Last of the advance prep

I have now made the crackers for the actual challenge, using 200g flour and 100g peanut butter. It came out to 40 crackers this time (I must have rolled them slightly thinner) so I can have 8 crackers a day which I reckon totals about 280 calories and 9 g protein per day. I’ve packed up 6 to take to work, so I can have 2 as an after-work snack as well. I also bagged up 8 teabags from the packet of 40 bought for 20p. I don’t know what they’ll taste like, but they smelled like tea!

Before I made the coleslaw I peeled the outer leaves off the cabbage, but apart from a couple of spots they were perfectly fine, so I thought it’d be a shame to compost them, and instead I chopped then cooked them up with some of the onions, pickling liquid and some salt. I added a bit extra to make it up to 340g cabbage (12p) to which I added 45g pickled onions & 15g pickling juice  (4p) and 3g salt (I’m not even going to bother costing this), plus about 3 tablespoons of water. Brought it up to a simmer in a pan then turned the heat down and left to slowly cook with the lid on for about 15 minutes. The leaves were beginning to tenderise but still had plenty of crunch, and I’ve put that away in a 700ml container in the fridge. The amount almost filled the container – I’ll be able to have a good 2-3 spoonfuls per day for a total of 16p or just over 3p a day.

I drained and weighed the split peas. 500g dried made 1128g cooked, so I can eat 225g peas a day if I wish. I’m beginning to think it’s a good thing I won’t be sharing a bedroom with anyone during the week, I fear this amount of pulses, cabbage and onions may lead to some pungency! 225g cooked split peas provides 256cal, 18g protein, 2.9mg iron, 31.5mg calcium and 18g dietary fibre (according to Google’s nutrition data. I have no idea how accurate that is, but I guess it’s some idea). I decided against making a big pot of soup after all, instead I’ve refrigerated the cooked peas and will see what I feel like eating for lunch tomorrow. I spotted some nice big dandelions in the garden so thinking about using those somehow (I think weeds are fair game since I could gather these from common ground and nobody would object). I believe they’re full of calcium and other good stuff.

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