As I've previously stated, week days are far more relaxed for me than weekends. And by relaxed I mean that I spend most of it in front of my computer at work, swearing a whole lot. The experiment doesn't really affect my life during the week at all.
The food part of the experiment is going really well. Lunch this week was kale, cabbage and chickpea salad. I'm nearly out of chickpeas but complementing the protein-filled legumes with seasonal vegetables was a real success. I made dressing out of tahini, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, miso paste and some salt and pepper. It was a tasty lunch and I didn't mind having it every day this week (I had to eat all of the kale and cabbage before it went bad!).
Of an evening I normally eat left over food that I've cooked on the weekend interspersed with cooking with other people at their house or mine. This week's highlights included teriyaki soba noodles at a friend's house, cooking a vegan version of mung dahl with Leif at my house and finally using some of that tofu I stockpiled before the experiment began to make frittata.
My stockpile of dried goods is quite quickly going down and I'm a little proud of the new recipes I've been trying to use up some of the goods I have. I came across the Think, Eat, Save campaign this week which I think ties in really well with what I'm trying to do. If you follow the link there is a list of suggestions of things you can do to try to reduce your 'foodprint'; from eating food that is already in your fridge or cupboard before you go out to buy more to buying funny shaped vegetables and fruit. I think they are fantastic ideas and I've been trying to incorporate them into my experiment. Also, if you have leftover food in your fridge or cupboard that is about to go to waste then check out the Love Food Hate Waste website which has some great recipe suggestions for food you would otherwise throw out.
I did have to break some rules of spending this week. Firstly, I had to pay the parking fine. Secondly, I had to go back to the doctor and get more antibiotics. And this time it wasn't at midnight on a Sunday so the medication wasn't free. But if I'm going to break my rules for something then I'm glad it was for medicine and not because I collapsed under the stress of not being able to bid on eBay. Also, the experiment has taught me to be a little more patient with my health and a little more cautious with funding so I actually spoke to the doctor this time about long term solutions so that I don't need to keep coming back to the doctor and getting more antibiotics which will help take some strain off the NHS and will maybe prevent me from being the person to create the ginormous-antibiotic-resistant-super-bug.
The only other spending I did this week was for my fresh vegetables. I went back to the same farm store, although paying £30 for a basketful of vegetables does seem a little bit excessive so I'm not too sure how long that will last. I think I will keep going back there until I've full considered the benefits and drawbacks of buying locally and from small stores as opposed to buying from large supermarkets who are not locally owned and import most of their goods from very distant places.
On the topic of food, I also joined FoodCycle this week. They are an organisation that takes surplus food from supermarkets and turns it into nutritious vegetarian meals for people affected by food poverty in the UK. They rely on volunteers so I thought that I would sign up. Volunteering is free and I'll get to scope out the best places for surplus food!
The food part of the experiment is going really well. Lunch this week was kale, cabbage and chickpea salad. I'm nearly out of chickpeas but complementing the protein-filled legumes with seasonal vegetables was a real success. I made dressing out of tahini, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, soy sauce, miso paste and some salt and pepper. It was a tasty lunch and I didn't mind having it every day this week (I had to eat all of the kale and cabbage before it went bad!).
Of an evening I normally eat left over food that I've cooked on the weekend interspersed with cooking with other people at their house or mine. This week's highlights included teriyaki soba noodles at a friend's house, cooking a vegan version of mung dahl with Leif at my house and finally using some of that tofu I stockpiled before the experiment began to make frittata.
My stockpile of dried goods is quite quickly going down and I'm a little proud of the new recipes I've been trying to use up some of the goods I have. I came across the Think, Eat, Save campaign this week which I think ties in really well with what I'm trying to do. If you follow the link there is a list of suggestions of things you can do to try to reduce your 'foodprint'; from eating food that is already in your fridge or cupboard before you go out to buy more to buying funny shaped vegetables and fruit. I think they are fantastic ideas and I've been trying to incorporate them into my experiment. Also, if you have leftover food in your fridge or cupboard that is about to go to waste then check out the Love Food Hate Waste website which has some great recipe suggestions for food you would otherwise throw out.
I did have to break some rules of spending this week. Firstly, I had to pay the parking fine. Secondly, I had to go back to the doctor and get more antibiotics. And this time it wasn't at midnight on a Sunday so the medication wasn't free. But if I'm going to break my rules for something then I'm glad it was for medicine and not because I collapsed under the stress of not being able to bid on eBay. Also, the experiment has taught me to be a little more patient with my health and a little more cautious with funding so I actually spoke to the doctor this time about long term solutions so that I don't need to keep coming back to the doctor and getting more antibiotics which will help take some strain off the NHS and will maybe prevent me from being the person to create the ginormous-antibiotic-resistant-super-bug.
The only other spending I did this week was for my fresh vegetables. I went back to the same farm store, although paying £30 for a basketful of vegetables does seem a little bit excessive so I'm not too sure how long that will last. I think I will keep going back there until I've full considered the benefits and drawbacks of buying locally and from small stores as opposed to buying from large supermarkets who are not locally owned and import most of their goods from very distant places.
On the topic of food, I also joined FoodCycle this week. They are an organisation that takes surplus food from supermarkets and turns it into nutritious vegetarian meals for people affected by food poverty in the UK. They rely on volunteers so I thought that I would sign up. Volunteering is free and I'll get to scope out the best places for surplus food!
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