May 2011 Grocery Challenge

Mrs_Money_Penny

Hi All

Just a little spend today of £10.90 which included a couple of things to make the following.

Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup

1 Medium onion
2 red Peppers, deseeded
1 Medium sweet Potato peeled
2 Medium carrots
1tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove
900ml just-boiled water
1 vegetable stock cube
Black pepper
Fresh basil

Slice the onion, peppers, sweet potato and carrots. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and gently cook the vegetables with the garlic for 10mins until softened. Crumble the stock cube in the pan and add the water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer 10-15mins until all the vegetables are tender. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool. Add the soup to a blender and blend until smooth. Return to the pan and heat through gently. Season with ground pepper. Garnish with fresh basil leaves.



Have a good week everyone.

susan946

quintwins wrote: »

my hubby said my bread was really heavy til i started doing it with hotter water i know this sounds silly but it does seem to work, so now i do 1/2 a cup of water from the tap and 1/4 from the kettle, it might be worth checking your measurements aswell to make sure your not using too much flour

homemade bread is generally more filling anyway but my first ones were real stodgy now there lovely and i have a slicer now aswell, i have bought a few loafs the past 3weeks with the kids being sick and holidays ect but i'll be going back to hm now i acually made one this morning

My brother-in-law made some beautifully light bread at Christmas so I asked him his secret. He said he has adapted Delia's method. I have used his method and our bread is lighter. He made white bread and we always like wholemeal and that is always denser but this is how I do it.

Start with the tepid water. I test it with a finger and if it is just slightly warm that seems about right. I dissolve the dried yeast and sugar in the water in a jug, give it a quick whisk with a fork and leave it somewhere warm. I preheat the microwave combi oven to 150 and weigh out the floue - half and half extra strong white and strong wholemeal in the bm bowl with salt to taste. Turn the oven off as soon as it reaches temperature and pop the flours in. Leave for around 30 minutes (not critical) while you go and do something else.

By this time there should be a froth on the yeast. The flour should be just warm. Pop the bowl in the bm, start the programme and as the paddle turns slowly add the yeast mix. I always stand by at this point with a wooden knife to make sure all the flour gets mixed in. It should anyway but I have known it not to.

After that just let the programme run.

Our bread is much lighter made this way and it's worth the extra wait.

Sue

fedupandskint

Just to clear up any confusion about which recipe it was its this one - I didn't realise there were 2 recipes on the front page

Spicy bean and lentil loaf http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=20913853#post20913853

By the way do you mind if I ask a question? I usually make pizza bases using the BM prog and strong white four. Would the pizza dough programme work with normal plain flour? Just wondered today as I'm about to run out of strong flour

looie

Updated sig with latest spend of £6.95 in a's today. Back to work tomorrow after nearly two weeks off and needed milk and coffee.

rosieben

Mrs Money Penny, I've added your Red Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup recipe to the index :beer:

ragz_2

Does anyone on the grocery challenge get veg boxes? Do you find it helps? I'm just wondering as it may stop me needing to go to supermarkets so often as I can get milk from milkman (and veg boxes! though I'd rather get a local one).

TheThriftyScrumpers

Hi
Nsd day today
I have a veg box coming thurs and a meal plan for week so I will only need to get some milk.

NickJW
I cooked the recipe you recommended for Rosieben - White fish with spicy beans and chorizo. It was delicious and very easy and quick. Thanks, I will definitely make this again.

meanmarie

Spent €51.23 to-day....not as bad as expected but have to buy roast of beef for visitors on Thursday, there will be 10 of us so need a good joint....have chosen beef as butcher has offer on at present of 5.+ per kilo...half price so a good deal.

Marie

TheThriftyScrumpers

Ragz
I have been getting a veg box for about a month now and I love it. We are trying different veg and new recipes. I am using Abel and Cole. They were doing "get your 4th box free". You could choose any box for your free one so I went for large fruit and veg which should cost £24 Their website has a recipe section which is good. You can also get loads of other stuff too like bread, milk, meat etc.

I plan to get my meat in bulk from my butcher/farmers Market, veg/fruit weekly by box which should result in one or two supermarket shops a month. Supermarkets are my downfall, it's so easy to get drawn in by their offers and end up buying stuff I don't need. Hope this helps.

JayJay14

fedupandskint wrote: »

By the way do you mind if I ask a question? I usually make pizza bases using the BM prog and strong white four. Would the pizza dough programme work with normal plain flour? Just wondered today as I'm about to run out of strong flour

I have a pizza express recipe book which says use about half an half plain and strong flour. I often use ordinary flour for bread, especially rolls.

GC going fine for the start of the month though I am going to be in a big te$co tomorrow - could be expensive.