Day 21 - £2 a day on the radio!!

I was on the radio today talking about the £2 a day diet with Georgina Windsor. You can listen to it here for the next week. (If that link doesn't work, google "radio solent" and then find the "listen again" button and scroll down until you get to "Georgina Windsor". It only works for a week, though. Anyone know how to make an mp3 recording of it?

Mac thought I was too negative and kept talking about the limitations of the £2 a day diet, rather than stressing all the good food we've eaten. I guess I just didn't want people to think that it was super easy. Although I do stick by my statement that the math is the worst part about it.

I think Mac and I are really considering doing £3 next time we do it, so that we can have more dairy and fruit. Still, I think we're getting some great food. Check out the bright colours at the start of me making lentil soup:I am also happy to report that I am FINALLY caught up with all this math. I am also looking forward to the end of the month now that we're 2/3 of the way done so that I can put away the spreadsheet for a while. All the math drives me nuts. (It doesn't help that while I've been trying to update the blog over the last two days I've been distracting myself with episodes of Alias. That is precisely why we don't have a TV! I have so little willpower!)

Anyway, no more expensive ingredients, we survived (just about) the dinner party, and have almost nothing from the veg box left... We've found a risotto white bean recipe for tomorrow, and then will have spinach and kohl rabi to get us through Tuesday. I have no idea what that recipe will look like.

In a flash of foresight, Mac has ALREADY added up tomorrow's dinner, and I already have the figures for our lunch (which will be more lentil soup). This should prevent us from making more silly decisions to put us over our £2 a day limit.

What was organic/local today?
Organic - most of the soda bread I made (plain flour, milk and white wine vinegar), the pate, peanut butter, couscous and raisins.
The haricot beans, chickpeas and tomatoes from lunch.
The lentils, potatoes, carrots, basil and oregano from dinner.
Local - the butter, aubergine from lunch, and rapeseed oil.


Lentil Soup
Serves at LEAST 6. Possibly more, but we'll have to wait and see!
£1.82 total, 30p per serving, maybe less.

Ingredients
1 onion, chopped (skipped. Mac doesn't like using red onions in place of onions... he swears it ruins the flavour. I'm happy to use garlic instead)
2T olive/rapeseed oil (30p)- the original calls for 4T. That's unnecessary.
2 carrots, sliced (Riverford)
2 stalks celery, chopped (skipped)
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped (15p)
1tsp dried oregano (I used a small handful of fresh from our garden)
1 bay leaf (less than 1p)
1tsp dried basil (a small handful fresh from our windowsill)
1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes (I used half a can 37p... about 200g. That's nowhere near 14.5oz)
2 cups dry lentils (£1.00) (make sure you use brown or green or continental. Red goes well with OTHER recipes because it turns to mush!)
8 cups water (I could only fit 6 1/2 in my pan)
1/2c spinach, rinsed and thinly sliced (I forgot this!)
2T vinegar (I forgot this too, but I would use red wine vinegar... or actual red wine if you have it handy)
salt to taste
ground black pepper to taste

Directions
1. In a large soup pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, carrots, and celery; cook and stir until onion is tender. Stir in garlic, bay leaf, oregano, and basil; cook for 2 minutes.
2. Stir in lentils, and add water and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer for at least 1 hour. When ready to serve stir in spinach, and cook until it wilts. Stir in vinegar, and season to taste with salt and pepper, and more vinegar if desired.

The Breakdown:
Breakfast: toast with butter (10p) and then toast with pate (22p) for Mac. Toast with peanut butter (11p) and some more leftover couscous with raisins and cinammon and a dash of brown sugar for Megan (15p) plus a cup of tea (weird cardamom tea given to us by friends..I'm not really sure where it came from.)
Riverford: 75p
Lunch: Leftover potato salad and couscous salad for Mac--37p. Megan had leftover garden salad (all Riverford and garden!) and then a weird (and expensive at 71p) red lentil (35p), tomato paste (25p) and cumin (1p) concoction with a bit of chili flakes (2p) and a handful of quinoa (11p for about 40g).
Plus probably 4 cookies throughout the day for each of us - 26p Thankfully they are now all gone and won't be ruining our figures (the math kind or the waist kind).
Dinner: lentil and potato soup (30p) with a slice of bread (8p)

Total: Mac £2.08, Megan £2.36 (it's either the fault of all the cookies--although I still would have gone over--or the ridiculous lunch. Last time I throw things together without a recipe. I didn't even like the way it came out!)