Lunches
In a lot of ways, things have been hard recently. It took me a long, frustrating time to find a job - not just a job that I liked, or that paid me enough, but just a job. As I'd moved into somewhere in March that, with my optimism, I was pretty positive that I'd certainly be able to afford when I got my new job, and surely, that wouldn't be more than a few weeks, right?, money has been...lacking. When I finally did get a new job, my previous job screwed me over in a fairly massive and unexpected fashion. Which really, I should have expected, seeing as they've been underpaying me and generally being totally unappreciative for the last year. This screwing over didn't really help. Sometimes I think about that Sheryl Crow song, No One Said It Would Be Easy. Some things are good, and generally things are beginning to very much look up again - I've got some amazing people in my life, my new job is going well - but money is still stupidly tight.
I've done this before, in that I know that I can live off $20 or less a week. It's a bit more of a challenge now though, as before I could go and steal as much food as possible from my Mom whenever I went home. Now I'm living off about £10 a week - and £7.50 of that goes on the fresh vegetable box that my flatmate and I get delivered. When you're seriously pushing the limits like this, and still trying to eat a fairly healthy and well balanced diet (hence the large spend on vegetables), it can get really difficult to come up with anything that isn't a soup or some kind of roasted vegetable. Especially when it comes to lunch.
I'm already eating miso soup for breakfast - it tastes fantastic, it's really good for you, it's got loads of vitamins in, and I can get over three weeks worth for £3.30. I love Japanese food anyway, and although my co-workers think that I'm a bit odd, it really works for me. Another bit of inspiration I've taken is from the Japanese is the bento lunch.
This is what I had today.
On the top are two yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls), one with fish furikake and the other mixed with cooked broccoli, a Babybel cheese, and three cherry tomatoes, and on the bottom is a mini-burger with teriyaki sauce, three more cherry tomatoes, and two-thirds of an orange. All in all, this meal probably cost me around £1.
This type of lunch is generally what I'm making these days - it's mostly rice and vegetables in some sort of way, but it's healthy, has loads of vegetables in it, and I'm still getting enough protein in my diet. It's working out well although I have to say, I'm really missing chocolate!
I've done this before, in that I know that I can live off $20 or less a week. It's a bit more of a challenge now though, as before I could go and steal as much food as possible from my Mom whenever I went home. Now I'm living off about £10 a week - and £7.50 of that goes on the fresh vegetable box that my flatmate and I get delivered. When you're seriously pushing the limits like this, and still trying to eat a fairly healthy and well balanced diet (hence the large spend on vegetables), it can get really difficult to come up with anything that isn't a soup or some kind of roasted vegetable. Especially when it comes to lunch.
I'm already eating miso soup for breakfast - it tastes fantastic, it's really good for you, it's got loads of vitamins in, and I can get over three weeks worth for £3.30. I love Japanese food anyway, and although my co-workers think that I'm a bit odd, it really works for me. Another bit of inspiration I've taken is from the Japanese is the bento lunch.
This is what I had today.
On the top are two yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls), one with fish furikake and the other mixed with cooked broccoli, a Babybel cheese, and three cherry tomatoes, and on the bottom is a mini-burger with teriyaki sauce, three more cherry tomatoes, and two-thirds of an orange. All in all, this meal probably cost me around £1.
This type of lunch is generally what I'm making these days - it's mostly rice and vegetables in some sort of way, but it's healthy, has loads of vegetables in it, and I'm still getting enough protein in my diet. It's working out well although I have to say, I'm really missing chocolate!
Labels: bento
posted by Auglaise at 8:33 PM
2 Comments:
If you send me your snail mail address, the chocolate fairy just might visit you. I want to send you some good loving anyway, and what better form to do it in than empty calories?
KISSES!
- Erin
Tesco value chocolate is not so bad, nice even. 25p a fairly big bar. I used to have it as treat when I'd roll in there with £2.50 for a week's food (it can be done!) back when I was on the dole.
Break out the copper jar!
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