August 2008 Grocery Challenge

jediteacher

chelltune wrote: »

:rotfl: My two both signed loads, there are some pictures of them here when they were younger. The boy with blond hair and the girl are mine. Sorry proud Mummy moment.

Sorry, thought I'd join in too. You've got lovely children - bless them.

I've also done baby signing with my little one and to be honest she did pick up a few bits but not too much. Maybe we started a little late as she was already doing her 'own' signs and sounds for things. We started at 12 months and she's now 19 months. My little one mostly picked up the animal sounds from signing more than the signs themselves! We've stopped going now as she's quite a little chatter box and hasn't time to 'sign'! :rotfl:

gillaman

NSD today.

Made a pizza on Sunday using the BM. When the process had finished the dough looked almost liquid! Anyway, I added another cup or so of flour and set it off again. Dough came out OK. Thought I'd let you know in case any of you had the same problem. I probably should have turned the dough out, added the flour and kneaded it myself (to save the lec). Anyway the pizza turned out fine. Next time though I'll divide the dough in half and make two pizzas as this one was a bit too 'bready' for me. I like 'thin and crispy' best. Still, it did dinner Sunday night and lunch Monday and Tuesday so not bad.

Has anyone found the amount of rubbish they're throwing out has decreased through doing the GC? Our landfill rubbish is collected fortnightly and I only had one large
pedal bin to throw this week, normally I have about 1 1/2 black plastic bags.

I made the Twinks Hobknobs today - yummy. Only used a quarter of the mixture and I got about 18 biscuits. Have had to stow them away on a high shelf or I'll eat the lot before bedtime!

After my 'big shop' yesterday I worked out I have enough basic ingredients in now to make about 20 meals and 18 lunches so I'm really hopeful that I'll beat my target. I'm also hoping that by just generally saving money all round I'll be able to pay more off my cc than I'm doing monthly at the moment - getting fed up with giving away all that interest.

*Mari*

Morning all

Have just done my first shop for August at Mr T's so 5 NSD to start the month!! Spent 41.46 shouldn't need to shop again before we go away next week. Have loads of veg in the garden to use too so off to the kitchen now to make large vats of veg soup/chilli etc!

Hope everyones start to the month has gone well

Mari

Flylady_Flower

:jMORNING ALL! :j

Just thought I'd pop on to say hellow - NSD yesterday as working all day but need £4 tonight for DS Karate so will need to spend today - hubby still not cooked spag bol for me but had lunch at work (paid for, so no expense) and a nice HM apple & parsnip soup when I got home.

Hubby still not found a job yet (only day 3 but I do worry)... lots in the pipeline though so hopefully something will come of that

Herby - glad my message helped you survived the weekend, you would have done it anyway with OH supporting you, I suppose it's hard for SS too but he'll come round to your winning ways...:A

Hi to all newbies - you will love it here, but beware, it is addictive (but fun) and the recipies are always great... :hello:

Much more in the freezer now too as hubby made a chicken curry last night for him and DS and there were 6 portions left to freeze plus 9 portions of chilli made last week and [STRIKE]9[/STRIKE] 8 portions of apple & parsnip soup - if he makes spag bol tonight there will be more there too so gradually building up freezer again after emptying it last month.

Have tried to catch up but hard when only have about 20-30 mins a night to do it - hope to get on here tonight - :grouphug: and :heartpuls to those who need them - take care out there - Den x

susan946

Good morning everyone

At last a quieter day!! Alas still no sunshine. Where has it gone?

I am going to get some ingredients to try making some cookpot youhurt as we tend to eat yogs as dessert at lunchtime. DH has diabetes so puds are difficult and we generally have yog at lunch and fruit for supper. Probably healthier than syrup sponge!!!!!!!!!!! Also want to try hm baked beans but that may be for another day.

Have to go for a mammogram later so a bit of cooking might help get over that squashed feeling!!!!

Also want to get out into the garden so if the rain holds off................

Have a good day

princess_leia_3

Wow, Mr T delivery cost a huge £86 :eek: but that did include some sirloin steak , huge box of nappies, 2 chickens, loadsa mince......so I am definately doing my meal plan at some point today and I got some plastic boxes from my mystery shopping yesterday so I can now bulk cook and store it easier instead of running out of bowls :rolleyes:

Herbaholic

Gooooood Morning fellow GC'ers, weather a little overcast here and looks like rain will hit later today and tomorrow, so if I get the washing on the line now, it may dry before the rain comes. I definately have a cold, but not going to let that deter me, although the runny nose part really gets me down, the one part of the cold I hate, my nose is so red and sore DH started humming rudolph the red nosed reindeer this morning grrr

I plan an easy day today, a little vegging on the sofa with some knitting or x-stitch and maybe even some gaming. DH said to take it easy and stay under the duvet, so I have my orders, but lots to do, easy tea tonight, chilli out of the freezer and DH has offered to sort that out later.
Last nights tea was yum, yum, yum. I gave in to DH and sidetracked from my meal plan to make the pie he wanted. To the mince and onion pie I added a small cup of oats to the mix, have to say I was skeptical when I heard how lots of you pad the meat out with oats, had visions of meaty porridge. But no, it helped to thicken the sauce as well and unless you really looked you couldn't tell the oats from the mince, and I added fibre to the pie. I told DH about the porridge in the pie after he said that the pie was lovely, and he was impressed that I'd used less mince than normal, so thanks for the tip everyone :T It tasted like the one my Mum used to make (be funny if she used oats all those years ago and that was the missing ingredient lol!) served it with mash and cabbage from the garden and a little extra gravy

Small confession, because I felt poorly yesterday I did a 'delia cheat' and bought some ready rolled shortcrust pastry £1.54 :eek: wouldn't have been so bad, but from the box size I was expecting to have 2 - 3 sheets but there was just one and just enough to make a small pie for the two of us with some trimmings left over. So anyone with a big family pie to make, fancying a short cut to shortcrust be warned you'll need at least 3-4 packets! I won't buy it again, when I think about how much homemade pastry I could have made for the same amount of money it makes me :mad: at myself, but I honestly didn't feel like faffing making pastry and stuff yesterday with the cold.

With the trimmings though I sort of redemmened myself, I used them to line 2 small individual pie dishes, found a baking apple in the fridge that I'd got to make apple sauce but then didn't, stewed it in a pan with some sultanas, cinnamon and a little sugar. Popped it on the pastry, topped it off with a crumble mix with some oats thrown in for good measure (from the freezer) and it came out yummy. Served it with some whoopsied double cream I got on monday from MrA, and I scored many brownie points with DH who christened it apple & cinnamon crumblie pie (he likes giving things names, so he can request things a second time when I've experimented and he approves.)

Thanks for the heads up re the Hovis breadmix Angelnikki, got some of the granary yesterday, every other time I've been the shelves were empty. Stocked up on baking ingredients, and got the rest of the staples for the next two weeks, should just need F&V now and shouldn't need to go shopping for a week or more, F&V aside. Just thought to add, that the only thing I dislike about the breadmixes are the additives they put in them, not sure what they'll cost full price but don't think I'd buy them then on account of the hidden extras, just got a few as its quicker to do at the minute while I'm feeling icky and all. But think will deffo go back to weighing out my own ingredients when I've used the ones up I got yesterday. Then I just get flour, honey, salt, oil, yeast and water in my bread and whatever 'flavouring' I add instead of a pile of additives.
Have a great day everyone, off to check my tomatoes now and see how big the pumpkin is, then peg out the washing and get back to stitching xmas cards lol!

Herby x

BigMummaF

Sorry Herbs--I had visions of that little Gestapo bloke & the blonde nazi from 'Allo 'Allo paying you a visit & demanding you tell them where you've put your brockvurst:rotfl: Which reminds me--I so miss the continental liver sausage I used to get before al the meat scares....:rolleyes: I'll have a look at Weezl's pate recipe again...

Technically, I didn't spend anything yesterday but one of the offspring did it on my behalf £1:50 for 2x2pt of MrT local milk. I know the 4 or even 6 pinters are cheaper in thelong run, but my old fridge door would complain at the weight & I'm NOT taking any chances with the new one:eek:

Dinner last night was edible but tasteless-- what I did to it--even tho it was a few of the bits of marinaded chicken I got Sunday. The chenese herbs smelled wonderful, & I only added half each of green & yellow pepper & a bit of onion, splash of water & in the oven for an hour. Served it with rice & did that with a chicken stock cube & weedul bits of broc & carrot....I was really looking forward to it too:(

cookinmummy

Hi everyone!

It is absolutely tipping it here and got all the lights on - VERY un-August!

Just to report I am on my 3rd NSD in a row:D

Savvy_sewing

I havent been able to have a Mr T deliveryusing my own bank card since My Bankrupcy as they dont take Electron, (Used to use my Mums but when I was robbed the card was taken and I no longer have access to Mums bank as shes been away), finding I am spending far too much on odds and sodds in the little shops between work and home.

I have a buffet to do for my work, but the budget is only £20 so thats not even £1 a head!! So I am looking for some inspiration,....Old style I think