Today I have eaten or intend to eat:
B: porridge made with water (could get used to it) with banana and natural yoghurt
L: Savoury rice (the other half of yesterday's dinner) and a flapjack
D: chicken balti (home made and from the freezer) with rice, stewed rhubarb and yoghurt
Sn: chocolate digestive (staffroom freebie) and two value digestives when I got home.
Coffee: 3 at home, some at work too.
So the daily total has to be £1.50 because of the freezer meal.
And the weekly total is a bit under £9.00 for the whole week. I'm quite pleased with that - no, I'm very pleased. I've eaten well in an ordinary way and things seem to be falling into a sort of pattern.
I have decided that chicken is a Jolly Good Buy. Actually, that's not totally true, I already knew, but now I am all the more sure. Last Sunday I roasted a medium chicken (three for a tenner) and half plus the second drumstick was accounted for that dinner time, mostly by teenage grandson who can eat the spots off a leopard when he's feeling hungry. The rest of that bird has provided the meat element of five meals plus enough good stock for a flavoursome gravy next time round. OK, none of the meals is over-lavish in the meat department and that's fine because cutting down on meat is something I am aiming to do. There's enough, that's what matters.
Meal 1: the bottom of a chicken and ham crumble
Meals 2 and 3: sliced chicken in the stock that I got when I boiled up the carcass which I will have with veg and maybe a roastie or two - at present both containers are in the freezer.
Meals 4 and 5: the not inconsiderable bits that fell off the bones after they had been boiled up. Not as flavoursome as the sliced chicken but fine in things like pie, crumble, savoury rice and the like, or in a chicken based soup. One pot (with stock) is in the freezer while the other (with stock) was polished off in the savoury rice I had yesterday and today.
Each of those pots of meat is around 30p while the stock on its own is 'free'. Really not bad at all, is it?
I'm getting into the swing of things quite nicely now. It's going great but, as I remind myself, it's not reality. If it was reality, if I had no choice, if overindulgence one day meant no food the next, if I could not afford to buy for the following weeks, take advantage of three chickens for a tenner, etc, it would be a very different kettle of (way too expensive) fish indeed - it wouldn't be fun at all. I have to remember this because it's all too easy to say 'If I can do it, anyone can . . .' forgetting that my 'doing it' is not how it really is for thousands and thousands of people in our country today. I am not sure I could really do it, but I would have to.
I am delighted with one side effect though and that is that I'm losing weight. That's interesting because I'm not eating expensive lean protein, lots of fruit and veg, salads coming out of my ears, etc, nor am I cutting out fats, carbohydrates and so on and so forth. I'm not buying (and consuming) diet/sugar free drinks. However, I'm not eating seconds because seconds can provide another meal, wine is now a rare treat, not a regular taken for granted, desserts are usually home made yoghurt (delicious) with stewed fruit and coffee intake has been considerably reduced, at least it has at home where I'm paying for it!. I get hungry before meals, sure, who doesn't, but the home made from scratch meals are proving to be very satisfying indeed in a number of different ways. And I know the weight is coming off because of the way the clothes are fitting - and believe me, that has to be a very good thing and can continue for months ahead, if you don't mind, thank you!
I was going to waffle on about getting muddled between counting calories (which I can be expert on) and counting pennies, but I've gone on quite long enough for one ponder. It can wait!
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