April Austerity - Frugal Flapjack

250g - Oats

125g - Butter

125g - Honey

75g - Sugar

Bake in the oven at 210 degrees for 15-20 minutes.  That's a 50% reduction in sugar and how I've been making flapjack for quite a while!  Let's see how the study group deal with this tomorrow...

It works out at about £1.20 for the flapjack and I've cut it into 12 slices.

If you want to know what you are normally eating at mine, in my recipe I usually throw in 125g of sultanas (raisins/apricot etc), 125g mixed nuts (sometimes seeds) 200g of ground almonds.

April Austerity - Swindled Sarnie

Ok, so I ought to 'fess up.  I had lunch out with a few friends today and it's not coming out of the remaining cash - I also bought to half price crusty wholemeal/seeded rolls from Tosca to go with some of *that* soup!  I think I will be grating carrot/courgette into it, to make it a little more interesting!  But, yes, this is where £45 falls down - well it's not the only place where it falls down.  So far, from what I can see,  this sort of diet is unsustainable long term because:

1) The diet is very basic.  Yes, I am getting veg and a small amount of fruit, but unless you are prepared/able to go back and forth to Tosca at 6.30pm+ to pick up the reduced stock, then you are not going to be seeing your 5 a day consistently enough - let alone your now 7 a day.  I'm not convinced that I am eating everything I need as far as vitamins, protein etc.

2) Where is the social interaction that we all need?  I've spent £8.24 today.  This is not a huge amount of money, yet this is the only time I shall be eating out this month.  Realistically, if I was eating on £45 a month and suddenly had £8 spare, the extra would go into stock cupboard staples: tins of tomato, beans, pulses, rice etc,  That means the chance of seeing other people is greatly reduced.  I'm social, I like having mugs of tea with friends, the occasional pub lunch, or dinner out.  I don't spend excessively, but today I feel guilty for having spent less than a tenner, to see people I haven't seen for months!

3) If you are prepared to trek back and forth for reduced stock, don't count on having the pick of the shop;  I'm eating whatever has been knocked down in price.  I'm lucky, I know how to cook and make a meal out of nothing.  Not everyone is in this position.  You also have to be prepared to hover.  I have hovered in Tosca, waiting to see if the bloke fussing about in the veg section, with the price gun was going to move something useful into the bargain bin.  Yes, he did! Avocado!

4) I am becoming increasingly tired as the month progresses, because of all the health issues stack against me.  I am giving serious consideration to home delivery next week - buy what I need and then add in a few extras for after the month, to make it worth the delivery charge.  Again, if you are on £45 and can't get to the shops, then chucking £3 on delivery seems crazy; I'd be ordering once a fortnight, to every three, but that's then £6 something a month out of the food budget!  It doesn't even take into account the fact that fruit and veg may be a bit iffy by day ten, of factor in that you may run out.

5) I am fed up of bulk cook food: 14 portions of soup, ok, so I am tweaking each bowlful, but it is basically the same thing.  I made a pasta, spinach, red pepper and cheese dinner.  I ate it for a three further meals.  I've had the same rice and vegetable salad - all 6 batches of it and the coleslaw lasted four meals as well.  

BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED BORED 

6) I'm 5ft tall - almost.  I still weigh about 46kg.  I'm at home 50% of the time.  I'm eating; I'm not hungry, but everything is being used up.  Heaven help you, if you had a physical job, were 6ft, or 10 stone.  

T Minus Two Weeks and Counting...

P.s. £6.54 + £5.09 (wombled voucher) = £11.63 - £1.40 = £10.23 

April Austerity - Chocolate Chomping Cheat

Ok, so Sunday 13th looms on the horizon and I am almost at the half way point of this little experiment, so I thought I'd try and sum up the progress so far and work out 'where I am' - yes, at home on the sofa, with a cup of tea and the cat.

You're probably wondering about the chocolate chomping.  Well, I haven't and that is an odd thing.  As far as I was concerned, chocolate was one of my five a day and this had been the case for most of my life.  When I was recovering from heart failure as an infant, the first thing anyone could get me to eat was a plain chocolate digestive.  At this point the medical team and my mum were less concerned about what I was eating, they were just relieved I was eating!  The dye was cast and plain chocolate has been my default setting ever since.  But on the 1st April it all changed; I haven't had any chocolate this month and the really odd thing is, I haven't missed it.  If you'd told me to give up chocolate for Lent, charity, a week, 24 hours, I'd probably have laughed at you and told you were to go and how to get there.  I have chocolate tucked away in Narnia (large cupboard under the stairs).  I have been into the cupboard, seen it and not touched it.  It's not bothered me.  What does that say about cravings for sweets/mind over matter/addiction/want vs need?

So, no, I haven't cheated on the chocolate front, but I am going to cheat the next time I go shopping.  It's back to the Wombles again.  On my way back to my car, outside Tosca in Egham I saw this on the ground --->

  

Considering I am down to just over £6 for the rest of the month, this may well save my bacon.  I drove home dreaming of knocked down apples and avocado.  So, is this 'cheating'? If I was genuinely this broke, I could still have picked up this receipt.  You'd be surprised how often people abandon these on the car park floor!  If I found a fiver, I'd pick it up; I'd be mad not to.  

Feeling like I've won the lottery tonight...

April Austerity - Shopping Shenanigans II

Three eggs needed eating by the 9th and I just hadn't managed to fit them into a meal, so I made a cake to take to uni, as I was meeting Roy and Mohamed for a collective study session - hopefully we'll either motivate, or shame each other into getting the essays done!  I think the tea and the cake probably helped in this session, but I am now out of butter.  I don't think they noticed I only put 50% of the sugar in the mix - it vanished!

This is a typical uni day lunch, although I am now down to one apple - I don't think I'll see much fruit this week; I may crack open the tinned peaches and have a few slices on my breakfast each morning.

Dinner last night: I took a flatbread, smeared tomato paste over it and loaded it up with courgette, onion, broccoli and a little bit of cheese.  I wasn't bad and it was certainly cheaper and better for me than fast food.

Ange popped over today.  We had chicken wrap with carrot, courgette, a tomato, cucumber and lettuce.  It was nice to have the variety, but realistically, it was only about 1 ½ portions of veg in total.  Potato wedges went nicely with the wrap.

This is the second time I have cooked for someone else, plus the cake above.   Realistically I shouldn't be doing this, if I only had £45 for the month, but I am a sociable person and sitting down with a nice plate of food and good company is a brilliant way of spending a day.  Someone on this budget would be missing out on this important (no, essential) social side of life.

I made it over to Tosca this evening just as there was s some decent stock in the cut-price veg section.  Avocado - 59p!  Spinach - 59p! Beans -  58p! Rocket  - 40p!  I also picked up three peppers for 99p.  The total spend was £4.09, that leaves £6.45 and I'll need milk in a few days.   If I can get away with not shopping until  next Sunday (milk aside)  I *may manage this.  I still have some Savoy and white cabbages left and ½ the broccoli.   I haven't even cracked open the tins of tomatoes, the freezer still has ALL THAT SOUP and I still have ¾ of the pie, some turkey mince and two chicken breasts left in stock.

Dinner!  Finally - peppers, avocado and spinach - this is definitely more my sort of meal!

April Austerity and Medical Malfunctions

Those of you who know me well enough, will also know well enough that I have a few dietary restrictions.  I think it's about to become a whole world more complicated.

Currently I avoid the following items:

• Grapefruit - this one is a case of 'come hell, or high water'
• Pomegranate 
• Shellfish
• Undercooked meat/fish - no rare steak etc
• Undercooked eggs - anything from boiled eggs to Hollandaise Sauce!
• Buffets - hot, or cold - bacterial growth
• Any 'natural remedies' such as St John's Wort, incase of interactions with my immune-suppressants

I am supposed to avoid the following, but the occasional brush with them would be ok, in terms of the transplant team:

• Cold food in restaurants and at a friend's house, or with family (so that means I am not supposed to eat salads etc outside of my own home - although I do trust my friends to wash a lettuce thoroughly...)
• Soy 

Consume very occasionally

• Deli meats
• Pies/Pastries
• Crisps, biscuits, cakes etc - The usual junk food

Harefield's dieticians generally recommend a lower fat, salt, sugar, calorie diet, tell you to eat your fruit and veg (1 fruit, 5-6 veg) and throughout the last 26 years I have managed to maintain my weight, for most of the time.  I had a 4yr weight problem, just after a major rejection, when I was 11 years out.  Since I got the weight off (11yrs ago), I've maintained myself consistently between 44-47.5kg.  My target weight is 45kg.  My eating regime is not 'that bad'; it's not perfect, I do like chocolate digestives, crisps and home baked goodies, but I do eat a lot of the good stuff.

Unfortunately, on Thursday I was told that the inevitable had probably happened; I've more or less ceased to produce insulin, my blood sugar was up high (non-fasting bloods) - I'm now awaiting an appointment to see a local Diabetic doctor.  Hmmm - in case that is not clear, I am waiting to see a doctor who specialises in Diabetes - not a doctor who has the condition ;)

As an aside, I have never understood why Diabetes is called a disease.  It's not something you catch, like Malaria - it's something you acquire; it's a condition.  In my case, the immune-suppressant drugs have mucked up my body's ability to produce its own Insulin.  A change in diet is not going to make this go away; I won't suddenly start making more of the stuff.  I can only eat to try and stop the blood sugar spiking quite so rapidly.  To complicate matters further, I have a raft of other major medical malfunctions that all come with their own food rules and regulations: some example include high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis (furry arteries), Osteoporosis and it also looks like I have Rheumatoid Arthritis - again waiting to see a doctor.

On the plus side, because this has been a long time coming, I have already started making adaptions to my cooking.  A few examples:

• I tend to use plain yogurt for sauces, instead of mayonnaise (or cream) - but I haven't been able to afford it this month.  
• I grate cheese and therefore need to use less of it
• In scone, or cake baking I've switched 50% of the flour over to ground almonds
• When I make flapjack, I halve the sugar content and add almond flour, mixed seeds and nuts and some fried fruit 

Years ago, being diabetic meant NO SUGAR!  Now it means following a diet, in which you eat predominantly from a set of foods that register as low on the Glycemic Index.  Sugar, in small quantities, is back on the diabetic table...but we should all be watching our sugar intake anyway!  Just in the same way that 20 years ago we were told to watch our salt intake.

The problem for me now in April, is that massive batch of soup that I made at the weekend.  High on the Glycemic Index are swedes, parsnips and potato.  Aside from the fact that I have been eating the stuff for three, or four, days straight and I am BORED OUT OF MY TINY LITTLE MIND, can I now 'afford' to eat the rest that is sat in my fridge, in terms of the probable Diabetes?  In terms of April,  I can't afford to chuck it out, or give it away!  If you were on £10 a week for food and suddenly had to change your diet, you'd have a problem.

The reality of the situation is that whilst I don't have the diagnoses and I am still 'healthy' (in terms of Diabetes), I can probably still eat the stuff. I have one bowl left for tonight and 8 servings in the freezer.  I'll just have to space them out - that should also help save my sanity...

In any case, I guess if I do decide I am not eating any more of the soup, there is always a willing volunteer to help me out.

April Austerity - Stockpiling Syndrome

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!

 So... £10.54 for the month remains - heck!  I won't be going back to the shops until Sunday/Monday next week.

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

April Austerity - Cheese and Chooks

I've said it so many times before, but not all chicken is created equally.  Aldee, you fall way short of the mark as far as frozen chicken is concerned.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say (and I can't believe I am saying this), that the Aldee frozen chicken (and not their cheapest) was several levels below the taste, texture, smell of Tosca's Everyday Value.  Wow.  

Putting aside all thoughts of battery farming, life quality of the animal in question and looking only at the situation people sometimes find themselves - having to chose the cheaper option - if this chicken is the standard of meat that I would have to eat, then I would turn vegetarian.  Yes, I'd rather go through the rigmarole of discussing this with my medical team and then trips to Harefield for regular blood tests to make sure my immune-suppressant level hadn't dropped.  Yes, the person on a restricted diet would drop yet another food-group off her eating list, rather than face the thought of such poor quality.

In case you are wondering what made it so bad, I can tell you it was dry, rubbery, lacking in flavour and didn't have a particularly nice aroma.  How they managed all of that, I don't know.  

Hmm, whilst we are on the subject of last night's dinner, Tosca's frozen everyday vegetables? 50% win and 50% lose.  The carrots were diced and vaguely carrotty, the broccoli florets were green - and that's the best thing I can say about them.  The peas were peas and fine, but the cauliflower actually held it's shape, was firm to the bite and actually tasted like cauliflower. 

The best thing about this dinner was the pesto, and the savoy cabbage!

Tonight's dinner should be more appetising, especially as I know what's in the vast majority of it.  I made courgette, cheese and herb scones; a couple of those will be accompanied by coleslaw made with cabbage, carrot, onion, courgette and Tosca's everyday mayonnaise.  We'll just ignore the Asorbic Acid for now ;)