November 2010 Grocery Challenge

katholicos

Hippeechiq, those recipes look absolutely delicious! I'm feeling very hungry all of a sudden :-)

katholicos

Had a reet morning of it today...DD was supposed to get up at 6am for her commute to uni, she borrowed my mobile phone to use as an alarm as she is totally dippy and she couldn't find hers ( i have brought the girl numerous alarm clocks over the years and she has even nicked mine and broke them :angry face:)

....anyway, had a rough night so didn;t get to sleep till around 3am and then kept thinking 'oh hell, i have to get up in 3 hours!'

Anyway (again) DD comes into my room this morning...'er Mum, it's 9.20 am...i forgot t put the alarm on'.

I sent her straight downstairs to phone my parents as they were waiting for me to collect Dad's emergency prescription...within 10 minutes I was on my way...didn;t notice i'd got a bloody flat tyre....went to my parents, collected the prescrip, went to chemist, took meds to parents, went to uncle to do an errand for him, drove home using Dad's car after noticing i'd got a flat tyre...picked up the 100 cakes and 13 loaves i'd made for church, drove back to parents, picked up mum (still using Dad's car) ..drove to church to drop off all the food...waited for the door to open, no one came..got back in the car and someone came out and bid us to come in and bring the food...dropped food off, got back in car, nipped in the new Mr. T's in town and mum bought some food and stuff to make her Christmas cake...and i will probably be on CCTV sometime in the future because i got confused about which was the car park exit and entrnce and went in the wrong way and all these cars were obstructed by me....felt a right fool, couldn;t reverse either...

At least something went right though, as i fund some bargains at Mr. T's 4 x 2k bags of organic potatoes reduced to 45p each bag...3 packets of fresh sweet basil reduced to 29p per pack.....4 x packs of Fair Trade bananas at 49p per pack...1 pack of 2 x avocado reduced to 55p....i also bought some value coleslaw, toffee apples, foodwrap, stilton, flat mushrooms...total spend = £9.31. Haven't updated signature yet, but will do shortly.

I am microwaving some of the potatoes in their skins and then i will cool them, wrap them in foil and freeze them. We get through a lot of baked potatoes so buying these big bags so cheaply will serve us well for quite a while.

I'm ging to slice the bananas and dehydrate them along with the excess glut of potatoes i am not freezing.

Glad every day isn;t like this one, i feel so tired that i could sleep for a week!

ETA: on way home, as skint, i put air in tyre at garage and am seeing if it will stay inflated before i have to bite the bullet and fork out for new tyre.

jintyb

losingpatience wrote: »

Feeling completely low and fed up and don't know how we're going to get through, especially as I've barely started on my christmas shopping yet

Hi there Losingpatience, so sorry to hear what you're going through. I cannot think of anything practical to add to what the others have posted. If the folks you're having over on Saturday are friends, could you ask them for help? Maybe someone could help out with lifts to hospital or cooking some food for your freezer? People do like to help but are sometimes afraid of intruding IFYSWIM?
I know its an old saying, but just take one day at a time, and remember we're all here to support you if you need a rant.
Hugs to you and your OH:)

Moniker

"ETA: on way home, as skint, i put air in tyre at garage and am seeing if it will stay inflated before i have to bite the bullet and fork out for new tyre. "

K - couldn't you swap the punctured tyre for your spare until you can get it fixed? I know it is illegal not to have a roadworthy spare so you won't want to leave it too long - but it's better than risking the wheel rim being damaged if you drive on it - or even worse having an accident if you lose control! Take care hun, you are already under stress after the day you've had!

Have just finished baking a batch of Twinks (well a half batch) and some shortbread biscuits. I adapted the recipe from one for shortbread rounds. I am sure that I have done this in the past and just rolled the dough into a sausage shape then cut 'pennies' with a knife after its been chilled for half an hour. However, I couldn't get an even sausage so they look a bit strange but they taste fine! I have 2 doz Twinks and 2 doz shortbread 'rounds'. I will be freezing most of these as I have friends coming for a coffee morning next Saturday and this will save me buying stuff.

BTW, is it just me or does anyone else hate the way shop assistants have to sell you random stuff when you are paying your bill? I was in M*rks and Sp*rks yesterday buying new trousers for my DH (who has lost more than a stone on our high protein low carb diet!) when the girl said "Have you seen our biscuit offer 2for 1?" pointing to a packet of chocolate biscuits by the till. I said "No thanks we don't eat biscuits" (well, not shop bought ones!). So then she said "Did you see our champagne offer for Christmas?" and I said "No" - then she launched into the full sales pitch. I told her that I was sorrry that she was obliged to do this but that I absolutely wasn't going to do any Christmas shopping before 1st December, that the sales pitch was oppressive and I couldn't afford champagne anyway! I know it is a bit bah humbug of me, but I think we should stick to together and refuse to be pressured into buying so much stuff! Rant over!

Have a good evening everyone

Moniker

katholicos

Moniker wrote: »

"ETA: on way home, as skint, i put air in tyre at garage and am seeing if it will stay inflated before i have to bite the bullet and fork out for new tyre. "

K - couldn't you swap the punctured tyre for your spare until you can get it fixed? I know it is illegal not to have a roadworthy spare so you won't want to leave it too long - but it's better than risking the wheel rim being damaged if you drive on it - or even worse having an accident if you lose control! Take care hun, you are already under stress after the day you've had!

Bless you Moniker, but as i am not abe to change the tyre myself (breathing difficuties) this was not an option for me. I'm going to see how it is tomorrow and if need be i will have to pay for a new one (or re-tread) to be put on.

Moniker wrote: »

Have just finished baking a batch of Twinks (well a half batch) and some shortbread biscuits. I adapted the recipe from one for shortbread rounds. I am sure that I have done this in the past and just rolled the dough into a sausage shape then cut 'pennies' with a knife after its been chilled for half an hour. However, I couldn't get an even sausage so they look a bit strange but they taste fine! I have 2 doz Twinks and 2 doz shortbread 'rounds'. I will be freezing most of these as I have friends coming for a coffee morning next Saturday and this will save me buying stuff.

Well done on all your baking, i'm sure your friends will really enjoy your hospitality.

Moniker wrote: »

BTW, is it just me or does anyone else hate the way shop assistants have to sell you random stuff when you are paying your bill? I was in M*rks and Sp*rks yesterday buying new trousers for my DH (who has lost more than a stone on our high protein low carb diet!) when the girl said "Have you seen our biscuit offer 2for 1?" pointing to a packet of chocolate biscuits by the till. I said "No thanks we don't eat biscuits" (well, not shop bought ones!). So then she said "Did you see our champagne offer for Christmas?" and I said "No" - then she launched into the full sales pitch. I told her that I was sorrry that she was obliged to do this but that I absolutely wasn't going to do any Christmas shopping before 1st December, that the sales pitch was oppressive and I couldn't afford champagne anyway! I know it is a bit bah humbug of me, but I think we should stick to together and refuse to be pressured into buying so much stuff! Rant over!

Have a good evening everyone

Moniker

I completey agree. I feel sorry for the sales assistants who are put under pressure to do a sales pitch, they have enough to do in the course of their normal duties and often i find being asked if i would like to buy extras at the till, very annoying. I know it's not the fault of the staff, they are told to push for more sales, but i find it just makes me even more determined to say 'no thank you'. If i wanted to purchase other items they would already be in my basket/trolley!

Hippeechiq

Moniker wrote: »

BTW, is it just me or does anyone else hate the way shop assistants have to sell you random stuff when you are paying your bill? I was in M*rks and Sp*rks yesterday buying new trousers for my DH (who has lost more than a stone on our high protein low carb diet!) when the girl said "Have you seen our biscuit offer 2for 1?" pointing to a packet of chocolate biscuits by the till. I said "No thanks we don't eat biscuits" (well, not shop bought ones!). So then she said "Did you see our champagne offer for Christmas?" and I said "No" - then she launched into the full sales pitch. I told her that I was sorrry that she was obliged to do this but that I absolutely wasn't going to do any Christmas shopping before 1st December, that the sales pitch was oppressive and I couldn't afford champagne anyway! I know it is a bit bah humbug of me, but I think we should stick to together and refuse to be pressured into buying so much stuff! Rant over!

No, it's not just you Moniker - it puts my back right up. Although, I do try to bear in mind that it's not the Sales Assistants fault, as she will have been primed to say the exact same thing to every customer, whether or not she wants to............I doesn't always work mind, but I try

Oooooh, I wish my tea would hurry up and be done. We've got Herby Chicken Thighs which is a stew type dish all done in one pot on the hob with halved new potatoes, carrots, onion and chicken broth, with white wine, oregano, thyme, paprika and black pepper seasoning. It smells divine and tastes even better, and I'm soooo hungry.

Serving it with chunky doorstop slices of wholemeal granary bread (to soak up all the wonderful gravy/sauce) and sweetcorn.....nom nom nom :drool:

pagangirl

de-lurking to ask if anyone knows where I can buy a proper gingerbread man biscuit cutter from? Have found mini 3" one, but all others seen to be in kits of 6 or so cutters but I only want 1

Have checked Home Brrgains/B & Em/99p shop/£1 shop, even Lakelnd & John Lewes. Tried googling but only found 4" on Amzn - help please !

Thanks for any advice

Hugs to all
xx

katholicos

pagangirl wrote: »

de-lurking to ask if anyone knows where I can buy a proper gingerbread man biscuit cutter from? Have found mini 3" one, but all others seen to be in kits of 6 or so cutters but I only want 1

Have checked Home Brrgains/B & Em/99p shop/£1 shop, even Lakelnd & John Lewes. Tried googling but only found 4" on Amzn - help please !

Thanks for any advice

Hugs to all
xx

This one is 4 x 6 inches apparantly...is this any good to you?

katholicos

Just ate some jacket spuds with coleslaw and mushrooms stuffed with stilton/breadcrumbs. Very tasty.

wssla00

Losing patience- There is another option too if you fancied hot food- Although I don't recommend it, it worked well for us but you need to make your own decisions.

When we went on long rides, we used to wrap pies in foil and place them on top of the engine. The heat from the engine used to heat up the pies and when we got where we needed to be we had a hot dinner. It was very nice

Hope everyone is well!