February grocery challenge

Galtizz

Oooh yes, giant yorkshires are great. See http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=8943&highlight=yorkshire for a whole thread on them.

You can make them really quickly, I make them in a round cake tin. You can fill them with anything veggie sausages and veg, tuna mayo, loads of vegetables or, my favorite is scrambled egg and chopped up fresh tomatoes (but I'm a bit strange ).

I cook the filling on the hob whilst the yorkshire is in the oven (cause you can't open the oven door!)

Just make double the amount of batter and whilst you're eating them, have another one in the oven to put in the freezer for next time.

Fantastic pizza recipe here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=6865 (post 8, by Caterina)

crana999

Trow wrote:

If you have a 'no-fry' restriction have you ever sauted your onion etc in water or red wine? It helps soften it up nicely so you don't end up with what my other half would consider undercooked onion (he had an incident once with french onion soup and now all onion has to be very well cooked)

I haven't really tried that yet (red wine? are you serious? ), to be honest i am lazy and pretty happy with it just boiled up for long enough. by the time the other things (kidney beans/potato etc) are cooked the onion is fine. I will probably try that one day though

My main gripe is not being able to do stirfries etc I have seen some recipes that kinda stir-fry in stock though..

spidystrider

I 've just finished reading all the new posts. I'lll forget the cookery course and stick with you lot. You've got some brilliant ideas! I love the Root veg & Barley casserole idea and also the Mini Toads one, thanks crana & chrisico. Chrisico, is there any change of you moving in with me for a while? I could really pick your brains. If you've remained a veggie for 25 years and brought up 3 healthy girls, I could do with your help. Any veggie recipes will be eagerly welcomed.
Hi culpepper,
Quorn comes from the fungus family!
I do think the idea of cooking the onions is a good one. I have only cooked the quorn by itself then added some veggie stock and it's awful. I imagine if I had another flavour in there, it would make a difference. Next time I think I'll fry up some onion, mushrooms and maybe peppers and then add the Quorn. Could make a big difference.
Hi fazer,
Yes I do sometimes make my own pizzas, we actually had them last night. I only use ordinary white sliced bread and add the tomato pizza topping, which is quite expensive. The kids then add their own choice of toppings e.g. onions, quorn, mushroom, peppers, cheese etc. They do enjoy it but I think it would be better on crusty bread and I definitely have to find a cheaper equivalent to the jars of tomato pizza topping.

spidystrider

My sister-in-law actually came up with a recipe this morning when I spoke to her on the phone. She is one of these people that can look at a bunch of ingredients and come up with a dish. She is always trying new things and has every herb and spice under the sun. This was her recipe. I haven't a clue how much of each item you'll need, but hopefully you experienced cooks out there can work that out.

Dried pasta of your choice
Onions
Mixed peppers
Mushrooms
Broccolli
Cauliflower
Quorn or chicken, sausage etc. ( optional )
Cheese - enough for a cheese sauce and to sprinkle on top

Cook your pasta and fry your onions, peppers, mushrooms, quorn or meat if used. Mix them together and place in an oven proof dish. Make enough cheese sauce to cover this and add to pasta. Cook your cauliflower and broccolli until tender, drain and mash them. Place the mashed cauliflower and broccolli on top of pasta and sprinkle some cheese on top.
Put it in the oven at gas mark 4 and cook for 15 mins or a bit longer if cooking it from cold. It should have a crispy top when removed but if not crispy enough you can place it under the grill for a minute.
My sil would serve this with garlic bread. I always buy my garlic bread but she buys crusty bread, lightly toasts it and then rubs it with a garlic clove. She then spreads on her butter, marg etc.

I do hope this is easy enough to follow. I'm not used to cooking from recipes, never mind following them! I did think this sounded nice and I am definitely going to try it.

crana999

spidy - pasta/pizza sauce is much, much easier than you would think!

Try this recipe here:

http://www.beyondbakedbeans.com/recipe.asp?recipe_id=160&month=9&year=2004

(you can also use chopped tinned toms if you like. if they look excessively watery take out a bit of the juice, or cook it for longer)

You can add a bit of tomato puree if you like too, but it doesn't really need it

also - with the pizza on bread - will your kids eat wholemeal? it's so much better for you and I reckon it's more filling too. It should also (in theory!) give you less of a spike in blood glucose that then comes down just as fast and leaves you feeling hungry again (save on snacks?) perhaps worth a try anyway.

Wholemeal pasta is also good - i prefer it much more than normal pasta - and it's not exactly expensive (big bag of wholemeal pasta shells at asda: 34p. pack of wholemeal spag at S'burys: about 26p I think).

BTW, I wrote to Quorn (well, email) last term asking if they could send me any recipes, coupons etc - they sent me lots of recipes and £1.50 in coupons and seemed very happy to help - maybe worth a try?

nabowla

I'm doing quite well so far on switching to own brands (dishwasher tablets, washing powder etc) and buying special offers. However, I'm really struggling to keep the meat/fish and fresh fruit/veg bill down. I live in quite an affluent area where the weekly 'market' is a trendy, organic farmers' market (with trendy prices!). There aren't any cheap veggie shops or butchers about locally, either.

I do look out for stuff that's marked 'reduced to clear' in the supermarket but there's very little available (probably because everyone's just like I used to be, and wouldn't touch it with a bargepole!).

Has anyone got any brainwaves about how I could cut back the cost without cutting back the quantity? I don't have a car so travelling long distances is out of the question!

halloweenqueen_2

Well first day in and I go shopping!:rolleyes: Not to worry i only needed some apples, baked beans and a couple of bits so just £2.17. I think if I wasn't on this challenge I would have put more in my trolley! Really trying to cut down as i have a loads of stuff in the freezer, but got nice roast chicken dinner tonight!:D

halloweenqueen_2

By the way nabowla - do you go shopping at all in the evenings as thats when you get your bargains - or just before or just after bank holidays.

aliasojo

Just curious, but anyone got a ballpark opinion on average weekly shopping cost for 5? (Food AND cleaning stuff / toiletries/ etc)

Eldest kid is actually a man now and middle kid is certainly man sized, lol.

In effect, I need to feed 4 adults and one wee one.

This thread has just sparked a rather colourful debate in our house.

It would be useful to know what other peeps would spend in my shoes. (Not only that, it would also be useful to use as ammunition, lol.)

crazyhazy

I think I'll try and reduce our bill this month as well. I get shopping vouchers through my work and every month get 120 quid worth. I managed to save 40 in december cos I had savings card for xmas stuff, so ideally I'd like to reduce the shopping bill to about 90 a month, then hopefully by march I wouldn't need vouchers for one month which would be 120 quid towards the wedding!

I've started well, wrote out menu plans for 3 weeks last week, starting yesterday. So went shopping on saturday for everything and with cupboard stuff have enough food to last till saturday for 10 quid so feel I've started right, will see how we get on for the rest of the month.