Beans on Toast or Sunday Roast?

It started out with me pondering family traditions. Would I follow the trend of my upbringing - the Sunday Roast - or would I create my own? It started back at Christmas when we decided how to spend our first with Grace. We opted to travel to my parents in Norfolk and then spend New Years Day with the in-laws in Yorkshire. But do I want to do this every year, or more's the point today, do I want to slave over a Sunday roast every week?

It might not come down to choice. We've started today with a frugal feeling in the air. As much as it pains me, I will be budget-busting, frugal-finding at the supermarket from now on as this month marks the last of my back from maternity leave overtime.
I draw the line at becoming a freegan. Freegans raid the bins for food chucked out by the supermarkets, and it's a trend I'm quite interested in but not brave (or crackers) enough to try. And why would I when there's a perfectly decent supermarket a stone's throw away. Besides, we're skint - but not that skint. No, we wont be turning to freeganism (is that a word?). But we will be shopping for groceries on a budget.

I always said the one thing I wouldn't skrimp on would be food, and to be honest we live pretty cheaply in that department anyway. I think the key to it is cooking with raw ingredients from scratch. It's fun to cook and it tastes so much better than anything processed, and we tend to eat a wider variety of meals rather than sticking to a tried and tested meal plan, getting a taste for some adventurous bites along the way.

Grace of course is being raised on a multi-national baby-led weaning diet. Her favourites to date include chickpea curry, meatball risotto, paprika chicken and of course the age old favourite chilli con carne. In a rush for lunch last week she ate a tin of Cross & Blackwell pasta shapes in tomato sauce with toast. I ate it with her - it was suprisingly bad... tastless slop and something I vow never to feed her again - not even for convenience. I'm glad I tried it, I see things differently now.

Healthy balanced food needn't be expensive, or at least that's what I'm hoping. We've loaded the card Matt the Husband gets as a perk from the bank - it's a pre pay mastercard that you load with cash and shop as normal - the benefit is, you get between 1-10% cash back on all your spends depending on where you shop. Asda is 4%, Sainsbury's 5% etc etc. I'll let you know how we get on. The bonus is, you can't spend more than you've loaded it up with, so there's no overspend risk.

As for Grace, she's still doing really well with her weaning. She's taken to taking little bites from an apple which is terribly cute, and she's still enjoying her weetabix for breakfast - she can knock back a whole one now, it's only a matter of time before she nails two!!

But back to the point of this post - Sunday Roast or Beans on Toast? This week marks the last weekend shift for me in a long long time. In fact ever. Every job I have had involved evenings or weekends. And at last 18 years after starting work, I am working my last weekend shift. I can hear fireworks and fanfare in the background just thinking about it. I may treat myself to a glass of bubbly.
Coke that is, remember I'm on a budget!
So anyway, once I start weekdays I think I will start Sunday roasting it. I may even attend Church every Sunday although that does largely depend on what time Grace wakes. As for beans on toast? That might be a mid-week treat as we all love beans, Matt the Husband in particular.

In essence then, traditions are what you make them. Grace will have her Sunday roasts, and she will also have her Beans on Toast. As for other traditions like Christmas, well, its a bit early in the year to be musing about that. Ask me again later. And other traditions? I'll create some just for Grace as we travel along life's path. Watch this space!