Thursday, 22-03-23: more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Yesterday's meals:

A nice, simple breakfast.  Adding a few mixed seeds to a loaf really does make it delicious.

Later, I had a nectarine.

The first of the new 'use up the chicken' recipes.  It was nice and, as an idea, it was good but . . .

way too much vermicelli,

a bit too much Chinese five spice and

I don't think the cornflour was needed at all.

It would have made a lovely soup, had there been fewer carbs and the stock wasn't so gloopy and that's what I will aim for.

The other thing was my fault and that was that I did it in Thermione and, even though I used reverse spin on 'spoon', the chicken got bashed to shreds.  Next time, add the chicken right at the end!

I enjoyed it though.

After all the lunchtime carbs, I decided to cut the spaghetti for dinner.
The meatballs were very nice but I think the ones I make are nicer, to be honest.  Adding some chopped olives and capers was genius and I'll be doing that again.
I jazzed up the sauce with sugar snaps, peppers and mushrooms and it all want down a treat.

It actually made six balls and I only wanted four so what can I do with the other two?  Probably slice them up and have them in a pitta with some cheese and salad.  But not today!  Maybe tomorrow.

I finished off with the last nectarine as it really needed using up.

Today's plans

B:  fruit platter

. . . with a banana or apple before SET class

SW:  speed and free, no syns

L:  I'm eating out, most likely at a local garden centre.
It was my friend Chris' birthday a couple of weeks ago and mine in April so this is a kind of joint jolly.

I've looked at the menu and it's all very lunchy with things like paninis, jacket potatoes, etc, so I have to make a decision.  Unfortunately, there are no calories on the online menu so fingers crossed there will be on the real one.

SW:  unknown

D:  peshwari chicken and veg, more veg; yogurt

You may remember that, a short while ago, I made some peshwari sauce for the freezer.  This is one of those portions.  To it, I will add some sliced chicken and some veg, a multitude of veg . . . yummy.

SW:  on the container it says (I wrote) a bit of an A, half a B and two syns.  Also half a syn for the yogurt

Ex:   SET class online

Summary:

a bit of a healthy extra A

half a healthy extra B

two and a half syns

plus whatever I have out

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.