Tuesday, 20-03-23: more-low-spend March

 Morning, everyone!

Just wanted to say - Scarlet, I hope you're feeling a lot better by now - thinking of you.  xx

Yesterday's meals:

I really ought to make bubble and squeak a bit more often - this was delicious and very filling.

The splodge of Elmlea made a big difference to the soup - it tasted 'luxurious'.

I had bread with it, a couple of slices of my home made wholemeal and it was so nice that I just had it plain rather than making croutons.

Later on, I had a pear.

And I managed to remember to reserve a bit of the soup to use in my pasta bake tonight.

I know this chicken and potato hash doesn't look up to much but it was really, really delicious.  I added a couple of chopped bacon medallions for extra flavour and cooked some mushrooms to increase the vegetable content but it was mostly leftovers.

No dessert, I was very satisfied with the main course.

Today's plans

B:  fruit and yogurt

A banana or an apple before Groove and the rest afterwards

SW:  half a syn for the yogurt

L:  cheesy chicken toasted wrap, salad, coleslaw; fruit

The idea is to mix shredded, cooked chicken with some grated cheese, wrap it in a  - er - wrap and pop in into Gizmo using the panini plates to sort of crisp it up and melt the cheese inside.  It might work, it might not, but worth a try!

I might add some mixed seeds to it - they're so good for you and really to add flavour in the right context.
When I was moving the bread products from one freezer to the other, I noticed I have an over abundance of wraps for some reason - better get using them up!

SW:  one healthy extra A for cheese, one healthy extra B for a wrap, half a syn for half a tsp seeds (they do go a long way, those little seeds) and one syn for salad cream in the coleslaw

D:  cheesy chicken pasta bake, maybe added veg on the side; yogurt

I plan to use what I reserved from yesterday's tomato and roasted red pepper soup, add some extras like Henderson's and/or soy sauce, spray fry some veg, add the cooked chicken and some cooked penne (probably penne anyway), sprinkle over some grated cheese and briefly bake in Nellie or under the grill.

Thinking about it, I am not likely to need extra veg as it can all go in the bake.

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

Ex:  Groove

Summary:

two healthy extra As

one healthy extra B

two and a half 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.