The £3 a Day Challenge - Day One

 

On a bright and sunny Monday morning I trotted off to Sainsburys armed with my re-usable bag and a single pound coin, my logic being that if I didn't have any more with me I wouldn't be tempted to go over for my first shop of the Challenge.

It worked.  I had planned to have tinned tomatoes and onion on toast and I managed to get all the ingredients I needed.  There was 22p left over, ooh I thought, is that enough for some garlic?  But on walking back to the fresh produce aisle I discovered that the bulbs of garlic were 25p each 😞

Oh well, it meant that I would have an extra 22p to spend somewhere along the line.

Breakfast Shopping

6 wholemeal Pitta breads - 35p

1 onion - 15p

1 tin tomatoes - 28p

Total 78p

22p change

My Breakfast

Leftovers

Five pitta breads, 2/3 tin of tomatoes and most of the onion.

The pittas were the only way I could afford to get any bread to make my breakfast a complete meal.  The cheapest loaf was 55p and it was that pappy cheap white supermarket bread that I just would not have enjoyed (they had no cheap brown loaves left).  Actually the pittas have worked out well, as when I cut them in half they fit neatly into my tiny toaster.

Time for Lunch ...

Lunch Shopping

4 baking potatoes - 45p

a head of celery - 43p

1 carrot - 5p

Total 93p

7p change

Everything peeled, washed and ready for chopping, I decided to add another potato after I had taken this photo as I do like a higher potato ratio in my stews 😀

The bowl on the right was my lunch and very tasty it was too, and the bowl on the left a more strained version and with all the bitty bits from the pan is going to be the filling for a pasty.

A colander full of the washed trimmings and peelings ready to go into the freezer to give me a pot of 'free' soup in a couple of days.

Leftovers

Two baking potatoes and most of the celery, now washed and wrapped so it stays nice and fresh for the whole week.

And then there was Tea ...

After a day of walking, cooking and cleaning up the mess at the house I'm afraid on the way back from the evening doggy walk I just went down the easy route, and as these Aldi No Cheez Bakes were on offer at 99p (instead of their usual £1.29 I think it is), I just bought these.

Teatime Shopping 99p

change 1p

Half an hour later and my tea was ready.  

Not magnificently nutritious but it hit the spot and with a cup of coffee and the latest Midsomer Murders it made for a pleasant evening before an early night.

So not a bad  first day and there was money over ... a whole 30p.

Which will roll forward to breakfast tomorrow and give me a little leeway with my spending, and perhaps encourage me to eat a little more healthily 😃

Food carried Forward

5 pitta breads

2 potatoes

most of a head of celery

2/3 tin tomatoes

Sue xx

For the Price of a Coffee - Day Seven - The Meals

Breakfast - Last third of the Yoghurt with Stewed Apple and Rhubarb

Nice and tasty, and very light compared to the first few days cheap porridge oats, which although fine on the whole, do seem bland and stodgy compared to the jumbo oats I usually have for porridge making.

Lunch - Veg Trimmings Soup served with the last Part-Baked Baguette

Although I had divided this soup into three portions I decided to use it all up for todays lunch as Alan was sharing with me and there would be less bread to eat.  It really was worth making this soup out of all the trimmings and peelings from the vegetables used in the Challenge.  It was nice and smooth after being passed through a sieve once I had made it, and really tasty.

Once I had arrived back home at the Van,  although I was tired I wanted something tasty for my tea and as I put things from the cool bag into the fridge, the box of cooked potato and the little tub of rice/dhal mix that I had saved from my meal the other day gave me the inspiration that I needed and I knew exactly what would fit the bill.

I wasn't overly hungry so I cut off about a third of the red pepper, drizzled it with some oil and put it to roast in the oven for a few minutes while I prepped , or rather simply mixed together, the rice/dhal mixture, the green trimmings from a few of the spring onions and one of my little stuffing patties.  After the pepper had had about ten minutes cooking on it's own I stuffed it with the mixture letting what was over spill into the little cooking dish.

Tea - Stuffed Red Pepper with Potatoes and Spring Onion

After another 15 minutes of cooking it was done, so I quickly zapped the potatoes in the microwave.  Once everything was ready I plated up and sprinkled over a finely chopped spring onion.  For cheff-y green freshness … and flavour

Back later with all the End of Challenge Round Up.


Sue xx

For the Price of a Coffee - Day Six - The Meals

Breakfast - 1/3 tub of Yoghurt and lightly cooked Apple Slices

Ooh, that was nice, I decided to cook the apple slices a bit as I prefer them soft with yoghurt.

I prepped two of the apples even though I knew I only wanted one with my yoghurt, as I had plans for the rest of the slices for my pudding tonight.  they were simply cored, sliced and popped into a pan with the little tub of lemon juice and a sneaky teaspoon of demerara sugar from a sachet from my little stash.

Once lightly cooked I lifted them carefully from the apply, syrupy sauce and put them in a dish to cool.

And sliced up the rhubarb that I had spotted on the Veggie Patch.  It is all starting to go over now with the cold nights, and I know how much Alan loves a Rhubarb Crumble.  So I thought it was a good time to prep him a couple of crumbles for the freezer and pinch a cheeky few slices of rhubarb for me.  I cooked it in the syrupy sauce.

Dinner - Rice, Red Lentil Dhal and Broccoli

I forgot to photograph my lunch, which was a bloody shame as it looked wonderfully photogenic!!

I had the last of the dhal with 100g rice and a good portion of broccoli, and it was very tasty although far too filling.  I saved a small amount of the dhal stirred through some of the rice.

After lunch, while I was still in a cooking mood I set to and prepped my evening meal.  I had decided to use all of the trimmings to make a pot of soup, so it made sense to peel and chop all the veggies and then cook them so that I could have the cooking water in place of stock.

It was soon bubbling away nicely and then spent an hour or two in the bottom oven of the Aga.

I also made up my stuffing mix into eight little patties.

Once the soup was well cooked I whizzed it with the stick blender and pushed it through a sieve.  Nothing was wasted as the chickens got the mush.

All the trimmings and vegetable cooking water, along with two onions and one clove of garlic gave me three good portions of soup.  Not too big this time as I have found that this is the level that I like in these pots as a serving just for me.

Tea - A Roast Dinner - Veggies, Stuffing Patties and Gravy.

It was very tasty, but missing a couple of veggie sausages for a different texture and taste, although I found this large plateful hard to manage so I doubt I could have eaten the sausages even if I had had them!!.

As soon as I had eaten my tea I set too to make myself a little fruit tartlet for later.

Simply a half of my remaining half sheet of puff pastry scored around the edge and pricked in the middle, topped with most of the remaining apple slices and a few little pieces of the lightly stewed rhubarb.  (I have saved a little bit of the fruit to have for breakfast tomorrow.)

Supper - Fruit Tartlet

Yummy ... I thought it might be missing some icecream or custard, but it was lovely just as it was with a nice cup of black coffee.

Food carried forward: 

In the fridge:

small portion rice and dhal

1/4 sheet Puff Pastry

3 onions

1 butternut squash

3 slices of lemon

3/4 iceberg lettuce

6 spring onions

4 apples 

1/3 pot of yoghurt

1/2 tin beans

orange juice

courgette

red pepper

carrot

a little tub of cooked potato

5 stuffing patties

Other foods:

700g porridge oats

636g spaghetti

2 cloves garlic

250g red lentils

800g brown rice

1 part-baked baguette

tub of gravy mix

1 tin tomatoes

Cash carried forward =  32p  

Wow ... I really feel like I have eaten far too much as I sit typing this at the end of the day!!

Sue xx

For the Price of a Coffee - Day Five - The Meals - A Challenge Within a Challenge

Breakfast - Banana and 1/3 of the Vanilla Yoghurt

Gosh, that made a nice change from porridge and went down a treat.

As my banana was pretty small I thought I would weigh it to see if it would still be the full 80g that is recommended to make up each one of your five a day portions, it was happily well over the recommended minimum.

Dinner - Four Vegetable Samosas with a simple salad of Iceberg Lettuce and Spring Onion

Followed by a Grape and Melon Fruit Pot

Wow, this was tasty and very filling.  Unusually for me, I ate the fruit as a pudding after the samosas, usually I eat fruit first as it whizzes through your digestive system so much faster than any other foods, but I didn't have too many burpy moments on my drive back to Wales.

Weighing out my beans to divide the tin in half, I discovered once again for value beans that I had been shortchanged.  This happened me before when I was doing another Challenge.  It might not seem that much just under 20g less of beans, but when these are usually bought by the people that need the most food for their money I think it's disgraceful.  If the supermarkets are under filling each tin by 20g they get an extra tin for every 20 that they fill ... and more profit.

Last time I wrote and complained because I used four tins and every single one was the same, this time I just have one tin so do I complain ... I don't know.

Tea - Jacket Potato with half a tin of Baked Beans

It was very tasty and simple but filling.  I was going to have some salad with it, but I wasn't that hungry, so this was more than enough.  And the beans gave me one of my five a day anyway.

Food carried forward: 

In the fridge:

small portion lentil dhal

1/2 sheet Puff Pastry

1 carrot

5 onions

3/4 head of broccoli

1 butternut squash

4 slices of lemon and little pot of juice 

3/4 iceberg lettuce

6 spring onions

6 apples 

2/3 pot of yoghurt

1/2 tin beans

Other foods:

700g porridge oats

136g spaghetti

3 cloves garlic

2 potatoes

300g red lentils

900g brown rice

1 pack of stuffing mix

1 part-baked baguette

Cash carried forward =  2p  

A really good day of vibrant and tasty foods, and because as per the rules of this little Challenge Within a Challenge I didn't dip into my already well-stocked little larder I have lots of food going forward, including the leftovers from today ... and the apples which I didn't even touch.

Sue xx

For the Price of a Coffee - Day Four - The Meals

Breakfast - Porridge 

What a messy photo, not very blog worthy at all, but it does show my breakfast this morning and  proof as such that I am sticking to my Challenge.  I'm getting a bit fed up with porridge now, so my Challenge Within a Challenge tomorrow will definitely see me buying something completely different for my breakfast.

Dinner - A third of this Pasty, with a dollop of mixed up Dhal and Rice

I forgot to photograph my lunch, which was the third of the Mixed Veg and Dahl Pasty that I had left over from yesterday AND a small portion of mixed Dhal and Rice that was also left in the fridge.  It was a bit samey and very unphotogenic, so maybe you have been spared!!

Tea - Red Lentil Dhal and Baguette

It doesn't look much, but gosh this was tasty.  Lovely warm Dhal with freshly baked bread straight from the oven.  It was filling, satisfying and well, it was just perfect!

Food carried forward: 

In the fridge:

small portion lentil dhal

1/2 sheet Puff Pastry

1 carrot

5 onions

3/4 head of broccoli

1 butternut squash

4 slices of lemon and little pot of juice 

Other foods:

700g porridge oats

136g spaghetti

3 cloves garlic

2 potatoes

300 red lentils

900g brown rice

1 pack of stuffing mix

1 part baked baguette

None of these foods can be touched tomorrow!!

Cash carried forward = £2.72  

Tomorrow it is the Challenge Within a Challenge and my days food ... three complete meals ... will be bought with todays carried forward money of £2.72 plus tomorrows allowance of £2.75.  A total of £5.47 ... gosh I'll be running wild in the aisles  😁

Sue xx