Menu planning

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Jo

A little bit of batch cooking and the menu plan for this week is:

Breakfasts: Monday to Friday – organic whey protein shake

Lunches: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – curried parsnip soup, home made salad with turkey breast (eating out on Wedesday with work colleagues).

Dinner: Monday – Yellow Thai Fish Curry, Tuesday/Wednesday – Jambalaya. Thursday and Friday – Goan Fish Curry.

Posted in Food | Leave a comment

Food audit and menu planning

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Jo

I seem, post Christmas, to have a bit of an overabundance of food – mostly fresh – and a well stocked freezer.  The aim for January is:

  1. to have as many no spend days as possible
  2. take lunch to work every day avoiding the temptations of cafes
  3. live from the fridge and freezer as much as possible
  4. eat healthy – juggle my macros (protein 25%, carbs 30%,  fat 45%) and aim to keep the carbs under 150gm/day and sugar under 80gm/day.

Considering what I have in stock that should be very easily do-able!

Store cupboard: 400gm cans 1 x chickpeans, coconut milk, chopped tomatoes. More herbs and spices than anyone would credit, 2 x half full jars of honey and one full one. Bag of apricots, small jaor of flaked almonds and brazil nuts, small har of cashew butter. Three bags of microwaveable rice – basmati, pilau and wholemeal long gran. Porrage oats, ground flaxseeds, small handful of raisins, handful of linseeds, large box of cousous, packet of jasnine rice and pack of wild rice.

Dairy, cheese, meat, fish (fresh): 6 eggs, pancetta x 200g, half pot greek yoghurt, 250gm of wensleydale cheese with cramberries, 2 alf wheels of Stilton (454gm each),  fresh chicken breast x 2, cod fillets x 2, prawns x 1 pack.

Vegetables: pack of beetroot in vinegar,  lots of carrots, lots of parnsips, leeks x 3, courgettes x 3, baby fennel x 3,  red peppers x 3 (1 long, 2 oval),  chestnut mushrooms x 1 punnet, portobello mushrooms x 2, small cabbage, cauliflower (2 small, 1 medium), chard, small iceberg lettuce,  2 packs green beans (440gm),  baby plum tomatoes x 2 packs (500gm), celery (500gm), red onions (3 medium, 4 small), red cabbage (quarter), sweet potatoes (2 medium, 3 small).

Fruit:  cherries (200gm), blueberries (60gm),  apples (3 small, 2 medium),  clementines x 5, lemon x 1, lime x 1, bananas x 4, pears x 4, oranges x  2 medium.

Freezer: brocolli & cauliflower florets (900gm),  peas (1 portion),  New Covent Garden Soup – Tomato and Spinach,  haddock fillets x 5, cod fillets x 5, hake fillets x 5, everyday white fish fillets (500g),  chicken portions 2kg, brocolli (half bag), peas (half bag),  mixed veg bag (carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli) 1.3kg.

There’s a bag of organic whey protein shake too.

There’s at least 30 evening meals there, breafasts for most of the month (at the moment this has been a protein shake), and lunches for around half the month. Lunch at the moment is a portion of home made soup (this week Spicy Parsnip) with a salad and protein source.  I may need to buy more leafy green salad at some point.

This weekend will involve some menu plannig and a bit of batch cooking.

Posted in Food, Health & Fitness, Money | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

New year, new plans!

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Jo

vigo

An inauspicious start to the year – 3 days on the couch with the cold from hell – has at least given me thinking time for what I want to achieve in 2016. And it’s all about health, consumption (or lack of it), finances, stuff, gardening and volunteering.

Health
Working out with a PT three times a week for the last year means I’m starting 2016 fitter, stronger and more flexible than in previous years! In 2016 I will:

  1. continue with the PT sessions three times a week (2 weights based and 1 boxing)
  2. squeeze in some additional solo cardio and stretching sessions
  3. eat better
  • get back to taking lunch into work (saving money!)
  • track my macros (crabs/protein/fats) to maximise training gains
  • dust off my cookbooks and try at least 1-2 new recipes a week (including vegan)
  • grow more food at home and on my allotment

Consumption
I bought less in 2015 (fewer books, clothes, DVDs etc) but I still spent/consumed a lot from places like Starbucks, Itsu and Abokado! In 2016 I will:

  1. buy less (see Stuff below) and consume less
  2. make sure any consumption is conscious rather than unconscious

Finances
Consuming less leads neatly into financial probity. I’m in the lucky position of having paid my mortgage but am carrying a couple of modest loans which I’d like to pay off ASAP. There’s also a couple of significant spend items this year – a friend’s wedding in Scicily in August and the potential need for a replacement laptop. In 2016 I will:

  1. plan my finances – I’ve got good data for 2015 so can forward plan for 2016
  2. look at clearing debts as fast as possible
  3. have as many no spend days as I can
  4. save for fun stuff

Stuff
After reading a number of minimalist and frugal blogs in autumn 2015 I took a first sweep of my flat and got rid of some stuff as well as making a pretty comprehensive inventory. The upside of this is the realisation that I’ve (probably) got enough toiletries, notebooks, fiction, CDs/DVDs, clothes and veg/flower seeds to see me through. So in 2016 I will:

  1. reintroduce a regular movie night to watch my backlog of DVDs so they can be sold/donated
  2. listen to/rip to MP3s my CDs and then sell/donate, but keeping a select few
  3. start reading again on my morning/evening commute to reduce my giant pile of To Be Read books!
  4. commit again to Project 365 – aim to get at least 365 things (or more!) out of my living space in 2016 and abide by a 1 in, 1 out rule

Gardening and volunteering
These are tied together. I get a lot of enjoyment out of my tiny garden and always have plenty of colourful window boxes at the front of the house which the neighbours seem to enjoy too. I’ve got a modest sized allotment and am the social rep for my allotment committee. In 2016 I will:

  1. grow more flowers and veggies from seed rather than buying seedlings (saving money)
  2. spend more time on the allotment (for fun, social events and production)
  3. get back to volunteering more time with my local Transition Town group – again focusing on gardening and growing local projects.

It may sound like a lot but it’s not really. I was doing most of this in 2015 – just not as effectively as I would have liked in some cases!

Posted in Allotment, Books, Decluttering, Gardening, Money | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Monthly food/grocery shopping budget

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Jo

CS47516138

I confess to not being at all frugal in my food and household budgeting for the last few years. I think my budget has been running around £300 month (food and groceries for one person plus supplies for 2 cats).

I’ve mostly bought what I wanted when I wanted, more often than not from the smaller local Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s just for sheer convenience.  I’m also not much of a meal planner but manage to juggle things so I can whip something up pretty quickly when I get home at night and food doesn’t (very often) go to waste.  There’s the odd science experiment in the fridge during busy weeks at work with lots of early starts/late nights.  But generally I keep on top of rotating the food around and eating before the science experiments can start.

Continue reading →

Posted in Money | Tagged , | Leave a comment

365 things less Tuesday

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Jo

Like many other people I’m drowning in stuff. I’m a pack rat who keeps things because “one day they might be useful”, I’ve got drawers of clothes I never wear, craft supplies (jewellery, knitting, sewing) stashed in the attic, a weakness for gardening and cookery books, a serious sci-fi/fantasy reading habit of several decades duration and a magpie like ability to acquire pretty things.

Most of which is crammed into a small(ish) 1 bedroom flat in South London (with a bit of an overspill to the cottage in Wales).

A fire in the flat back in 2007 led to an unexpected declutter but things are getting a little bit crowded again and its time for a good sort out.

Project 365 having spent some time over the last couple of weeks reading a little around minimalism I thought having a shot at this may be fun. The idea being to eliminate 1 item a day from your home.  Or in my case find one item a day stockpile in a handy box or bag and then do a charity run every week or two!

Continue reading →

Posted in Decluttering | Tagged | Leave a comment