I am doing the 5:2 fast day today. OK so far, at just gone 6pm, I am now getting seriously hungry, but I just have to last out to bedtime, then I can eat normally tomorrow.

I usually eat even more veg than usual on these days to get a bit of bulk. We have runner beans and spinach in the garden, tomatoes in the greenhouse (a pathetic crop, but what there are, are now ripening), and we are now picking our 2 Victoria plum minarette trees.

So, one of the things I had today was a spinach salad, with some cherry tomatoes and sliced plums, drizzled with a scant half tsp of good olive oil and a pinch of crunchy salt. It was extremely good! If it was a non-fasting day, I would have added some feta and a bit of crusty bread. I may well have that tomorrow!

Spinach, tomato, plum and feta salad with crusty bread

Serves 1
A large handful of fresh spinach, Asda 350g/£1.75, 25p
1 large plum, Asda 400g/75p, 9p
1 tomato, Asda 160g/32p, 10p
25g feta, Asda 200g/£1.18, 15p
Drizzle of olive oil
Pinch of crunchy salt
Serve with 100g crusty bread, Asda Chosen By You crusty white farmhouse loaf, 2 x 400g/£1, 12p
Total cost 71p
372 cals, 14g protein, 9g fat, 58g carbs, 3g fibre

This is a lot from £1 a day, leaving just 29p for everything else. So….

Breakfast 2 x toast with sardine sandwich spread, 10p
Lunch Spicy lentil soup 15p
Snack 4 Oaty biscuits 3p
Making a total of £1 for the day
372 cals, 9gfat, 58g carbs, 14g protein, 3g fibre

I only had the one plum, which was about right for the salad, so it doesn’t use massive quantities of them, and we do have massive quantities. But frankly, every little helps.

I am stoning them and freezing them. I need to stone them as some have worms in. But I would like to use as many as I can fresh. I have googled savoury recipes for plums and found a couple of things I will be trying. There are lots and lots of delicious pudding and cake recipes using plums, but I am trying to avoid those, for calorie reasons.

Even the ripest of plums from our trees still have a flavour that works very well in savoury things. And I am a fan of fruit in savoury things anyway, although I know not everyone is. One of my sons-in-law thinks that it’s vile.

I still have enough plum jam left from previous years. I also have a great many jars of other jam too, so no more plum jam to use some up. I may bottle some as I am struggling for freezer space.

Do you have fresh plums in the garden, or foraged? And if you do, what are you doing with them?