Diary: Tuesday
Today I have a hot lunch because I’m working tonight. Cooking for one is like shopping for one – it’s more expensive and so more difficult to have a varied diet. Normally, I do a lot of home cooking, but when I did the shop yesterday, I found that the things I’d use normally use like herbs, spices, garlic and lemon to make things more tasty and different are beyond the budget. An egg sandwich with cress and salad cream is tons nicer than a plain one. Furthermore, a lot of cookery books assume a battery of equipment – mixers; liquidizers for soup and so on. People living on the lowest incomes can’t afford all this kit, so I’m not using it.
Also, I have a garden in real life and grow vegetables but this isn’t an option for young single people in flats and urban areas.
Remembering the special needs of pregnancy is important too. Coffee is out, since it usually makes pregnant women feel more sick, but so is liver, which doctors say is dangerous in pregnancy; this is a shame as it is very economical.
It is really important that everyone can cook and you can eat better with home cooking, but I think I’m discovering that even with home cooking this budget is too small.
I’ve used a few things I didn’t buy on Monday: salt, pepper, flour and ketchup. But I bought a small bag of sugar which obviously I won’t finish in a week – this is a sort of proxy for these ingredients. I also bought some margarine to cook with as well as have on bread and now I can’t afford to get oil for frying – but this has the distinct disadvantage that everything is ending up tasting the same!
One thing that surprises me is that both yesterday and today I’ve felt really hungry. I hadn’t expected this problem; I thought it would just be a question of how to get all the nutrients, but I see that on both days I’ve been well below the recommended 2000 calories. I expect I shall lose weight, but of course, when you’re pregnant you should end up a stone and a half heavier!
Calories:
Breakfast
Porridge – 300
2 biscuits – 140
Lunch
Moussaka with mince, courgette and tomato – 500
Tea
Cheese sandwich – 400
Tomato – 20
Apple – 60
2 biscuits – 140
Several cups of tea with milk – 50
Cals – 1,600 (recommended 2000)
Fruit and veg – 4 (recommended 5)
Go to Wednesday
