August 2010 Grocery Challenge

Hippeechiq

LannyLee wrote: »

I used to go halves with my SIL for big 20kg bags of rice from Chinese supermarkets, it was around £15 between the 2 of us & would last ages, do you have 1 near you, do you know?

Thanks for the suggestion LannyLee that would be a great idea but unfortunately all my friends and family are 200 miles away and 20kg would be a bit much without sharing it with someone, plus I'm without a car at the moment. Good idea for others though

oceanspirit

Just £1.80 spent at a roadside veg stall so far this week. I am still working my way through the freezer and storecupboard and have been given a few bits of veg from other people's allotments.

I had a go at kezlou's onion bhaji recipe as I found both gram flour and baking powder (out of date) in my store cupboard and really enjoyed them. Will definitely make them again.

KITTY_2-2

Just a small spend of £2.38 today as DD wanted a curry sauce and naan breads. Have to shop tomorrow as need milk but won Slimmer of the Week tonight so don't need any fruit for a few days

angelatgraceland

Hippeechiq wrote: »

Yeah - I'd say we have a similar idea of how we would like Risotto to be, but I'm the kind of gal that has to have a recipe and exact quantities to follow. I'd love to be a chuck-it-in-and-see type cook, but I'm just not

Wow! That's a lot of planned cooking. Hope it all goes well. Would be interested in what the Butternut Squash Tart is like, especially as it's such a, well, let's face is, cheap, recipe.....I've never eaten Butternut Squash - anyone able to describe what it tastes like?

As I've said before - the Onion Tart is to die for. It's definitely worth the effort of all that chopping and teary eyes.

The site you mentioned is still Weezls baby (and also that of a small group of dedicated helpers) and it's worth a look if anyone else in interested in economical, low cost, nutritionally balanced meals - proving that you can have both - lovely pictures too, so that you can see what the end result should - and hopefully will - look like
Cheap Family Recipes

Good luck -hope it goes well

You know what? I never cook what I plan to! Today I made the chicken pie but with a variation in that it was chicken(a woopsied ready cooked breast I bought) and bacon(cooking bacon-from freezer) and oats with half a chopped carrot(lonely in the fridge)-otherwise followed the instructions until I didn't read the cooking method so steamed it like the bacon pudding! No matter-it was fantastic and fussy hubby liked it too as he is into eating oats and chicken but never mince or beef of any sort.
Served it with brocolli and fresh carrots. That used up the carrots from the fridge.
Also made the tomatoey scones but only got 13 from the mix not 24. No instant oat cereal here so used normal oats. Added cut basil from my tub to that as we had tons of it in the conservatory-basil tends to go into everything!
Also made the onion tart but again-with a variation. did twice the quantity and used 1 kg of onions, a fresh pepper from the conservatory , some basil(of course)and 4 sliced tomatoes from our conservatory also.
I made this into 4 small tarts as Ive got some nice little pyrex dishes and my dd and ds had some for supper and declared it lush!
Taking some out tomorrow for packed lunch for a daytrip hence I cooked so much.
Spent hours cooking and cleaning but I do feel very satisfied with what I produced, the cost and the stuff I used up. Kept all other quantities for the tart as in the recipe (oil eggs and milk).
So-Ive still got the intended recipes to make-butternut squash is waiting for me-but it will be 2 or 3 days away now!
I took the leap and froze 2 jars of my apple curd so that will be safe now. Also tried the humous today-not my sort of thing but nothing wrong with it-may be better on crackers than bread and ds said its great to dip cocktail sausages in! Well-he goes partying so he would know ;+):rotfl:
Taste of butternut squash-well I would describe it as a cross between carrot and potato but more flavour. Not sure about being especially cheap though-it cost me about £1.19 for less than a kilo-I guess I will manage 2 tarts out of it though at a push. Oh I didnt get the grana pedano either as I didnt want to spend the money-just used an extra 10g of cheddar per dish-mixed with red leicester as its dds favourite cheese..

gdyr1945

I have downsized to value/cheap rice and find the best way to get nice separate grains is to boil for 4mins, drain and then return to saucepan, put lid on and to gently steam for a couple of minutes whereas I used to boil for 8 - 10mins with the more expensive brands. No one has noticed or complained. Hope you find this helpful

scotsaver

GC going well this month, staying on target and keeping a note of everything.

Doing well with fruit and veg from the garden and the Allotment, yesterday I picked a load of plums and made a Plum compote from HFW's yearbook and the bonus is an extra recipe of sweet & spicy dipping sauce which you make from the extra syrup - 2 recipes from 1 lot of Plums.;)

Also picked some more courgettes which I have grated and bagged up for the Freezer and they will be added to curries, tomato sauces, spag bol etc.

Dinner tonight is HM meatballs, HM tomato sauce which I will add some courgettes to and served with pasta. Pudding will be the rest of the Plum compote and some ice-cream.:D

It's not all good news though - my nearest Aldi has closed down and the building has been sold - no warning that this was going to happen and totally in the dark about why this has happened - will really miss their Super 6. Found another Aldi but it's a car journey away so would need to combine it with something else to make it worthwhile.:(

Hope you are all still doing well.;)

ASC

missy_dee wrote: »

Hi all

Just updated sig - spent £40 at weekend, which makes my total £83 so far this month. Easily got enough food to last me until Saturday - so more or less on target.

Spent £28 at Mr T, then popped into Mr S as forgot something and and ended up spening £12 - but on loads of reduced stuff - whole chicken, chicken breasts, 2 packs of cod steaks, pack salmon, a ready made moussaka, sausages and mince. I worked out easily 10 meals - so not bad!!! I'm not normally that lucky though! So my freezer looking nice and full again.

I also got a massive bag of veg from my uncle's friend allotment - free of charge! Only thing is I have emough new potatoes to sink a battleship. Question - can you cook then freeze new pots?? Otherwise I will have to take some of them into work.

My tomatoes almost ready and got loads of raspberries to pick and I also froze loads of redcurrents the other week. Although to be honest not sure what to do with them - so any suggestions welcome.

Anyway good luck everyone.

Thanks Dee

Hi Dee, I freeze new pots often. I tend to steam them lightly before freezing then defrost what I need and either roast or fry, sacrilege I know but I love them like that!

In fact I've had two portions of roasted new pots this week, thrown in a dish with sliced onion, a little chopped cooking bacon and halved cherry toms. Had that one day with a Weezl calzone and another with hm cheese and bacon pasty, both with some hg salad leaves.

VERY pleased with the pasty - a couple of value potatos diced and part cooked, chopped value cooking bacon, some ood cheese sauce (yes, total cheat but it's using it up!) and loads of black pepper. Extremely scrummy and three more in the freezer for another day. I love it when I can be bothered to cook!

Spent £4ish in Mr S yesterday. Don't normally go there so I got a pack of Lincolnshire sausages (refuse to buy Mr Ts any more), the pint of milk I needed and a cream cake (bad day yesterday!).

Oops, sorry for long post.

A x

suzybloo

Hello folks, joining this post has been the best thing I have done!!! I am well within target and didnt even spend anything yesterday! Just done the tesco shop to be delivered tomorrow, once I had everything in the basket I went through and reviewed what I had bought, checking it agaginst my meal planner, so the whole shop for next week came to £38, I will add to my signature tomorrow once I see the exact figure.
I will need to go and get milk and bread today, plus a treat for hubby's piece box as there are no goodies in the house. The fridge is looking quite bare but at least there will be no waste - a carrierbag full on a Thursday could be the norm - this week nothing!!!!

We dont have any discount grocery stores in our town Tesco and Somerfield take your pick, but going to Perth on Saturday so will check out all the others for the bargains!!!

Good luck for today!

Suz

Winky,_The_House_Elf

freakyogre wrote: »

How much do you add? I've been given a bar of Lindt dark chilli chocolate (which is gorgeous) and I was thinking of adding some to a chilli, but wasn't sure how much to put in. I don't generally like sweet and savoury food together, so don't want to overdo it.

Well I was using mini-Hershey bars! (We get buy them every blue moon from Costco) The dark ones are the last to go so I added 2 bite size bars, about 2 normal choclate squares to a very large pot. So I'd try one for a normal pan of chilli.

It didn't taste at all of chocolate, just richer somehow.

Hope that helps

Winky x

jayII

Well, I made the self saucing chocolate pudding last night, and it was delicious! Too delicious in fact, we both had huge pieces, and there is loads left (children were too full to have theirs). I think I am going to have to limit desserts to once or twice a week, or my efforts to lose weight are doomed. :rotfl:

I love this thread, I have never spent so little on food, and we are eating so well. Thanks all.