Saturday 1 October 2011

An Organised October with an End of Summer Orzo

I love Autumn - not only does it mean I can indulge in new fashions....hello mustard! But I also use it to try something new; whether eats, exercise or even just a new lip gloss.

This October, I'm trying to clean up spending habits.  Since I've moved back home with my parents after my breakup, I've found myself fluttering money away on pointless things that I don't really need. Or treating friends one to many times.  It's easy done....the Soy Vanilla Latte on the way to work, or the two mags I buy a week when I can read the same things online anyway.  Before you know it, money spent and not much to show for it.

I'm using this 'living at home' to be a little more frugal with money; not only will this enable me to save money for my own place, I can also live more economically and greener and introduce my family to a new way of living.

Laura has set up The Big Budget Challenge & I'm using this as a great way to get kick started.




The guidelines I'll be following are pretty similar to Laura's, but as I live with my parents, the vast majority of grocery shopping is done by them, however once a week I do my own grocery shop to cater for additional ingredients (or Nak'd bars :) ) I require.  I tend to go a bit overboard and end up with a cupboard full of items I forget I've got.

So basically, I'm going to stick to an allowance of £10 per week for additional groceries but prior to this, I'm going to make a vain attempt to use up the items in my cupboard I already have and only replenish staples - see what interesting recipes I can come up with.

I have summarized a few things I'll also be doing in relation to The Big Budget Challenge, but also a few things that are a little more personal to me - making for One Organised October.



We're experiencing a gorgeous Indian Summer, temperatures reached 29degrees yesterday, it was gorgeous.

Even more gorgeous, was this:



End of Summer Orzo Salad


Serves Two


100g Orzo cooked to packet instructions
1/2 yellow bell pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, roughly chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
4 wild tomatoes, chopped
Handful of Sweetcorn
1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tbsp Rico Mexican Kitchen Extra Hot Chipotle Salsa
Handful ripped basil
Handful Alfalfa Sprouts

Cook orzo to packet instructions and drain.
Heat oil in a pan over a medium heat, add peppers and cook for 2 minutes.  Add garlic, sweetcorn and tomatoes.  Cook long enough for tomatoes to begin breaking down but not mushy.
Add orzo to pan and mix, stir in salsa and continue to heat through for a minute or so.
Remove from heat and stir in basil and sprouts.
Delicious warm or cold.



Question: Do you find making lists/goals helps achieve more, or do you prefer to 'go with the flow' ?

1 comment:

  1. Love your organised October list! Glad your joining in the challenge!

    ReplyDelete