Day three started with a single slice of toast and marmalade ... I just wasn't that hungry.
At first I found the bread was very coarse and cheap tasting, but it's surprising how quickly your taste buds adapt and now it seems just fine. The slices do seem to be a lot thinner than I'm used to though, as usually when I buy a sliced loaf I buy the Aldi Ancient Grains version, which makes the best toast and sandwiches, well in my opinion it does!
At lunchtime I made a large pan of Vegetable Stew, using some of the smaller potatoes, a couple of carrots and about half of an onion. All cooked until just starting to fall apart in some of my store cupboard stock.
Served in one of my larger bowls it was a good sized portion, and with a slice of toast for soaking up the gravy it made for a lovely lunch.
For my tea I decided on Bread-crumbed Potato Slices and Spaghetti Rings.
First I thawed out and whizzed up the two end crusts of the loaf of bread, then I sautéed them low and slow in some garlicky, herby oil until they were crispy and dried out.
They were left to cool in a bowl while I divided my spaghetti rings into three portions and peeled and sliced my biggest potato.
To coat the slices I tried dipping the potatoes in some mayo, but the crumbs didn't really stick that well, you really do need a layer of flour to help with this and flour is just one of the many things that I don't have this week.
Anyway, as you can see from the photo of my meal enough of them stuck to the potato slices make for a more interesting texture on the potatoes and a slightly more filling meal.
The leftover breadcrumbs went into a tub and were put in the fridge for another idea I have for later in the week.
Breakfast on day four was square toast with marmalade ... gosh I'm running out of shapes now. 😄
Lunch was lovely, just a nice simple plate of mashed potato with another of the portions of spaghetti rings ... and of course the obligatory black coffee.
For my tea I had the Vegetable Soup that I made from the whizzed up vegetable stew leftover after lunch from the day before. It was delicious and very filling, and no I decided against any toast this time as it was beautifully thick just as it was.
I think that varying the food I am making, even though I am obviously using exactly the same ingredients over and over again, is helping make this seem not so repetitive. Of course I could just have made a great big pot of vegetable stew and one of soup for the whole seven days of the challenge. This would have been so much easier, but I think the repetition might have made it a miserable week, even if it was tasty.
Still it's something to think about if you had to live on this amount of money for a week and were too busy to play with your food. Toast and marmalade for breakfast, soup for lunch and stew for your tea, minimal cooking at the start of the week, less washing up and no thought required after the first day ... what's not to like.
Sue xx
Half way through - well done for coming up with the variety you have managed.
ReplyDeleteRe: what you said about making one big pan of stew rather than cook something slightly different each meal. If you really only had this much money for food then spending on gas/LX would be a struggle too, so cooking in bulk and then quickly heating up one bowl at a time might be more economical?
Yes, it definintely would be much cheaper to batch cook at the start of the week and then zap things in the microwave each day.
DeleteYou are doing so well. The breadcrumbed potato is inspired, I must try this.
ReplyDeleteEven though only about half of the crumbs stuck it did make the plain potato slices extra tasty, so it was worth doing.
Deletehttps://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/03/foraging-in-march/
ReplyDeleteI think I would be looking for a few foraged edibles for variety. Well done on your challenge.
Nelliegrace
If you are fit and able enough to forage, and know exactly what you can and can't pick it would help your diet at this time of year for sure. All the new nettle growth and wild garlic, along with dandelion leaves and flowers are quite abundant in Spring. Although our wild garlic seems to be going over very quickly this year. :-(
DeleteHusband really likes that Aldi Ancient Grains bread. Making different things out of the same basic ingredients is a challenge in itself, but certainly makes things more interesting. Well done. It's a pity that the cheapest foods tend to be mainly carbs.
ReplyDeleteI do think it's one of the best loaves I've found for a long time. Yes, all the cheapest foods are pretty carby which is fine as long as you don't mix fats with them when you eat them, but you do tend to need oil to cook things so it's a fine line.
DeleteI have nothing but admiration for the way you are getting through this challenge. You sound quite cheerful too. I don’t suppose that someone who knew that they had to eat on such a meager budget for the foreseeable future would be.
ReplyDeleteThank you, but even back in the day when I was struggling as long as I had enough food to make the meals that I needed I was always cheerful. You don't let your kids worry by seeing you being miserable.
DeleteI shopped differently then, of course I hadn't learned then what I know now, so I would simply shop for as much food as I could get with my money and then when I got home I would line things up in the cupboards making a sort of visible meal plan for the next few days.
Round here every apple, banana or tomato is costing 27p each at the moment no matter how hard I try. However our own tomato seedlings have been pricked out - roll on eating our own!
ReplyDeleteWow, food prices are just going up and up aren't they. Although I was reading about food prices back in the day ... and I mean years and years ago and we are only just around the same level as things were then. We have just been spoilt with cheap food prices and having excess cash to spend on other things over the past few years. I guess it's just starting to catch up with us and farmers do deserve to earn a living. I agree completely that growing our own is the way forward to help with the costs of everything, it won't be long now. :-)
DeleteAlmost there! You are doing well.
ReplyDeleteBack in the early 1990s I'd split up with a boyfriend and was paying a mortgage (at 18% interest rate) as well as buying him out. I lived on reduced to clear wholemeal bread and olive oil spread for a whole year but because I worked in the restaurant trade at least I could eat at work! xxx
I think we forget all too quickly how high mortgage rates used to be. I didn't even get on the property ladder until 2001 and even then only because we qualified for a 50% reduction on a mortgage for our council house. Thank goodness you worked in the restaurant trade!
DeleteAre you allowing yourself any spices to add to your stews or soups? To make it less bland that is. You're doing really well though. Bet you're glad it's only for a week. I would REALLY miss fresh fruit (esp. apples).
ReplyDeleteYes I posted about the food I have and the store cupboard items on the third post of this Challenge series. I'm not missing fruit at all actually, the peaches help, but I am missing green foods, some peas or spinach would have been amazing ... and way out of my price range.
Deletehttps://ayearofchallengingmyself.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-eat-for-350-week-challenge-food-for.html
Well done on varying the same ingredients to make some filling meals. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIt gets the old brain cells working out for sure. It's nice to have something different for most meals.
DeleteI'm late to this but found it fascinating, you are so imaginative with your basic ingredients. I've not been able to try that Aldi bread they don't stock it in our local store :(
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
You are doing amazingly well and managing variety with so few ingredients.
ReplyDelete