This was dinner last night. It was the first time I'd sat down actually hungry! Because of my medication regime and my exhaustion levels, I tend to graze through the day - I'm not usually one for big meals - but the lack of nuts to nibble on is causing a bit of a problem.
I had 80g of fresh broccoli; there's still another 4 portions left, so 50p was great! I had 60g of Savoy cabbage; there's still ⅔ of the original item left and I had the last 50g of a carrot that had made its way grated into a wrap and 4 portions of coleslaw. Potato wedges went nicely with the pie.
And well done Tosca! Originally £3 and I paid £2 for this pie. I didn't look too closely at the ingredients, but on taste alone this can't be faulted for 50p a portion! That said, I think a normal sized adult may find the size a bit small... If budgets are tight and you want a little bit of comfort food, then this is not bad. Obviously, again, you have to cast aside any consideration for the chicken's quality of life before it wrapped itself in pastry, but flavour and texture were pretty good, and who doesn't like puff pastry? It probably worked out at about 95p for the meal.
Last nights dinner actually happened after a quick trip to Tosca. I spent £4.92 on this lot. I didn't have the energy to go over to Aldee to pick up cheaper bits and bobs. If I had to get by on £10 a week, I'd sturggle for the simple fact that I find supermarkets exhausting. Normally, Tosca comes to me once a fortnight with a two week supply!
The swede, carrots, onion and parsnip was a deal for £1. Adding up the items individually bought, it would have been nearly £1.50 - so keep an eye out for the packs with the largest produce as they are not sold by weight!!! Eight apples? 94p instead of £1.60. I wish I'd gone a bit later; the discounted produce may have been better!
Which is why I spent most of today making stacks of soup. I took two of the manky Aldee chicken breasts, the turkey bone, some of the soup mix (split peas, beans etc), ½ of the swede, the onion, some potato and the parsnip and made soup. I also added a bit of the veg stock from the cupboard, a load of dried herbs and seasoning I was going to put in one of my lovely new carrots, but I decided to keep them and instead spent 5 minutes removing frozen carrots from the veg mix! It seemed sensible; I'd be getting some fresh veg, but bulk out the soup with stuff that's fairly lame, if eaten just cooked. I had it for dinner; there's 8 portions in the freezer and about 6 in the fridge.
Hopefully they'll make life a bit easier as I am becoming too tired to cook again. I normally only cook 2-3 nights a week; I get too tired to prepare a hot meal every day, so this exercise is already making its mark, from that point of view. If this was my reality, it would probably have quite serious consequences for my health, especially if I didn't have a car to go to buy goods. On this budget the shopping is not delivered.
Tonights dinner: homemade, plenty of veg, all blitzed together and it was pretty good, if I may say so myself. Nothing unpronounceable in this bowl and the chicken passes muster like this.
Au
