Nic Dempsey

Because of the festival of painting last weekend, I didn’t get around to doing anything vaguely house or shopping related. The house was pretty tidy and I was mostly up to date with laundry so it wasn’t a disaster and I thought that I’d go shopping on Monday night and it would be ok.

Then I wondered what if I didn’t? The fridge seemed pretty packed with vegetables and the freezer always seems full so why not find out if I could live for the week without doing a shop. That’s what I did so instead of a menu plan for next week, I’d thought I’d show you what I ended up eating last week.

Monday night I made Rachel Roddy’s lentils.

Which I ate with fried eggs (not pretty but very delicious!)

Tuesday was an aubergine and olive sauce with pasta (using 2 cups of this Tomato Sauce). This did for dinner and one lunch but there was enough pasta and sauce left over so I’ve mixed it up and frozen it for a pasta bake next week.

Wednesday was taco chilli, which I ate with cheese and greek yoghurt (my go to sub for sour cream)

Thursday, is always make it up as you go night anyway, and this was a vegetable thing, using an onion, 3 carrots, 2 peppers, some frozen veg, chickpeas and the rest of the tomato sauce from Tuesday) which I ate with tortillas from the freezer.

Friday I ate at Kathy and Adam’s ’cause I was babysitting.

Breakfast was yoghurt and pear honey (although there were pain au raisin on Monday and Friday!). Lunch was leftovers, lentils on Monday and Thursday, pasta thing on Wednesday and veg and chickpea stew thing on Friday.

It was useful to do and it made me think about the way I shop and eat, because this weekend is also busy, I’m not going to do a big shop this week either, I will need at some point to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables but it’s been nice to use what’s there. Next week, I have a rough plan for next week, Ma’s coming over on Saturday so I’m making lentil cottage pie, I’m going to make some soup (probably something like this) with the butternut squash in the veg basket, there’s a pasta bake, stock, meat, pizza dough and peas, sweetcorn and green beans in the freezer. I also have yoghurt, eggs and plenty of cheese in the fridge. I’ll make a loaf of bread too. I will have to do a bigger shop next weekend because the family is coming over for lunch next Sunday for Ma’s birthday, but I feel that there’s lots of food to keep me going and I’m enjoying finding out how long I can go without shopping!