Monday, 19-03-23: more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Monday again and I've survived the weekend without any mishaps.  I've really enjoyed my meals and I'm looking forward to the week ahead.

Yesterday, the chicken cooked beautifully in Nellie and wasn't at all dry.  Half an hour upside down, air fry on 200 and then pretty much the same again turned over the right way.  I'm definitely doing that again as long as I get small chickens (1.5k or less); the bigger ones won't fit in the drawer.

The remains are in the slow cooker to make stock and I have a pile of meat to use up over the next few days.  I feel a recipe search coming on!

Yesterday's meals:

The savoury waffle was a great success although I tried to take a peek too soon so it sort of stuck to the top plate a bit.  Lesson learned - patience is a virtue!

The stronger the cheese, the better the flavour - next time, I will use hard Italian cheese instead.

It was very, very filling.  I guess it would be with two eggs plus the flour, cheese, bacon . . .  great for a brunch, I think, and baked beans would go really well too instead of toast.

It looks a bit odd, this lunch plate, sort of spaced out when Sunday roasts usually are piled up platefuls but everything was really nice.  I added a bit of cranberry sauce and there were, indeed, leftovers.

(and I removed the skin)

Beth and I were talking so hard about all sorts of things that I totally forgot to ask if she wanted some fruit and she didn't say anything.

A lovely big salad in the evening with some bubble and squeak.
I made it by squashing up leftover veg - potato, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower, adding some onion softened in the microwave, some shreds of chicken, some garlic granules, mustard powder, salt and pepper plus 30g grated hard Italian cheese.

I put some greaseproof paper in a small, six inch cake tin (bought specifically because they fitted in the Ninja trays but not used for cake - yet) and pushed the mixture in so it was nice and flat.

I gave it around twenty minutes on stirfry, 180 and it was delicious.  Very soft but so, so good.  I had half with the salad and there's half left for breakfast today.

Instead of yogurt and, because I missed the fruit I usually have earlier in the day, I had a pear and some easy peelers for dessert.  Very nice!

Today's plans

B:  the other half of the bubble and squeak with either a poached egg or a fried egg, tomatoes and mushrooms

SW:  half a healthy extra A in the bubble and squeak.

L:  tomato and roasted red pepper soup, croutons; fruit

This is really to use up the rest of the canned tomatoes.  It's not terribly creative but I do love this soup, it's flavoursome, filling and such a cheerful colour.  What more could anyone want?
I've made the soup so it just needs warming up at lunchtime.  It makes quite a lot so I will spoon some off to make a chicken and veg pasta bake tomorrow, I think.

I may just possibly add a swirl of Elmlea to the soup, seeing as I have plenty of syns to play with and that's how I like to use syns - to enhance meals rather than as unnecessary snacks.

SW:   the soup itself is syn free, the Elmlea is two and a half syns (per level tbsp) and the croutons will be up to one healthy extra B

D:  leftover chicken hash, veg; yogurt

I have half the chicken left and plenty of veg so I thought I would just spray-fry some onion with the potato and add chicken and grated cheese to make a sort of hash while I just reheat the veg and, if necessary, cook a bit more.

SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese and half a syn for the yogurt

Ex: circuits today.

Summary:

one and a half healthy extra As

up to one healthy extra B

three syns

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 - they 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.