More Routine

One of the things which I decided when I was finally alone after Helen went home at the end of November last year is that I would maintain a healthy diet.  I had been cooking for Margaret and myself for the last six years and we also used to go out a couple of times a week for lunch or dinner,

Now I was single I didn't fancy going to restaurants on my own so have been preparing all my meals at home.  Once again I have got into a routine.  For instance, yesterday I cooked a roast.  I cooked a rolled shoulder of lamb in my bench top convection cooker, which is my favourite cooking appliance, together with some potatoes, cooked some frozen beans and peas and served it up with a thick brown sauce.  I also had some mint sauce to flavour the lamb.

Now I  normally buy a full size roast, about 1kg, and cut it in two before freezing one half for another day.  Then I  get one good meal as above and a cold meat meal with chips and baked bean (my favourite) next day i.e today's dinner.  There is also generally enough for a lunchtime sandwich and a full meal for Louis.  So that's two days covered.

I love a nice piece  of steak and normally have a 150 gm Scotch Fillet served with fried onions and a fresh green salad.  I grill the steak on my barbecue.  Three days down and four to go.

One day a week I have fish.  I buy frozen Hoki a New Zealand fish similar to Dory.  I like to deep fry it in beer batter.  This has a side benifit that I only require a small amount of beer for my batter and I get to drink the rest while cooking the fish.  I cook the fish in Canola oil which I save and  use only for cooking fish.  I have a fresh green salad to accompany it.  Note I am a Type Two Diabetic and am able to control my Glucose levels by diet and exercise so I only have chips occasionally and hardly ever have sweet puddings.

One day a week I have either a curry ot spaghetti with meat sauce.  These I cook in my other favourite, my crock pot.  Again I generally cook enough for two or three days and freeze the rest for another week.  This means that I don't have to prepare a meal from scratch every day.

On Saturday I normally buy a half cooked chicken from Woolworths and have it cold with salad in the evening.  There is always some for a sanwich on Sunday and Louis gets a good lunch as well.

Sunday evenings I continue a tradition which Margaret and I had for many years and cook bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes and fried bread.

That's my dinner routine which varies a little especially if I go out to friends for a meal.  The only thing which doesn't vary is the two or three glasses of wine which accompany my dinner.  I don't drive at night very much theses days and never after a couple of glasses of wine so I sometimes have an extra glass in front of TV.

Louis has his food routine as well.  Half a slice of toast and Vegemite  for breakfast, a small tin of dog food or the similar amount of left overs for lunch and a half a cup of hard food for dinner.  After dinner he sits next to me and has a few treats while I have my after dinner glass wine.  Over the last few years, he is five and a half,  he has been overfed especially by Margaret who had a poor appetite and Louis was always pleased to help her out.  At the beginning of 2010 his vet said that he was at least 3kg over weight at 17 kg.  I put him on a diet where I actually measure his food portions and count his treats.  This January he weighed in at 14kg and the vet said that another kg off would be a good thing so the diet continues.

The last week has been pretty good.  I went to the computer club and talked Linux to some other members.  I also did my big MOW round on Friday.  This time I was determined to finish early not last as I did previously.  I was first away from the kitchen and had no problems with the deliveries although there did seem to be more than normal even for a Friday.  One was even an extra 2km in a totally different direction to last time and there were road works which also held me up.  I completed my final delivery after 1.00pm which is late and got back to the kitchen at 1.25pm even later than last time.  I was dead last!  I apologised to D who laughed and told me that it was already the longest run and this week I had had three new clients.  I had 24 clients including two couples so I had 22 houses to visit over a 25km route.  Being Friday I delivered about 150 items.  I took from 11.15am to 1.15pm that is 120 minutes or about 5 minutes a client.  As I normally go into the house to deliver their food most clients want to chat so I think that I will always be last on this run!

This week I deliver on Thursday to the Riverlands Retirement Village plus a couple on the way.  As I now know the village layout it should be pretty straight forward.  I have also established a routine for checking my deliveries as I go soI shouldn't get the mix up I had previously on this round.  I didn't have any problems last week.