Cheaper than chips menu: 15-8-13

It's going to be challenging over the next week.  My dear friend, Sonja and her daughter, are here to house sit and tomato nurse and then we are off on holiday for a week and, while we don't intend to be wasteful, we are not aiming for total frugality.  We have decided that we will splash out on some good fruit, for example.  Frugal eating does not lend itself to much fresh fruit although, with careful planning and making the best of what is out there, it is perfectly possible to do the five a day, especially if one has a wee garden and a daughter with an allotment, but I've missed peaches and nectarines, grapes and melons.  So it will be a big treat!

The other thing we are doing is taking Thermione with us.  I meant to get a swish carrying case but didn't get round to it, so she will go in a supermarket bag instead!  Just as safe.  That will mean easy home made bread/rolls very day which is an ongoing treat.  It will make other things very easy too - boiling eggs in Thermione is a doddle, for example.

So next week will be interesting but also interesting was the fact that when I discovered that there's a Lidl in Crowborough, both of us were absolutely delighted.  I think it is in the blood now, this frugality lark!

Anyway - food for today:
Breakfast:  on offer will be porridge with pineapple and yoghurt , melon slices  and bacon and egg.  I will go for the porridge and the melon but my guests might fancy the cooked breakfast instead.
Lunch:  probably tuna with mayo in a roll plus a nice little mixed salad (leaves, radishes and lettuce/leaves will be from the garden)
Dinner:  I did a roast beef dinner yesterday, as a birthday meal for Sonja.  The beef (top rump) was a lovely large joint that was half price in Morrison's - brilliant value and I would possibly have bought it anyway and cut it into steaks before freezing it..  There's more than half left still so I will hack off some slices to take on holiday and we will have the rest tonight with veg for dinner.  The good thing about roast beef is that it does slice really well once it is cold (assuming a sharp knife) and heats up very nicely in the meat juices which them makes a super gravy..

I suspect that this will take me close to the £2.00 limit but a frugal breakfast and lunch and no snacks will compensate for the beef which should do eight meals, probably more - after all, we didn't stint yesterday and there's a lot left!

Recently my friend Diane blogged about making one chicken breast do three people by making a chicken stroganoff and bulking it out with onions and mushrooms.  One chicken breast each is expensive, one between three is still delicious, perhaps more so for the additions and so much better value - and probably a more sensible amount, given that we eat too much meat anyway!

I didn't mean to ramble like this when I started writing this.  Please forgive the length and, if you made it to the end, well done!