I love a good faff in the kitchen. Mainly so I can avoid doing proper housework. It's what Sundays are perfect for.
So this morning I made a lovely big mess preparing food for the next week.
I made some lentil soup, which is DELICIOUS! If a little heavy on the garlic, and chapattis to go with it. I think, though, it might only stretch to 4 portions and Sophie showed a great deal of interest in it! Hopefully I have enough lentils to make another batch midweek. The stock cubes I added work out 2.5p each as I buy them in packs of 100. And the garlic powder around 5p. So that's an extra 10p on our total.
I cooked the chicken thighs then stripped them and made stock from the bones and the discarded bits of veg. I decided to save the skin to stick back in the oven another day as it seems a shame to waste and the others love crisp chicken skin.
I also prepped Iroog so it's ready to fry later in the week. This is a recipe from our Iraqi friend Abdul. And it's delish! When I checked alternate recipes online it even said that they are often served with lentil soup. So hopefully I'll have extras! I'm experimenting with my veggie version, and put some cooked lentils in. We'll see how it turns out.
I think having confidence in the kitchen is essential to succeed with this challenge. I couldn't have followed proper recipes for the things I made, I just adjusted to suit what we had enough of.
Apparently only a fifth of parents give their kids homecooked meals every day. And another fifth cook once a week or less. I'm not passing judgement, life gets really busy! I'm lucky that Les has the time, skills and inclination to make us some really good food. But if you don't know how to cook then getting the most out of your money is going to be even more challenging. And that can be a huge barrier to being healthy and raising healthy children.
I braved Asda at closing time. I was hoping for something good to put in the chicken stock to make some soup for Sophie (mainly to keep her grubby hands away from my lentil soup). The choice was limited but I came away with lots of stirfry veg and a bag of salad for the grand total of 25p. A saving of £3.35!
To be honest I wasn't sure whether it was a good buy. I've no idea what I'll have the salad with, and I hadn't planned a lot of stirfry! But decided to deconstruct the packets and use the individual bits. Sophie requested the carrot, squash, sweetcorn and red cabbage for her soup. I separated a bunch of cabbage which we could use as a side for later in the week, and the red pepper which both kids can have as a snack. The remaining veg will make a welcome addition to the instant noodles I'd planned to have one night.
There actually looks more after than before!
Wish us luck!!
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Every year you do this inflation must make it harder. Food prices seem much higher than a year ago and your kids are a year older and harder to fill. It's striking how much time you spend doing all this.
ReplyDeleteSobering to think we spent your whole weeks budget in Costa this morning on coffee and cake.
Sending positive vibes....
Thanks Tim. Your positive vibes definitely help :) Last year hardly anything had changed in price but some things definitely have this time around. That said milk is still less than £1 for 4 pints. And the meat hasn't really changed. But maybe that's a topic for another day! And you're right. I can have focus and energy because there's an outcome, and an end in sight. This amount of effort week in and week out would be awfully hard to sustain.
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