I am still able to save a wodge of my income (which is all pensions now) as I have done since I retired, plus a bit more.  After all, at some point, I will have to start replacing things - just not yet.