I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

zafiro1984

Afternoon all,

I'm trying really hard to live out of the freezer, but also to put any leftovers/cooked bits back into the freezer, it constantly feels like we are living on 'leftovers'. I have loads of unlabled bits so I think I'll defrost one pack per day and make sure I use it in some form as part of a meal - should be fun!!

The shopping bill has gone down, that's a good thing but I still can't resist a bargain. Waitrose are doing a serious offer on Ecover products and seeing as we are not on main drains I couldn't resist buying enough to last - hopefully for six months, at least they're not edible so it shouldn't get used up more quickly than usual.

Defrosted some pork shoulder at the weekend minced it and stretched it further by adding bread and apple, shallots & sage (home grown but in the freezer). We had it as burgers on Sat, today I made the remainder into sausage rolls for todays lunch, still got 6 rolls over so will freeze them for another day. (see what I mean about living on leftovers)

Tonight OH is having a giant yorkshire pudding - batter is frozen from when I had a surplus of eggs, filled with a bit of cubed braising steak - leftovers from last night - pots, veg and gravy. Pudding is something with apples or frozen berries - not sure yet.

I'm on a diet, so my tea will be boring, probably something with pasta and toms and what else I can find in the fridge. no pudding

Edwardia

zafiro1984 thanks for the heads up on Ecover, now I know what to spend the myWaitrose vouchers on :T

katskorner I hope you feel better real soon (((katskorner)))

ms_night_ryder you're getting so good at the bargain hunting you're giving Lynsey competition

Lynsey I had an NSD too although I had an Abel & Cole delivery that I ordered last week. The baked chocolate organic cheesecake looks great, bunged it straight in the freezer so I couldn't be tempted Also got some more Laverstoke Park lamb scrag for stews.

quintwins noo don't go MIA on us xx

hiya Kirri :T organic too yay

ammonite - well done you, can you come round and organise my freezer too please ? I lean right over and can make out a rascasse at the bottom with well frozen rigor mortis and I think there's some mince lurking. No idea why I have so much butter and cheese too.

Becky2.. EOFC convention is that when we do an inventory of our freezer(s) we post it so we can all be nosy and mutter ooh, didn't know you could freeze that.. wow they still make.. stuff like that

The 12.99 wall art from Amazon arrived today - looks too good for the garden not sure where to put it now..

Husband's daughter from first marriage over from US atm, was supposed to be going out with OH tonight but only got back from half-sister's hen party this afternoon - it started Friday ! Think she'll be needing a few Paracetamol :rotfl:

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

zafiro1984 thanks for the heads up on Ecover, now I know what to spend the myWaitrose vouchers on :T

hiya Kirri :T organic too yay

I'm undecided about a trip to Waitrose for the Ecover (on till 9 Oct I think but only selected items unfortunately) or I've got a 20% off £40 spend for Ocado but I was hoping for a free delivery slot too..

Never really see many organic offers, well only in Waitrose but the upside of buying things like that is that as it tends to be largely unprocessed things it's probably cheaper anyway than the average diet. I love the As Nature Intended shops as they stock all the organic items I can't get in mainstream shops but I have to limit going there due to cost and temptation to spend..

Don't know if anyone's been watching Ch4's 'Food Unwrapped' series but some of the processes for food manufacturing are awful!!

recovering_spendaholic

Hi Everyone! Kirri - nice to see you again!! - DO you know if the food unwrapped series is on catch up or on demand? I have been looking for it but can't find it (I'm on Virgin)

Ms Night-Rider - I know what you mean about Waitrose - I find that I tend to buy better and not pay much, if anything, more there - PLUS on a Saturday afternoon the butchers counter, which has lovely meat, half prices loads of stuff so I have some lovely free range meat in the freezer!

I went to Tesc* today, mainly to use up some of my coupons - I have fairy dishwasher and Vanish ones and they are on 3 for £10 at the moment, along with Persil - it is quite a good saving. Then as I was looking at the laundry shelf I saw the girl putting out some laundry liquid, Vanish type stuff and fabric conditioner that I hadn't seen before. It is called enrituals - they had 22 wash size gel and a spray vanish stuff and huge bottles of fabric conditioner - all were only £1 each, not marked as special offer or anything, but the girl told me that she thought they were going to be about £5 odd - this is just an introduction. I got two bottles of the gel and one of the Vanish stuff and I have to say that the gel liquid is lovely - I did a boil wash with it and the stuff came out really clean, and I did a delicates too and that was lovely. Plus it was really really soft and smelt fantastic becuase the gel is 2 in 1. I am going back tomorrow to get as many as I can!!

Did mince in the slow cooker today and had it with left over butternut squash/potato mash from yesterday for tea - it was really tasty but DD wouldn't eat it so I froze what was left - I did 500g of mince and only had a small portion so there is enough to do a large cottage pie later in the month. DD had a frozen pizza which annoyed me.

It is amazing how much less of everything we are using since DD1 has been away at University! BTW Aldi are doing bread flour now (59p) and also Cravendale type milk (£1.23 a bottle).

made another Green's cheesecake tonight too - a banoffee one to use up two overripe bananas - was lovely!

Lynsey

Morning all.

Jane - the "Enrituals" are often on offer at £1. I've never tried them and maybe should. Got lots of laundry products at the minute though. Less than 5p per wash is excellent.
BTW, I like those cheesecakes.

Spent yesterday after all.
Sainsbury's - pate (half-price 69p) and a reduced steak and kidney pie for 19p = 88p.
Ran out of Heinz coupons and didn't realise until it was too late.

Just toast for breakfast and sausage and mash with onion gravy for main meal.

Off for milk later and maybe popping into Tesco to look at the clothes sale.

Need to use my printer this morning. lol

Lynsey

Kirri

recovering_spendaholic wrote: »

Hi Everyone! Kirri - nice to see you again!! - DO you know if the food unwrapped series is on catch up or on demand? I have been looking for it but can't find it (I'm on Virgin)

Ms Night-Rider - I know what you mean about Waitrose - I find that I tend to buy better and not pay much, if anything, more there - PLUS on a Saturday afternoon the butchers counter, which has lovely meat, half prices loads of stuff so I have some lovely free range meat in the freezer!

Thank you Yes it is on catch up, I watched it through the You View catch up (I got the You View box free on the comps board!) so not sure about Virgin as I cancelled that but it should still be available as it was also on the 4OD website to watch. Presenter is a bit dizzy but seeing them use caustic soda in the production of tinned fruit and olives was a surprise :eek:

Waitrose also has very good reductions on veg last thing at night/first thing in the morning and all nice quality. At least everything in there feels worth buying.

I had the displeasure of visiting Tesco the other week for the first time in a year or so and I just found it a vast place with largely processed foods I wouldn't buy. I only went there to get my free food from Bzz.

Edwardia

Good Morning MSErs ..maybe we should pronounce it miser

Breakfast was boiled eggs. I like the taste of the Duchy Originals from Waitrose Colombian Blacktailed free range organic BUT there's a huge bias towards white so they tend to spread out too much when being fried. They might be too fresh ?? Lunch will be organic globe artichokes mmmm

Kirri - thanks for sharing, re: Food Unwrapped which I found on 4oD at www.channel4.com Gives me something to watch with OH tonight

I looked at www.asnatureintended.uk.com and the nearest As Nature Intended store to me is Stratford Not going there with my shopaholic mother. :eek:Think I may have to plan a day trip with her in Spring which takes in either the Chiswickshire or Ealing store plus Whole Foods in Kensington and Planet Organic in Notting Hill. :cool:

I think Ocado has some good prices on organic. I was going round Sainsbos last week with my mother looking at the Ocado app and there was an offer on mushrooms and spring/salad onions were 5p cheaper in Sainsbos but other than that Ocado was cheaper than Sainsbury's on all the organic veg I wanted.

Ocado has a bigger range of Waitrose stuff than my local branch so I don't go there so much now but Waitrose is miles better than any other supermarket. It's being heavily advertised at the moment I notice.

My mother has booked us on a Middle Eastern cookery Saturday course in February which sounds interesting.

If you like New Covent Garden Soup Co soups (all natural ingredients), from Thursday Lidl has the 600g cartons of leek and potato and plum tomato and basil for 99p

Lynsey

I'm not too sure if you lot drink alcohol .................

...........................but ASDA are supposed to have Carling Chrome Lager 4.8% 4 packs for only £1.24.

LINK

Lynsey

recovering_spendaholic

Morning all! two rashers of bacon used up this morning for breakfast, with egg and toast for DD. I am just going to make some lentil and vegetable soup in the slow cooker for lunch (on high it will be ready at 1), and for tonight I have a chicken in the fridge which needs roasting - might do a sort of midweek roast dinner with frozen roasties, peas, cabbage and carrots and stuffing.

Lynsey - I have never seen the enrituals before - I have to say that I am pleased with my washing so will get more.

Edwardia - Middle eastern cookery - I always think that when chefs make middle eastern stuff on the telly it looks lush, but every time I have tried it I have found it way to garlicky.

I am supposed to be having my flu jab at 12 o'clock today, but I feel as if I am getting a cold so may put it off.

zafiro1984

Edwardia wrote: »

Breakfast was boiled eggs. I like the taste of the Duchy Originals from Waitrose Colombian Blacktailed free range organic BUT there's a huge bias towards white so they tend to spread out too much when being fried. They might be too fresh ??

Sorry Edwardia, but eggs that go flat/spread in the pan are old. You need really fresh eggs under 3 days old for them to sit up in a pan. Unfortunately, not many people know, but egg producers can send their eggs to a packing station up to 10 days old and the best by date is 28 days form when the eggs were laid. There is no difference between white and brown eggs.

Put your eggs in a pan of cold water. If they sit heavily on the bottom they are fresh, if they start to rise off the bottom they are getting old, floating eggs are really old. Really fresh eggs do not peel well when boiled, best to leave them for a few days before boiling them as the membrane insidde the shell needs to seperate away from the shell.

This is a bit of a passion with me as I have several hundred hens. I only supply eggs up to 48hrs old to local pubs/restaurants etc and are completely sold out - I have a waiting list of pubs/deli's/restaurants who want to come on board. I don't mean to go on too long about this but my hens are my passion.

Back to the freezer and todays mystery parcel. Small, reddish colour, flat - could be tomato based?? will know more at lunchtime.