Secret £7 Food Challenge. Challenge Within a Challenge.

Yesterday I blogged about a weekend of decadence... and here's a photo of the stash of bought and blagged books and things from Brighton and World Fantasy Convention. Unfortunately all the red velvet cupcakes are in my belly already...

...which reminds me, there was a sweet moment at the launch of Colder, Greyer Stones, when Tannith Lee asked me what my "Cake Pigeon" tee-shirt was about, and I explained it was a Sarah Millican joke. It involved me doing some cooing.

Anyway... the cupcakes are gone. Life has returned to post-convention mundanity. I have paid for a cinema treat at the end of the month, and am building savings up by making cutbacks. We've gone a bit off-plan and need to get back on track with big, scary bills of the present and future. But I want to make sure OH doesn't feel deprived. He's got to have an operation and take time off work. He has plenty of books to get through while he is recuperating, at least.

So, when I say I am taking on Stacey at Mortgage Free Journey's £7 food challenge, my challenge will not be including OH. He can wander off the plan with impunity. However, I will be budgeting his meals into the plan and hoping it's satisfactory for him. I'll be using up some of the things from our chest freezer to make the budget stretch. Bear in mind, we have lots of tins and things in, but hardly any fresh stuff left at all!

Anyway, I'm 2 days in, so here's what I've managed so far.

Day 1: Breakfast: me, wheat biscuits, maple syrup, milk - already bought. Him - nothing, he rarely eats breakfast.
Lunch: both of us, egg and salad cream sandwiches, Satsuma/plum. already bought.
Treats: me, someone brought in leftover Halloween chocolate.  OH made himself a fried egg sandwich in the afternoon.
Dinner: Smoked Salmon spaghetti. This was made with smoked salmon trimmings from the freezer, a small onion, clove of garlic, half a small tin of sweetcorn and some Elmlea single we had to use up, slightly thickened with cornflour, seasoned with nutmeg and parsley, and served with spaghetti.Yum!
Shopping: cucumber 40p and fish paste 25p

I didn't buy any bread. Made my own, nur!

I made this. Mmm. Arg.

 Day 2:

Breakfast: porridge and maple syrup. I make my porridge with water and just add a splash of milk at the end.

Lunch: fish paste and cucumber sandwiches - with homemade bread!

Treats: a handful of chilli crisps and more sweets left over from someone's party

Dinner: Pork steaks marinaded in maple syrup, lemon juice, garlic and rosemary, grilled. Served with potato and swede mash, with a bit of nutmeg, gravy made from stock/cornflour and veg juices, steamed carrots and leeks (I steam the veg above the potatoes - saves energy as well as retaining the flavour better). Sorry, the brown nature of my kitchen gives everything a sheen of the 70s. It was very tasty. However, OH wanted pudding so I made pancakes, served with homemade blackberry jam.

Shopping: Poor pickings in my local Asda. I only bought onions, 29p. Off to Aldi tomorrow.

 

 

Total spend this week: 94p.

Anyone else tempted to join in?