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.
