Here's how it went...
Day 1 (Thursday): All excited to start the challenge I arrived at my front door, groceries in hand, and felt for my keys in my bag. Uh oh. No keys. Called my boyfriend; it would take him an hour to get home. I visited the bottle shop next door, met my neighbour for the first time and he kindly kept my mince meat in the fridge while I waited in the pub. Hey, I was tired and hungry so I got some soup at the pub. This wasn’t a great start. I had to talk myself into cooking my spaghetti bol with red capsicum (peppers) at 10pm.
Day 2: Spag bol for lunch; dinner at a fancy Japanese restaurant for a friend’s birthday.
Day 3 (saturday): French toast for breakfast (at 1pm); ham and cheese sandwich for dinner.
Day 4 (sunday): Ham and cheese toasted sandwich for brunch. The last of the spag bol for dinner.
Day 5 (monday): Sandwich for lunch. Time for a new meal. Made chicken in mushroom sauce (made from cream of mushroom) with onions, mushrooms and zucchini (courgette) and rice.
Boyfriend bought me some microwave meals, uh oh, could I resist?
Day 6 (tuesday): Chicken and rice for lunch. Vegemite toast for dinner before drinks with friends. Probably more vegemite toast afterwards.
Day 7 (wednesday): Chicken and rice for lunch. Vegemite toast for dinner before drinks with friends. Some more chicken and rice for dinner (there is still some in my freezer).
So I made it! It didn't end up being the healthiest diet ever but that's to be expected when I'm not willing to spend any money on food!
I was actually quite surprised by how affordable basic cooking was. I always tend to cook enormous quantities and that way it lasts a fair few meals and also I freeze some for later. The most expensive thing was the mince meat and chicken. Everything else was dirt cheap - the pasta, rice and a few veges.
So what now? Well first of all I'm going to eat the microwave meals that are stockpiling up at home. Then I will start cooking at least once a week - this way I should have home cooked meals for around half of my meals.
I really love living life on the edge :)
Monday, 28 January 2008
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Mission Impossible: stop being trashy
I'm heading back to Sydney for a few weeks in March for Christina's wedding, yay! Really looking forward to seeing everyone and being home for a little while.
What I'm not looking forward to is a significant chunk of my pay going towards plane tickets. Memories too much canned food come back to me *shudder*. I was talking about this with friends at work today and they suggested I try cooking cheap meals instead of eating microwave dinners or cans every night.
Now it's not like I don't know how to cook, it's just that I have reservations about doing it every night. First of all, it can't be that cheap to buy all those ingredients for meals every day. Then there's the fact that after a long day at work you have to slave over the hot stove to make your meal. I think a lot of Londoners eat ready-made meals because they are just too hungry when they get home. There's also the washing up factor.
But the thought of all those cans in the cupboard made me consider it. Naomi suggested making minced meat and having it with different things each night. Peter mentioned cauliflower cheese. Elvira discussed a peppers (capsicum) and vege stir fry dish, and described how to cook nice rice.
The only way I can go through with anything longer than a day is to make it an official challenge, so here I am.
(BTW, I am not a person who makes new years' resolutions. I believe that if you want to change something about yourself you can start any day of the year.)
So the mission is to go for 1 week without eating a canned meal or microwave ready meal. I finished off my last microwave meal sadly, a yummy rosemary chicken with roast potatoes, hoping that my cooking skills develop a bit over this week.
1 week isn't that long, I know, but I cook something other than eggs about once a month so this is BIG. After 1 week I'll see how I feel.
My prediction? I imagine it will cost about the same as living on canned food and that I'll be well over it in 7 days' time. Doing it cheap means not very exotic ingredients, and probably many overlaps of meals. As for the health/body side of it, I'd imagine I'll be eating bigger servings for dinner and lunch this week. I'm cynical so I don't think I'll feel any better than I do now.
If it's going well, maybe I'll become one of those people who cook food. You know those people? I know, they are strange, but maybe there is something that I'm missing about the experience.
Wish me luck! :)
What I'm not looking forward to is a significant chunk of my pay going towards plane tickets. Memories too much canned food come back to me *shudder*. I was talking about this with friends at work today and they suggested I try cooking cheap meals instead of eating microwave dinners or cans every night.
Now it's not like I don't know how to cook, it's just that I have reservations about doing it every night. First of all, it can't be that cheap to buy all those ingredients for meals every day. Then there's the fact that after a long day at work you have to slave over the hot stove to make your meal. I think a lot of Londoners eat ready-made meals because they are just too hungry when they get home. There's also the washing up factor.
But the thought of all those cans in the cupboard made me consider it. Naomi suggested making minced meat and having it with different things each night. Peter mentioned cauliflower cheese. Elvira discussed a peppers (capsicum) and vege stir fry dish, and described how to cook nice rice.
The only way I can go through with anything longer than a day is to make it an official challenge, so here I am.
(BTW, I am not a person who makes new years' resolutions. I believe that if you want to change something about yourself you can start any day of the year.)
So the mission is to go for 1 week without eating a canned meal or microwave ready meal. I finished off my last microwave meal sadly, a yummy rosemary chicken with roast potatoes, hoping that my cooking skills develop a bit over this week.
1 week isn't that long, I know, but I cook something other than eggs about once a month so this is BIG. After 1 week I'll see how I feel.
My prediction? I imagine it will cost about the same as living on canned food and that I'll be well over it in 7 days' time. Doing it cheap means not very exotic ingredients, and probably many overlaps of meals. As for the health/body side of it, I'd imagine I'll be eating bigger servings for dinner and lunch this week. I'm cynical so I don't think I'll feel any better than I do now.
If it's going well, maybe I'll become one of those people who cook food. You know those people? I know, they are strange, but maybe there is something that I'm missing about the experience.
Wish me luck! :)
Flippin' 'eck! What happened to the sun?
Winter in London has been quite an experience. I guess I never realised just how diff
erent it would be to my Aussie-centric definition of ‘winter’...which is, a time to wear a few extra layers, eat soup rather than salad and avoid being outside if you can help it. Well I realised pretty early on not to wear loads of singlets and underlayers because as soon as I got on the hot, airless underground I almost passed out (on the way to a concert, how wild). So Just a coat on top then. Avoiding being outside? Well then you’d never see the sun. But it really is the time for soups...and chops...and roasts ...and puddings ...and pasta bake... and lots and lots of red wine.
I did my Christmas shopping way too early to send back to Oz and then watched with a smug expression as millions struggled to buy all their rubbish in the people-logged city. Every department store on Oxford St had huge amazing Christmas light displays out the front. You can’t help doing the tourist thing and stopping to look up to see who has the brightest shop front, who looks classy and who just looks tacky. The fairy lights go up in the suburbs too. The magic is completed by the carol singers at tube stations. Am I the only person who felt teary on hearing “Noel” at Angel station? This truly is how Christmas is meant to be.
While all this festive magic and desperate consumerism grew something was going away. The source of life and happiness. It hit me one day when I headed out after lunch to buy some things for the office. It was about 3pm and it was twilight. I actually felt nauseous and quite depressed as I realised that this unnatural feeling was the way things are here. I ate my depressing chocolate bars, got on the depressing bus and sat on a depressing seat.
Christmas itself was better because at least there was some sense of hibernation as we stocked up on ham, pork pie, chops, veges and puddings. There wasn’t a much better way to spend a chilly Xmas day than snuggled up with some chunky yarn, knitting a warm scarf while watching several versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’. Oh and then there was the food :) Whoever said you need to get out of bed to eat a roast?
Walks in the park while it was still light were difficult when we slept in til 1pm, but well worth it. The sun struggles to shine weakly down and you soak up those rays like a pom on Bondi Beach (incidentally at that moment Bondi is covered with poms).
Several incredibly lazy days later it was time to welcome the new year. Party time. A wake up from the hibernation and a reminder that this is an amazing city to have fun in. Young people come from all over to go to the clubs, pubs, gigs and concerts here. I love talking to randoms in clubs here because you never know what accent or language you’re gonna hear. And so many hot people!
But then there’s Black January. The pretty lights are taken down and the carollers go back to their jobs as call centre operators. Fur trees are abandoned out on the street. You go back to work but payday is infinitely far away. And the morning talk shows like to rub it in– “today’s the day most people quit their jobs” (why not just kill all your colleagues); “today’s the day most people get divorced” (January makes me want to get married just to get divorced), “today’s the most depressing day of the year” (don’t come near me! I will stab you with my Oyster card..which has no money on it...)
But miracle of miracles... today there was still some light at 4:30pm.
Things are looking up.
erent it would be to my Aussie-centric definition of ‘winter’...which is, a time to wear a few extra layers, eat soup rather than salad and avoid being outside if you can help it. Well I realised pretty early on not to wear loads of singlets and underlayers because as soon as I got on the hot, airless underground I almost passed out (on the way to a concert, how wild). So Just a coat on top then. Avoiding being outside? Well then you’d never see the sun. But it really is the time for soups...and chops...and roasts ...and puddings ...and pasta bake... and lots and lots of red wine.I did my Christmas shopping way too early to send back to Oz and then watched with a smug expression as millions struggled to buy all their rubbish in the people-logged city. Every department store on Oxford St had huge amazing Christmas light displays out the front. You can’t help doing the tourist thing and stopping to look up to see who has the brightest shop front, who looks classy and who just looks tacky. The fairy lights go up in the suburbs too. The magic is completed by the carol singers at tube stations. Am I the only person who felt teary on hearing “Noel” at Angel station? This truly is how Christmas is meant to be.
While all this festive magic and desperate consumerism grew something was going away. The source of life and happiness. It hit me one day when I headed out after lunch to buy some things for the office. It was about 3pm and it was twilight. I actually felt nauseous and quite depressed as I realised that this unnatural feeling was the way things are here. I ate my depressing chocolate bars, got on the depressing bus and sat on a depressing seat.
Christmas itself was better because at least there was some sense of hibernation as we stocked up on ham, pork pie, chops, veges and puddings. There wasn’t a much better way to spend a chilly Xmas day than snuggled up with some chunky yarn, knitting a warm scarf while watching several versions of ‘A Christmas Carol’. Oh and then there was the food :) Whoever said you need to get out of bed to eat a roast?
Walks in the park while it was still light were difficult when we slept in til 1pm, but well worth it. The sun struggles to shine weakly down and you soak up those rays like a pom on Bondi Beach (incidentally at that moment Bondi is covered with poms).
Several incredibly lazy days later it was time to welcome the new year. Party time. A wake up from the hibernation and a reminder that this is an amazing city to have fun in. Young people come from all over to go to the clubs, pubs, gigs and concerts here. I love talking to randoms in clubs here because you never know what accent or language you’re gonna hear. And so many hot people!
But then there’s Black January. The pretty lights are taken down and the carollers go back to their jobs as call centre operators. Fur trees are abandoned out on the street. You go back to work but payday is infinitely far away. And the morning talk shows like to rub it in– “today’s the day most people quit their jobs” (why not just kill all your colleagues); “today’s the day most people get divorced” (January makes me want to get married just to get divorced), “today’s the most depressing day of the year” (don’t come near me! I will stab you with my Oyster card..which has no money on it...)
But miracle of miracles... today there was still some light at 4:30pm.
Things are looking up.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
