I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

recovering_spendaholic

Kirri - hope all goes well with your surgery. I am waiting for a phone call to go in for an operation and i am dreading it. I hate hospitals!

Took my friend to the shops today as she is currently without a car and bought some Easter choccy bits in aldi - I have four large Dowe Egberts coffee jars donated by my friend and i am going to fill them with mini-eggs and other choccy bits to take to my other friend's house tomorrow as gifts for her kids.

Had a late lunch of a tuna pitta and then did scampi from the freezer for tea but it wasn't very nice (Youngs) and had some chips with it and some 10p mushy peas.

DD2 hated the scampi and so went round to the chippy and got chicken nuggets and chips which cost me £3!

In Aldi I got a huge piece of on the bone pork to roast for Sunday - it looks really nice and is british.

VfM4meplse

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Kirri - hope all goes well with your surgery. I am waiting for a phone call to go in for an operation and i am dreading it. I hate hospitals!

I think most of us can understand why, but if it's any consolatiion, if it's straightforward and all goes well you shouldn't have to stay in for more than a couple of nights. Sometimes we've just got to grin and bear it, remember that surgery can be a very effective intervention.

I am gradually emptying out containers and am creating a list that I am pinning to the fridge with a magnet of all the things I need to replace when the time comes. So far it's:
- gram flour
- milk powder
- fine semolina
- vanilla pods - I dried out the last one I used and stuck it in my last bag of sugar.

Any idea where I can get reasonably priced vanilla pods from? Unlike cinnamon sticks, they're not usually available from ethnic supermarkets. So far Amazon seems the cheapest but I really don't need a bundle of 10!

24 days to go before I hit the supermarket...

cheerfulness4

vmf4- Our local health food shop sells them. Its an independent tho so not much help really. Just thought others might.

Lynsey

Morning, having a lie in!!

Jane - envious of your 10p peas, none in my Aldi. Scampi can be hit and miss though, I used to love it. More happy with prawns just done in garlic oil/butter now though (which I'm having today). Saw those choc bunnies yesterday and thought of you eating yours. lol

Good Friday, so no meat day today. Fishcakes made last night with a pack of whiting (£2 down to 15p), having those for lunch.
Breakfast, simply toasted hot cross buns and eventually tonight, my stir fry with garlic prawns.

VfM4meplse - loving your supermarket countdown.

Lynsey

cheerfulness4

Right fancy faggots and mushy peas after hearing others this week. Not sure what I'll cook as the vile tummy bug has hit the house. The landing looked like a nightmare scene last night. It looked like something had exploded according to DH. :eek:
I didn't dare venture as I'm terrible with sick clearing duties. I just add to the problem.

Off to make a shopping list.

VfM4meplse

cheerfulness4 wrote: »

vmf4- Our local health food shop sells them. Its an independent tho so not much help really. Just thought others might.

My local Holland & Barrett sells them for an eye-watering £2.99 for 3. Not MSE . I'm looking for small quantities for a small outlay.

blackandwhitebunny

Lynsey wrote: »

"
TBH, it's hard work!!
Totally respect though what you lot are doing, I'm struggling, struggling to decide what to meal plan.
Far too expensive.

Next "veggie day" next Monday, hopefully better prepared by then!!

Lynsey

I'm surprised you're finding veggie meals more expensive. is it maybe because you're making 'meat meals' and just using quorn instead of the meat? I have a few dishes that I do because we like them that are vegetable main courses I guess.
Some ideas: Take a butternut and peel and cut into inch cubes, boil, steam or microwave until just tender. Mix in a tin of chopped tomatoes (or a jar of tomato pasta sauce) and a tin of red kidney beans in chilli sauce. (obviously you adapt so can just add chilli sauce to ordinary beans or use arribiata pasta sauce etc) Tip into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs and cheese and bake till golden and bubbly. Yum
or: take an assortment of cooked veg - I try and have some roasted such as onions, butternut, courgette and some frozen such as beans and cauliflower which I just defrost and use, mix into a white sauce, make a crumble topping using palin flour (100g), butter(75g), oats(50g) and some grated cheese ( deoends on how much you have), sprinkle over and again bake till golden yum yum.:D
I'm feeling a bit smug as I fed four of us last night without buying anything extra. And I've sent OH off to work with three bagels out of the freezer with the very last bit of a jar of mango chutney from the fridge - so another jar out of there :T Reduced Lancashire cheese and tomato. I've had another one of the bagels toasted for brekkie.
Off shopping soon with MIL so lunch out somewhere.

Lynsey

blackandwhitebunny - just trying to keep things simple. The Quorn is for stir fry's and maybe as a chicken replacement in a blue cheese sauce. I do need to be more creative though!! Quiche and salad, veggie pasta/lasagne meals and more simple things at the minute. Things to have with roast veg would be an option.
I would like nut cutlets/veggie burgers, but these are very rarely found in the "whoopsie" section - hence more expensive.
Quorn for example would be £2+ at non-offer prices, God knows what I can get for £2?? Much more than just over 300g of Quorn.

BTW - you're right to be "smug" - well done.

Need to bake some bread, using flour today rather than a Wright's mix. Dough stage only again and bake in the oven.

Have a great day.

Lynsey

Kirri

^ Lynsey, there is usually something always on offer with Quorn or Linda M every week though obviously not much choice in what is available at that price but I don't tend to buy anything full price as I wait for it to come round on offer mostly unless I am very tempted! There is a Quorn cookbook too for ideas but as b&wb says it is more of an expensive way to eat a veggie meal using these replacements. You'll have to get cooking with pulses or nuts or sometimes Morries have the tofu very cheap though that might be a step too far try the Morries recipe for Moroccan stew, not sure how much that costs per portion though but you may have most of the ingredients in the stock cupboard and it's a very tasty meal. Or sometimes like this week I just had roasted veg with pasta, no protein but if I eat some the rest of the day it's ok the odd meal without and as you're eating plenty of meat the rest of the week you could easily do meals with just veg on your veg days and be fine.

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Kirri - hope all goes well with your surgery. I am waiting for a phone call to go in for an operation and i am dreading it. I hate hospitals!

Thank you and you! It's horrible waiting to hear even. I get hot/faint with a simple blood test/vaccination even let alone the thought of this!! I've dropped 3lbs this week already since I got the call! I wouldn't put it past me walking out before they do it either!

Egg muffin for breakfast then going out for late lunch and probably won't cook anything this evening after that.

quintwins

Morning all, the cheapy sausage rolls were acually really nice, i made the whole packet so the kids could have some for lunch but hubby eat them all, at less than 1p each i don't really care tho gonna get some more to have, given how cheap they are and the low meat content we won't be eating them all the time but as they taste ok will be good to have in, i can see us having them cold in picnics over the summer lol- cheaper than sandwichs.

Gonna stock up on the 4 for £1 beans aswell, we had a tin last night they weren't bad and cheaper than branstons ok only a few pence cheaper (when buying from amazon) but everylittle helps.

Off to see mickey mouse today (got free tickets to a show :money:) Gonna have lunch before we go, breakfast was cornflakes (need to sort out my cereal cupboard as alot of them are now too soggy i discovered this making buns last week) thinking sandwichs for lunch as it's quick, lifted out some chicken breasts, i need to get a sack of spuds today as we're completely out, but i think we'll have chicken mash and peas.

New fridge freezer arrived this morning, at hubbys work at 8.10 :O needless to say he wasn't there :rotfl: all sorted now and in the new house.