I'm eating out of the freezer and cupboards challenge

Edwardia

zafiro1984 thanks for the advice .. lucky you having hens, my mother's best friend has a small flock but several hundred sounds like hard work to me ! Wondering whether it's possible for eggs in same box of 12 to be both fresh and old, as the ones I hardboiled didn't peel properly. Presumably eggs get date stamped at packing not before.

The Waitrose ones taste better but the Daylesford ones do sit up when fried, very compact. Maybe I should go back to those. I tried Sainsbury's and Tesco organic free range, totally unimpressed, Happy Eggs tasted better ! :eek: Still got Stonegate organic to try. I live in a town so not many local eggs sold and none are organic.

Very much admire people like you who have a passion for what they do and produce great food. :T

Jane - I have cooked a few ME dishes before. My bro took our mother to a ME resto for dinner and she wants to try doing it herself.

I don't use much garlic as the Chinese stuff we get in supermarkets here is nothing like the softer tasting garlic of Provence. I find it way too harsh. Also those single clove bulbs bug me. I found garlic from S America in Marks and Spencer which wasn't too bad but my uncle brings garlic/smoked garlic over from France for us if he remembers.

Lynsey

Quite a decent morning.

Freebies: :j
6 x Reloaded (£1.40 off rest of Tesco shop)
4 x Bear Yo Yo's
2 x Spam Fritters

Bought:
4 pints milk = £1
McKay's Strawberry Preserve = £1
4 x Red Sky Bacon & Cheese crisps (150g) @ 59p = £2.36
Total = £4.36

Charity stuff:
4 x Sainsbury's tea-bags @ 29p = £1.16
20 x Custard Powder @ 6p = £1.20
8 x Rice Pudding @ 12p (only 7 scanned!!) = 84p
4 x Tomato Ketchup @ 19p = 76p
4 x Cornflakes @ 31p = £1.24
Total = £5.20 (minus £1.40 off Reloaded offer) = £3.80

Got a better selection for tomorrow now.

Had the sausage and mash (Lidl pork sausages) and muffin and ice-cream.

Probably Chicken Kievs tomorrow, I left one pack in fridge.

Jane - I bought some of the Enrituals Gel to try. May pass on your recommendation to Son. I'll try some on next wash.

Need to do some tidying today.

Lynsey

ms_night_ryder

Afternoon all.

Had the Lo of chicken and mash, added some of the chilli.

Todays brekkie out of the freezer 2 lemon and raisin pancakes, they were bigger than normal and nice, would but reduced again, just had lunch, some of the chilli with cheese on top and a handful of the living salad. Chilli for dinner again, the chilli is well nice, have taken some pre cooked rice out of the freezer, will steam some veg to go with it.

Only 1 pack of mince left, decided I need to stock up on, mince, sausages and Bacon, will also be buying the 3 gammon joints for £10 at the end of the month will save one for christmas, not planning on stocking up on meats until end of month anyway, there is a rack of ribs that is taking up major space, aiming to get rid in the next week and continue to run freezer and cupboards down for the month, maybe take advantageof a grocery delivery if i can. All is going well so far.

zafiro1984

Hi Edwardia, I think the eggs for sale in shops have to be individually date stamped but not sure as mine are done by the tray. Find ones that sit up, taste good and stick with those, after all an egg is an egg. Don't be swayed by a 'name' as all registered flocks are inspected by DEFRA every year to make sure we abide by the rules. It's all well and good to be organic but the cost of joining the organic association (several hundreds of pounds) is prohibitive to people like me - you really need to have several thousand birds not several hundred. Mine are just Free Range but I use organic principals - I just can't call myself 'organic'

Mystery food solved - sieved red toms, must be over a year old as I didn't freeze any this year. Good as a base for a pasta sauce, I'll add shallots and herbs and see how it turns out, so that's tea sorted.

Edwardia

The delivery from French Click turned up and nary a biscuit broken :T

Am lounging with mug of the coffee bought as well - reminds me of summer mornings in France as I used to drink it there - Kraft Grand Mere Cafe Moulu Familial. Was on special offer at 2.25 which is pretty decent price for ground coffee imported from France.

zafiro1984 - I'll try the Stonegate and then if they aren't good I'll go back to Daylesford I think. I'm a Friend of The Soil Association, I realise organic certification is expensive here (in US it's done by USDA) I don't know why DEFRA just doesn't do it themselves as there is an EU organic standard and logo (leaf shape of stars).

My grandmother once cooked us a pie and were sniffing, saying are you sure that's apple ? Plonked the custard on and sure enough, it was a mince pie. She put a pastry A on her apple pies before freezing them, after that

ms_night_ryder your plan seems sound to me. I need to go look for some offers and YS myself. My mother is dragging me to a huge Sainsbos an hour away tomorrow so I hope the washing soda turns up this afternoon

Lynsey :T you're addicted to bargain hunting I'm never going to be as good as you though <sigh>

Out of the freezer: chicken drumsticks.. think the chickens were babies they seem tiny

quintwins

ms_night_ryder wrote: »

Only 1 pack of mince left, decided I need to stock up on, mince, sausages and Bacon, will also be buying the 3 gammon joints for £10 at the end of the month will save one for christmas, not planning on stocking up on meats until end of month anyway, there is a rack of ribs that is taking up major space, aiming to get rid in the next week and continue to run freezer and cupboards down for the month, maybe take advantageof a grocery delivery if i can. All is going well so far.

Is this because everyone thinks the price of meat will sky rocket? i can't decide if i should keep going as i am my freezer is mega run down now, or do a big meat shop from the butchers, or start whoopsie shopping again or both.

Today i took out a portion of spag bol and will use a bag of pasta, aswell as a loaf of bread, nothing back in yet.

Kirri

Zafiro, fascinating hen and egg info.

Edwardia, if you try Stonegate I'd be interested to know what they are like, I had them on my Ocado order and nearly ordered but have decided to go and pick up my eggs at a farm tomorrow as I need to go and get some hay anyway. Don't get Happy Eggs - they were filmed undercover and it wasn't nice Have you tried the farmer's markets? Not all have organic but a lot do and prices tend to be better than supermarkets and fresher. Most supermarkets seem to only have 2 weeks of date left whereas mostly from farm markets/shops/local it's nearer 4. I have a couple of outlets I can get to that are laid on the day but have to get there early before they sell out.. I'm finding the taste better than supermarkets.

I go between local/free range and organic if supermarket but trying to avoid the supermarkets for eggs totally as think the huge flocks they need in order to supply make it worse for the hens so tend to find the local ones albeit not organic you can see the hens roaming around at least. My local farm does hen holiday boarding so have a good supply of fresh eggs.

Edwardia

Unless the meat has the Red Tractor logo it might only have been packed in the UK. Supermarkets buy in vast quantities of foreign meat and who really knows where it comes from and how it was reared

So far the organic meat I've bought has all been British raised and more expensive. I don't see how a supermarket can do a £4 whole chicken when an organic one is around £11.

Maybe non-organic meat/poultry will go up a lot and I hope that doesn't mean organic goes up as well artificially to maintain a price differential rather than because costs have gone up

I'll post what I think of Stonegate, sure.. the Farmers' market here was closed down as the council wanted the land for a piece of art ! There are a couple a bus ride away but buy the time I added on the bus fare to the price of the eggs most likely it wouldn't work out economically.

Prices go up and down like a rollercoaster eg organic mayo in Sainsbury 1.15 and two weeks later 1.45. I have noticed that Abel and Cole prices are far more stable and it makes buying things like butter and yogurt cheaper than supermarkets. Also because minimum order for Abel & Cole is £10 and delivery 99p I can do a small top up shop every week for many things, I don't buy veg I can get in supermarket from them. 3.59 for a cauli !

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

Good Morning MSErs ..maybe we should pronounce it miser

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.

Food Unwrapped is also on tonight on 4Seven (freeview 47, Virgin 195), probably a repeat of the one last night. First episode is good - I bet sales of tinned grapefruit have gone down since that aired...

I'd love to visit the As Nature Intended Stratford store, must be brand new! I've been to the Chiswick one which is nice and Balham which is not quite as big - I love the shop, it's so exciting to see the range of things to buy!! Prefer ANI to Planet Organic when I've been to the Tott Ct Rd one. I've not been to the Whole Foods shop which I think is the biggest org shop?

Lucky you, Middle Eastern cookery is fascinating!

quintwins

Edwardia will oranagic not go up anyway? with the increase in the pirce of grain and vegs for feed aswell as fuel to transport it i would imagine so.