Sunday, 19-03-23; more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Yesterday's meals:

Well, the breakfast plans changed, thanks to the weather.  It rained and rained and rained so no walk.  I had my banana before SET and then, because there was no walk, I went for a half portion of pancakes, to see how many I could make with 20g flour.  Well, that's my excuse - I suspect that really it was because I wanted to and had the time!  

Anyway, they turned out a very odd shape but tasted great and I had half a healthy extra B after all.

For lunch, I just spray stir fried the last of a bag of frozen stir fry vegetables and then added yesterday's leftovers to them to heat up.  Very nice and very filling - and packed with speed veg.

Later on, I had an orange.

For the chilli con carne, I heated up and reduced down a third of a can of chopped tomatoes, added chilli flakes, garlic granules, some mixed beans and a portion of basic savoury mince and let it all bubble down to a nice thick consistency.  I reheated the rice in the microwave (carefully!).

I added a dollop of yogurt because it was quite spicy and sprinkled 20g grated cheese over it all.

Really tasty.

I now need to find a way of using two thirds of a can of chopped tomatoes!  Soup, probably!

Today's plans

B:  pancakes/waffle, bacon, egg and tomatoes

I usually have sweet pancakes but today I fancy savoury pancakes (or a waffle) instead.  It's the same recipe but instead of sweetener/skinny syrup, I will add some chopped chives (from the garden - they are coming up again) and 15g finely grated cheese.  

SW:  20g wholemeal SR is half a B choice (in my own version of SW it is anyway) and 15g cheese is half a healthy extra A.  The rest will be speed/free/protein

L:  roast chicken dinner; fruit

Beth and Alex are round and I have a small chicken to roast and this time I am going to use Nellie to roast it.  Fingers crossed but everyone says it makes a lovely roast.  I gather you do it upside down to start with and then turn it over half way through.
With it, I will do some roast potatoes and some new potatoes because I can and I fancy new while I know Alex will want roast and plenty of lovely speed veg like sprouts, broccoli, cauli and carrots, all steamed on the hob.
I will probably also make some cranberry sauce too, synning any sugar I use but not the cranberries (because I don't!)

I dearly love a roast chicken because of leftovers and lovely stock from the carcass.  I got a small one this time so there won't be loads, not after Alex has finished with it.

SW:  I think the only thing that will need synning is the cranberry sauce so let's call it two syns.

D:  bubble and squeak and salad

I am anticipating for, and planning in, leftovers from lunch so I can make some bubble and squeak patties for dinner - lovely!  I might add some grated cheese for extra flavour.  A salad with them and brown sauce over them should be just perfect!

SW:  one syn for brown sauce and one syn for salad cream - that's an estimation but should be close enough. If I add cheese, that will be a healthy extra A.  Also half a syn for yogurt.

Ex:  a rest day so just whatever stretch things Lindsey does for Snippets.

Summary:

one or maybe two healthy extra As

half a healthy extra B

four 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.