I'm glad that the vet didn't find anything seriously wrong with Pudge

When you leave food down for your cats all day, they tend to be grazers, and will eat a little here and there all day, so you may miss Pudge eating often.
If you really want to see how much your cats are eating, you can just feed them twice a day and remove the food a little while after each feeding. It may take the cats a little while to adapt to the routine, so that period of time may be stressful for you, but it could end up being a BIG stress reliever in the long run because you seem to be fixated on how much/often Pudge is eating.

I think your plan to see your current pdoc and hold off on seeing the other seems reasonable, especially if she agrees to see you only twice a month vs. every week