I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

[Deleted User] · 17 May 2013 at 11:09AM

Hello all

Had some bacon pasta for dinner last night - one of the batch cooked things I "made up"

It wasnt bad, just a bit bland, think with the other batches I'll grate some cheese over it lol.

Getting through stocks nicely although I keep going out this week (to meet friends, have a life, etc, lol) so the food plan is a bit messed up.

I have 10 days until I go away so will be trying my best to sort out and eat as much from storage as I can so I can start fresh when I get back

Have decided the night before I leave to have the free Chicago Town pizza with spring rolls, best mate is coming round (the one I'm travelling with) that night so we can feast lol. And maybe cold pizza for breakfast...haha.

Jelly_Biactol · 18 May 2013 at 10:50PM

Hello all, seems to have been a bit quiet here for the last day or two...

Bit of a spendy day for me today.

Went to my favourite family baker's this morning - 2 large loaves, french stick, 2 x 12 bread rolls, 4 x iced mince pies (not all for me, honest:)) = £3.70. (The breadcakes were £1 for 12 fresh baked this morning, also got a bag of day-old breadcakes for 20p; in fact they sell off everything from the day before for 20p, but it's still less than 36 hours since it was baked, as everything is baked overnight to sell that day).

Bought some semolina flour, to make pizza bases. Mr T didn't sell it, so got some from the wholefood shop - organic stoneground.

Had already woken up early(ish) - 7am - so made up a batch of pizza sauce, to cook in the slow cooker; needs a good 7-10 hours to get the right colour and consistency IMO. It's turned out pretty good, even if I say so myself:o. Just the right colour and consistency - like brick-red toothpaste. It's all portioned up to go in the freezer.

Welsh_Poppy · 19 May 2013 at 7:43AM

Morning

It has been so nice been busy in garden and crotcheting in the sun.

OUT

2 rolls,2 sausages,chicken,chicken curry,frozen fruit2 veggie sausage

IN

2 boxes white magnum lollies(our treat)

I made tastey ginger biscuits this week yum yum
I may make some soup for tomorrow.

I do need eggs, toilet rolls etc so may get them tomorrow after my walk.
JB

What sauce is this? sounds interesting that it needs 7 hours in slow cooker.

Hope everyone is making the most of the nice weather:-)

Jelly_Biactol · 19 May 2013 at 6:12PM

Welsh_Poppy wrote: »

JB, What sauce is this? sounds interesting that it needs 7 hours in slow cooker.

Slow Cooker Pizza Sauce
(adapted from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook)

24 oz Tomato Puree (I used 4 tubes of Mr T value tomato puree)
16 oz Tomato/Pasta Sauce (not ketchup! Make your own tomato sauce, or I bought a jar of Mr T value pasta sauce)
3 Cloves of Garlic, crushed
2 tbsp Dried Oregano
1 tbsp Dried Basil
2 tbsp Dried Parsley
1 tbsp Sugar, to your taste
3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 anchovy fillet (leave out if veggie; I didn't bother with one)
Water, as needed
3 tbsp Parmesan, Grated
Salt and Pepper, to your taste

Put all the ingredients (except Parmesan) in the slow cooker, stir well, and add just enough water to smooth out the sauce.
Cover and cook on Low for 7 to 10 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so if you can, until thickened. Add extra water if the sauce starts to stick and become too thick too quickly, but stirring it so help avoid this, as you don't want to sauce too runny.
Taste for sugar, adding more if necessary.
You should aim for a deep, rich, brick-red colour, and a nice thick consistency.
When the sauce is done, turn off the slow cooker, and then stir in the cheese.
Season with salt and pepper.
Let the sauce cool to room temperature before using.

Makes enough to cover four or five large (14-inch) pizzas.

Calories per portion: 310
Cost: about £2.20 in total, or 50p/serving

Kirri · 19 May 2013 at 8:11PM

Lots of cooking/baking here:

Fairy cakes with dried fruit
Bulgar wheat tabbouleh
Broad bean dip
2 x loaves of bread

So been snacking on the bean dip, bread, tabbouleh and salad all weekend with added griddled haloumi.

Used up the last of the bulgar wheat, last of the 2 yr old frozen allotment broad beans, last of the salt and emptied one pepper grinder (will recycle as have 2 more..).

Cupboards nearly all basic wholefoods now, lots of jars of older stuff being emptied out, quite a bit of space appearing, no processed/ready made foods in, only 3 tins left (will have to make a cheesecake I think), few jars left mostly in fridge to be used up. Only buying once a week for the week ahead and really being strict about using everything I have in stock is really making a difference. Freezer only now has a few meals left from recent batch cooking and some odd bits from spare left from baking, some fruit sauces and sliced allotment beans - so no shop stuff.

Jb - I added semolina to some biscuits and made them really hard, let me know how you get on with the pizza bases as I have a pot full to use up!

I need to make a start on the polenta 'flour' this week, was going to experiment with polenta 'chips' (HFW recipe) and also try and use some more gram flour as that is quite out of date now and doesn't keep well.. probably make indian style pancakes. Will also start on the quinoa and make some sort of tabbouleh out of that. Have been using up some old pearl barley (bought for the gpigs urine problems but they didn't like it..) in with risotto rice, is ok surprisingly. Still LOADS of bran to use.

Never again will I buy anything I don't need for the week ahead!

Spends are down to about £20-£25 a week but half of that is still going on veg - only spending around £10 a week on dairy/wholefood cupboard replacement stock.

recovering_spendaholic · 19 May 2013 at 9:43PM

Hi all - just read through the thread quickly - I am jealous of those of you who are decorating or getting new kitchens!

My freezer is still quite full, but I have done two relatively big shops this last week as DD1 is home from University and I seem to go through so much more food when she is here.

On Friday I bought a piece of brisket in Tescos - I haven't cooked it for ages but was looking forward to it for lunch today - I cooked it slowly in a little stock with carrots, celery and onion and it looked and smelled delicious, but it was soooooo chewy and had absolutely no taste at all. Even though it had started to fall apart the meat was horrid and tough and we just couldn't eat it. I rang Tescos and they said that they would refund me, so we had to have "bits and bobs" for tea as I hadn't got anything else out of the freezer. I had cheesy mashed potatoes and beans and the girls had turkey steaks with savoury rice.

My money is dire again this month so I will have to strictly try and meal plan - I rashly bought new car but I do need a reliable one for work and my old one was getting ropey.

Looking forward to seeing the pictures of the revamped rooms!

Florenceem · 19 May 2013 at 10:40PM

Out - honey roast gammon and pizza.
Using stuff I can warm in MW as no cooker or kitchen!

Jelly_Biactol · 20 May 2013 at 12:37PM

Kirri wrote: »

Jb - I added semolina to some biscuits and made them really hard, let me know how you get on with the pizza bases as I have a pot full to use up!

Of course, will do. I was planning to use the semolina flour just to roll out the pizza dough, and make a wheatflour dough, just to give the pizza a crispy base. I'm also going to make a pizza base with just semolina flour, to see how that turns out. So I will probably have plenty of semolina flour left over, so will have to think of some other ways of using it. I've found a recipe for semolina bread, which looks and sounds delicious.

Kirri · 20 May 2013 at 1:02PM

^ I've heard of doing pizza dough and rolling it out in the semolina, can imagine that working, may try that myself, but from my biscuit experiment I don't recommend you using just semolina - seriously, I never bin biscuits lol, they have to be bad.. (I fed them to the wildlife on the allotment however, so nothing wasted). Not heard of semolina bread.

Think I might give the polenta flour a go today, see what I can mess up with that :rotfl:

Was passing Waitrose this morning so got a few organic/eco offers, used some vouchers, got my free newspaper and some extra money off with the MyWaitrose card, think it was for the chilled juice so over £7 off the bill. Disappointed I still couldn't get the free teabags, running out of time now

Breakfast - toast and marmite
mid am snack - banana
Lunch - probably more tabbouleh, bean dip, salad and bread
Dinner - maybe polenta chips and the last frozen soysage and a fried egg?

Kirri · 20 May 2013 at 1:06PM

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

I finished the last of the pak choi and a Jamaican carrot

When are you sending my share of the allotment asparagus Kirri, need to know so I'll be In lol.

What is a Jamaican carrot?? :huh:

Lol I have some spare large letter stamps - not been down there in a week, probably masses of it waiting for me :eek:

I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

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