January 2012 Grocery Challenge

cleggie

Morning all.
Havent yet spent anything as i am living off leftovers.
Get paid on Monday 9th though and will be doing a big asda shop then.

LondonDreamer

piggeh wrote: »

Was thinking of giving this recipe a go, sounds lovely, but got a few problems:

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/bucatini-allamatriciana-bucatini-with-spicy-tomato-and-pancetta-sauce

dried chillies - I searched sainsburys site and they dont sell any! Anyone know where to get some from? Or do I need to order from a speciailist shop? Is there a cheaper alternative? I see they're £1.25 for a pack and would imagine they dont go off so would last a long while, so maybe not too expensive (dont know how much postage is though)

pecorino - dont want to buy this as I'd imagine it would go off before using most of it (£2.40 per pack!). Any decent alternatives?

Pancetta - anything worth subbing in?

At the moment I've worked it out to be around £6 although have not included cost of wine yet, so I guess £7-8 but looks good for 4 meals or so.

Dried Chillies - Use crushed chillies. Most stores should have them in the spice section, Mr T have a big bag by East End for 99p.

Pecorino - Any italian style hard cheese would do, e.g. parmesan or grana padano.

Pancetta - Use streaky bacon, or even lardons would be OK.

piggeh

LondonDreamer wrote: »

Dried Chillies - use Chilli flakes/crushed chillies. She chops them up anyway so same thing, less chopping.

Pecorino - Any italian style hard cheese would do, e.g. parmesan or grana padano.

Pancetta - Use streaky bacon

How long does hard cheese keep for? Not an everyday foodstuff for me.

Thanks for the others, will use them instead

medsdemon

OH went to MrS this morning as we needed milk and coffee as well as tampons so the total came to £6.33 ( should have been £8.33 but had a coupon for £2. Hopefully a NSD tomorrow as have everything in foodwise.

LondonDreamer

piggeh wrote: »

How long does hard cheese keep for? Not an everyday foodstuff for me.

Thanks for the others, will use them instead

You can freeze it. It will be a bit crumbly, but fine for cooking/melting. I usually grate the whole block (or buy pre-grated if it's on offer) and freeze it as we get through very little cheese here.

rising_from_the_ashes

PennyGrabber wrote: »

Same again Weds, then we're having hedgehogs for dinner on Thursday as requested by DD.

Ohhhh myyyyyy - after just finding out what pigs in blankets are ... this one has me stumped too! What are they?


Having a bit of a debate with myself atm - going for a walk to the woods & need liquid gold so I'll be in the vicinity of the sm (18 mile round trip).

I need the odd thing or two for going back to work but I've £9 off a £40 spend ... only I don't really need that much atm.

mmmmmm what to do..... I guess I could take them and see how it goes!:)

quintwins

morning all nsd yesterday and today i have a spending dairy for this year it only has one entry in it so far for a chinese for the new year i'm gonna have the lo chinese for lunch today, hubby is away at a shoot (family tradition) the kids can have tom soup, i have some pheasant breasts from when hubby went shooting the other day so i'm gonna make stew for dinner, then i'm gonna wait til he's home to meal plan as he may have more pheasant and even some duck - can't beat free meat

Juliann

piggeh wrote: »

Was thinking of giving this recipe a go, sounds lovely, but got a few problems:



dried chillies - I searched sainsburys site and they dont sell any! Anyone know where to get some from? Or do I need to order from a speciailist shop? Is there a cheaper alternative? I see they're £1.25 for a pack and would imagine they dont go off so would last a long while, so maybe not too expensive (dont know how much postage is though)

Morrisons stocked them some time ago but haven't made pickles this year so can't be sure.

PennyGrabber

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Ohhhh myyyyyy - after just finding out what pigs in blankets are ... this one has me stumped too! What are they?

It's a meal I started making when my children were little. They used to have really small appetites (still do, really), and so I used to make food look like other things to trick them into eating more. Smiley faces and the like!

Hedgehogs are basically dollops of mash in the centre of the plate, body-shaped, with sausages (either tinned or lo cooked, or fresh cooked!), carrot sticks, cuc sticks, etc stuck into it to look like the spines. Then, peas/green beans/tinned spaghetti around the outside to be grass/nest! Sometimes I also put two raisins in for eyes too! It's great, because it could be made from fresh or storecupboard ingredients, so I always have the storecupboard stuff in for an easy quick meal. Also, as the children have been getting bigger, instead of doing a big hedgehog, which would put them off, they have a mummy and a baby hedgehog! They love making these with me, and it's a good way to get them 'cooking' with me!!

As you can see, there is no specific recipe, it's whatever is in, that can be cut into sticks. I have even made this with instant mash when I've run out of everything else!

HTH x

TheThriftyScrumpers

Morning.

NSD today toast for brekkie, fridge lo for lunch and tacos/spaghetti Bol for us/kids at tea time. We finally got round to cutting the Xmas cake yesterday and it was really nice. It's the first time I have made one and used marzipan and icing so I am chuffed. I managed to get a newspaper coupon for a free delia cake mix from waitrose so I will feel more confident making that.