The Eat for £3.50 a Week Challenge - The End of Challenge Round Up ... and What I Did With the Leftovers

 

Well it's the end of Challenge week and here are my leftovers.

One slice of Bread

Half a can of Peaches

One portion of Carrot Soup

and

About 2/3 of a jar of Marmalade

I guess at a pinch another day when you wouldn't starve.  Peaches for breakfast, soup for lunch and then marmalade on toast for tea.  Not a good day, but at least it's food.

Or, you could roll this forward and have a starting point for another week on £3.50.  One where you wouldn't be starting with absolutely nothing like on the first one ... and this is how a store cupboard is built up.

I had printed out my Sainsbury's supermarket basket, then neatened and edited it to make sense, changing the price of the onions as they had cost me more in the shop than the online basket had said they would.

These are my notes for the week. 

Using the rough notes that you saw the other day as a starting point and to keep me on track, I filled in each days meals on the righthand page as I ate them, and added up the ingredients as I used them.  Seeing it in black and white on paper helps me make sense of things and saves me having to keep going on the computer to fill in a spreadsheet.  I'm old school ... forever. 😀

I didn't actually eat the leftovers as I suggested that on an extra day they might be used. 

 I had the final slice of bread as toast and marmalade for my breakfast, I ate the soup with a lovely fresh crusty roll from the freezer for my dinner and then I had a pizza for my tea ... a celebratory whole Falafel pizza bought from Sainsbury's, and yes I ate it all in one go, something I rarely do.

And then for breakfast this morning I finished off the peaches.

With a peach crumble and yoghurt ... well it was breakfast time, and a little bit early for ice-cream.  😄

So what are my thoughts after living on just £3.50's worth of food for a week?

1.  It shouldn't have to be done by anyone in this day and age.

2.  It is possible with lots of planning and imagination, and you can do it it many ways.

3.  The same ingredients can be used to make lots of different meals.

4.  It was more interesting than I expected it to be.

5.  It's weird how making smaller meals seems to make for more washing up.

My favourite meal, and one that stood out head and shoulders above all the others, was the roasted carrots and mashed potato lunch.  

Next time you have your oven on for something else, just wash and halve a carrot or two and put them in a baking dish with a drizzle of oil and some mixed herbs and any spice that you love, oh and maybe a wedge of onion or two ... and you will see what I mean.

After doing this challenge for the week I am sorely tempted to go BIG and eat for a week on £1 a day, but my common-sense is telling me to have a break, eat more protein and greens and carry on with my eating my way through the store cupboard long term challenge.  Something that obviously wasn't touched at all for the past seven days.

Maybe in a few weeks ...

If you have any questions about the past week and the challenge I will be happy to answer them in the comments section of this post.

Thank you so much for following along, there has been an average of about 500 people reading the posts each day so hopefully you have found it interesting and entertaining, and maybe I have managed to give you a few ideas. 

 Is there anyone out there in blogland doing any sort of similar challenge that I can read about?  I do love reading other peoples challenges.  If anyone wants to read any of my older ones they are all listed on the right-hand sidebar.  And as the instructions above them say: 

Clicking on any of these Challenge photos will take you to the first post of that particular challenge. You can then read on in chronological order by clicking on 'Newer Post' at the bottom left hand side of each post.

This way you will be able to read them in the order that they were written.

Sue xx

The £3 a Day Challenge - End of Challenge Round Up

 

One Challenge, one week and boy did that go fast!!

Just look at what I have over ... so much food, there's at least another two days worth of good eating there.  I knew £21 would be a luxury budget for one person, it was just the Challenge of knowing what to buy with each £1 coin as it became available for each meal that kept me on my toes.

Not in the photo because I ate them for my breakfast were the last two crumpets.  This time eaten with lashings of spread instead of the 27p marmalade.

Also not in the photo ... because I forgot about it ... was the orange juice!!  Look, it was sat on my desk looking reproachfully at me as I downloaded the other photos ... don't forget me it shouted as I slurped.

So what's left over:

1/3 of a tub of Coleslaw

2 Sausage Rolls

2/3 pack of Tortilla Chips

1100g SR Flour

most of a jar of Marmalade

2 Garlic cloves

400g of Spaghetti

370g Oats

a tin of Peach Slices

1/2 a Cucumber

1/2 a Lettuce

1/3 bag of French Fries

1/2 bag of Spinach

2 Lemon slices

enough vegetable filling for another pasty

a small portion of Pasta Sauce

.. and a wad of receipts and a 5p coin.

Quite a lot to show for a week of Challenging Myself.

Every Challenge I do teaches me something, so what did this teach me?

That £1 per meal is doable and can be very tasty.  

That I am quick to react to what my body tells me I need.  I switched buying a few things around at the last minute and enjoyed what I made with what I had purchased all the more for it.

  

That the self- weigh and self-checkout facilities in Sainsbury's definitely give it the edge when you are doing a Challenge of this nature.  It takes all the embarrassment out of buying one carrot, one potato, one onion and one banana  😳

That my little fridge and freezer cannot cope with me doing Challenges whilst we are both living here in my little flat.  Oh, I am looking forward to my Smeg even more now!!

That just because some own brands are cheap does not make them worse taste-wise in any way.  The Tortilla Chips at just 45p a bag (although the shelf edge label said they were 55p they scanned at 45p 😀) were just as tasty, if not better, than the branded ones I have had before.

That my 35p Pitta Breads were a brilliant buy and stayed fresh all week.

Thank you for all of you that stuck with me for the whole week, thank you for the comments and the encouragement, it made it all seem all the more worthwhile and kept me on the straight and narrow.

Now all I have to do is to use up my leftovers over the next couple of days, nothing will be wasted.

Thank you.

Sue xx

The Ration Challenge - End of Challenge Round Up - Edit ... New Total

The Leftovers.

There's not a lot left is there!! 

I guess I could rustle up one final meal of Fried Rice in a Satay-like Sauce ... but I won't.  Instead these items will be used up over the next few days with other foods out of the cupboard here at the Van.  Peanut butter on toast for breakfast for perhaps two days and in normal eating non-ration challenge terms I guess I have a couple of weeks worth of rice.  

Yet again this year I was shocked at the sheer amount of salt I went through.  At the start of Challenge Week this little salt cellar was full to the top, now only the bottom third is left.  I guess when food is sparse and simple salt equals flavour and you add all the flavour you can to all of your food.

I will needless to say be weaning myself off salt over the next few days.

The ticks on the wall chart show that I completed all I set out to complete  😃

Now, how about a round up of some of my favourite meals ...

Right at the beginning the Paratha, with one of my three cups of coffee of Ration Challenge week.  Me ... drinking just three cups of coffee in a week ... unheard of!!

One of my favourite meals - the Falafels with plain rice.

I'll definitely be making these again for sure, but in future with dried or even fresh herbs added and some pepper too, both things I didn't and couldn't have last week.  They were light as anything and absolutely delicious 💓

An eye-opener for me, I like wraps!!

 Especially when they are fresh turmeric homemade wraps and filled with hummus and broken up bean burger, but in more normal days they will also have some shredded crunchy lettuce and perhaps a squeeze of mayo.

Oh be still my beating heart - the pastry made with oil instead of hard fats is delicious, and when it's wrapped around a Lentil and Beanburger is a real treat.

Lentil Pancakes.

That you can make something that is tasty, filling and nutritious out of a handful of lentils and a cup of water was a revelation and these will no doubt be made over and over again.

And the highlight of the week for tastiness, colour and just sheer joy bringing ... my Tomato Pizza.  This will be eaten over and over I can assure you, but with a side of maybe coleslaw or just some crunchy salad vegetables rather than with even more tomatoes  😁😆

It's been a good week, having done this before meant I had some knowledge of what was ahead of me and having the time to try out a few recipes in the run up to it was brilliant.

But the absolute highlight of the last week for me has been YOU.  Knowing that I had so much support, cheering me on from the side-lines, willing me to do well and being ready in a nice way to hold me to account if I failed or stumbled was humbling, cheering and well, just so supportive.

I would like to thank each and every one of you for that support, be it financial or with your words of encouragement.

My Sponsors for Ration Challenge 2020

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Thank you ... between us we managed to raise the magnificent sum of  £1,6500.00  The team I was part of managed to raise £3,289.20 between us, and the Ration Challengers overall total up to now, as some people are still doing the Challenge over the next few weeks, is £1,434,457.00

What else can I say except a massive THANK YOU.

Sue xx

 in the UK we've raised

Living on a Box - Day Fourteen & End of Challenge Round Up

Breakfast - Green Smoothie

Oh it was nice to have a green smoothie after two weeks of cereal and yoghurty type breakfasts.  I'm so glad there was plenty of spinach left over to take the sweet edge off the frozen banana chunks and the apple.  Having a nice big dollop of peanut butter in it adds a good amount of healthy fats and means that the smoothie keeps you fuller and more satisfied for much longer.

Lunch - Cheese and Salad Sandwiches

with extra cucumber on the side.

The cucumber was right on the edge of not being nice any more, they are so much tastier when there is a crunch to them aren't they.  But it was good that I managed to make it last the whole of the two weeks of the Challenge.

A little peek at what the sandwich looked like inside before I added the lettuce and the top slice of bread 😃

Dinner - Chilli Mince but with Cous Cous and Peas

Yes, you've seen this photo before, on Day One in fact, it's the nearest photo I have to my final meal.  I have a confession to make ... I accidentally deleted the photo of last nights evening meal.  It's the first time I've done this for ages and it had to be on the grand finale meal of my Challenge ... bloody typical 🙁

END OF CHALLENGE ROUND UP

Week One Menu

Best Meal of the Week - Chickpea and Potato Curry with Cous Cous

Worst Meal of the Week - The Pasta Bake with Sausages - those sausages are AWFUL!!

Week Two Menu

Best Meal of the Week - Shepherds Pie

Worst Meal of the Week - honestly there was not one that was bad!!

And what is left now ...

In the freezer I have a little bag of peelings and a tub of cooked chickpeas.

On the fridge shelf there is a tub of hummus, half a jar of mayo and almost a full tub of dairy free spread.

In the fridge drawer there are two onions, three carrots and about an 1/5 of a lettuce.

Out on the worktop I have some of the Lotus biscuits, the Shredded Jackfruit pouch, one Stock Pot and about a quarter of a jar of Peanut Butter.

How could I use what I have left to make one more days food:

Adding a couple of slices of bread for toast, to go with the peanut butter I would have breakfast. 

For lunch I could use the lettuce, one carrot, grated, half a finely sliced onion and some of the mayo to make some coleslaw. Which I could sprinkle with the chickpeas and serve alongside the hummus and another carrot chopped into batons for dipping.  

And then later for dinner I could make a portion of rice to go with the Shredded Jackfruit.

So in total, with a couple of little extras I have the makings of one more days food and I could make a panful of soup using the trimmings and peelings, the stock pot, the leftover onion and a half, and the carrot.

Nothing wasted and only the sausages thrown away, not a bad fortnights Living on a Box.

And not a bad end to the Challenge.

Sue xx

📦

Crazy Days Challenge - Day 48 - Cooking the Books _ End of Challenge Round Up

So I cooked my way through one recipe from each of the books.

Chosen by:

Joy

Judith

Marlene

Sooze

Bumblebee

Heather

Maeve

Chrissie 

and Margie

Trying foods new to me,

and unexpected.

Most were delicious, as the scones from this book for instance.  Wow lemon drizzle scones, sticky but gorgeous, and well worth having to have a damp cloth nearby for sticky fingers.

I cooked from three of Jack's books, all with the results promised.

In fact the highlight recipe of the week was from Jack's second book 'A Year in 120 Recipes' and was the Autumn Pudding.  How can stale bread and frozen fruit taste so good.  This is definitely going to be a regular on my menu from now on.

Some recipes had lots of ingredients ...

... and some just had a couple.  But I managed to cobble together everything I needed from what I had in store.  I am still determined not to shop and to follow the Stay at Home rule.

I rounded off the Challenge with a recipe from this book yesterday and it has made me want to read it all over again.  What a pretty book to look at both the cover and the photographs inside and it's full of such tasty recipes, which no doubt I will be making over the course of the next few days.

So thank you for following along, thank you so much to those of you who took the time to write comments.  It's nice to know I wasn't completely alone in this.

See you soon with something completely different ... when I think of what it is.

Sue xx

Challenge Eight - The £19.25 One Shop Challenge - Bonus Day and End of Challenge Round Up

Breakfast - Weetabix and the last of the Almond Milk

Dinner - Final portions of Hummus and Seeded Crackers

Not long after my dinner I started making my tea, a simple vegetable stew with the exact same ingredients as the Potato Soup.

Tea - Vegetable Stew

It was deliciously herby and as you can see I strained out a few of the vegetables because I have a packet of ready made pastry in the fridge and they will be the basis of a nice Vegetable Pasty for tomorrows tea.

Five a Day = 4

And that's it Challenge Eight is over.

End of Challenge Round Up

It's been a good Challenge, I like to think I did reasonably well.  The food was varied and healthy and I just about averaged out my Five a Day. So ... what's left. 

 On the shelf I have:

 most of the porridge oats

10 Weetabix

4 portions of penne pasta

In the fridge I have:

1 portion of lettuce

1 red onion

most of the dairy free spread
3 potions of tomato pasta sauce

a tub of cooked vegetables from the stew

(they were still cooling down when this photo was taken)

In the freezer I have:

4 sausages
bag of vegetable scraps and peelings

So I guess I could easily get another days eating out of that if I were to have porridge for breakfast (I make mine with water) soup made with the last onion and the vegetable scraps for lunch and had pasta, sausages, and sauce for tea. 

The meals have been quite varied considering the limited ingredients.

Over the eight days I have had:

2 Weetabix and almond milk, with a small glass of orange juice x 4

Weetabix with 1/3 tin of Sliced Peaches x 2

Porridge with Peaches and a small glass of orange juice 

Toast and coffee

Two bananas

Chickpea Tuna Sandwiches
Bangers, Mash and Baked Beans

Pasta Bake with Garlicky Breadcrumbs

Herby Carrot Soup and Toast

Jacket Potato with spread and Homemade Coleslaw

Hummus and Salad Sandwiches

Spicy Tomato Soup

Jacket Potato with spread, Salad Tomato and Baked Beans with Red Onion

Chickpea Tuna and Lettuce Sandwich 

Potato Soup

Celery Sticks and Hummus

A Salady Picky Bowl

Potato Soup with chunky bread croutons

It's a Challenge I've enjoyed doing, but I am glad that it's over now and I can have a rummage in the near empty fridge and decide what to have for my next meal.  I have a feeling that tomorrows breakfast will still be Weetabix though ... now that I can open a new carton of almond milk  :-)

Thanks for reading along and for all your wonderful comments.

I have loads of ideas for new Challenges, in fact my brain is buzzing with them recently, but I think I'll perhaps wait until the New Year ... perhaps!!

Sue xx