Hungry already
1pm: The morning started with a hurried bowl of Basics Cornflakes. For 49p a box these are great. They’re not Kellogs, but they’re tasty all the same.
My homemade sandwich for lunch (chicken, mayo, lettuce, valued at £1 or so) was just fine, and I murderously devoured the apple I’d brought as a snack, too. This will be my lunch every day for the rest of this week.
What occurs to me most at the moment is that I’m hungry. This month wasn’t supposed to be a diet of any kind but it’s very interesting how restricted I feel about my food. Normally when I’m hungry, I just eat more, and if I run out of food, I buy more.
Since I’m working to a strict budget I can’t knowingly binge on a load of food when I know there’s no scope for just buying more. What I have in my cupboards at the moment has to last two weeks, so I am forced to think about my portions carefully and not overdo it, or the whole experiment will fail. I wonder, has anyone ever dietted where the restriction was not calories, but price?
I certainly intend to eat as ‘normally’ as I can without restricting portion size where possible, and I thoroughly intend to make use of the cocoa powder I spotted in my cupboard by making some brownies tonight. With a few of the right ingredients it should be a bargainous treat that’ll last several days. Results to be posted later.
8pm: Tea tonight was a couple of potatos sliced and baked with rosemary, with a bit of lettuce, and chicken breast flavoured with a bit of paprika. Might sound a bit mish-mash but it was a decent meal that filled me up.
Straight after that I set to work on my aforementioned brownie. I was forced to buy chocolate for this and spent £1.60 on two 140g bars of Cadburys Dairy Milk. I wasn’t planning on buying branded (Sainsburys do awesome ‘basics’ chocolate bars for 25p), but I had no choice today as I wasn’t passing anywhere that sold the cheap stuff. Smack my hands.
Shortly after starting I realised I didn’t have the shallow baking tray needed for brownies. What I did have however was a small bread tin, so I have instead baked a massive brownie cake. It’s currently cooling but an initial taste test confirms its probably the NICEST thing I’ve ever made. It’s all I can do to resist mashing my face into the tray and eating it all in one go. Recipe was c/o Jamie Oliver.
Tags: brownies diet hunger
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
A man who bakes(!)
This is really interesting, I look forwards to see how you get along. I’ve just come home from living on my own for a while and I admit the food got very repetitive (for example, it’s impossible to buy a single portion of chicken) and I ended up making lots of soup to save the vegetables!
I realise I’m late to the party with suggestions - but how about adding in a little thought about how ethical your food is? You’re certainly not going to be buying the free range stuff, or organically farmed. I bet your E-number intake goes up too. The cheapest options aren’t going to be the healthiest.
(Another thing I used to do with spare veg if I had the time was to slice them thin, marinade them in a little oil and lots of pepper/spice then bake them in the oven - voila, moist crisp like thins. Great for extra parsnips and sweet potatoes. Not sure how long they last for though, they never stuck around long)
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
The hungry thing is because you know you are on a budget and have to watch what you eat. Kind of like sticking a huge button in front of yourself with a sign saying “Don’t press this!”
It will pass.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
I’m loving reading this so far!
Here’s a quick, easy, cheap meal idea, for Mac&Cheese (or whatever kinda pasta you have in your cupboard).
About 1 cup of dry pasta will make a fairly large portion size. Put it into boil, then mix about 4-6 fl oz of milk with a heaped teaspoon of cornflour and some cracked black pepper. Grate about a small handful of cheddar cheese.
Drain the pasta. Put the ring on a low heat, then add the milk/cornflour/pepper mix and STIR LIKE ALL HELL. Do NOT leave it for more than a few seconds because as soon as it starts thickening it’ll stick and burn. (I speak from experience.) Once the white sauce gets to a nice consistency (if it gets too thick just add a little more milk), take it off the heat and stir in the cheese.
Voila! Hope you like it; this is one of my favourite recipes. It’ll fill you up really nicely and of course you’ll get plenty of carbs, protein and calcium.
Good luck!
July 6th, 2008 at 11:54 am
you can get 1.4kg of the dubiously named Chicken Breasts from ASDA for 4 quid. Freeze em and they will last forever.
Sausage and mash. Also v cheap.
If you like soup, invest in a £5 whizzer from Tesco, make up a load of soup in bulk and freeze them and all.
I love this site. I will be coming here every day!
July 16th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
You should come and join us at http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33
You will find lots of like minded people who are trying to save money.