My no-canned-or-microwave-meals challenge: the result

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 :)