May 2011 Grocery Challenge

ragz_2

First veg box just arrived so that's £12.50 on to my total. Looks good! Cauliflower, butternut squash, asparagus, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, onions and potatoes! Just weighed them all so I can compare prices...
Turns out it would have cost me £11 at Tesco... but I haven't had to go to Tesco so that's probably a bigger saving (not to mention the diesel as it's a 20 odd mile round trip to a supermarket for me. Also I imagine the quality would be better, it's not organic but it IS local. I'll see how it goes for a month...

tigerfeet2006

Just had my Mr.T delivery and it came in at £32.17. Really pee'd off as they didn't deliver my Maxtra water cartridges so I will have to pop into town tomorrow to get some. Can't ask DH to get them on the way home from work as he will get other bits that catch his eye as well <rolls eyes>

cutiepieabf

Mrs_Money_Penny wrote: »

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.

this sounds yummy. i will be trying this tonight as i have a few sorry looking peppers and carrots. i love getting sweet potato but i never know what to do with them (apart from mashing them).

thanks :T

cat_smith

Grrr. Annoyed with myself. Took hound for a walk and popped in to the local deli to say hi. Ended up spending £17 totally un-necessarily. I like to go to the local shops and offer support, but I could have got the same stuff from Tesco for about half the price and I didn't NEED any of it. Must NOT take purse when walking dog.

Off to update sig.:(

Dharma_Bunny

£.6.73 at Ms yesterday and £5.29 at Ss today, bringing my total to £12.80 so far.

cutiepieabf

TheThriftyScrumpers wrote: »

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.

talking about veg boxes - what do you think is a reasonable price for a box in order to make it cost effective? or does it much depend on how much fruit and veg you eat in a week? i may have just answered my own question.... we do eat fruit and veg and if i entered this scheme i could probably get one a month and then just top up with spuds or whatever. hmmmm i need to work out how much i currently spend on this really to see if it would be worthwhile. i DEFINATELY want to support the local farmers and this is the main attraction of the scheme over supermarkets. i make almost everything from scratch so i imagine there would rarely be waste (and we have a rabbit now who loves his veggies).
maybe i should trial it and see how it goes?

hmmmm :think:

aussiemum

Hi everyone,
Today was my first weekly shop for the month, came to $144. Not great as I still need some meat and veg.

ragz_2

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Old family favourite for dinner tonight Cauliflower, egg and potato curry.

Hard boil about 6 eggs.Meanwhile fry off over a medium heat a large, diced onion. Stir in a deseeded, red chilli, crushed garlic and grated ginger (quantities to taste I use very little chilli but about 4 cloves of garlic and a thumb size piece of ginger.) and fry for a few mins. Raise heat a little and add a couple of cubed potatoes and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, until outsides are just softening. Stir in 2 tblesp curry paste, cook for a min then add a cauli cut into florets and stirfry for a min, stirring to coat.

Pour on a tin of coconut milk and stir, add some salt to taste, raise heat and bring to boil, stirring frequently, then half cover pan and reduce heat to a slow simmer. Cook for 20-25 mins, stirring often until veg. tender.

Cut the eggs in half, lengthways and stir them into curry and continue to simmer for a couple of mins.

Serve with toasted almonds, coriander and basmati rice.

Always empty plates.

Perfect, got cauli and pots in the veg box and was just looking for a recipe! Unfortunately I have already done the meal plan for this week! Maybe I can put the mince for today back in the freezer, though DH will be most agggreived that his meaty chili is going to be replaced by a veggie dish, epecially as the fish I did for dinner last night had to be shared between 3 of us when BIL got stranded here so he'll really be suffering meat deprivation (though 4 sausages in his packed lunch may help!)

cutiepieabf

cat_smith wrote: »

First spend of May today on the way home from France. Dog not talking to us after almost 3 days on the road:( £19.52 on fruit/veg basics and a couple of little whoopsies. That should last us until end of next week as we are in and out.

Am going to try and wean DH from Cheese sandwiches day in day out so have dug out my copy of 'Lunchbox'. 200+ recipes to take to work. I tried a couple out in France last week and they went down a treat. Seemed to reduce snacking as well. OK. The fruit and veg is more expensive, but I feel he'd be getting fed more sensibly.

Off to update sig.:T

if you have any tips that would be great. i am getting bored of sandwiches/hm soup/hm sausage rolls. OH wont eat salad which is a PITA so i need to make sure he gets a variety so he doesnt buy stuff while hes in work...

ETA - he doesnt like eggs either.... so quiche is out of the question. grrrr

cutiepieabf

ragz wrote: »

Perfect, got cauli and pots in the veg box and was just looking for a recipe! Unfortunately I have already done the meal plan for this week! Maybe I can put the mince for today back in the freezer, though DH will be most agggreived that his meaty chili is going to be replaced by a veggie dish, epecially as the fish I did for dinner last night had to be shared between 3 of us when BIL got stranded here so he'll really be suffering meat deprivation (though 4 sausages in his packed lunch may help!)

if its started to defrost its not advisable to refreeze it but it can sit in the fridge for about 48hours.;)