Welcome to November! In my opinion a very solid month. It’s slightly more difficult to stay motivated with its dark nights and mornings, but it makes up for that with the cozy comfort factor. It also has the added perks of lots of beautiful sparkling lights going up everywhere.
According to the national trust website (https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/gardening-tips/guide-to-seasonal-food#rt-november) things in season include;
- Cauliflower – try my French Cauliflower Cheese Pie
- Cabbages
- Leeks
- Kale
All perfect for vitamins and keeping the immune system healthy in the winter months. And actually, some of my favourite vegetables to cook with. I’m excited to use them as much as I can!
November for me
For me it’s going to be a month of economising. I have a trip planned at the beginning of December, and I want to be able to buy some new clothes before I go and lots of amazing food while I’m out there. So, this month will be about lots of cheap eating, but make it delicious.
My plans for keeping the costs down mainly centre around bulk cooking cheaper meals. You would think cooking for one person would be cheap, but for some reason it still seems to be super expensive. That is life these days I suppose. So to bulk cook you need to have a solid meal plan that works for you.
I generally don’t plan my meals; I enjoy the search for inspiration on what to cook. I am by nature quite an emotional eater, and although I’ve mainly conquered the eating my feelings side of that, I still eat depending on what my body and mind seem to crave at that time. Which makes meal planning a bit of a hopeless endeavour for me. I always go off what I planned to eat a week ago.
So, I don’t know how this is going to work out for me, but I’m determined to do it so I can save some money. In fact I’m going to give myself a challenge and try and document my progress on the blog.
The Challenge
My challenge on paper doesn’t sound like much of a challenge, but for someone who loves food and variety, it will be. It is going to be to spend £100 on food for the entire month of November. That’s 30 days, so 90 meals and some snack and sweet treats.
If I’m not going to give up on this 10 days in, it will need to include varied, balanced and filling meals. I could eat porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days, which would probably only cost me £20, but I’d hate my life. And as November is a good month, I don’t want to ruin it with rubbish meals.
The plan will be to buy as many of the staple ingredients as possible in the first week, and then have a small surplus left to but some weekly fresh ingredients. But the more I enter into the supermarkets, the more I’ll be tempted to buy, so we’ll try and keep it to a minimum. Should save a lot of time in my life, but I anticipate some days will be a real struggle.
Once I’ve finalised my meal plans and done my initial shop, I’ll let you know what the months eating will look like. I’ll also share with you the recipes I use, and some more hacks to keep meals interesting and how to use the same base in different ways.
When I’ve been trying to make my lists and plans, I can’t lie, I’m scared. I did a trial online Tesco shop and it really was tight. I’m hoping with a shop at Lidl or Aldi I can cut costs further, but I think I need to shave some things off to keep it down. I really want to make sure that I have balanced and nutritious meals, so that means ideally 5 a day, a solid amount of protein to keep things filling and as much plant varieties as possible for optimal gut microbiome health.
Anyway, hopefully I’ll smash the challenge and save myself some money! I won’t tell you how much I usually spend on food shopping, as I think it might horrify some people. Nice food is my main treat to myself, so I feel justified in the amount I spend. It makes me happy.
Have a great month!
I hope that you have a great November, and that you get to eat lots of great food! I’m hoping to post soon the next in the ‘One-person Roast’ series, and a post on planning and cooking for a dinner party. I am hosting a dinner party, but I won’t be including it in my challenge amount. A dinner party for 8 doesn’t come cheap, even when you do cook a more budget meal. Hats off to all the big families who feed 6 people every day. It could never be me!
I will leave you with my drink of the month, which is in fact, just the drink I keep making myself at the moment. It’s a Rum and Tonic, which sounds weird, but tastes great. Having been to the Caribbean twice this year (big flex) I have a surplus of rum. I’m not one for drinking neat spirits, although the Angostura 1919 rum doesn’t need a mixer, so I do save that for the neat spirit drinking, and to impress anyone who comes over. But the other ones I’m happy to use as a mixer in other drinks.
I’m keeping that island life alive with this drink, its long and refreshing, the perfect aperitivo. I think when you mix citrus and alcohol, you’re supposed to shake it with ice, but I don’t bother here because I’m lazy, and normally just want the drink asap.
Trini Tonic Recipe
Add ice to a glass, pour over two shots of rum (spiced if you want).
Squeeze in half a lime and drop the rest of the lime into the drink.
Top up with tonic water.
Add a generous dash of Angostura bitters and stir through.