I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

ms_night_ryder

Jane, if they want take aways and you give in, if you have a smart phone or any of your dd's do, get them to download voucher cloud, its a free app and i have used it for local takeaways, i just got 50% off at the pizza place round the corner and i have 3 more vouchers for that particular place, so it may be worth checking out to cut costs if you have to give in, if has loads of takeaways, clothes shops etc, the deals change all the time, may be worth a look.

Went for my walk today and really enjoyed it, walked 2.6 miles, on the way back i stopped in sainsburys and got some whoopsied tender stem brocolli, it was eithed ttd or organic, so taking heed from edwardia i got organic lol, they were both the same price at 99p, could have got it cheaper but i was in there at 5pm so too early for major reductions, also got easy peel satsumas sainsburys basic, about 20 for £1, even though i said i wasnt going to buy any meat whoopsies for a few weeks i still had a look, there was alot to be had and further reduced, all kinds of meat, egg fried rice, pork pies, chops, halfs of lamb, gosh it was hard but if i went later i dont know how i would have resisted lol, but im sticking to my guns, will only top up with meat whoopsies once my freezer is full of cost co meat, that way i can pick and choose what i want, instead of going for everything like i normally do. worked out my store have started a new thing, 2 whoopsies sections, one for pies, ready meals etc and a meat one.

Going to take out chicken breasts wrapped in bacon easy cook from t's, will have it with some roast potatoes, i have some parboiled ones in the freezer, so will use that up as well, i think my 2 non meat drawers are going down nicely, half a drawer of stuff left in each.

Having the chilli it smells yummy and looks really rich and thick, having it with basmati, last of preprepped veg and some tender stem brocolli, so i would have definately had my 5 fruit and veg for the day, what wiith what i put in the chilli.

Lynsey

Picked up a few things in Morries and got:
10 x Muller yoghurts for £2
2 x £1 back bacon = £2
pack of cream muffins (half-price) @ 82p
pack of carrots @ 37p
Total £5.19
Days total £9.46 (a lot for me mid-week)
Weeks total £10.43
Just under £15 left, but little needed now.
No "whoopsies" shopping tonight, but may have a look tomorrow. Get some Vitalite tomorrow if available.

Took out a pack of pork mince (49p for 500g) and making a spag bol for tomorrow - created a nice gap and it was still in container. Also took out some tea-cakes to toast for breakfast.

Lynsey

ammonite

Not been into the supermarket at all although may need to take my precious £10 and buy some rice krispies tomorrow. Made a list of things we need for shopping which exceeds £10 so I am just going to get the necessities (things like mustard can wait).

Got a chicken noodle soup out of the freezer (yum) and "mystery meat" which turned out to be sweet and sour pork for hubby.

Got me thinking, what sort of things do you batch cookers freeze? I'm running out of new ideas. We try and eat healthily (me more than hubby) and I find it difficult to eat spices and herbs and lots of veggies which means most foods are boring. Thought I'd share what I make and would be glad of any other suggestions:

I make and freeze:

-curry
-chilli
-bbq bolognaise
-normal bolognaise
-tuna and pasta bake
-chicken in Homepride sauce (mushroom or similar)
-fish pie
-shepherds pie
-sausage casserole
-stuffed chicken (they don't microwave that well if I wrap them in bacon, all goes a bit too crispy)
- mash
-boiled potatoes
-roast potatoes
-pork steaks with mushrooms, celery and gravy


Hubby isn't too keen on pies and I try to avoid them due to calories!

So as you can see its all fairly boring and limited! What do you make for your freezer? (the healthier the better!)

Lip_Stick

Evening all. Decided to get some beef mince out the freezer and make cajun beef. The recipe asked for long grain rice and luckily I had one packet of savoury rice which did the job. Would have been perfect with some lettuce leaves as wraps. Cooked enough for another couple of portions to go in the freezer.

Will probably make a quick and easy tuna pasta bake tomorrow.

Need to buy:
Tomato sauce
Mayo
Salad cream
Lentils
Rice
Salad items
Fruit

Hmmm... that looks like it'll come to a bit much more than I want to spend.

ammonite - I generally batch cook mince dishes, but that's only because I get out a packet rather than enough to do myself and ds.

Sometimes if I've used the slow cooker whatever I've made goes in. I make a nice lentil stew in it and a Moroccan lamb casserole. I also freeze chopped peppers.

Edwardia

Ammonite I'm afraid there isn't enough room in our freezer to stash frozen home made stuff as it's quite full with duck legs and veal mince mostly. We don't have a microwave now either because we never used them for more than heating hot chocolate !:o I use the space it took up on a counter to grow plants - a coffee plant, plus Greek basil, chives, thyme and a lemon-scented geranium.

It is an admirable idea to be organised and plan ahead, well done you. :T

ammonite

Edwardia wrote: »

It is an admirable idea to be organised and plan ahead, well done you. :T

I really can't applaud myself too much, the thought of having to cook from scratch when I walk through the door at 6.15 every night is what spurs me on with the batch cooking. 5 minutes in the microwave or 45 minutes from scratch....so really I only batch cook because I'm a lazy so and so in the week! :rotfl:

This does however limit the options when meat has little sauce as it doesn't heat up very nicely as it doesn't stay moist. I do like my slow cooker but would never think to buy veal or duck - they are 2 I shall look out for thank you

ms_night_ryder

Ammonite I know what you mean, I used to have the same problem, I used to batch cook, as I would get home and couldn't be bothered, the days I didn't take anything out I would be really lost.

Just popped on to say I really fancy broccoli and pasta in a cheese sauce, have everything in the freezer so will make it on saturday, with the rest of the broccoli stems, will look out for more whoopsied tomorrow, soda law there won't be any.

Also i grossly overestimated the amount of tins I have and only have 5 tins of toms left, think I'm going to buy a case from cost co, should last a while, 5 tins should last until I get to Costco.

recovering_spendaholic

ammonite - I sometimes batch cook but not always. I made a load of beef curry the other week and I just took some out of the freezer for tomorrow night's tea, with a packet of chapattis (frozen ys) and I will cook some rice to have with. I like the sound of your bbq bolognaise - what is it? Tonight I cooked alot of bolognaise so froze that, and at the moment I have various soups that I have made which are frozen in portion sized lock and locks, plus loads of mashed potato and cheese sauce.

I have been watching the Hairy Biker's Mums know best repeats on BBC2 every day and some of the stuff looks lovely. I really fancy making the chicken maryland with the bananas wrapped in bacon!

Breakfast tomorrow will be hm protein shake for me, toast for DD's, lunch will be sandwiches for DD2 as packed lunch, and I might make a tuna pasta salad or hm cauliflower cheese for DD1 and I. I STILL haven't made my coronation chicken so I must do that over the weekend. I also have a nice piece of roasting beef which I need to use up too.

It's DD1's birthday on Friday and I was going to make her a nice birthday cake but she said she wanted a costco cake, so her Dad said he would get one. I really don't like costco cake as it is so sweet and artifical tasting so at least I won't eat any of it!!

Do any of you make the all bran loaf? I was going to make it but I only have weetabix - do you think they would work?

Oh yes - in Tesco yesterday they had a new baked beans - it is a mixture of haricot, kidney, pinto, borlotti and some others in tomato sauce - made by Heinz. It was 57p for a large tin (special offer) so I got a tin - Looks lovely on the label!

ms_night_ryder thanks for the tip about voucher cloud - I haven't heard of it but will have a look on my iphone. Better not tell the kids because they will hound me to order stuff!! Should be useful for the occasional treat though!

quintwins

I don't really batch cook either, i find meals take up to much room, my freezers mainly full of frozen meat and veg, the odd pizza and a few garlic bread (not at the mo theres acually no garlic bread in there). I'm a sahm so usually have time to make dinner (which is usually 10mins prep and turning everything on) or if i'm having a busy day i have my slowcooker.

Ds still isn't great he did eat some shreddies tho, kids are having lo pie from last night for dinner tonight and me and hubby are having steak and chips with peppercorn sauce (kids don't like steak it's not that i'm tight and eating the fancy stuff while they have leftovers)

Lip_Stick

Morning all. Horrid weather here. Think I'll give college a miss and catch up next week. To give a bit of perspective, last week we made a pop-up frog card. :rotfl:

Not sure what to have for dinner, maybe soup again. Decided to have pasta with colman's luxury cheese packet sauce, which I'm not keen on, but it needs using up. Dragged a small chunk of ham out the freezer to chop up and mix with it.

Freezer is looking more spacious. Still plenty of meat that needs using up, as well as pre-packaged more luxury meat like steak and rack of lamb.

quintwins - hope your ds is feeling back to his old self soon.

recovering spendaholic - Will have a look out for those beans, they sound interesting.

ms_night_ryder - you've inspired me to put a bit of broccoli in my pasta dish.

ammonite - do you have a slow cooker?