January 2009 Grocery Challenge

gillst_2

Taken me ages to catch up with postings, but a very interesting read. Had a nsd yesterday and only £1.20 on bread today. Getting low on veg so will need some in a day or so, but can use frozen if necessary. Home made fish pie today with baked beans. Used frozen fish from Mr A (Less than £3 a large bag) and made a 6 portion, potato topped pie, enough for the four of us this evening with two portions for tomorrow.
A quick question - does anyone know if I can freeze breadcrumbs from a previously frozen loaf of bread?

little_miss_moneysaver_3

Originally Posted by Cat Addict
No it probably means you are healthy and slim not apple shaped like me!
I don't put veg in curry other than tinned toms and onions as OH would moan. What veg would you put in? OH excludes ALL pulses from the menu!!

I had to reply to this comment!
My BF knows that if he don't eat it on that day he'll have it another day in another form! So he will eat it!
I think one of these moments was I made a roast chicken with all the trimmings. Miscalculated the amount of veg. Next day we had sweet and sour roast dinner. Obv the chicken and all of the left other veg! And that did another 2 meals.
Another week it was chicken and (leftover) cauliflower korma. That was tasty

angelatgraceland

mothershipton wrote: »

hi, just had first shop of the year! not bad total so far this month is £98 as we owed the milkman loads of money. Husband is enjoying being banned from Tescos but still managing to buy food....

Ooh mothershipton! Do tell me how you got that name? I have a really genuine reason for asking!!!! Im told that she is a very distant relative of mine from Yorkshire.(Seriously)

orchid-96

I have to say I am now banned from putting lentils into my bolognese in future - I made a big batch of it an oh really moaned and groaned about the lenitl texture (and I have to say I thought it was a bit strange too) but any other veg is fine, peppers, onions, tomatoes, mushrooms etc...just not lentils (shame as I had plans for them lentils!!!)

Today I pulled out my second from last bolognese (with lentils) from the freezer and to try to make it a bit different I baked it in the oven with pasta shells and cheese (ds decided he loved it apart from the mushrooms which he always picks out) but dh still had a face on him - I even served up garlic bread with it (which did go down well)

on the subject of bogofs, I personally don't really feel it is people being greedy when the buy these, I think it is people either a) being organised like msers with budgets etc. or b) people thinking that in these days of credit crunching etc. they are maybe getting a good deal and doing something good!! I have to say I don't really ever seem to see the supermarkets I go to running out of the bogof stuff...only usually the stuff they have reduced down mega (like apparantly Mr M had great dove/lynx packs on offer but I never saw 1 or even anywhere on a shelf where they had ever been!!)

Sylvan

Cat_Addict wrote: »

Eek I'm a greedy b**ger then! I put three chicken breasts into a curry for me and DH LOL!! One and a half chops each. And three sausages each!! No wonder I'm fat!

Lurch and the monsters normally have at least 3 sausages each but today we had two extra teenagers and only 12 sausages and they survived without really noticing the difference.

Lurch has spent another £11.30 (mostly stuff for packed lunches and some veg) and DS4 took £1 for lunch today so we're up to £33.97.

kunekune

Joining the quiche club!

I had a bought pastry case that I was going to use to make a quiche lorraine tonight - got gruyere, cream and bacon ready. First up, once it was defrosted, it was tiny. It would definitely not hold the size filling I was planning. So I looked at the instructions, and found I could cook blind from frozen. Got other one out as well. Tried to !!!!! bottom. Bottom cracked. Put it in oven anyway. Crack got better. Sides on both of them toppled over. They looked pale and uninteresting. After 10 minutes, I took them out ... and ...

put them straight in the bin.

Got my book out, looked up recipe for pastry using half white and half wholemeal, made pastry, rolled it out, blind baked it, poured the big filling on top of the bacon bits (5 eggs, one yolk, cream, milk, gruyere ... not a frugal meal, mind) and it was still on the table at the normal time. Served it with an interesting mix of sliced beans and flageolet beans in garlic butter.

Went down brilliantly. I'm not sure why I didn't do it that way before - my cheesy pastry that I use for broccoli quiche is always a success too. So why do I bother trying to use frozen pastry? In New Zealand there was good frozen pastry, it was in rolled out squares, frozen flat, so you didn't have to do anything except take it out of the freezer and let it defrost for about 10 minutes. Now, that was time saving if not money saving. But the Jus-Rol stuff I've had here is appalling. The rolled sheets crack. They take ages to defrost BEFORE they crack and go wrong - the only way to use them (as happened with my mince pies at xmas) was to squidge it up again and re-roll them. What's the time saving in that?

No, home-made from now on unless I need puff. And perhaps I should try very hard not to need puff.

Edited to say: the rude bit was to do with putting holes in the bottom of the pastry with a fork.

Sylvan

Cat_Addict wrote: »

I don't put veg in curry other than tinned toms and onions as OH would moan. What veg would you put in? OH excludes ALL pulses from the menu!!

Potatoes in a curry make it go much further. They soak up the taste and are delicious (and if a few of them dissolve a bit it makes the gravy thicker).

You could also make a side dish of chopped tomatoes and cucumber (my aunts used to add chopped chilli too but we don't like hot stuff) or raita, which is chopped cucumber, natural yogurt and sometimes a little fresh mint. (The yogurt also helps cool the curry if you've made it too hot).

I think some of my aunts used to put peas in the mince curry.

Also aubergines and bhindis, though I can't believe anyone would eat them through choice. Yuk!

Talking of curry, one of my aunts used to make the most delicious trotter curry. Shame you can't buy trotters in the supermarket (Though they'd probably call them a deli item or an ethnic food and charge the earth:rotfl:)

TheBees

Hi all -Had to pop to the small co-op for cat food as our darling cat has decided to go on hunger strike! :eek: He's gone off whiskas so I bought Felix and he's wolfing it down!

JennyBee - hope you don't mind me asking but when is your baby due? I remember you posting on here some time last year when you first found out you were pregnant! Also are you in the south west or did I just make that up? Was just wondering where your meat wholesalers is?

Trying for a NSD Thurs and Fri if possible - got a mountain of ironing to do and its too cold to go out!:eek: Also going to do savoury mince in the slow cooker for tea but must remember to add some oats!

Rachel021967

I spent 55p on a chocolate bar for my daughter and £36.11 at Tesco.
I bought:

seedless grapes, value mushrooms 750g, Four leaf salad, 2 pork chops, Value chicken, Finest lemon curd yoghurt (this keeps my husband happy), 4 toffee and 4 mandarin Mullerlight yoghurts (currently at 27p each), 3 hovis white, clementines pack, Bananas 2.1kg, Value peppers, 2.5kg White potatoes, 8 tins of Branston beans, 2 Value 1kg Basmati rice, 10 value bacon noodles, 2 chicken flavour noodles, 2 Tesco macaroni 500g, Shredded Wheat Fruitful 500g £1.48 which I have been overcharged by 48p.

Is there anyway I can cut my costs further.

Budget is £170 and I have spent £58.10. Thats £18 overbudget. I need to do better next week.

Sylvan

How much is the value basmati now? It had gone up to a ridiculous amount last month.