Leftovers - Pea and Ham Soup

Tonight's dinner used up all the Xmas leftovers. Leftovers of food I actually cooked, that is. With no idea until the last minute exactly how many I was catering for I bought far too much and have enough uncooked food in my freezer to make another full Xmas dinner. It will either stay there until Easter or will surface if we have visitors.

My pea and ham soup used the scraps remaining from the Xmas breakfast gammon, 200g of dried green split peas, a chopped onion, 3 diced medium potatoes, 2 chicken stock cubes and ground black pepper. I poured in hot water to cover it all, not sure exactly how much, and topped it up whenever it seemed to be getting too thick. It was cooked on high in my slowcooker for about 5 hours  To serve with it I baked the last few part-baked rolls that we'd also had for Xmas breakfast, and in the rolls we had the remaining sausagemeat stuffing, some vege roast and a couple of quorn sausages. I must say it was cheap, delicious and filling. And I'll be looking to make more meals like it over the next few weeks.

Despite having been offered a fulltime, permanent position at the school where he's been working since September, wrangles with them paying the agency to release him means DH is still on a supply teacher's contract and doesn't receive holiday pay. As he gets paid weekly in arrears his last week's pay, received on Xmas Eve, needs to last until he gets paid again on 15th January, after he's actually been back at work for 2 weeks. I've been careful to put money by from previous weeks for the monthly bills, but need to be extra frugal with housekeeping. So, my goal for the last few days of December and for most of January is to eat from the freezer, fridge and cupboards. I have so much in stock I really shouldn't need to buy any more, except for some fresh veg and dairy. 

Tomorrow is my post-Xmas weigh-in at my slimming club. I've been a right piggy during this festive season and expect a few lbs gain. I've tried really hard today not to eat too much and what I have had has been healthy (I didn't eat a roll, just had the soup and a couple of crispbreads for dinner) but I suspect it will take a couple of weeks being careful to remedy the damage done over the past few days. At least by facing the music tomorrow I'll know what I'm dealing with. This is my second Xmas since reaching my target weight and in the 15 months since getting there I have only once gone over my target allowance by just one pound.Tomorrow will probably make it twice, and by more than a pound, so I must get back on track. I refuse to let the weight start creeping on again...I enjoy my mobility too much.

To finish with here's some pics of Shadow finally working out how to use the toy DD2 and SIL bought our cats for Xmas. We had to put it up on the table for him before he'd touch it. And when he was finished batting the ball around he sat in the middle of it.

Have a good evening everyone, love Helen xx