Food in the week ahead on the challenge

Thinking about the week ahead, I am going to be out of time nearly everyday. It is World Book Day on Thursday and I have three book events to do for schools as well as organising the FH in his drops round the preschools and nurseries. Add to that the gym sessions for the week, Women's World Day of Prayer service on Friday lunchtime and picking up the girls from after school activities and it all gets a bit fuzzy!

The menu looks like this so far:
Monday: Macaroni cheese and broccoli bake
Tuesday: Pasta and sauce
Wednesday: Chicken casserole
Thursday: Vegetable rissotto
Friday: Corned Beef Hash
Saturday: HM Pizzas

Two pasta days consecutively is unusual, but this week there is hardly time to eat let alone cook on occasional evenings, so we just have to go for things which are quick to prepare and filling without being fancy! The only thing that I can see being bought for that menu is mozzarella cheese for the pizzas, and that costs about 47p. We'll need fruit later in the week, but we are OK this end. It is the lunchbox fruit and veg which is the hardest for the YFG - she hates oranges, loves grapes, will only take a couple of bites out of a whole apple but won't allow me to cut one up for her. She will take a carrot though, so it looks like she may be taking more carrots at the moment, as the budget would be severely stretched if I tried to give her grapes every day. The EFG on the other hand, loves oranges, clementines, etc and happily takes two each day.

I have made a sponge cake for tea, but now I need to go and make some carrot cake for the snacks and lunchboxes. I am also going to see if I can find a packet of digestive biscuits lurking anywhere - if I can, then refrigerator cake could be on the plan this week as well.

Spending update

All this economising means that I am baking a little more so since the girls in the garden are not yet in full production, I had to buy some eggs today - and I also managed to find a couple of loaves of bread at very reduced prices. Today's shopping basket at Tesco:
Wholemeal loaf 19p
Malted brown loaf 15p
Cinammon bun for YFG 89p
Value eggs 2.98 (Yes, I have some guilt over this, but I am being very kind to my chickens, so I can't have it both ways - and 30 eggs for this price makes a big difference to the budget!)
So that lot came to £4.21, and then I bought a big bag each of carrots and parsnips on the way home from the stall at the roadside, at £1 a bag, so another £2 to add to the total.

So £6.21 spent and thus a remaining balance of £80.76.

And how has the menu plan been progressing? Quite well, really! The YFG was out for tea on Thursday, so the remaining three of us all had chicken curry, meaning that there was none left for me to have as leftovers on Friday. I had cold corned beef instead, with potatoes and veggies, so that was OK. Today, the Toad in the Hole has been eagerly awaited and all eaten, and we have a chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow. I'll have a root around in the freezers and start to think about next week's plan tomorrow.

Other happenings this week have included our neighbour's mum, J, returning to Cyprus after an extended holiday here since the beginning of December. We will miss her, as I am sure that they will, and we hope that she gets safely home tonight.

Dad has been having various tests at the doctor's since his return home, and to add to his problems, the starter motor on his car died this morning, so he is not happy! I bought some vegetables for him at the stall today, so I may have to take them over to him later in the week.

The chickens are rather muddy again - frosty weather has its merits as it freezes the ground and makes life easier for them. Heavy rain has made the hen run rather muddy and I fear that tomorrow's forecast downpours will not help matters. I'm really hoping for a drier month in March!!

The preacher booked to come to take our service in the morning has been taken ill so the steward spoke to me last night and asked me to take the service. At short notice, I have prepared a service in the last hour and a half, and I am hoping that it will run OK. The YFG has declared that the last one I took was "boring" so I hope that this one is more interesting for her. Perhaps I work better under pressure!

We are all working hard at gymnastics to prepare the children for the competition they are entering on 14 March. We are taking about 28 or 29 children this year, so we are pressed for time for practising; to that end, we had an extra hour at gym today, so we were training until 2pm, and we will do that for the next two Saturdays. It doesn't sound like much, but an hour makes all the difference to how much we get done in the session.

Off to bed now - goodnight all!

First shop and the menu planning

Today I did a menu plan for the coming week, based mainly on what I know is in the freezers and cupboards.

Today: Lasagne for the gang and a shepherd's pie variation for me
Wed: Fish pie/fish and veg for me
Thursday: HM Chicken nuggets and wedges/Chicken curry and rice
Friday: Pie and veg/Leftover curry for me
Saturday: Toad in the Hole/Sausages with veg
Sunday: Roast Chicken
Monday: Macaroni cheese/Leftovers

You can see from that that we are all basically eating the same thing with some slight modifications for me, to accommodate the dietary restrictions I have. Puddings are occasional and usually crumbles or quick microwave sponge puds. The EFG made Angel Delight again for a treat tonight, but that is that and there won't be any more for a while!

Breakfast - we are not a cereal family:
The EFG usually has toast, the FH has porridge or fruit, I usually have fruit or occasionally porridge, and the YFG is a challenge to get to eat much - it varies between toasted cheese sandwiches, eggy bread, bacon sandwiches (when there is any bacon), toast, and sometimes scrambled egg or a boiled egg. I do sometimes make pancakes for everyone, too.

Lunches - the packed lunches are basic - sandwich, HM cake or biscuit, fruit, and a drink. Sometimes they want a carrot, or some popcorn as an alternative or as an extra if they are feeling hungry! At home, we eat soup, leftovers or baked potatoes usually.

We were running out of fresh fruit and veg so I have had to go shopping tonight when we came out of gym. I bought:

2 Savoy cabbages @ 50p each
2.4kg carrots for £1.50
2 large heads of broccoli for £1.50 (670g altogether)
2 bags clementines for £3
1kg of parsnips for 70p (reduced)
Bag of apples £1.54
Mushrooms 79p
Rashers of back bacon £2
Pkt Rocky bars £1
Total spent £13.03 - total remaining £86.97

Still going strong!

We have come through the weekend without spending anything from the £100 budget so I am pleased. I have spent both days watching a gymnastic training course for coaches in Peterborough, so my opportunities for spending were limited anyway!!

There is a "spend" happening tonight but I'm not making it and it is not coming out of my £100.....yesterday the FH made Toad in the Hole whilst I was out, and although I specifically said not to use my wheat-free flour, that is exactly what he did use, and I was fuming when I found out, for two reasons - I had only half a bag left and wanted to make it last as long as I could AND it costs so much more than the normal flour I buy: compare Dove's Farm wheat free flour at £1.88 a kilo, to Sainsbury's or Tesco Value at 43p for 1.5kg and you see that it is horrendously expensive compared to the usual wheat flour. SO I have asked him to replace the Dove's Farm flour for me.

I got up at 5am to make the scones for the dance on Saturday, so I managed to complete on that promise. I split and buttered them when I got home in the evening. Putting a chicken in the slow cooker meant that the FH just had to do some veggies and we had a hot meal almost ready when the YFG and I got home at 5.30pm. The dance was great, but the girls and I left at 9.30pm as we had another early start yesterday. The FH and UJ stayed until about 11pm and came home with three raffle prizes between them - a basket of fruit, chocolates and some bath items.

Sunday was fine until we got into town to pick up the people we were taking to Peterborough with us and it started to snow heavily - and continued all the way there, getting heavier and the roads seeming to be untreated, especially in Peterborough; I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we parked at the gym eventually! The relief was all the more when we came out at 4pm and found all the snow melted away and bright sunshine everywhere.

Today has been good so far as I have done some catching up on the housework and laundry, been to a church meeting this afternoon to the Worship Leaders course - the last meeting for that, so we were told we had passed and given a certificate! The FH has now taken the EFG off to band practice, the YFG has her friend here and they are watching a DVD upstairs, so I am thinking of cooking the tea soon. I just have an 8pm Education Foundation meeting tonight and that will be that. Just got a little ironing to do now whilst I watch the news and then I'll start on the tea.

Day three

We were relieved and disappointed (adults then children in that order) to see that the temperature had risen overnight and so there was no snow at all this morning - even that which fell last night had disappeared....

A bit of a slow start to the day, but then we exploded into action, baked a cake, took the old Volvo to the scrapyard and got £45 for it, came home and ate a quick jacket potato and then the YFG and I trundled off to town, to pick up rabbit/chicken feed, pop a couple of cheques into the bank and go to gymnastics. The EFG and the FH have gone to Ely Cathedral to a SSAFA concert - the Royal Marines (Collingwood) band are giving a concert so they have gone to that. Tickets were bought prior to the challenge, so that is OK!

Tonight I am supposed to be making about 100 cheese scones for the dance we are holding for the church tomorrow, but I am also thinking about the fact I need to get up at about 5am in the morning and wondering whether my brain and body really need to go to bed NOW and maybe make the scones in the morning. I need to leave the house at 7.30am so perhaps there is time to make them fresh in the morning IF I get all the ingredients ready and the trays laid out tonight.

Snow's back

That says it all - it snowed heavily on the way home from Peterborough and continued for some hours after we had arrived home. Heavy snow is forecast for tonight, so we will open the curtains with bated breath in the morning!!

Another good day

It was good overall although it had its ups and downs.

The YFG wanted to go ice skating in Peterborough this week, so since I could combine the trip with a work-related pickup there, I took her today. The biggest down of the day was that on arrival at Planet Ice, the car park was absolutely fit to burst (it HAD burst - all over the double yellows out front, into the neighbouring car parks, etc) and there was a very long queue snaking out the door. We gave it a miss. I did the work pickup and then we headed off to Hampton as she had some money she wanted to spend on a new purse.

The EFG spent the afternoon at home, although she invited a friend round and they played on the Wii and watched a DVD. I was glad to get home to the fire at 4.30pm.

This evening's meal has been chicken curry and then a concoction made from slightly stale ginger cake, a banana and some banana-flavoured Angel Delight. Another No Spend Day for me and the household budget, so I was pleased.

This challenge is also going to teach us some patience: the girls are keen for me to pre-order the New Moon DVD in the Twilight series which will come out on March 22nd, but I am holding out until after the end of the challenge. I had to pass over two books I would have loved to have bought in WHSmith today, so it is not all a breeze!