I Don’t Know Why I Bought The Sausages!

I don’t know why I bought the sausages! What we ate this week

Well, after the haphazard week last week, I am pleased to say that this week has been a little more organised! It is also the week when I decided, once and for all to try and stick to a 70 Euro a week budget. We’ll see how it goes, maybe I am being a bit optimistic.

I’m rubbish at sticking to a budget where food is concerned and when I decided I would do this, the first thing I bought was 3 of our local butcher’s homemade catalan sausages. Why? I don’t think I’ve bought these all year and at €7.50 a kilo it’s not the most sensible thing to buy I’m sure. My fruit and veggies spend at the market was a reasonable €12,40 and it’s just as well the nut lady wasn’t there otherwise I would have blown half my budget on nuts!

This is what we ate this week

Saturday

• Breakfast – Mac had granola and milk, Nico and I had toast with honey
• Lunch – Nico and I had a ham salad sandwich, Mac had pan con tomate
• Dinner – Herby roasted chicken and salad

Sunday

• Breakfast – Overnight oats with banana , berries and honey
• Lunch – Salad
• Dinner – leftover chicken with tomato and chickpea salad

Monday

• Breakfast – Overnight oats with peaches and honey
• Lunch – Smashed chickpea salad sandwich
• Dinner – Huevos rancheros (with black beans and egg this time!)

Tuesday

• Breakfast – Overnight oats with banana and nuts and honey
• Lunch – Leftover smashed chickpea salad (nico had two of the catalan sausages)
• Dinner – Chili con carne with basmati rice

Wednesday  

• Breakfast –  A plate of  fruit
• Lunch – Salad, using bits and bobs in the fridge and the leftover catalan sausage I divided into three
• Dinner – Leftover chili

Thursday 

• Breakfast – overnight oats with banana and hazelnuts
• Lunch – there was a tiny bit of chilli left over so Mac and I had that with salad, Nico had ham salad
• Dinner – white bean and green bean thing with cabbage  which is a variation of one of the first things I made when we got back from hospital.

Friday

• Breakfast – Huevos Rancheros
• Lunch – Leftover beans and cabbage with salad
• Dinner –  Kind of a ratatouille with lentils

Snacks have been granola, wholemeal biscuits, fruit and nuts. For dessert most nights Mac has had yoghurt and fruit and I’ve had a couple of squares of dark chocolate a couple of times.

Things to note:

I don’t know why I bought the sausages! They are handmade so not full of processed crap, but they are not as healthy as pork fillet or chicken breast for example, and actually more expensive per kilo. Nico asked, and I said yes – maybe I’m still worrying about starving him.

I also bought some sliced cooked ham by mistake, totally forgetting that Nico is not at school now, so doesn’t need a sandwich at mid morning. I’ve decided no more easy, convenient things like sliced ham, especially the pre-packed stuff which has 3g of salt per 100g!

My meal planning still needs work

It’s been so hot this week again and chilli is probably not the best thing to be eating, but I’m lacking inspiration, I tend to buy lots of vegetables and then struggle with what to make. My planning still needs work and while I am sticking to a budget (or trying to) I think choosing proper meat and having smallish portions of that with loads of veg/salad is something to work towards. I don’t know why I do this, but sometimes do the complete opposite of what I intend….?

The other thing about the planning is that sometimes, it goes out of the window. I spend ages planning and deciding what to eat then when I go shopping, half of the ingredients might not be available. We’re trying to shop and eat local and seasonal as much as we can, but that can be a struggle at times too.

We had cups of tea and even breakfast at the top of a mountain twice this week, it was so good.

I found a new recipe for herby roasted chicken and I skipped the white wine and used oregano instead of parsley and it was really delicious, I think our taste buds are getting used to not having salt. I also didn’t use the butter although I am not as afraid of it as I was!

Our salads need livening up a little I think! I really pushed the boat out and added brown rice and chickpeas to one of our salads this week, I also remembered to sprout some lentils so have had sprouts too, but usually I just serve lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber –booooring!

Any interesting salad ideas would be appreciated and what did you eat this week?