Living alone, planning meals economically has become a bit more of a challenge. Although not being dependent on the likes and dislikes of others does help, there’s the risk of having to use relatively expensive small tins, jars, etc. After all, you can’t always buy every single ingredient fresh – and even if you can, you can’t always determine yourself how much you buy: the days of buying spinach by the leaf, single potatoes, etc., are mostly over.
So I often make my meals with bigger packages, and make enough for several days. It does sometimes mean that I’m eating the same thing for more than one day, but I really don’t mind that. Besides, I don’t cook anything I don’t like, so eating the same good meal for several days really isn’t a problem.
But if there is any risk of getting bored with the meals at all, my Constantly Changing Salad is the ideal solution. Do you want the recipe to see what I mean? You can’t, because it’s constantly changing! But I can give you an example.
The day before yesterday I started a salad with half a pack of wholemeal fusilli, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes, ham, pineapple and tartare sauce. Simple, but nice. Far too much for one day, though, so I decided to make it last for several days. And in order to not eat exactly the same salad every day, I then add some additional ingredients on subsequent days. So yesterday I added hard-boiled eggs, peas and a little yoghurt mayo. Better, but it lacked crunch and punch. So today I added rocket, extra mature Gouda cheese and some kidney beans. I’m not sure if I’ll add anything tomorrow – after all, I do have to finish the salad one day soon, and by finish I don’t just mean considering the combination complete…
I rather like the idea that I’m having cheap meals all week this way, and that although they’re fundamentally the same, they’re also quite diverse!
