Day Seven - Saturday 7th Feb

First week - done. I'll be honest and say that in some ways it was harder, but in others it was much easier than I thought it was going to be. Firstly, I couldn't shop the way I normally do; which is to buy what I like the look of and then make something out of it. In order keep to the budget, I had to be as strict as my Father-In-Law on Burns night* with what I needed and never deviate from the list. Secondly, as I had expected on week one, there just wasn't room for anything particularly punchy. I didn't quite realise how much I would miss things like condiments or chilli. Oh, and speaking of Chilli, it has now graduated to a proper noun. Yes, along with Mrs P. and The Child, there is now another entity living in this house and that is Chilli. I had no idea how much it meant to me before this week. I survived without it, but probably only by God's divine intervention. And boy, was I glad when it came back. 

So, down to business. The list for this week included a re-fresh of the basics, carrot, onion celery etc, etc. However, this week because we already had a base level in the cupboards we could also include spices and condiments like ketchup, white wine vinegar and smoked paprika. You only need a little bit of punchy flavour to make 'standard' dishes 'stand out'. I've gone for the cheaper versions here because I'm still building up momentum but in time, because you are only buying one at a time, you can go for the better quality versions. See the full list here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/owngjgm6w2ro4x1/Weekly%20shopping%20budget.xlsx?dl=0

Current cost is at £48.90 but I've still need to get something sorted for Valentines night on Saturday which will need to look expensive, so that's a circle I've still got to square.

The different meals planned for this week:

Sunday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - roast chicken and trimmings
Dinner - chicken leftovers/sandwiches

Monday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - salad/sandwich
Dinner - chicken fajitas

Tuesday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - left over fajitas
Dinner - baked potato with tuna + sweetcorn + salad

Wednesday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Soup and bread rolls
Dinner - Lasagne

Thursday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Soup and bread rolls
Dinner - Chicken & mushroom risotto

Friday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - salad/sandwich
Dinner - Chicken nuggets, wedges and beans/salad

Saturday
Breakfast - porridge/toast/cereal
Lunch - Risotto balls & salad
Dinner - Valentines dinner - TBC

You've probably noticed a significant change in the lunch menu, to avoid 'h-angry' times and for the sake of the sanity of the household I understood in no uncertain terms that lunches had be beefed up. Tomorrow I've got a serious day of cooking; I'll be making the roast, soup and lasagne for the week, that way, the week will hopefully be as smooth as possible. Again, we've got a bias on fresh veg. I find it relatively easy to include veg into our diet, either obviously, as crunchy uncooked veg on the side, or sneaky ninja style squeezed under the radar in the fajitas, lasagne or risotto. Either way, I'm pleased with the volume we've managed to get through this week and expect that to continue.

Tonight we made our own pizza and I have to say that considering the constraints they really were amazeballs even if I do say so myself! I've looked around for years and amassed a few pizza recipes until we found the below recipe for crispy naples-style thin crust pizza that is so easy, cheap and tasty that you'll be surprised you've never done it before. It does take a little practice so if it doesn't quite work out the first time just have another go.

Makes 3 to 4 medium sized pizzas and our normal recipe is below, but due to store cupboard restrictions, tonight we made do with what we had... still worked a treat though!

Before doing anything else, first crank your oven up the highest it can go - this will only work if you can get up to at least 220 degrees or higher. You've got to get it right up there to the upper limit.

Next, get 600g of strong bread flour or type '00' flour and sieve it onto your work top and crush a good pinch of really good sea salt over the top.

Then, mix 3.5g of fast acting yeast, 1 teaspoon of golden caster sugar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 325ml of warm water in a bowl until it's all blended. Pour the mixture into the flour in little bits until you've mixed all the liquid into the flour. Mix and knead the dough until smooth and elasticky - should take about five minutes.

Leave the dough in a bowl for 15 mins while you make your tomato sauce and get your toppings together.  For our homemade passata we used 3 chopped fresh tomatoes, a clove of garlic and half an onion, a sprinkling of sugar and a pinch of salt all sweated down with half a tin of chopped tomatoes.  We blended ours until smooth, but chunky works just fine too.

When everything is rested, cooked and prepped as appropriate, divide the dough into however many pizzas you want, dust the surface with more flour and roll out as thin as you dare. The thinner your roll, the crisper it gets and the quicker you can eat it. 

Put the dough on a flat baking tray.  We topped with the sauce, mozzarella, sliced tomatoes, sweetcorn, left over pepper and basil from last week and the Chillis and rocket from the next shop.

Into the inferno heat of Hades it goes and 8-10 minutes later you can retrieve a delicious, crispy delight. Honestly, give it a go, you won't regret it.




*Private joke alert!